The Holidays
This week is the week between Christmas and New Year's, in case it wasn't obvious from the calendar. I thought that I might do something of a real update. Facebook seems to get most of my online presence attention, but I want to try to maintain LJ a little bit.
A little over a week ago, on Saturday the 19th, Jaime and I drove out to GR to meet our new nephew, Jack. We brought along a couple of Christmas presents for the other boys, plus some souvenirs from Spain. It was nice to see them all. The boys were unusually sociable right from the start. Even when we've been there on their own turf before, they were shy. We didn't complain. Anyway, we spent a couple of hours there. The boys opened their presents. We played with some cars. We watched Johnny play Rock Band 2. He likes to sing. Of course we held Jack and socialized with Jen.
On our way back Jaime and stopped at Smokey Bones in East Lansing. What a treat! We ate way too much, including their great cornbread. There was a light snow falling outside that you could only see when you looked at the light poles. Inside was warm and everyone was pleasant. It was wonderful to pretend to be back there and not stuck in the Dirty D.
On Wednesday afternoon I started to feel rotten at work. It progressed and by the time I got home and ate dinner, I was sporting a decent fever. I'm guessing that I got that from the nephews. That usually happens when we're around kids, plus Jen mentioned that Johnny started coming down with something.
On Thursday (the 24th), Jaime and I went to my parents' house for brunch. I was feeling a bit better after a solid 11 hours of sleep. My dad cooked up his usual Christmas sausage. (I really should write down the brand.) We had that, French Toast, and the boys had fresh horseradish. It is as near a tradition as my family has. We never got to the coffee cake. In the afternoon my dad and I met up at the theater to see Avatar. We didn't want to wait for the 3D showing (since it is almost 3 hours and we didn't go early enough), so we saw it on a regular screen. It was still very good. Cheesy and predictable, but visually stunning with good action.
Friday (the 25th) was spent being lazy. I slept in as much as the cats would let me. Then I played Infamous on the PS3. I worked on my home computer which had a virus. (I think I got it all finally.) We had frozen pizza for dinner, because we forgot to plan ahead for at least a frozen meal you put in the oven. We watched some TV. We didn't do much, but it was nice enough. Oh yeah, the cats got their traditional meal as well: canned tuna fish.
Saturday was pretty lazy as well. More Infamous, computer games, TV, etc. I did spend a few hours doing "homework" for work. It is in preparation for a very large project coming up. But that's another story.
On Sunday we went to the Barneys' house. The Buchalskis and "Schmoo" also showed up. The Motz family couldn't come because Steve had to work. It was the usual chaos. The kids are a bit bigger, which means a bit more self-sufficient, but also a bit more destructive. They're all good kids and we had fun. Craig had made "apple pie", which is an apple-based adult beverage usually made with "151", but this one had 190 proof Everclear. It was yummy!
That's about it. No need to go into anything much more. I do want to cover work stuff, but not today.
A little over a week ago, on Saturday the 19th, Jaime and I drove out to GR to meet our new nephew, Jack. We brought along a couple of Christmas presents for the other boys, plus some souvenirs from Spain. It was nice to see them all. The boys were unusually sociable right from the start. Even when we've been there on their own turf before, they were shy. We didn't complain. Anyway, we spent a couple of hours there. The boys opened their presents. We played with some cars. We watched Johnny play Rock Band 2. He likes to sing. Of course we held Jack and socialized with Jen.
On our way back Jaime and stopped at Smokey Bones in East Lansing. What a treat! We ate way too much, including their great cornbread. There was a light snow falling outside that you could only see when you looked at the light poles. Inside was warm and everyone was pleasant. It was wonderful to pretend to be back there and not stuck in the Dirty D.
On Wednesday afternoon I started to feel rotten at work. It progressed and by the time I got home and ate dinner, I was sporting a decent fever. I'm guessing that I got that from the nephews. That usually happens when we're around kids, plus Jen mentioned that Johnny started coming down with something.
On Thursday (the 24th), Jaime and I went to my parents' house for brunch. I was feeling a bit better after a solid 11 hours of sleep. My dad cooked up his usual Christmas sausage. (I really should write down the brand.) We had that, French Toast, and the boys had fresh horseradish. It is as near a tradition as my family has. We never got to the coffee cake. In the afternoon my dad and I met up at the theater to see Avatar. We didn't want to wait for the 3D showing (since it is almost 3 hours and we didn't go early enough), so we saw it on a regular screen. It was still very good. Cheesy and predictable, but visually stunning with good action.
Friday (the 25th) was spent being lazy. I slept in as much as the cats would let me. Then I played Infamous on the PS3. I worked on my home computer which had a virus. (I think I got it all finally.) We had frozen pizza for dinner, because we forgot to plan ahead for at least a frozen meal you put in the oven. We watched some TV. We didn't do much, but it was nice enough. Oh yeah, the cats got their traditional meal as well: canned tuna fish.
Saturday was pretty lazy as well. More Infamous, computer games, TV, etc. I did spend a few hours doing "homework" for work. It is in preparation for a very large project coming up. But that's another story.
On Sunday we went to the Barneys' house. The Buchalskis and "Schmoo" also showed up. The Motz family couldn't come because Steve had to work. It was the usual chaos. The kids are a bit bigger, which means a bit more self-sufficient, but also a bit more destructive. They're all good kids and we had fun. Craig had made "apple pie", which is an apple-based adult beverage usually made with "151", but this one had 190 proof Everclear. It was yummy!
That's about it. No need to go into anything much more. I do want to cover work stuff, but not today.