3 Things:

Three things to get on to since I haven’t posted in a while…

Thing the First:
So, last week I was in the majestic mountains of Utah for Wifey’s work. She had some kind of board meeting to go to and I was Q’s childcare for the duration. Ah, bonding with your kid in the mountains of Utah… beautiful. The board meeting was taking place in the organization’s founder’s house in Sundance (the very same Sundance that is know for Bobby Redford and his film festival). So for 4 days we lived in a cabin in Sundance, Utah. It is nice to see how the other half live sometimes.

The time in Utah was great. I got to hang out with one of the few people from high school with whom I actively wanted to get back in contact, and to my knowledge, I am the only person from high school not related to him to see him in his new environment.

We forgot the camera, so no pictures of majestic snow-covered peaks or immaculate “cabins” with panoramic mountain views. Oh, well… I will always have the memories.

Thing the Second:
The trip back was a bear. We got into Chicago O’Hare at 12 for our 12:55 connecting flight to Columbus when everything went to hell. The 12:55 flight to Columbus was cancelled, the 2:40 flight was cancelled as well, the 4:00 flight did not leave until 6:45 and it left with Wifey and Q while I waited on standby. The 7:00 did not board until 7:30 and even on standby I was able to make that one. It did not leave the gate until 7:55 because they could not find a passenger. It was a loooong time to be in an airport with a 9 month old.

Thing the Third:
It is good to be home. We missed Little Man something fierce. He is such a wonderful little boy. It seems like he matured at least 15 years worth while we were gone. I am not sure that we can do a trip like that again without making sure that he is a part of it. I know that he is going to the work that Wifey has slated in March and in April.

To recap:
Q is sick today
She has a pretty nasty fever and is just a bit on the unhappy side
I would be a bit on the unhappy side as well if I were sick
I might actually be getting some freelance fantasy mapping work
That would be awesome
I almost feel like I could give freelancing a go
I am not sure that both Wifey and I being self-employed is the most strategic thing to do for the fam
Reading… I am torn right now between The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong and Presence by Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, and Flowers
Any thoughts on which of the two to tackle?
Listening to S.O.S by Earl Greyhound

Only 15 minutes

I have 15 minutes to craft the most perfect post ever and I am fairly sure that I will fall well short of that goal, but if one doesn’t set goals, on doesn’t get anywhere. And, trust me one wants to be somewhere instead of nowhere. Nowhere has nothing and no one. And no one wants to be no where basically because that is the only place that no one can truly be, once someone is nowhere, it is no longer nowhere. Funny how that is. The odd thing is that everything at least has nothing which makes you think that it is actually something to “have.” Yet… you would be wrong. Woefully and erringly wrong.

“Erringly wrong is a bit of a redundancy, don’t you think?” Tom asked interrogatively.

“This cannot be happening to me. This cannot be happening to me. This cannot be happening to me. This cannot be happening to me.” Tom repeated again and again.

Anyhoo… The fifteen minutes is almost up…. DAMN YOU SPELLING MISTAKES!

To recap:
Life here is still going on
Job search is still ongoing
I have sooo much to do
And an almost bonecrushing amount of time on my hands
Almost too much time to wrap one’s mind around
Definitely too much to prioritize tasks and get them accomplished
Stupid over abundance of time
Listening to Head for the Hills by Saves the Day

3 Things:

The funny thing about Mondays when you are un-employed is that they are eerily similar to Sundays just with better daytime TV.

Thing the First: I love my wife dearly. One of the main reasons that I love her is that we have never (let me repeat for emphasis) NEVER (and once with color) NEVER celebrated Valentine's Day. You read that right, boys. I gots a woman, who happens to be HAWT that doesn't give a rats ass about Valentine's Day. In fact, she detests the "holiday." I am a lucky lucky man.

Thing the Second: One of the reasons we don't care about Valentine's Day, is that we got engaged on Feb 7th. Therefore the 14th means diddley-squat. We got engaged 13 years ago this past Saturday. We decided that we did not want to be cliche and get engaged on Valentine's Day. That seems too predictable... too blah. Therefore I popped the question the week before.

Thing the Third: The cupboards are bare. We needed to go grocery shopping yesterday, but that was just not in the cards. Maybe tonight we will get some groceries.

To recap:
Resumes are out
I have not gotten any nibbles on them
It is a good resume
I gots skilz
A 20 Questions Tuesday interview is set up for tomorrow
So far we are on question 13
We need to bang out the last 7 and call it done

posting out of obligation

Ah, the obligatory post. You know what the obligatory post means? It means that it is Wednesday. I am thinking about boycotting the entire idea of posting on Wednesdays because I am constantly baffled for posting ideas on Wednesdays.

One would think that there are some over-riding themes going on in the SRH noggin at the moment. Well, that is true, but I do not want to bore you fine readers with the sordid details of my seedy job search. Really it is quite boring. Every morning I check the updated job listings on a myriad of sites and then apply to some and feel disdain for most others. It is a thrilling experience. Oh, if you could only be me... you lose sleep at night, don't you?

Anywho... I have some stuff I am working on for Wifey. It will be tomorrow's Digital Thursday.

To Recap:
Wednesdays are kinda boring
Maybe there is something good on TV
Ooooh Life is starting back up
Check you fools later

Gone, Daddy, Gone

So on Friday the 23rd of January, 2009 my employer of 9.5 years decided that my services were no longer necessary. So myself and 23 of my co-workers in the company were “let go.” We had our health insurance benefits terminated that day and were given 5 weeks severance for our service. Sure sure this layoff happened almost 3 weeks to the day that they purchased their second company in 4 months and alerted all their associate level employees that they will not be getting a raise this year. Basically, it was the cheapest shaft my former company could come up with, and they knew it.

But those are the cards that I have been dealt and now I have to play this hand. All in all it is a good thing (in the long term) because that place was killing my soul. In the last year I have gained about 15 to 20lbs and a rather unhealthy dependence on the caffeine found in the wonderous beverage Mt Dew. Due to my emotionally unhealthy work environment I was also going out to lunch almost every day of the week primarily to get the hell out of the office. It is amazing how pathological a place that starts out as merely unhealthy can become when you are there day in and day out for 9 years. That place was truly killing me from the inside out. I could go into tales, but that would just seem like sour grapes.

At the moment the fam and I are trying to figure out where exactly we will land, but the good thing is that it will not be for my previous employer. I am trying to live in the moment and feel where this will take me. The past is but a memory and the future is a fantasy.

To recap:
I ain’t gots no job
Anyone want to hire me?
I am not desperate yet, but if you want desperate, I can do that
Really I can do anything
Just hire me
Oh, God, I need a job!
Why won’t anyone hire me?

3 Things

There are 3 things to chat about from the weekend and today.

Thing the First:
Q got something like 17 vaccinations and a good 12 inoculations on Thursday. So this weekend has been especially fun since she went “all cranky and shit” on Saturday night. Saturday night and Sunday night were not easy nights (especially for Wifey who is the only person in the universe whom Q allows to comfort her.) Usually we can trick Q into thinking it is mama who is comforting her by having me rock her in a rocking chair in a dark room, but this weekend the 7.5 month old was onto us. She is wily beyond her lack of years. Saturday night and last night I would just about have her in my arms before she woke up inconsolable due to my lack of motherness. To sum up quite quickly, Wifey and Q are rather tired folk.

Thing the Second:
I am not sure who fed him such lies, but I have my bets. Little Man is afraid of “sleeping the day away” and therefore will not sleep past 7 a.m. in fear that he will not have time to play with his trains. Sunday morning (despite groggy logic dispensed by yours truly) Little Man was away and ready to go by 7 am. Through much cajoling his attempts to go downstairs were rebuffed until 7:30-ish, and through sheer will and determination by Wifey, downstairs was not achieved until around 8 a.m.

Later during conversations about general tiredness and the concept of sleeping in, Little Man explained that he was afraid of sleeping all day and not getting to play. We assured him that we would wake him up before the day was slept away, and waxed eloquently on the joys of sleeping in.

This morning he did not wake us until 8:10. Small victories.

Thing the Third:
The problem with most federal holidays that are not strongly associated with a particular religious sub-context is that when you work for a consulting firm, they do not technically exist. So here I am, sitting at my desk at work, whilst all of my regularly-employed-friends are sitting at home watching Maury Povich (who’s the baby daddy? I don’t know). Today IS a holiday to commemorate the trials and tribulations of the late Dr King, but here in consultant world, instead of referring to this as MLK Day, we call it Monday.

None of our clients are working, because they are all government employees, yet they have given us tasks to accomplish before they come back to work tomorrow. Alas and alack, I have job.

There are 3 things to chat about from the weekend and today.

To recap:
At work and bored
I have about 3 things to work on around Louisville, Ky
I am waiting for review by others for all 3
We had to get new cell phones because Q slobbered all over our other ones
One of the problems with having a baby around
We didn’t have to baby proof the house much for Little Man
Q will be a different matter entirely
I have 1.5 books in my queue to read
Unless you consider the 2 books in the “Aloud Rocking Q Reading Queue”
I typically don’t consider them
I need to clean my desk at work
I am afraid of the dust disturbances of such a cleaning venture
Listening to Fa-Fa-Fa by Datarock

In a stream...

I am not sure why I am fighting the need to “do laundry” at the moment, but sure as shootin’ I do not want to spend one moment of my time doing laundry. This abhorrence to laundering is fast being replaced by a need of clean pants. Stupid pants always uncleaning themselves. That and Little Man is running out of socks. Well, to be clear, he is running out of clean socks. The ones we keep putting him in are starting to gain sentience and smell like vinegar which makes me wonder why his is sweating out rice wine from his feet. If it is rice wine from his feet, I have no idea what the hell he keeps farting. Sweet Jesus on a cracker, the boy’s ass has been stanky for about a week now. There has been a constant stream of methane effervescing from his ass. I am sure if we had captured that methane, we could be heating our house with it. The house would be warm but quite appallingly smelly.

No one wants a warm yet smelly abode. What they want is warm and cozy, not warm and smelly. By the transitive property we can safely deduce that smelly ≠ cozy. While smelly is not an absolute opposite of cozy it definitely is not in the set of cozy descriptors even part of the time. Smelly and cozy are 2 mutually exclusive categories, and really if categories cannot be exclusive, what can? Who’s with me? Anyone?

You know what is mutually exclusive? Self-pity, that’s what. Sure everyone can have self-pity, but they can only have self pity for themselves. Have you ever seen someone have self-pity for someone else? Nope you haven’t and if you answered “yes” you are either a bald-faced liar or quite possibly a mad idiot (the worse kind of idiot) with poor personal boundaries. When someone rhetorically asked you, “What kind of idiot do you think I am?” You should respond, “A mad idiot, the worst kind.” Self-pity, now that is very exclusive and quite mutual.

The problem with self-pity is that you don’t get that warm fuzzy feeling of being better than the person you are in the process pitying. And really, what is the point of pity if you cannot feel better about someone. Seriously, the best way to feel good about yourself is to feel bad for someone doing/being/saying something you would not because you know better. There really is no better way to feel better than to sit there and think, “Man, that poor bastard. If he were only a little more like me, I would not have to pity him so.”

So when you see me with slightly dirty pantaloons and a stinky footed child, I am only doing it so you can feel better about yourself. I am self-aggrandizing that way.

To recap:
Laundry will be done tonight
The white death is upon us
Looks like it will be the path through the Mines of Moria on the way home
Stupid snow
I will most likely be heading home a bit early due to the crappy drivers
That way I can pity them and feel better about my own driving prowess
Listening to All Better Now by Earl Greyhound

3 Things

Happy New Year and that jazz. Three things have been afoot.

Thing the First:
The Wife and kids and I went down to Austin, Texas to see one of my best friends ever (Dr B Dawg) get himself married. We flew down to Texas on New Year’s Day. The wedding was beautiful and Little Man and I were both groomsmen. Little Man did great, even though he got a bit bored during the ceremony. I think he would have been a trifle less bored if he did not have to get to the site so early for pictures. We asked a bunch from a 5 year old and got a bunch back in return. He really did do great.

The wedding was a beautiful event and one of the few weddings I have ever been to without a list of people not allowed to be at the wedding. It was bizarre to not have the groom instruct the groomsmen on what to do if so-and-so shows up. (Quote from an actual pre-wedding groomsmen meeting, “If the bride’s sister shows up, please ask her politely to leave. If she reaches in her purse when you ask her to leave, take her down.”) Everything went smooth as silk at this wedding (for example the groom was not drunk, there was not a bet to see how long the marriage would last, the cake and catering made it without a hitch, the groom’s father did not storm out of the rehearsal dinner and miss the wedding, etc…) and everyone could not be happier for the bride and groom.

The happy couple is honeymooning in Belize and Guatemala. When they get back and have wedding pics, I will post shots of Little Man and I all dressed up like grown ups.

Thing the Second:
When the wedding trip was over and done with Little Man and I went to the airport and headed home whilst Wifey and Q went to San Jose, California for Wifey to get some work done. It is an odd feeling going different direction than half the family in an airport. I don’t like it overmuch.

Wifey and Q were in California for 4.5 days and did not get home until late Friday night/early Saturday morning. There was much rejoicing.

Thing the Third:
It was really nice not having to think about posting anything for a time. In fact, it was very difficult to come back to posting today. What exactly does that mean? I am not quite sure, I just know it was nice to get away for a bit.

To recap:
Tomorrow’s 20 Questions Tuesday will be a departure from the norm
For tomorrow’s questions I shall interview someone
The shoe is on the other foot
The circle is now complete
When last we met, I was but the learner;
Now, I am the master
Pulled pork sammiches for dinner tonight
Roasted sunflower seeds a much better than non-roasted
I hate it when people don’t think it through for their problem solving methodologies
I also hate it when people cut me off while driving
There are many things I hate
I am not listening to anything at the moment
I probably should be, but I am not

New Year's Eve

It is New Year's Eve and we leave for Texas tomorrow morning at 6:45 am. There is sooooo much to do prior to us leaving on a jet plane.

To Recap:
To do list = very big
Time to complete To Do List = very short
Have a happy and safe New Year's
I will be taking a hiatus for a while
Mainly because I am out of town for a bit and then unavailable for the posting for a while
Cheers

2 Things

In a feeble attempt to not haphazardly post when I feel like it, I have decided to post my typical Monday Morning Musings in my very typical 2Things fashion except I have 4 things….

Thing the First: It is difficult to plan meals out prior to the holiday feasting that takes place for the Christmas Holiday. It is both difficult and necessary. Wednesday and Thursday’s meals are already accounted for, but tonight and Tuesday need some thought. The issue is that we don’t want anything that might potentially interfere with the gastronomic success of the holiday mealings, but we don’t want to attempt a survival quest of merely bread and water either. It is a delicate balance… a delicate balance indeed. So for dinner tonight… something that doesn’t completely suck, yet isn’t too good. Sounds almost like a lunch at Arby’s…

Thing the Second: The e-cards are away! Many of fine reader has received their email card as of last night. So far I have only had 2 bounce back but that was before we lost…

Thing the Third: …our Time Warner cable bundle. Yes, we are without cable, internet, or phones. The bundle package is nice when things are going well, but when they go bad, they really go bad. Wifey is stuck at home with a little girl who is a bit snotty and a stir crazy 5 year old boy with now Diego… Sometimes, going to work is not so bad.

Thing the Fourth: Holy Shit! It was cold last night and this morning!

To recap:
Sweet Jimminy Christmas Cakes on a pine box, it was cold this morning
Did I mention cold?
I go home in a few minutes
A home with a sick infant
A home with a hyper 5 year old
Yippee?
I have re-initialized the iPod
But I have not completely reloaded the music on it
Therefore I am not listening to anything

3 Things

There are basically 3 things to chat about after this weekend…umm ended. I give them to you with no conscious bias.

Thing the First:
I need to start exercising again. No only am I exponentially expanding at the moment, but my knees are getting rather loose. I have noticed during the “Q-Why-Won’t-You-Go-To-Sleep?” dance that both of my knees are all over the place (and not in a good way). It is time for me to start carving out time to go and sweat like I haven’t in a long while. I am not happy with this, but I knew that this time would come again. If I could only find some exercise that I actually liked.

Thing the Second:
It is both a good and bad thing having a grocery store just down the street from your abode. It is good because if you need one or two ingredients to finish up a recipe you don’t have to travel far. It is bad, on the other hand, because it is very easy to just jump down to the grocery store without planning a weekly meal schedule.

Between Wifey and myself, our family averages 1.5 trips to the grocery store a day. That’s right we go to the store more than once daily. When we plan out a menu for the week and go for one big trip per week we have found that we have more time to do other things that need doing, and don’t spend nearly as much. We keep saying that making weekly comprehensive grocery store trips is imperative and we need to just “do it,” but we constantly find ourselves not. That is something that needs to change.

Thing the Third:
The Christmas Card is well underway this year. In fact, it will be the subject of this week’s digital Thursday. I started work on it last night around 10pm and before I knew it, the clock had moved forward to 1:30 am. So much for good sleep. In the end, I think the card will be well worth it. Alas and alack, poor readers you shall have to wait until Thursday to peruse the holiday card for ’08.

To recap:
One thing that buying vast amounts of Christmas presents has taught me is that I eat out for lunch entirely too much
Re: Exercising: I am afraid I might have to start doing ab workouts as well
I hate ab workouts
Is there a stronger word than “hate?”
If so, that is what I do concerning ab workouts
Any guesses as to the subject matter of this year’s Christmas cards?
No guessing if you have had a peek
I will give you a hint, all four of us are in it
Individually
20 Questions Tuesday is tomorrow
Can you feel the excitement?
Listening to You’re So Damn Hot by OK Go.

No overlap

So… all the stuff that needed to get done yesterday is, well, done. That unfortunately leaves me with nothing productive to do at work. Some might think that this would lead to mischief and mayhem, but some don’t realize just how lazy I am. Mischief takes planning and mayhem takes effort. On the days that I have one, the other is missing. On the days that I have both, there is other stuff that must be done. It is the way of life.

Now I am sitting at my desk with very little to do and even less motivation to get it done. In many ways it has become a contest between my lack of motivation and the few tasks that need to be accomplished. This particular competition is scored much like golf.

I think the biggest problem with the tasks that I have waiting for me is that they are supposedly skill building, but they are about building skills that should remain dormant and unexplored. Database management systems? Yeee-uck… CADD software training? That is not my cup-o-tea. If the personal skill set building revolved around color theory or zombie slaying I would do the exercises twice. I guess that is one of the biggest issues I have with the working world. The skills that work would like me to build do not cross-over with the skills I would like to build for myself. Work tends to reward those that help the collective abilities of the company while I am more interested in how to level up my hunter in World of Warcraft (turns out it is bby playing more, btw.) This disconnect between the skills that I want to hone and the ones that my work would like me to build make me question if I am in the correct field.

Then again I wonder what field is there in the Columbus, Ohio area that I could dial into with my not-so-great comic book drawing skills, mediocre video gaming skilz, and amazing map making abilities. Methinks that vocation does nigh existe.

To recap:
I think I slept wrong last night
My neck hurts today
The crew made a big mistake not offering Sigi what he wanted
I guess I can find some new Photoshop tutorials
I made some denim the other day
Digital denim
Issues gleaned from that tutorial?
Dodge and burn
Dodge and burn, baby
Listening to Pool Party by the Aquabats!
You don’t even know, dude
There’s gonna be food and girls
And more food
And Mike Tarrudo’s coming

Special Agent?

Even in the off-peak Chuck E Cheese is hell on earth.

This weekend Little Man had a birthday party to go to at the local (notice not low-cal) Chuck E Cheese. The party started at 10:30 am on Saturday and there wasn’t an end time given on the invite. I guess that party could have lasted forever.

Little Man had a great time with the general mayhem that accompanies a trip to “the Cheese,” but his papa was not a happy camper. It was nice for the first hour or so because it was not too terribly busy, but around noon the legions arrived in droves demanding their pizza and their fun.
By the end of my penance for what could only have been some kind of heinous double bludgeoning murder of orphaned nuns by a club made entirely of wet and sick kittens (that is the only crime I can think of that would merit such torturous penance), there was a 3 deep wait for the air-hockey table. Did you know that even if no one scores (best 7 of 12) the game will shut down after 15 minutes of unresolved game play? I did not know that gem of a fact until the 2 kids in front of Little Man and I couldn’t get past 3 to 2 for 15 minutes. 15 minutes of frustratingly unproductive puckwork later and Little Man and I were air-hockeying. 2 scores later Little Man said, “I am done with this” and put his puck-hitting-thingy on the table and walked away. I mentioned that I was in Hell, correct?

The whole time I was in this experience I could not help but remember a career day that was held at my high school whilst I was young, vibrant, and significantly less cynical.


…Cue wavy transition with ethereal music…

The man was there telling us about the FBI. That is right, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He told us about all the cool stuff that the FBI did such as hunting down fugitives, stopping terrorists both international and domestic, defeating organized crime, etc… He went through all the requirements that must be met to place the title “Agent” in front of your last name. College education, background check, rigorous physicals, etc… and 2 years full time employment doing something professional.

We asked Agent Johnston what his 2 years full time experience was. Was he a cop? Did he work in investment banking? Just what did this highly qualified individual do prior to making or country safer from threats domestic and abroad? He hemmed and hawed about what his experience was, and that it really did not matter what the employment was, just as long as it was full time for 2 years straight. So he was not a cop. Did he work in a warehouse? Was he a construction worker? A legal aid? A file clerk? A mail room employee for a corporation? Again he attempted to focus us on the letter of the requirement more than the type of job.

He almost broke down when he sullenly informed us of his previous full time employment. It turns out that Agent Johnston spent a full 2 years at a Chuck E Cheese as the Big Cheese himself. I wonder how Agent Johnston got the crap assignment of a high school career fair. I can only imagine that his colleagues and direct supervisors decided that Agent Chuck E Cheese would be perfect for the crap assignments.


…Cue wavy transition with ethereal music…


The only thing more akin to the actual fire and brimstone of the legendary hell would be a Chuck E Cheese in Akron, Ohio.

To recap:
Chuck E Cheese is an evil place inhabited by demons
Starting on some holiday themed 20 Questions Tuesdays tomorrow
I think it will take a week or so of ice and snow on the ground for the local drivers to get used to snow and ice again
I have work that I am ignoring at the moment
I need to get back to that stuff
And soon
Listening to “The Pretender” by the Foo Fighters.

Failed Post beginnings

I type with only five fingers. Truly it is only four fingers but I use the left thumb as a prop so I count it.

I kind of miss the Yeti. He has not contacted me in well over a year, so I can only assume that he is dead and the inheritance shall be all mine.

I get more and more emails from people I don’t know because of this blog.

Little Man has taken his fight with sleep to new heights, and it seems that he has enlisted his nose into the fight.

Sometimes when I cannot think of a topic to write on, I call Wifey. Sometimes I just sit and wait for inspiration. Wifey is much more effective.

The problem with being mauled by a vampire bear is that if one is not ursine in nature one does not enter the realm of the undead, one is just plain old dead… horribly disfigured-ly disgustingly bloodlessly dead.

Coming up with ideas for Christmas presents is not nearly as easy as it was when I collected and played with toys as a kid.

Almost dozing off at your desk whilst at work is bad. Almost dozing off at you desk whilst at work in a meeting with your boss is a political statement.

I need to make the family Christmas Cards soon and Wifey doesn’t want me to focus the family as the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. What’s the point of having 4 family members if you can’t make them look like War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death on a holiday card?

Little Man has turned a corner on kids TV programming and I am not sure I like it.

Of all the natural hazards out there, none are so amazingly un-sexy as “slump.”

Looking back on it, I would be much richer if I were paid more.

What I don’t understand about lightsabers is

There is not enough time in the day to get everything done.

Little Man likes the show Extreme Trains on the History Channel. I define “likes” as “constantly obsesses about” in this instance.

Being famous would be nice, especially concerning free shit.

To recap:
I could have made this a recap post
I am so stupid
I hate flossing
Those tow statements are separate statements
They should not be read as “I am so stupid, I hate flossing”
Even though it may be what you think there is no provable causality indicated
Listening to Let it Die by the Foo Fighters

2 Things

The problem with posting a blog that you do not want family to read is that when they are around doing family stuff in your house, you cannot even pretend to put together a blog post. Especially when the family that is staying with you at your house are two computer savvy nephews. One of whom would not allow anything to happen on the computer without his enraptured attention.

Needless to say Thursday’s post did not happen due to lethargy generated by digesting waaaay too much food and a determined avoidance of all things bloggy to throw the nephews off the scent.

Thant being said there are 2 things to chat about today.

Thing the First:
Even though Thanksgiving is colloquially referred to as “Turkey Day” over here, the day is more about the ham to me. Well, ham and mashed potatoes. I dined on ham and mashed potatoes for 4 days straight. Now I am tired of ham and mashed potatoes, but that is a matter for another day. If there had been more sausage stuffing casserole, it would have been consumed as well. Truth be told, I am not so much for the turkey. I like the trimmings around the turkey, but the turkey itself is not that much of a draw for me.

Our menu included turkey, ham, sausage stuffing casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes, regular old stuffing, stuffing from inside the bird, 2 kinds of bread, cranberry salad, pumpkin pie and I am sure some other food I have forgotten.

A good time was had by all, but mostly by Little Man who was beside himself with glee through out the entire eating festivities. He was in heaven eating food he likes and surrounded by family who love him.

Thing the Second:
Most of the Christmas presents have been purchased for the fam. All that is left for the SRH household is one gift from Wifey to SRH and one gift from SRH to Wifey. Wifey diligently attempted to bolster our flagging economy by getting all the presents done this weekend. You hear me Wall Street! The DOW should go up 300 points on that fact alone.

As it is Wifey and I are left with the dubious task of figuring out what we want to get for each other.

To recap:
I just won the most recent Monthly Cartographer’s Challenge over at the Cartography Guild
This win surprises me a bit
I will post my map for this upcoming Digital Thursday
Now you want to come back on Thurs to see the award winning map
I am sure of it
Been watching a bunch of Nova's (Novas? Novae? Nova Shows? Episodes of Nova) on PBS lately
PBS can throw together some good old fashioned butt kicking documentaries
I watched something on choatic dynamical systems
And then I watched something on the genesis of monotheism
Get it?… genesis?… monotheism?… I crack myself up
Fascinating stuff really
Listening to the Roots singing Lovely, Love my Family from Yo Gabba Gabba
Any show that can get the Roots to perform for kids is a good show
No matter how much All Rileyed Up may not like the show

2 things

2 things to get to today, so lets’s get at it.

Thing the First:
Wifey and Q are back in town and that makes me a happy camper. Both Little Man and I missed them greatly this past week and weekend. Little Man and I survived well enough, but it just wasn’t as much fun as having the rest of the household around.

The 2 womens-folk of the household returned last night, and while I have had some time with Q, I am still waiting to get the ability to have a conversation with Wifey. It seems that when one works for a week while doing the primary parenting of a baby and then travels with a baby to an airport, the trend is for one to be beyond exhaustion. Wifey was asleep on the couch by 8:30 last night. She was asleep downstairs before Little Man was asleep upstairs.

Today she had 2 conference calls and a meeting to go to as well as taking care of Little Man and Q. I fear that she is going to be crispy toasty this evening as well. So eventhough she is back, I still miss her.


Thing the Second:
The parental units and my nephews will be arriving on Wednesday afternoon for the upcoming Feast of Fowl. Usually this family incursion into SRHland would require briefings and de-briefings and strategy sessions utilizing Lucite Maps with technicians who write backwards and mark positions with toy boats…

However, as of late we have had to prepare ourselves less and less for visits with the parental folk. They seem to be respecting our boundaries more and starting to interact more lovingly. It is a pleasant change. There is this strange sensation of “not dread” at their impending appearances. I cannot go so far as to say that I am wholeheartedly looking forward to their visit. That is a mistake you only make a few times before having the cruel reality come crashing about your head and shoulders area.

This visit is intended to be a short one. For all of you who did not know (and that includes all of you, save Wifey) my dad went to the hospital (again) for chest pains last week, and does not quite feel “up to “ and extended stay here in C-bus. The tests on said chest pains seem to indicate an ulcer in his upper GI system, so no one start praying for him just yet.

To recap:
I have to stop by the grocery store on the way home
It seems I ate all of Little Man’s cheese puffs
In my defense they sat unperturbed in the cupboard for 4 days before I devoured them
They were the All Natural White Cheddar kind
I am only human
Crew took the MLS Cup yesterday 3 -1
Hopefully they use this win as an opportunity to change their logo from the village people logo to something more soccer oriented
Maybe they will become F.C. Columbus and be affectionately known as “the Crew”
That would be nice
Never happen, but it would be nice
Tomorrow’s 20 questions is about Thanksgiving Day
Listening to Wallflowers by MC Frontalot

Fake Post

No real time to post today so I will fake post to my heart’s content. I love me some fake postin. One can not fake post enough. I should fake post more often actually.

The reason I only have time for a fake post is that I will be heading home to help Wifey prepare for here impending departure to parts unknown (Unknown = Rockport, MA). She will be taking Q with her on the flight and leaving me and Little Man behind to fend for ourselves in this dark, cold, lonely world devoid of light, love and hope.

Little Man has already complained that he will be tired of me and was disappointed when he found out I was staying and that he would not, in fact, be spending 3 days in a row again with Mimma.

I will have to fight my urge to be curt with him in the mornings because I did not get enough sleep. Luckily there are only 2 mornings that require me to motivate him into motion. So at least I got that going for me.

Oh well, I will have something digital for you for Digital Thursday.

To recap:
Pressed for time
Not listening to anything
Chat more tomorrow