Today, while browsing on lunch, I came across a banner ad for some site that had information about degrees and various professions. Each of the professions in the banner ad were little smilies with some sort of characteristic (hair or hat, for example) that sort of identified the job in question.

For both graphics designer and web designer, the smiley was essentially Naruto.

Hmmm. Wonder what they're trying to say...

So we actually convinced my parents to do something touristy. *shock* We took them down to the Shedd Aquarium yesterday, and I think we all enjoyed it. They're renovating or something there, though, and had closed off the hall of the brightly-colored tropical fish and anemone.

For dinner, we went to Claim Jumper.

The weekend included a grand total of way too much good food out. Jen and I are stocked with leftovers to last all week.

And they called me about a half hour ago to say they were already back home. Which is pretty amazing. 11 hours of actual drive time (plus like 2 hours for breaks and stuff) in the Mustang. And that was with a state trooper pacing all of the cars on one of the turnpikes for over 50 miles.

Outlet shopping in Pleasant Prairie with Mom and Howie went pretty well yesterday. The weather was icky and rainy pretty much all day, but it wasn't pouring at least. And we did all manage to get what we went there for (plus the inevitable very nice additions), except that the Black & Decker Outlet closed down, so Jen wasn't able to get a normal cordless drill (time to start scouting ads at work, I think).

Ghirardelli has come up with a wonderful new chocolate square - filled with peanut butter! Like a Reese's, but better (because it's Ghirardelli chocolate, and the PB is smoother). We couldn't pass up the bag of 50.

Got more polos and a pretty nice t-shirt at Izod, a replacement pair of shoes from Timberland for work for when my current pair gets shredded, and a nice rain jacket with hood from Columbia. All in all, didn't spend all that much either.

We had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse up in Kenosha, and man was that good. The ribs literally fall off the bone from this place - clean as a whistle. And the steak was pretty good too. Going to really enjoy those leftovers. :)

Now, we've got no clue what we're doing today. I know a visit to Menards is in the cards, along with a test drive in Howie's Mustang... but beyond that, not sure. I have a feeling that either Gurnee Mills or Woodfield are going to come up as possibilities though.

yume_no_tenshi, I finally spent your Christmas gift at Target. :) Picked up Jak & Dexter along with Final Fantasy XII. Jak has been amazingly fun and frustrating.

Watching Jen play Final Fantasy XII tonight made me remember a VG Cats comic: Wardrobe.

Happy birthday to ender_424

I dunno... just haven't had much to post about lately.

Though, I did realize today that I'm going to need a new Red Mage icon soon. We're almost at AF. :)

And no, I have no idea why that dawned on me today.

Went to Staples this morning to pick up an Acer 19" Widescreen LCD monitor for myself. Had planned doing so since seeing a nice price in their ad on Friday at work. I've been waiting for someone to put out a nice price on a 19", since anything bigger wouldn't really fit on my desk all that well.

Just got everything set up and tested it out (in FFXI, of course) and I'm quite wowed by it. The colors seem a lot brighter than my old 14", and text is a lot clearer, and it has both a wider and taller viewing angle. Very happy with my purchase, and will basically be paying for it when the $600 "tax rebates" come out.

I'm also quite happy with the base, because it's sturdy without taking up too much room.

Time to put the 14" in storage as a backup.

Just watched Episode 2 of The Tower of Druaga -The Aegis of Uruk-... the series is settling down just a bit. Certainly makes a hell of lot more sense than the first episode did.

Can't wait to see the hell that's going to happen in episode 3. Getting caught at the scene of the king's assassination is never good.

Damn, I would love to cosplay this series, but there's no way in hell it'll happen in under a month for ACen.