Well, here you have it. This is our extent of decorating looks like. Not too shabby eh? And yes, that is a real tree. Merry Christmas everyone.
Friday, December 12, 2008
It's about that time...
Well, here you have it. This is our extent of decorating looks like. Not too shabby eh? And yes, that is a real tree. Merry Christmas everyone.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
No Shave November...
Day 1
This year it finally happened, I remembered about No Shave November before it was actually half way through November. As you can see from the above photo, I started out with a nice clean face (thanks mostly to my Halloween costume this year requiring a baby face). Where does NSN come from? Well, the original idea was brought to my attention by my lovely wife. Some of her friends in college would not shave for the month of November to raise awareness and funds for testicular cancer. I am sure that over the course of the past several years she has mentioned this when she mentioned NSN, but I completely forgot about it. This little tid-bit of information would have made much more sense as to why I was not shaving, compared to my usual answer, "it's No Shave November man."
Day 8
As the days began to accumulate, the novelty started to wear off and the fact that I was actually growing a beard, on purpose, started to set in. It wasn't really that unusual for me to grow a beard, but usually it involved me going on a trip for a week or so and refusing to shave. This time, was obviously a little different. I actually had to go to work with this thing.
About two and a half weeks in, people at work started noticing it (as you can see by the above picture, it was pretty obvious before then). One of our store leaders came by and informed me that because I work around food, on occasion, I would have to wear a beard net if the length was over 1/2". Although the idea of wearing a beard net was very appealing, I opted to keep the beard nice and trimmed (read less than 1/2").
Fast forward another week and a half. My mom's side of the family likes to have their Thanksgiving lunch the Saturday before and here in Dallas (well, technically McKinney). Up to this point we had not mentioned to anyone in my family that I had a beard. Partially for shock value, but mostly because it just wasn't generally a topic of conversation. Heather and I arrived at the same time as my parents, my father made the first comment. "Heather must be pregnant." Words can not describe the look on my wife's face when she heard this. Ok, bit of a back story, the only time my father has ever had a beard was when my mom was pregnant with me. The day I was born, he stayed through the delivery, went home, cleaned up and shaved, never to have a beard again. Needless to say, Heather is not pregnant at this time, but she was also not aware of the origin of my father's comment. As you can imagine, it was very very interesting for a few minutes.
Finally, Day 30. The last day of the beard. Quite honestly, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting it to itch and drive me crazy, but not so much. After about the first week or so, I grew accustomed to the little itch around my mouth and under my chin. The first full shave in nearly a month was interesting, but not that unusual. I did not carve any crazy designs, or shave everything but the mustache (check here for that), just your normal, everyday shave. Did I learn anything from this little experience. Sure, if I do this next year, make sure to raise money for a good cause and don't let your beard get over 1/2".
Day 30
About two and a half weeks in, people at work started noticing it (as you can see by the above picture, it was pretty obvious before then). One of our store leaders came by and informed me that because I work around food, on occasion, I would have to wear a beard net if the length was over 1/2". Although the idea of wearing a beard net was very appealing, I opted to keep the beard nice and trimmed (read less than 1/2").
Fast forward another week and a half. My mom's side of the family likes to have their Thanksgiving lunch the Saturday before and here in Dallas (well, technically McKinney). Up to this point we had not mentioned to anyone in my family that I had a beard. Partially for shock value, but mostly because it just wasn't generally a topic of conversation. Heather and I arrived at the same time as my parents, my father made the first comment. "Heather must be pregnant." Words can not describe the look on my wife's face when she heard this. Ok, bit of a back story, the only time my father has ever had a beard was when my mom was pregnant with me. The day I was born, he stayed through the delivery, went home, cleaned up and shaved, never to have a beard again. Needless to say, Heather is not pregnant at this time, but she was also not aware of the origin of my father's comment. As you can imagine, it was very very interesting for a few minutes.
Finally, Day 30. The last day of the beard. Quite honestly, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting it to itch and drive me crazy, but not so much. After about the first week or so, I grew accustomed to the little itch around my mouth and under my chin. The first full shave in nearly a month was interesting, but not that unusual. I did not carve any crazy designs, or shave everything but the mustache (check here for that), just your normal, everyday shave. Did I learn anything from this little experience. Sure, if I do this next year, make sure to raise money for a good cause and don't let your beard get over 1/2".
Day 30
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