Leaving the Wii Places

The new year is upon us. This is not news. If you were unaware, I'd love to see the hole you've been living in. It's probably got some great stuff at the bottom. Like... Atlantis. It is not news that the year is now 2008, but I mention it anyway out of a sense of tradition, as well as some other reasons that will be given color later in this post.


As the new year begins, I cannot help but notice that for the last... oh, two weeks or so, I've failed to update my blog. Even under challenges and proposed deadlines by my friends, even threats of pain and death, I simply could not be brought to write a post in here. The reason is decidedly simple: I was on vacation. What do you want to see in my blog? "Well, today I didn't take a shower until about four in the afternoon. I sat around and played video games, ate chicken patties, and achieved level 90 in Star Wars Galaxies." That about sums it up for each of my days off.


Actually it doesn't; come to think of it, there were some items of note.


We saw Josh and Randi on Christmas Eve, right around lunch-ish. We exchanged gifts, talked, ate, laughed a lot, had a pretty good time in general. From them, I received (in random order): A Darth Vader Potato on a Keychain, a Star Wars Calendar, and a package of socks. I asked for those on the advice of Albus Dumbledore: "One can never have enough socks." My wife received a mortar and pestil, and an apron for the kitchen. She immediately made use of both when we got home and many evenings since, so good call you two.


(IMPORTANT NOTE: If I've forgotten anything, don't take offense, just leave a comment and I'll fix it. It's early on my first day back at work. To give you an idea of my state of mind right now, I didn't even realize what flavor of Gatorade I'd bought with my breakfast until I'd gotten back to my desk. This is telling, since I *thought* I'd purchased tea.)


We then proceeded to the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day Proper, which included time with her dad, time with my parents, was *supposed* to include time with my grandparents but we didn't make it because we were both pretty wiped out, and time together. Christmas is a time for taking a limited amount of daylight and dividing it six ways, as all family people know well.


We spent time with her father on Christmas Eve, late in the evening. Gifts were exchanged, mostly of the gift card variety. Not a single bad thing to say there; I'm very much a gift card person. People have a hard time shopping for me since my needs and wants are so simple and I never know what the hell I desire until I actually desire it, which is never around Christmas since I have so much else on my mind. My wife made chili for the first time and it was a huge hit. Jessica: "Your skill at Cooking has increased! (1)"


Christmas morning, my wife and I did our thing. This was the highlight, the real handle, since I'd been dying to know what it was that my wife had done for me and had been dangling over my head for more than a month. What I unwrapped, I didn't believe: A 1938 Underwood typewriter. The Workhorse. Fantastic condition, works, perfectly... this, friends, was a find in and of itself. She also got me a towel with the number 42 on it (it's funny if you get the joke), and Mass Effect and Mario Galaxy as stocking stuffers.

Needless to say, I felt a little spoiled.

For her, I gifted her with a wireless Wacom tablet, Sketchbook Pro 2 to go with it, and the art book for Assassin's Creed. See her blog for her reactions on those things, if any.

The typewriter, smelling ancient in its original 1938 carrying case, made the trip to my parents house. I had to brag.

In a time where my parents are wondering where their next meal is coming from, it was odd to then go over to their house and see that they'd somehow dug *deep* and gifted everyone once again, and richly. My brothers were there, my sister-in-law, my nieces and nephew... It was noisy and crowded, but also warm and smiling and love-filled. In other words, Christmas in all its glory.

The day ended with us sleeping like rocks and my wife going back to work the next day, while I remained at home alone and got real cozy with Mass Effect. I'll be writing a review of that and Mario Galaxy later on, so don't worry. I also got my X-Wing out of the hanger and flew around space in SWG for a while. I rewrote the first few chapters of my book on the new (old) typewriter, which takes some getting used to. I slept a lot. In other words, detox for the gamer's soul. A good mental scrubdown from a year of mindless tedium at my current employer.

New Years was a fun time. Hung out with my bother, his friend James, and his wife. We left the Wii in his care since he's got nothing else to do. He'll probably master Guitar Hero in all the alone time he'll have with it. /grumble

This... has gotten wordy. I will write another one tomorrow.