Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas.

James Brown died this morning. That is a shame. We all have our time to go. Peace be with you, James.


Christmas is low-key this year. It turned out to be very quiet, which I think I probably needed more than I realized. I slept in four days in a row. Some kind of record, really.

I have this week off from school, so I’ll be enjoying my evenings at home, even though I’ll be working on homework projects due when I return to school.

My family was together in Alaska for Christmas, unfortunately I was not able to be there, the expense, and timing of school made that mostly improbable. I miss them, but since Derek wasn’t going home either, we just decided to play it cool around Portland. We are similarly not going to party it up for New Year’s either.

My family thinks somehow I’ve gone off the deeper end since my attitude is mellowing. Doesn’t all good aged booze mellow if you leave it in the barrel? Not that I would dare to compare myself to a fine aged booze, I’m more like a bottle of Jägermeister, dark, thick, strong, and needs to be keep chilled.

Aren’t you supposed to mellow as you grow in life? This year some of my gifts didn’t arrive in the mail. No big deal, it happens. When you take into account the volume of things going back and forth, and the sheer reality that most people leave things until the last minute, I’m surprised I got as much mail as I did. Everything will show up in good time. I’m glad that I don’t work for UPS of Fed-Ex. I’m also glad that I’m no longer a front-line worker in retail. Yes, I still work in retail, technically, but I don’t have to work in a store. Until maybe next year. Ugh.

Yes, next year may be the year that I wind up returning to work at a store, in a retail environment. I am going to have to keep current on my certification, and the best way to do that is to keep current by working in the field that I’ll have my degree in. It makes sense, it will just be scary to be out in the world again, starting back as low man out on the totem pole.

It is raining in Portland, typical Oregon winter. I’m glad it didn’t snow, that would have made going to work tomorrow pretty horrendous. Although a lot of people have tomorrow off, I gather.

Making a ham for dinner tonight, and Derek bought me new Calphalon Fusion cookware, which I will be trying out. Ham, Potato Lyonaisse, and I’m not sure what else. We’ll see what I feel like cooking.

I’ll be cooking in my kitchen, playing music on my AirTunes, which I’ve plugged my i-Dog into (thank you Eric and Kelli). The i-Dog is interesting, he’s basically a tamagachi type device, he needs attention, and feeding, etc. We’ll see how long I can keep him happy and alive. Although, since he really wants music, that will work out well, I have plenty of that.


Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope that you were able to be with someone you love, and enjoy the spirit, tradition, and festivities that you are accustomed to.

Hit the Road, Slack......

Yeah, ok. I've been a blog slacker lately. It isn't all that easy for me to juggle full time work, full time school, and some form of a life. As the holiday and Christmas season approaches, I'm happy to say that I'm already done with all of my Christmas shopping. Having to mail packages is a good motivator to getting things done early.


Thanksgiving was a good weekend. I refused to cook Turkey dinner this year, owing to the fact that it was my actual birthday this year. We went out to a classy German restaurant (http://www.rheinlander.com/) where we had a full feast. Eight people were in attendance. It was a nice time. Honestly, it wasn't all that expensive; I would have spent just as much on food if people were eating at my own house. Plus, it was soooooooo excellent to come home after eating, and being waited on, and have a clean house still. Normally I would be opposed greatly to being out in public on a Holiday, and also making someone else work on a Holiday, especially one that is really about togetherness in my family tradition.

The waitress got a HUGE tip. HUGE. I gave her money on top of th 20% she already got. Aren't I nice? It was my birthday.
She yodeled a German song (not Frohliche Geburtstag - Happy Birthday in German). She was quite good. Great voice.


Friday, black Friday, was the first Black Friday I have not work in my 15 years of retail. It was sooooooooo nice.

Had people over on Friday to celebrate, eat pizza and watch "Another Gay Movie". Very funny. Saw it in the local independent movie theater. Hilarious. Funny, but probably only if you are "family". If you don't know, probably might skip it on netflix. (It includes a naked Richard Hatch........ so you've been warned)


Saturday was top tier Barenaked Ladies! That was awesome. Only four of the crew went to this one, Derek, Mike, Ken, and myself. Opening act was M Doughty, former front man from Soul Coughing. He's a very strange man. I think I'm probably the only one who liked him. For me, I would have paid to see him in concert. It was the only time I've ever been to a concert where I liked both the opening act, and the headliners.

BNL give a great show. Same genre as Moxy Früvous, and They Might Be Giants.


The new album is pretty awesome too, already went out and bought it.

The 60 gig iPod is 75% full, although I haven't copied all my cd's onto my G5 yet. Someday. Maybe after I graduate.


Thinking of going to Vegas for a few days when I do finally graduate. It is kind of looking like perhaps I will be graduating in November of 2007. Then it would be an early birthday present. Still debating though.


People in close relations have me 60% convinced not to go skydiving for a graduation gift to myself and instead take a hot air balloon ride. We'll see.

Well, I spent tonight wrapping Christmas presents, and now it is time for bed.


Hope that everyone has a great Christmas this year, I'm sorry that I won't get to see most of everyone.

I'll try to keep the blog a bit more updated if I can.


Take care y'all!