I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and/or break. I’m back to it for a little while until the next long weekend. I really like the week between Christmas and New Year’s because you feel like you are doing everyone a favor by being at work, so the pressure’s off.
Jayne and I got in recently from my family’s trip to Kentucky with Dad’s side. It was jam-packed and I definitely can’t say it was relaxing just because it went so fast.
We had our extended family dinner where Jayne got to dig even deeper in to Sanderson lore. I also met people I had never met before and saw others I hadn’t seen (cousin Jesse) since I played his sweet new GameBoy.
The entire immediate family (except my cousin Gerry and he’s a dog) were there. All the other dogs were even there. I got to play with Marsea’s brother Minor who also added to the excitement by taking off through the countryside for a few hours when we fired off the shotgun.
Sunday evening we went in to town and I bought some showerboard (hillbilly whiteboards) and Pictionary to play. We managed to work that in two nights in a row. A key part of Pictionary (other than being on the winning team both nights, booyah) is the hilarity that ensues when someone goes the long way to an answer or an answer gets given away in some form. This year’s prize goes to my youngest cousin Katheryn (age 3) who drew a circle on the board and turned around while we tried to guess. She grinned and said, “Hamburger”, before anyone could even get past “circle.”
It wouldn’t be a trip to Kentucky without some staples. We shot skeet (the Duck Hunt b-side), rode the 4-wheeler, stepped in cow shit, ate deer, played paintball, smelled the paper mill, walked the crick and played Rook. If you’ve never played Rook, learn. Then call me and we’ll play. I’ll even teach you if you’d like. If you like Euchre, that says nothing about how you’ll feel about Rook. If you like the rare time in Euchre where you have to use your brain, you’ll like Rook. If you’d prefer the outcome of a game to be decided by the luck of some 5 cards and whether you are playing with complete morons, then Rook would not be for you. Rook seems to be very regional and also apparently uses a separate deck because of the religious types and/or Parker Brothers desire to make money. (It was their highest selling game until Monopoly) It can be played with a normal deck but I’ve never done such a thing. Apparently it’s because of my fear of cartomancy. Thanks, Wikipedia.
It felt weird to wrap up the trip on Christmas day and we spent half the day driving back to Iowa. The other half we spent “having Christmas” as some would say. While my family visited some extended family, Jayne and I stayed back to setup the router and wireless printer I got my family for Christmas. That was expected because after all they are gadgets. But this Christmas, I was also introduced to current children’s toy trends. I finally saw a Webkin in the flesh as well as this thing. My aunt asked me to set it up for my cousin. Its default setting was to call the child “friend” and itself “puppy.” My aunt told me I needed a USB cord. I just stared blankly at her, “For the dog?” I’m no veterinarian so I wasn’t well-versed on where the USB port is located on mammalia. Eventually I found it and programmed the puppy. (Yes, I just typed “programmed the puppy.”) I was astounded at all the choices. There were about 40 spellings of Katheryn none of which matched my cousin’s spelling, but they all sounded the same anyway when the puppy said it. There were also two variations on the saying of Kanye. None of which matched the way I’ve always said Mr. West’s name. Hater! Luckily the puppy could be named my cousin’s choice (Scooter) or I would have had to done some major hax0ring on a stuffed animal to appease her.
Coming up next: some things for the new year. Starting January 1, my friends Adam, Sherri and I will be counting down our top 20 albums of 2007. I’ll also have you hold me to my New Year’s Resolutions. I never wanted this to be a recurring diary of what I did everyday, but I also never wanted posting to be so sporadic that it snuck up on you yearly like a San Francisco tiger. Too soon?
I don’t think a football is a very good Christmas present.
Wow, that’s great.
