holiday summary.
Portland: stayed at my brother's and geeked out with him on video games and other stuff in between a lot of food and socializing. saw a lot of random Eugene and Portland folks some of which i haven't seen since i moved to New Orleans and saw two people from my West Chester days, both of which i haven't seen since i moved away from PA back in 1999. Had a lot of drinks and a lot of food, and one bar in particular where i met Hieu had a very attractive bartender with a great personality that i would have asked out on a date if i lived anywhere near the area. I ate pho two meals in a row and gave two people their first pho experience. I also saw Jack Reacher, which was pretty bad. In down time i read Cold Days by Jim Butcher which was pretty damned good although the ending was a little unsatisfying.
Philadelphia: cooked Christmas lunch for the family. Cola-braised pot roast, the Lighthiser Mac and Cheese, and steamed broccoli. The roast turned out okay - everyone liked the flavor much better than the recipe i used last year, but i think it should have stayed in the oven for another half hour. it made me decide that i'm going to try to cook a roast myself in New Orleans at least once every few months to get a better feel for it in preparation for next year. I played a lot of board games with my family and also at an annual Christmas Party which made me miss board games. I saw some of the friends i always look forward to seeing every year, and i went to a brazilian drum class and played snare drum for fun. I played poker at Parx twice and had a combined profit of about $750 over the span of six hours, saw Wreck It Ralph, and got obsessed with a retro-like japanese flash game with a fascinating game mechanic.
a pretty successful vacation, but exhausting. i need a detox day when i get back to New Orleans, then it's time to get to work.