It seems a lot of fellow Ford Fusion owners are Googling and finding this post about the Fusion I wrote in December 2007, mainly because they have questions about winter tires (and MP3 aux jacks, but that’s another post).

My advice: if you live somewhere with snow and ice, buy them.

Winter tires, not all-season tires.

Keep your 17-inch performance tires on in the summer, and then swap out at the first snowfall for some nice winter tires. I had a bit of sticker shock plonking down nearly $700 for mine, but my drive this winter has been easy (compared to last winter when I had to do running starts from the other side of the street just to get up my snowy driveway). I’m told they should last 4-5 seasons, so it’s not that expensive on a yearly basis.

Cheaper than sliding off the highway anyway.

Just puttin’ this out there, is all:

Is Zappos the greatest online shoe store in the known universe, or what?

I’ve used them before, primarily because I have what one could lovingly call Jesus feet (that is, they’re wide enough for walking on water, not that they have nail holes in them or anything, because - well - shoes would be the least of my problems then). I suppose they’re not terribly wide, just an EE / XW, but for reasons unknown the brick-and-mortar retail shoe gods have seen fit to stock the shelves with nothing but medium.

For years, I just bought a size up, curing the width problem but - with one specific purchase, after a few weeks of wear - creating a funny clown shoe effect as one shoe would sort of slap back to the ground with each step.

*Stomp, slap, stomp, slap, stomp, slap*

Is it the soundtrack to a snuff film? Nope. Just Andy walkin’ down the hall.

Then I discovered Zappos. Shoes. Wide shoes. Affordable wide shoes. Lots of them. Even some rather nifty-looking ones at that.

My latest experience with Zappos was the best by far. I placed an order for two pairs of shoes one afternoon and - with no extra charge for shipping - they appeared on my doorstep the next morning. Hooray for magic shoe fairies!**

Alas, one of the pairs did not fit well, so I went online last night and, using the Zappos easy return policy, printed out postage-paid UPS labels to return the shoes the next day. Right after I submitted the return request online, I ordered a different pair of shoes to replace the ones I was sending back.

Lo and behold, hooray once again for magic shoe fairies***, a box was on my doorstep by midday today, bearing within its awaited podiatric prizes.

So, uh, what I really wanted to say is: Zappos is cool and stuff.

* But even if it were, what of it? Huh? We’re a very tolerant blog, see.

** Not any sort of gay reference.

*** Not this time either.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a home invader.

No, not the kind that comes through a window or a door, not without help anyway. This was the viral kind, one that would lay waste to all that fell victim for a good 24-36 hours. The kind that made the contents of your body seek escape from all available orifices, often at the same time. Fun stuff.

First, it struck my wee lad Ewan.

Then it took down the dear Mrs.

Next in line was the wee babby Piers.

Christmas night found my lovely lass Fiona being purged of the day’s dinner goodness.

So, that leaves but one of us standing.

Wish me luck, as there’s a busy few days ahead (not to mention that blogger Rae and her lovely daughters will be spending the night with us tomorrow eve).

Hope you and yours have a happy holiday!

The Clan WWR has finished opening half of the presents. Now we’re off upstairs to get the turkey in the oven and a beer in my hand. After showers, round two of present opening will commence.

And, lo and behold, we got a white Christmas:

(note - if you’re viewing this after 12/25, the pics above are realtime, so it could be summer for all I know)

Hi again.

I’ll be back home and back to the blog sometime on Thursday or Friday.

I traveled to Houston as my uncle / godfather was very ill and not expected to live. And, well, he didn’t.

I might have more to say about that later, once I collect my various thoughts and assemble them into something other than a rambling stream of sadness, anger, and hopefulness.

See you soon.

Flying to Houston this morning for a family emergency.

Be good to one another.

OK, fine, you can be mean to the stupid people.

Update: Hi again. It’s me. I’m in Houston now. Just letting you know that my immediate family is fine, no crisis in the WWR household. Will talk more later. Thanks for the comments and emails.

In response to this post on Saudi women who - out of view of their menfolk and the Imams - like to get naked on camera, commenter (and seeker of Saudi porn) Billy Mac said:

saudi naked women are the most beautiful in the world, the only problem is I DONT SEE ANY

…followed by…

Saudi naked women on web cam where are there or is this a fake web site, thats whatnit looks like to me and i will broadcast it everyewere dont waste your time here like i have for the better part of 45 minutesw.

Excuse the spelling in the comments; one can’t expect too much from a one-handed typist, can one?

Hey there, fellow homeowners (or those who are simply in the know):

I’m guessing that the black plastic pipes that converge at a joint here and there in the attic and then take off through the roof are sewage / drain vents. They all seem to be coming from areas of the house where there might be toilets, sinks, and the like. Anyway, from Googling around, that’s my best guess.

The problem: one of them is leaking (or was at one point), as evidenced by a light ring stain we recently noticed at the join of the ceiling and wall in the master bath, right under where one of those pipes goes vertical.

I can’t tell if the joint is leaking or if it’s simply runoff from the roof creeping in and sliding down the outside of the pipe, mainly because I can’t get to it. The attic is covered in 9-10 inches of blown insulation, obscuring the joists from view, and I’d rather not drop through the ceiling - and the roof is the highest point of the second level, which I have no way of reaching to check (nor would I want to, as breaking my neck is not high on my list of things to do).

So, who do I call?

A plumber would seem the right choice if the pipe is leaking when rain enters it. It looks to be a simple repair.

A roofer would seem to be the man or woman of the hour if it’s a problem with shingles or flashing upon high, letting snow or rain blow into the attic.

Are there any roofing plumbers or plumbing roofers out there?

CNN reports that a whole lot of you probably do not belong behind the wheel of a vehicle:

Is it just your imagination, or do many of your fellow motorists lack even a rudimentary grasp of traffic laws?

Well, if a test administered by GMAC Insurance is any indication, one in six people cruising our highways and byways — roughly 36 million licensed drivers — would flunk their driver’s test if they had to take it today. Not only that, but based on the 2007 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test data the state with the most road-going dummies is New York, while the most knowledgeable ones are out West to Idaho.

Meanwhile, I’m a driving superstar! Oh yeah!

My highway pet peeves would include tailgaters (braking suddenly for them is always fun), people who have probably never looked up the word “yield” in a dictionary, people who think when the lights are out at an intersection they have the right of way all the time, and - I just added this one - the stupid woman in front of me yesterday who was on the cell phone and smoking with the same hand while passing me at over 70MPH.

You can check out the National Driving Test over here.

Awwww yeah.

* Although maybe a little taller, more hair, maybe ten pounds lighter, with - say - a sweet foreign accent and - ooh! ooh! - laser cannons for eyeballs**.

** Hmmm, I think I’ve used a similar line before. Oh well, you get what you pay for.