Happy New Year
Happy New Year to you. Hope your Christmas went well... My holidays went well enough. Our office closes down between Christmas and New Year's. Technically the office is open today, but no one goes in. I'm enjoying another day off, then a weekend, then it'll be back to the grind. Well, it's kind of like days off...
I took off Christmas Eve. The two days prior, wrapped all my presents (did about 90% of my shopping online - thank you Amazon.com!); on Christmas Eve itself, drove up to my Mom's house, northeast of Baltimore (bout 30 minutes from my house, which is only about 15 minutes NE of College Park, just for reference). My Uncle (mother's brother) was to come down to visit for Christmas. His plans changed on a nearly hourly basis, I didn't try to keep up until I got there. What was going to be an overnight visit from the 24th to the 25th ended up being him and a female friend (whom might have not been a girlfriend or might have been an ex-girlfriend but was not a girlfriend - I'm confused) driving down on Christmas itself and staying until the weekend. My brother recently moved back home as well - he was living with a psycho girlfriend in an apartment in Baltimore city itself, and after a night of arguments and throwing things, he grabbed his stuff and headed out middle of the night.
Aaanyway, where were we? Christmas Eve was moderately quiet. Had a few drinks, read the same goofy stories (I'll admit to being slightly tired of "The Polar Express"), and went to bed. Christmas morning woke up and hung out. Normally, we'd make some cinnamon rolls and open presents, but because my Uncle was still driving down from Pittsburgh, we had to wait for him. He didn't arrive until nearly one in the afternoon, which set the entire schedule off. We opened presents, snacked, and then Mom started dinner. She doesn't eat ham, and thinks turkey is too dry, so our holiday meal is always chicken. Boneless skinless chicken breasts wrapped around stuffing and baked, and then mashed and sweet potatoes, baked corn, cranberry sauce from a tub, and blueberry muffins.
After dinner, helped clear the table, then my brother and I drove up to see my Dad (bout another 15 minutes up the road NE). My father is remarried, and my step-mom has two children from a previous marriage. Well, "children" - they're both older than I am. In fact, I have a step-nephew. So they were both there at the house when we arrived, along with their sig. others and my nephew. Dad, my brother, and I all sneaked into the dining room and sat and hung out while everyone else went crazy in the family room. They left after a while, and the four of us had a small Christmas together, ate a few cookies, and then we left. I was going to go home that night, but by the time we got home, it was so late that I decided to crash at my Mom's house for another night.
I got up the morning after Christmas and went out to the stores. Up around 8 to be at the Hallmark store when it opened. There's a store in the local mall, and they had their Christmas stuff marked 40% off, but were being really picky about things. They had a set of globe ornaments that were normally 12.99 but were 6.99 with purchase of a keepsake ornament. Well, they were trying to sell them at 40% off the $13 - or $7.77. When I pointed out they were only 7 with the purchase of an ornament (I was getting three of those, so set there), the woman argued with me. Finally I had to insist that I didn't care about the 40% off the lower price, but the 6.99 with ornament was still cheaper than what it rang up as! I stopped in another Hallmark store later on the way home, and they had everything 50% off - and all they did was ring everything up and then take half off the entire purchase. Shouldn't have even bothered with the mall one.
Later that day, my girlfriend was dropped off at my house. She had gone to visit family on the eastern shore, and my house is pretty much on the way back to their home, so she came to stay with me that night. Saturday, we got up and traveled to Pennsylvania to visit my father's family. My dad and stepmom were supposed to come up, but my nephew got sick and was coming and going from both ends if you know what I mean and ended up in the ER for dehydration. I met my brother part way and we carpooled, and stayed for dinner, and then headed home. After I dropped my brother off, we went to my girlfriend's parents' house and stayed the night, and the next day was her parents' church's Christmas cantata (delayed from the previous week due to icy roads) and her family's gathering there. So, more eating, more craziness, etc.
Whew! After that, we had a few days to ourselves, which ended up being mostly sleeping until 11, doing nothing of importance all day - maybe a trip to the store, maybe a rented movie - and then going to bed around midnight or so. Yesterday was another family gathering at her parents' house (they have another person who has been living with them for YEARS and is sort of like family but isn't really, and this was her family... I just call her my girlfriend's aunt when I explain who she is to my family, makes it easier on the brain). I drove home alone after this - she's staying with her family today to go out and do things, and then they're probably picking me up on Saturday for a funeral. Yeah, depressing - one of the "aunt's"... well, I guess it would be her nephew... died unexpectedly. The most likely cause is heart failure - I overheard someone mention that he might have been over 300 pounds. But he was only 49 - so his father outlived both his children.
And then it'll be back to the grind on Monday! And I guess I didn't mention anything I got - as a few highlights, my Dad got me a three bike trunk mounted car rack, my Mom got me the DVD of Live at the Paradiso... I like Live. :) My extended family got me the new Star Trek novels and the Star Trek Hallmark ornaments. My girlfriend's family bought me a duvet cover (because I guess I needed one? I'm a guy, I don't know these things!).
In other catch up recent news -
Right before the holiday break - the high school CS class that I and my coworkers were helping out with had a few extra days where the teacher didn't want to move on to the next chapter before the end of the year. So we tried to put together a little project for them to do that really highlighted the topics they were supposed to have learned up until that point. They had a week or so to do a few simple tasks - write some code, use some code we gave them, and eventually draw a little holiday scene. Well, out of twelve of the students... about one got the project. Maybe half of them even attempted it. I went over the Wednesday of their last week and essentially wrote the first half of their project on the board, and still only half turned in anything. Not my problem, really, I suppose, but disheartening.
And in work related news... my supervisor was over in Australia for two weeks in December. Our company's working on the air defense system for Australia, and there was a software drop at the beginning of December, and there's a large integration effort down there between our software, and the other pieces. My supervisor went for two weeks, and after smacking some fools around, got them working and sorting through problems very efficiently. Well, they got through most but not all of what they wanted to, and there's another effort in mid January, and one in early March. Since my supervisor doesn't feel he needs to be there for the next one, he called me right before Christmas and asked me if I wanted to go! There's another person who would be eligible to go, but I don't know if he's as interested. With the office still mostly closed, I haven't heard any definite word if I'm going or not, nor anything definitive on the March trip (which instead of a few people - that one would be like ten people going down). Of course, these trips coincide with the dates for the DI season!
I took off Christmas Eve. The two days prior, wrapped all my presents (did about 90% of my shopping online - thank you Amazon.com!); on Christmas Eve itself, drove up to my Mom's house, northeast of Baltimore (bout 30 minutes from my house, which is only about 15 minutes NE of College Park, just for reference). My Uncle (mother's brother) was to come down to visit for Christmas. His plans changed on a nearly hourly basis, I didn't try to keep up until I got there. What was going to be an overnight visit from the 24th to the 25th ended up being him and a female friend (whom might have not been a girlfriend or might have been an ex-girlfriend but was not a girlfriend - I'm confused) driving down on Christmas itself and staying until the weekend. My brother recently moved back home as well - he was living with a psycho girlfriend in an apartment in Baltimore city itself, and after a night of arguments and throwing things, he grabbed his stuff and headed out middle of the night.
Aaanyway, where were we? Christmas Eve was moderately quiet. Had a few drinks, read the same goofy stories (I'll admit to being slightly tired of "The Polar Express"), and went to bed. Christmas morning woke up and hung out. Normally, we'd make some cinnamon rolls and open presents, but because my Uncle was still driving down from Pittsburgh, we had to wait for him. He didn't arrive until nearly one in the afternoon, which set the entire schedule off. We opened presents, snacked, and then Mom started dinner. She doesn't eat ham, and thinks turkey is too dry, so our holiday meal is always chicken. Boneless skinless chicken breasts wrapped around stuffing and baked, and then mashed and sweet potatoes, baked corn, cranberry sauce from a tub, and blueberry muffins.
After dinner, helped clear the table, then my brother and I drove up to see my Dad (bout another 15 minutes up the road NE). My father is remarried, and my step-mom has two children from a previous marriage. Well, "children" - they're both older than I am. In fact, I have a step-nephew. So they were both there at the house when we arrived, along with their sig. others and my nephew. Dad, my brother, and I all sneaked into the dining room and sat and hung out while everyone else went crazy in the family room. They left after a while, and the four of us had a small Christmas together, ate a few cookies, and then we left. I was going to go home that night, but by the time we got home, it was so late that I decided to crash at my Mom's house for another night.
I got up the morning after Christmas and went out to the stores. Up around 8 to be at the Hallmark store when it opened. There's a store in the local mall, and they had their Christmas stuff marked 40% off, but were being really picky about things. They had a set of globe ornaments that were normally 12.99 but were 6.99 with purchase of a keepsake ornament. Well, they were trying to sell them at 40% off the $13 - or $7.77. When I pointed out they were only 7 with the purchase of an ornament (I was getting three of those, so set there), the woman argued with me. Finally I had to insist that I didn't care about the 40% off the lower price, but the 6.99 with ornament was still cheaper than what it rang up as! I stopped in another Hallmark store later on the way home, and they had everything 50% off - and all they did was ring everything up and then take half off the entire purchase. Shouldn't have even bothered with the mall one.
Later that day, my girlfriend was dropped off at my house. She had gone to visit family on the eastern shore, and my house is pretty much on the way back to their home, so she came to stay with me that night. Saturday, we got up and traveled to Pennsylvania to visit my father's family. My dad and stepmom were supposed to come up, but my nephew got sick and was coming and going from both ends if you know what I mean and ended up in the ER for dehydration. I met my brother part way and we carpooled, and stayed for dinner, and then headed home. After I dropped my brother off, we went to my girlfriend's parents' house and stayed the night, and the next day was her parents' church's Christmas cantata (delayed from the previous week due to icy roads) and her family's gathering there. So, more eating, more craziness, etc.
Whew! After that, we had a few days to ourselves, which ended up being mostly sleeping until 11, doing nothing of importance all day - maybe a trip to the store, maybe a rented movie - and then going to bed around midnight or so. Yesterday was another family gathering at her parents' house (they have another person who has been living with them for YEARS and is sort of like family but isn't really, and this was her family... I just call her my girlfriend's aunt when I explain who she is to my family, makes it easier on the brain). I drove home alone after this - she's staying with her family today to go out and do things, and then they're probably picking me up on Saturday for a funeral. Yeah, depressing - one of the "aunt's"... well, I guess it would be her nephew... died unexpectedly. The most likely cause is heart failure - I overheard someone mention that he might have been over 300 pounds. But he was only 49 - so his father outlived both his children.
And then it'll be back to the grind on Monday! And I guess I didn't mention anything I got - as a few highlights, my Dad got me a three bike trunk mounted car rack, my Mom got me the DVD of Live at the Paradiso... I like Live. :) My extended family got me the new Star Trek novels and the Star Trek Hallmark ornaments. My girlfriend's family bought me a duvet cover (because I guess I needed one? I'm a guy, I don't know these things!).
In other catch up recent news -
Right before the holiday break - the high school CS class that I and my coworkers were helping out with had a few extra days where the teacher didn't want to move on to the next chapter before the end of the year. So we tried to put together a little project for them to do that really highlighted the topics they were supposed to have learned up until that point. They had a week or so to do a few simple tasks - write some code, use some code we gave them, and eventually draw a little holiday scene. Well, out of twelve of the students... about one got the project. Maybe half of them even attempted it. I went over the Wednesday of their last week and essentially wrote the first half of their project on the board, and still only half turned in anything. Not my problem, really, I suppose, but disheartening.
And in work related news... my supervisor was over in Australia for two weeks in December. Our company's working on the air defense system for Australia, and there was a software drop at the beginning of December, and there's a large integration effort down there between our software, and the other pieces. My supervisor went for two weeks, and after smacking some fools around, got them working and sorting through problems very efficiently. Well, they got through most but not all of what they wanted to, and there's another effort in mid January, and one in early March. Since my supervisor doesn't feel he needs to be there for the next one, he called me right before Christmas and asked me if I wanted to go! There's another person who would be eligible to go, but I don't know if he's as interested. With the office still mostly closed, I haven't heard any definite word if I'm going or not, nor anything definitive on the March trip (which instead of a few people - that one would be like ten people going down). Of course, these trips coincide with the dates for the DI season!