Pressure drop

With graduation now a distant memory, Christmas having come and gone, and the band practice and new MN-BPA board duties becoming more comfortable, it's nice to be able to sit back, look at to-do lists and not feel overwhelmed. Taking the time to post an entry while at work, even while working alone and inundated with a bazillion requests, has never been easier.
...So on to the recaps.

A few days before Christmas, dad (Mr. Brier) arrived. Tasks ensued. I was able to put in my 2-cents worth of effort without sacrifice this time due to my lack of other responsibilities (though calling in sick may have helped - and for the record, I was sick). Then came the holiday celebrations. We hosted the family this year (by no means is the entire family pictured - it's a small camera; with Xi's philosophy [the gods must be crazy] there is no way we could fit all those people in there). We had a delicious lunch, complete with Glogg and Wassail, and then retired to the living room to open gifts. To keep the cats form knocking over all the fishy smelling dishes we had dirtied, we locked them both in the basement. Of course Bull, never the complainer, made the most of the occasion by deciding to take a stroll on the asbestos covered pipes. Needless to say, no one was willing to clean him afterwards. His feet are still gray.

That evening, Heather and I (David) went to Andy's house for some good ol' fashioned Christmas celebrating. Heather went so far as to write a blog entry about the experience, but it hasn't been posted yet. I still have to teach her how to operate this new blog service. So other than mentioning the gifts Andy received from his ma (a martini set, a carton of smokes, and a shotgun) I'll leave the rest for another time.

Sunday was Christmas with my extended family. Cousin Mary hosted this time. It was a blast. There was good food, good drink (re-supplied by us; we had to run home to get more, and we brought Aunt Pat with us to see the house and compare it to her old house with the same floor plan), and an entertaining game called "bite the bag". It was all topped off with a "meet Mary's neighbors" fire alarm. Our party started the event. Heather and I used our security guard skills to squelch the alarm, forgetting in the process that the off-the-books protocol at St. Kates doesn't always fly in other large residential buildings. But the Fire Department was forgiving. They pretended to believe that the alarm had somehow reset itself. Mary reassured us as well, claiming that the regular building managers utilize the same practice.

Now it's back to home improvement projects with dad for a few more days and then I can start getting a feel for the frantic, fast paced, "your radical ideologies won't fly here" real world.

'til then...