Holiday Cheer

A few days ago, neither my wife nor I felt like cooking so we grabbed Noodles & Company. Before going to the restaurant we also stopped and got a couple of smoothies from a local juice place.

Anyway, my wife walked to the counter and set her smoothie on the edge of the counter. Before I could catch it it fell off and splattered everywhere. Now I don't know how many of you have bought smoothies lately, but it's about a $6 drink, kinda a bummer. After helping the staff clean it up I started to head back to buy her another smoothie.

Another customer waiting for his take out saw the whole thing and commented "That really sucks." He then dug in his pocket and handed me a coupon for a free meal at Noodles & Co. I was actually a little stunned and tried to argue. He simply waved off my protests with a "Merry Christmas!"

I was able to use the coupon right then, which was pretty cool. While my wife waited for the food, I went back to get her another smoothie and the employee there refused to charge me for the replacement.

Basically both of these great people restored a little of my faith in humanity and some holiday cheer. I am now looking for opportunities to pay it forward.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

A very naughty breadbasket.

To those I missed saying it to, Happy Christmas (feel free to replace the last word with whatever holiday you feel like).

Every Christmas Eve NORAD tracks Santa's progress around the world. I used to listen to the radio and TV updates religiously as a kid. NORAD has decided to go virtual and created a web applet that does the same thing, but interactive. Monday night my cousin's kids were very serious about checking where Santa was. They got VERY excited when he made it to the Eastern Coast, though I don't remember what city it was.

In any case the map showed him skipping Algeria completely, which I found interesting. Interesting enough that I searched backwards to see where else he skipped. Apparently Iraq doesn't have any kids worth bringing presents to. Same went for Mongolia, Manitoba, Egypt, Mozambique, plus some others.

The strangest part was that he skipped 5 US states. North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas & Oklahoma. What the hell did the Midwest do to piss of Santa?