Christmas presents...

It's the day after Christmas, and what sort of things did I get? My mom sent me The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote. It's a trilogy totaling close to 3000 pages, so that should keep me busy reading for a little while. Irene and Bryan sent a package of homemade sweets for my sweetie and I, as well as a bracelet which my sister made for the girlfriend. There was some cinnamon biscotti, a peanut-brittle kind of candy made with Golden Grahams cereal, and some chocolate nut clusters. My sweetie got me a new pair of gloves, since my old pair was getting pretty bad. And she got me a pedometer. It's not a hint that I should get in better shape or anything; I actually had meant to get myself one earlier in the year, but never got around to it.

The girlfriend's mom got me a Rome: Engineering an Empire, which was a DVD on my Amazon wish-list. She also picked me up some excellent chicharrones, which they were apparently making up fresh at Cabela's when she went there to pick up something else for someone. She also got me a bottle of brisket rub as a stocking stuffer. That's handy, because I'm making the girlfriend a brisket for her birthday.

The girlfriend's brother and sister-in-law got me a couple of DVDs off of my wish-list. I got Rush: Working Men, which it turns out is mostly re-releases of videos that I already have. And I also got Ladyhawke, which might be a cheesy 80s movie, but I kind of like it. I haven't watched any of the DVDs, and I haven't actually watched most of the movies I've received or purchased in the past year or so. Guess I should really do that one of these days.

Anyway, I try not to get too caught up in the material things, but I just thought I'd document all the new stuff on the shelves. Thanks to everyone.

More Christmas shopping...

I stayed up way too late last night watching college football. The last game was in Hawaii, which means that it didn't even start until almost 10 PM here. I got up late this morning and finally got out to do more Christmas shopping at around two in the afternoon with the girlfriend.

We went to Petsmart first and got some cat food and a little kitty toy stocking. I wasn't going to do anything like that, getting the cute little pet present, but they had a pre-made stocking with 22 cat toys for about $8, so I couldn't resist getting some new toys for her. She's almost out of mice anyway. At least mice which she hasn't chewed the tails from.

After that, we went to Old Navy and picked up a few things, including a few more long sleeved shirts for me to wear under my uniform shirt at work. Then it was down to Michael's, since I had a coupon there. I didn't find anything that I really wanted, but I did get some polymer clay for my sister for Christmas. I think I've just about got enough to make her a nice little package, so now I really need to start working on trying to find something for her husband. I never have the faintest idea of what I should get him. I think I might call my mom and see if she has any ideas.

The girlfriend and I were getting a little hungry by then, since neither of us had any breakfast before we left this morning. Since we were right there, we went to Fuddrucker's and had their bacon cheddar half-pound burgers. They were pretty good, and I'm still definitely not hungry about five hours later. There were some little girls sitting with their father at the booth next to us, and the little one was pretty priceless. The restaurant had a bunch of celebrity pictures on the walls, and she asked her dad, "Are all of those people dead? Are their pictures on the wall because they're dead?" Later, she told her sister that the girl with her pictures on the wall near them must have been a singer. She pointed out the picture which proved it. It was Marilyn Monroe at a USO concert. In itself not that funny, but I just found the different point of view amusing, that this little girl hadn't the faintest idea who Marilyn was.

After Fuddrucker's, we were kind of trying to decide where to go next, but we were both feeling rather lazy and lethargic, so we just wound up coming back home. I think it was a decent shopping day in any case. Since then, I've just been watching football and playing around on the computer. Guess I should try to do something useful with the rest of the evening, but I'm not sure what...

Updates to my life...

So, it's two days before Christmas, and I think it's been several months since I've updated the blog, or virtually any other of my online presences. I apologize for that to anyone who bothers to read any of the stuff, but that's kind of the way I've always been. I always try to keep up to date for a while, but I get sidetracked and off course, and then I get frustrated because I haven't kept up, and then I drop things altogether. It's a bad habit of mine, but such is my life.

I've mostly just been working and going home for the past four and a half months. I've been working at Denton County MHMR here in Denton, doing database and web programming. The database programming part is pretty decent, kind of the stuff I've been doing for the past ten years at my old job in Oregon. The web programming is causing me major problems, but I'm gradually getting a grip on it. The fact that everything is disconnected, with the server not really having control over what the client side is doing, is causing me to have to rethink how I do most of my database stuff, but it's starting to come a little easier, I think. At least I hope so, because I really need to get some kind of actual product developed in the near future. So far the management has been pretty relaxed about things, but I know that if I don't actually have some kind of demonstrable productivity in the near future, that relaxed attitude is going to tighten up a fair amount. And my six-month probationary period is coming to an end in a couple of months, which would be just the perfect time for them to let me go if they wished to do so.

Anyway, I'm not going to try to update everything that's been going on, but it's been kind of a hectic run-up to Christmas. The roommate moved out a short time ago, or is in the process, kind of, so the girlfriend and I have been trying to get his old room renovated into being our master bedroom before one of her friends comes by to visit after Christmas, so there's been a lot of cleaning and painting and little household things to take care of. And, in the meantime, there's trying to find all the presents, get the ones sent off to the family in Oregon, baking cookies and things of that nature, and trying to find a new car, since my old one died a couple of months ago.

Hopefully, in the midst of all of that, I'll be able to keep a little more up to date in here. We'll see...