What are Traditions: Christmas 2017

Why post a portrait when you already got everyone’s best sides?

After just a few hours of sleep, I managed to get up early enough for Summer to come over and watch my Christmas movie, Gremlins with me. When lunch was ready, she left and I headed to my parents’ house to meet up with family.

Julie wanted to take us all to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the evening, so I invited everyone over to watch The Force Awakens to refresh ourselves on the new storyline. Julie and Andy left almost immediately because my cats tried to murder her immune system, but my parents and I finished the movie.

I killed the rest of the evening time waiting to go to the movie, then met everyone at the theater. I thought the movie was pretty entertaining, but the plot did feel a bit contrived. Overall, I guess it did its job of passing the baton. Someone in charge definitely made an attempt to follow the recent trend of making serious movies funnier. It didn’t completely fit with tradition, but it got some cheap laughs.

It’s all a machine, partner. Live free: don’t join.

Double Trouble

We only had to work a half day today. Ben sent us to inventory projectors in our buildings, and I was able to finish both of my buildings thanks to the overly detailed inventory I took at the beginning of the year.

A few of the guys went out to lunch together, but I had plans to meet Brandie at Stoby’s. I had shunned her for a year after failing to invite me to the Asurion Christmas party last year. She said they didn’t even have one this year, so I let her off the hook with an apology for underestimating my love for hors d’oeuvres. She also gave me a tiny Lego-ish Christmas tree. That’s two trees for me this year, somehow tripling my previous high score.

After we ate, I helped her pick up some 90 ounces of refried beans from Taco Villa so she and her family could make homemade bean burrito things. I still don’t get why they didn’t just refry their own beans, or even buy some cans. It would have been significantly cheaper, and less weird than carrying a box full of drink cups filled with refried beans. She also finally returned my PS3 that I had loaned her years ago. I’m not really sure what to do with it now, though.

From there, I went to Summer’s place and hung out with her for the rest of the evening. She made Frito taco salad-y stuff for dinner after we picked up some things from Walmart, then we played The Game of Life with the girls before settling in for Aladdin. I kept dozing off, but it’s okay because it’s Christmas break!

To make things even better, I got my USB ethernet adapter in, so my PC is back in business.

Instead of having a Christmas rush, could we just.. not?

What are Traditions: Work Holiday Shindig 2017

Today was kind of a weirdly relaxed day, mostly due to a pep rally at the junior high. I did make some decent progress on some things I had been working on though, so overall it was a successful day.

People have been so impressed with my Pixel 2 XL that both Sarah and Ronda ordered smaller ones for themselves. I played with Sarah’s for a bit, and really liked the size. The top and bottom bezels didn’t feel as bad as they looked in pictures. I still feel like mine is way too big to comfortably use, but I like the smaller bezels.

After work, I had to run to Walmart to pick up the stuff for a broccoli, rice, and cheese casserole for Ben’s Christmas dinner at his place. He smoked a pork shoulder, and we had all the fixings for a nice barbecue meal. Gary and I traded high scores in Seaquest on the Atari, at one point taking turns doubling each other’s previous scores. It was a really great time with everyone.

Centuries worth of technological advances, and this is what we do with it?

A Show of Art

I tried sleeping without earplugs last night, and just as I expected, I kept waking up to every mask leak all night long. On the plus side, my back was significantly better today. There’s still pain, but it’s no longer debilitating.

I met Summer at the River Valley Arts Center for Miranda’s art show. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I also don’t know if that’s a thing that’s frowned upon, so I guess it doesn’t matter. She had some really great work though, and it made me want to try being artistic again.

When we left there, we stopped by Arby’s for some lunch until she had to go to the school to prep for class tomorrow. I came home and basically spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find a photograph that seems to have disappeared. I even tried Josue to see if he still had it, and though he managed to dig up a couple others, he didn’t find the one I was looking for.

I went to my parents’ for some chow mein for dinner, then came home to do some laundry for work tomorrow. I’m having to try and shrink my new polyester work shirts, and I don’t think it’s going to work. Evidently Holloway sizes their sport pollos at least a size too large. Standards aren’t hard, people.

I watched the first half of The Avengers while the laundry was going. I haven’t seen it in quite a while, so I felt like I needed a refresher.

That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him.

La-la-la-la-lasagna

It’s a little weird changing my phone charging routine. I hope it makes a difference in battery life over the lifespan of the new phone. I got a promo email this morning offering $100 credit to purchase a Pixel 2 and activate it on Fi, so I have an email in to customer service to see if I can get the credit.

I spent all morning at Oakland resetting phones, then went to the junior high for lunch. Jessica made a lasagna and pineapple upside down cake for a bunch of us there, but didn’t think about some people’s aversion to deer meat. As soon as she said she made it with ground deer meat, like half of the people there noped right out of it, which was both a shame and a delicious bonus for me, because I got to take leftovers. I thought it was delicious, and I had to poke fun at those that opted out of the lasagna but ate the cake, because the cherries were really made from Rudolph noses.

I spent the rest of the afternoon there playing catchup and blasting mad bass tunes after setting up a scrapped subwoofer in my office. After work, I stopped by my parents’ house and munched on some leftovers, but left because I needed to get a replacement car battery. By the time I got home, I didn’t feel too smurfy, so I settled in and watched the rest of Valerian and just put my car on the charger. Tomorrow should be nice anyway, if I hate to take the bike.

Ay, you getting too skinny, you gotta to eat. Ay, mangia, mangia!