Starting The New Year Off With Death

Today is a New Years Eve celebration - and I am starting 2009 off with death. The death of my hard drive on my six-month old computer. I don't know how, why, or what happened to cause my perfectly running computer to just blow up its hard drive...but it is not a good thing. Here are some reasons why:

1) School starts on Monday. Hard drive won't get here until Monday.
2) Tons of programs and software need to be reloaded and redone - and I won't have time
3) I LOST ALL MY CHRISTMAS PICTURES!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
4) It just makes me angry

Those are the reasons this whole hard drive thing is not good. Dell was experiencing hefty calls (big fricking surprise), so it took an hour to figure this out. But at least this was covered by warranty - unlike the 50 other problems I have had with Caitlin's Dell. So, glass half full biotches.

A Side of Brig

I know I am skipping the requisite Christmas Post and moving straight to our triumphant Chicago return, but I promise I'll go backwards and hit Christmas with vigor! The reason I want to blog about our return is that it combines joyous flights, culinary delights, and friends reunited. How could I delay this post?

First - BEST HOLIDAY FLIGHTS EVER! We had a 27 minute layover that we totally made and a massive tail wind that put us into Chicago an hour early.

Second - when we got in an hour early, Brig was there to pick us up. Remember how Brig is from Chicago? Well, we live in Evanston now. I bet you are putting 2 and 2 together, aren't you. Yes, he picked us up and we went with the family to their favorite Mexican restaurant. You may have seen Brig blog about La Fuente before.Brig in all his glory.The family in all their glory (including Grandma).The food in all ITS glory.

Us in all OUR glory.

I can now testify that Brig is fully justified in both frequenting this spot as well as blogging about it so consistently. The salsa was perfect. It had that spice that makes you say "hey, this is pretty spicy" at the first bite but then you don't worry about its spiciness after that. It also was the perfect addition to their nachos, which clearly are a favorite of the family (5 orders for 9 people, easily eaten).

I'd say the most impressive part to me about La Fuente is its consistency. Usually when you hit a Mexican restaurant, there is one or two things there that stand out. But everything was good and it's the kind of place you can get something new at each visit and be fine with that. Solid standard deliciousness here. We'll be back.If Caitlin had time to blog (going back to work is no fun), I'm sure she would agree. Look at her joy!

Bonus Plus to La Fuente: Bathrooms with dance party posters inside. I guess the place converts to a dance hall at night.

Nice Family Jewels

Over the Christmas break, we did the deed. The deed of getting family pictures taken. It went better than I would have expected, considering we had four kids under the age of six and one baby. After two hours, we had some decent shots. A few of them have snotty noses, candy bars in hand, and me with my slitty eyes.

We also took some couple shots. Below are the three you can choose from. Help us choose the one in which my eyes are not too different in size (my left eye is always smaller in pictures). Not sure why we are both looking at my crotch in one...but whatever.
Oh, the preciousness.

More Things That Make Christmas Merry

1. Snowbasin Ski Resort with 18 inches of fresh powder from 9am to 4pm.

2. Cafe Rio.

I feel like I can move on to the actual Christmas day now.

I'm Dreaming

Actually - I don't have to dream. I HAVE a white Christmas. We already had a solid 4 inches outside and now it snowed an additional 8-10 inches last night. While the whiteness of Christmas is great, what I really care about is the snow at Grand Targhee tomorrow. Keep snowing, please?

Something To Chew On

So my friend McKay has a brother named Nord. Once upon a time, he had a band called "Juanroads." Then he went on a mission, returned, got married, went to college...etc. Apparently, he is still in the music making business because I just got a email from him about his new band Haun's Mill Massacre. Below is their music video for "Haven't Felt This Way In Days" that they just put out. I enjoyed it quite a bit...maybe you will as well?

While I miss the days of Juanroads - I think he has a lot better future with this band. For example, his lead singer is way hotter than he was as a lead singer. That in and of itself is a huge move in the right direction.

Seriously, whats the deal?

Has anyone noticed that this winter's weather has attention defecit disorder to the extreme? Hey New Yorkers - still loving that 60 degree weather? I didn't think so. Chicago sent some cold, wet love your way.

Two days ago it rained all day and was 55 degrees. Then in the middle of the night it froze everything into a sheet of ice and rocked around 10 degrees. Today it is snowing like a biotch. Seriously, get your crap together weather.

Current Status

What am I doing right now this very weekend? I recommend checking Scrumpestuous D's blog to find that out.

Mulconean Dynamite (Sans Caitlin Who Was At Work When These Pictures Were Taken)

Drive Thru Service

Christmas Miracles do happen! My boy Smitty was straight up kickin' it in Minneapolis. Dude had to get to Indiana and then Ohio for work, so he rented a car and drove 7 hours in the snow to Evanston where he paid me a short but extremely welcomed visit. I introduced him to the amazingness that is Giordanos deep dish and we chatted for about an hour or so. Pimped out pictures ensued: And then he was gone. We've been lucky the last few weeks to have several people come and visit us, including the entire Mulcock clan, Mikey, and tomorrow Scrumpestuous D. We welcome you all.

Delayed Turkey Dinner

Let's be honest - with finals on in full force, there will be no time for a full-on Thanksgiving post. But I don't want to leave anyone hungry for a holiday side of Mulcock...so here are my favorite pictures from the trip. The entire Mulcock clan descended on our apartment in Evanston to make Thanksgiving dreams come true. Here are the results.

Good times family. Thanks for coming.

Delicious Thanksgiving Turkeys

This is the Mulcock wall of Thanksgiving Turkey. Having been a family tradition from as long as I can remember, we couldn't abandon doing turkeys. We may never abandon doing them. Each year my mom sends us blank turkeys and feathers so we can do them wherever we live. Oftentimes (as is with this year), she includes enough turkeys for roommates to make as well. Here are close ups of the turkeys:

Stephoin was inspired by the bowling ball shape of the turkey cut out this year. I would like to point out that he is grateful for being less fat. Beefsquee turkey: You can't read what she is grateful for as well because she typed them this year...but isn't this the cutest dental hygienist turkey ever? Look at the little toothbrush in the pocket!Devin, as a stout minimalist, decided that the brownness and colors of the feathers were enough to convey his message of gratitude. We also appreciated his willingness to fight conventions and have some of his feathers upside down.While I do not have as crazy of hair right now, my turkey represents my free "student" lifestyle. I am wearing cut off shorts, sunglasses, and my Nike shoes I designed. Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper made the list this year, as did YARI!Little's turkey. I honestly can't remember what his turkey is all about, but he did put Ticket to Ride on his turkey, so that was awesome.

Pam has a graduation turkey. There are many students in our family right now, so this was an awesome theme to choose. Caitlin and Devoin got a shout our from Pam with "awesome kids-in-laws." Ahhh. Tender.

Big D...oh man, where do I start. He wanted to do an "anti-Big D" turkey at first...it had a real mean face and a midriff shirt on. But in the end he didn't like it, so he printed off his face and stuck it on instead. This turkey wins the "Most Improved" award.

This is Beeps and Devoin's cat Rayah's turkey (whoa, that was a weird sentence). She was thankful for "canned food on special occasions." Caitlin's turkey got 2nd prize this year based on her extreme gratitude. Most Mulcocks only put on 6-8 feathers...but she stretched that to 9! Her turkey was "dressed up for the winter cold" Caitlin and involved magazine cuttings. Nice.
The winning turkey this year was Limon. He did such a great job capturing his own pointy beak, sharp talons, and chubby body. No one could deny that he truly was able to create a life-like and memorable turkey in 2008. Nice work Limon.

Who knows what will pop up next year on the Mulcock wall of turkeys.

Help D NOW

Don Osmond needs your help. Go HERE and vote for his brother on this Mormon music competition. Consider it your good deed for the day...unless you are going to work at a soup kitchen, because that is an even BETTER good deed.

My Bad

I am really intent on posting about Thanksgiving, but finals are not making this very possible. Took one yesterday - it blew...chunks. Crazy chunks. But the whole class was puking, so I didn't feel so bad.

Maybe I can get Thanksgiving up after Christmas.

But for now, I'm going to give you things to buy me for Christmas:

1. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte

2. Mario Kart for the Wii, with 3 additional driving wheels

3. A Speedo - a real one

That's a start, I'll come up with some more.

Winter Scariness

Today was the first real day of snow in Chicago - fitting as it is December 1st. I got up at 7am and walked outside in my pajamas to scrape off the ice and snow from Yari so that Caitlin wouldn't have to do it. The plows went by, our management was snow blowing the sidewalks. You could even hear Lake Michigan off in the distance as the wind blew in. All of this should equal a bad morning - but I love it. Maybe I'll be singing a different tune in February.

I even rode my bike to school in the snow. I was rewarded by stumbling upon a small record store going out of business. They had everything inside at 50% off. I happened to find a DVD of Reeker - which is a movie I really enjoyed from the Tribeca film festival a few years back. I bought it at $4 new. I also bought some Bach and techno for another $2 each.

I attribute all this good fortune and vibes to the awesomeness of winter.