Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

• So far, liking the My Fitness Pal app much better than Livestrong. Only took me a year to get disgusted enough to switch! #
• Cliff Johnson should just release The Fool & His Money on the 10th anniversary of the original release date, 10/31/13. http://t.co/lrsFJVP4 #
• They're taking the hobbits to Isengard! http://t.co/SW1fh7W5 #earworm #
• Which to see, Dragon Tattoo or Tinker Tailor? #
• Atari 2600 hooked up to a 42" HDTV. Overkill? #
• The next thing I knew, I had been playing Circus Atari for an hour straight. Welcome to 1980. Well, back then it would have been 5 hours. #
• Hey, my Merlin works, too! #
• Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death! #

• It's Being Human night!! #
• Doctor, on looking in my ears: "Wow! You have a lot of pressure in there!" Clearly my brain is too big for my head. #
• Every once in a while the left side of my nose will let a little peep of air in just to tease me. #
• Public Service Announcement: The word "Habanero" does NOT have an ñ in it. #

• The Old Family Eggnog Recipe – in which I divulge a secret my family has closely guarded for 50+ years: http://t.co/nCyv1pw9 #
• If my father were still around, that Steelers game would have done him in. #
• I grow weary of people who think that "weary" means "wary." #
• Sure, you've seen the Macho Man Mod, but have you seen the Trololo Trolls? http://t.co/YdoJBhcu #skyrim #
• What's with the @kickstarter Year in Review email that I didn't sign up for and can't unsubscribe from? Only signed up for project updates! #
• Q: What did Voldemort's mom say to Voldemort? A: "Got your nose!" #
• The Austin killer was spotted 4 blocks from one of my old apartments and killed someone 3 blocks from another place I lived. Scary. #
• My first concert ticket stub unearthed: http://t.co/rdcTT2OJ #
• What day is this? What city is this? I'm all turned around. #
• Yes Paypal, I think that paying $20 to return this crappy $16 item is a grand idea. Or I could just take a hammer to it and send you video. #

• I was trying to call a coyote and got something else entirely: http://t.co/J52pDsZM #
• They ought to rename the Clementine fruit the Crackentine. #
• English pronunciation: http://t.co/0v5nz7zp #
• The @TCloudSubs by our house always plays the Grateful Dead outside. Tonight they played the Albany, NY 3/28/93 w/an amazing So Many Roads. #
• Three major Skyrim quests are broken for me: Thieves Guild, Companions, and Stones of Barenziah. Augh! #
• Someone please explain to me how in the hell this is making division easier for kids. http://t.co/Hp5cXsKV #everydaymath #
• The Raven, a film about Edgar Allan Poe: http://t.co/4t22P4uc – Looks v. promising! #
• Been reading about the Stephen Colbert #transmedia project. http://t.co/r6TlOsEy #
• If a seller sent me the wrong thing, am I unreasonable in asking for $ to ship it back for a refund? Will Paypal think I am unreasonable? #
• I am proud to say that I literally have rocks in my head, so take that! #
• If you get migraines, 1000 mg of Aspirin might be your new best friend: http://t.co/8ES61CO1 (I was dubious, but holy cow, it worked!) #

• Merry Christmas! Is it bedtime yet? #
• Got the kids the ad-sponsored Kindles for Christmas. One of them already accidentally bought $100 worth of hotel services. Sigh. #
• Aw man, they're sold out of the $1100 HDMI cable. http://t.co/cWQpL4Fr #
• ThinkGeek never sent recipient's package despite posting a tracking number. 3 wks later, out of stock. Issued an RMA?! WTF? /cc @thinkgeek #
• Apparently this is not a good year to order gifts online. #
• Such uneven writing! The finale is in beautiful iambic pentameter. Hooray! #skyrim #
• Just transferred 45 domains away from GoDaddy. Had to renew 6 in order to transfer them. Gross. #
• Blog: GoDaddy sucks – and it's not just because of SOPA – http://t.co/YMcsd2N5 #
• Funny how much bigger deer seem the darker it gets outside. #

I’ve had a bajillion domains registered at GoDaddy for years, not because I particularly liked them, but more because it was easy. After my friend Dave died, I inherited all his domain names, and they were all on GoDaddy, so for ease I just transferred them to my account there.

But given their recent support of SOPA, plus their half-hearted retraction of same when they realized their posturing was not winning them any friends, was pretty disgusting. They backed down, but they won’t actively denounce SOPA. And they should.

So I started the process today to move all 46(!) of my domains to another registrar. (I inherited a LOT of domains from Dave!) But you can’t transfer a domain if it’s set to expire in the next seven days, so I had to renew six of them through GoDaddy before I could move them off. Here’s what happens when you renew domains on GoDaddy:

Click any of these for full size versions.

The first upsell. Notice all the disclaimer marks at the bottom.

The second upsell. This is just the part above the fold; about one third of all the “Special Offers” I had to scroll through before finding the “No Thanks” link.

LOLWUT??? I tried to renew ONE domain – faerytrail.com – for $8.99, and it tacked on 32 extra domains for a total of $293.44. Neato! All six domain names I tried to renew had at least one extra one tacked on that I didn’t want. This is, at the very least, highly immoral.

Last, but not least, the final upsell, after I winnowed out the chaff and bought the renewals for the six domains I wanted.

So, there you have it. Why GoDaddy sucks – and it’s not just because of SOPA.

I’ve been trying for some time to find the origins of our family eggnog recipe. My grandmother, who started the tradition within our family, and my mother, who took it over for her, are both gone, and I never thought to ask either of them while I had them.

If I had a dime for all the questions I have to ask the people who are gone, I’d be pretty rich.

Anyway, after my grandmother died 15 years ago, I came into possession of her recipe box. It occurred to me to look in there to see if I could find any clues as to the recipe’s provenance. Well, I found the recipe all right, and it was written in the same hand that my aunts told me was a cousin of ours who was known for their cooking. It was labeled “Mother’s Eggnog.”

So I looked up his mother. She was my great-great-great aunt, born in 1868, and she was the granddaughter of the last messenger from the Alamo.

This is some serious Old Family Eggnog, y’all.

• Nutcracker with my girls- a yearly tradition. Front row center, woo! #
• Close enough to see the rub marks on the waist of the Sugar Plum Fairy's costume. #
• Sopranos singing the descant and handbell choir ringing and Advent hymns. Lovely! #
• There was a QR code on the church program yesterday. #
• First day of school vacation. I am ready for this to be the last day of school vacation. #
• Three pounds of peppermint bark so far (the good kind): http://t.co/HZVoLDZf #
• In the midst of all the squabbling yesterday, my younger daughter wandered downstairs with a poetry book reading "Gunga Din." #heartthaw #
• Christmas traditions in other parts of the world: the crapping log! http://t.co/K3xlVJSh #
• Recommendation for registrar other than godaddy? #
• "Christmas at Sea," a beautiful, melancholy poem by Robert Louis Stevenson: http://t.co/HTqbHcWj #
• Because I love arguing with the child until nearly midnight about the fact that she can't leave her boots downstairs. #whendoesschoolstart #
• A 60 year old unsolved mystery has me fascinated this evening – Australia's Taman Shud case: http://t.co/1eDyFlA8 #
• TheNatureCompany.biz cleverly waited EIGHT DAYS to ship my order (the day after the Priority Mail shipping deadline for Christmas). Avoid!! #
• Here's the best part: TheNatureCompany.biz DIDN'T EVEN SEND THE RIGHT THING!! #
• Nog made, house clean, presents wrapped, hair and toes done, kids currently getting along. Merry Christmas! #
• "He looks like a pink nightmare." #
• About to have the prettiest cup of Christmas Eve tea thanks to my Secret Santa! /cc @Pixieyelsraek #