Serious Slacking

Where to even begin? Let's try here:

So a couple of Sundays ago Jeannie's brother Jake and her Dad arrived from Detroit (Jake lives in Detroit and had driven to St. Louis to pick up her Dad and then back to Detroit to work on his [Jake's] house and then to Baltimore (The Mo')) for a few days of visiting and hard work. We attempted to go to Hamilton Tavern for tasty burgers but the wait was too long, so then after a few false starts and wild chases of goose we headed over to Pappa's for some relatively forgettable seafood. Then on Monday and Tuesday Jeannie and Jake and Roger (her Dad) worked on the house while I went to work and ran my ass off in the pre-Christmas busyness. They worked mostly on electrical-type work. Sorting through the old crummy stuff and figuring out how to run new pretty stuff.

Then on Wednesday I was off work and we were all able to work on the house together. It was good times. We hadn't seen Jake in like 3 years, and in addition to being handy as hell he's fun to be around. So that was cool. And Jeannie's Dad was fairly calm and chill the whole time and probably one of the hardest workers I've ever seen and super-knowledgeable. So we had a real good time, and we talked about merkins and eventually made it to the Hamilton Tavern for a real long wait and some tasty burgers.

Thursday morning the Jeanners and Jake-o and Roggie drove off early in the morning and headed to the Lou for Christmas vacation. I stayed home and worked a long, busy day. Then on Friday morning I headed to work for a half-day and then drove to the airport when I was done around noon. Unfortunately, I was in a bit too much of a hurry to get to the airport and I rear-ended a small SUV a short distance from work. So I hurriedly exchanged information with the other folks (their car was fine, the front end of mine was a bit busted up) and dumped the car in the employee lot at work (it was drivable but leaking fluids). Took a taxi home from work ($27!) and jumped in Jeannie's car and headed off to the airport. Made it to the gate with 20 minutes to spare. No need to have hurried in the first place.

Christmas vacation was busy and mostly fun and a little bit of a blur. Saw lots of family members, got to hang with Ricky Elz finally and also got to see Karista and Drew, which was a most pleasant surprise. Also got to spend some quality time with Richie Rich, who introduced us to the Big Chief. I will leave that entirely open for interpretation. Ice skated, ate way too much, drove around a lot.

On the last day I was in town, I headed over to see my parents, who had bought a computer for themselves for Christmas. I spent the afternoon teaching them some basics and then headed to an AT&T store to set up their internet service and order a modem/wireless router for them. When I say the basics, I mean THE BASICS. This is what a left click is. This is what a right click is. This is what a file is. This what a folder is. This is called "the desktop." It was pretty funny. And also fun. They are funny.

Then the Jeanners and I flew back on Tuesday morning (a large snowfall narrowly missed The Mo' and landed just north in Philly and NYC and such) and I headed in to work on Tuesday afternoon. We shopped for some new pants for me, we took care of taking the car to a shop and getting a rental car while the insurance co. figures out if they're going to fix it or total it, and we did some work on the house. Which brings us to right now. Jimmy Smith is playing on the CD player, my butt is falling asleep, and I think I'm gonna have a G&T made with gin given to me by a co-worker.

My shoes are horrendously stinky. I think they are the worst smelling shoes ever. Must buy new shoes.