2003-12-28 16:25![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
digitaldiscipline
digitaldisciplineDickens is a punk bitch, and I don't mean that whole "Scrooge" thing.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." That pretty much sums up the whirlwind visit home.
Other than getting up at oh-dark-thirty for our 7am flight out [via Cincinnati], the trek up was possibly some of the least annoying air travel ever - enough leg room to cross my legs comfortably, plane at about 2/3 capacity, and a negligible SCQ [screaming child quotient]. Made our connection, and were only about ten minutes late. Since we were schlepping our gifts up as checked luggage, there were three cardboard boxen to retrieve. Box #1 - OK. Box #2 - OK.
Box #3 - ooer, that looks and smells like red wine coming out the bottom. [It was.] One bottle in six in that box had the bottom knocked out of it - it was the best bottle to "lose" however - a nice but inexpensive one, which we had a spare of back at our place, and it was the "secondary" gift for my folks. "Items marked fragile can't be claimed if they're damaged in transit," the baggage clerk tells us.
[Which begs the question - if you bring something fragile, and mark it as such, you don't have a claim; if you bring something fragile, and -don't- mark it as such, it gets rough treatment, and is more likely to be broken, and you -do- get to make a claim. Am I the only one who finds that really fucking stupid?]
First stop, the finest tacos in the United States, Period. Lunch for four: $7.64.
Then it was to my folks' place [since they'd picked us up] to unload and reorganize the giftage, followed by the trek to K's homestead by way of a couple mutual friends' places and minor gifting. Bestowed: Mullet Lip Balm, a beer-cap candle, and Omaha Steaks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yokes1971 and his GF, and an assortment of mild cajun seasonings and a cordless phone to MBB [my buddy Baal].
[insert immersionin in K's clan and snacking here - many hugs, etc]
Back to my folks' place by myself for dinner with one sib, her guy, MBB and MBI & his dad and other minor gifting.
The hauls:
MBI - Star Wars pens, LED flashlight [belated b-day gift], Project Gotham Racing 2 (xbox)
MBB - see above, plus a deep fryer from MBI
Sister's beau - one pound of "WAKE THE FUCK UP!" brand coffee
I scored the Alien Quadrilogy and John Carpenter's Vampires from MBI, and the sweet combo gift from MBB &aishlynn of the Cosmos box set of DVDs.
Our pre-arranged schedule was adjusted to do K's family's tradition of opening the kid's gifts on xms eve, so I drove down to meet up with them after their candle-light church service, and the six and a half of us [K&I, her bro & sister-in-law, and her folks - her best friend was there but had to leave before the festivities were complete] unwrapped and chatted until about 1:30 [some kitchy silliness, a couple pairs of pants, some other stuff rec'd - booze to the parents, jewelry for the s-i-l, and a small briefcase that said CORPORATE WHORE for her brother *G*] before taking leave to visit MBI. . . at work.
The poor bastard was the only pharmacist working in the city of Buffalo that night. At 2:15am, there should -not- be fifteen people in line at the register on Christmas morning. I'm sorry, I'm a bad procrastinator, but you people are assholes.
XMS morning was relatively relaxed, then over to K's place for some snacks, then back to my parents' to exchange gifts with my sisters and parents with K. Movies, video games, clothes, gift certs, and a cool clay mask were the bulk of my booty. I inflicted Pirates and Nemo and Rings on all and sundry, along with the gift of booze. Yeah, that's a stunner to you folks, I bet.
And, for the sweetie, she got assorted stuff from the family, and I managed to surprise her with a pair of nice kinves [Wustoff] and a replacement for her stolen Palm Pilot.
She still said she liked the sappy cards I slipped in with her mail the best, tho.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." That pretty much sums up the whirlwind visit home.
Other than getting up at oh-dark-thirty for our 7am flight out [via Cincinnati], the trek up was possibly some of the least annoying air travel ever - enough leg room to cross my legs comfortably, plane at about 2/3 capacity, and a negligible SCQ [screaming child quotient]. Made our connection, and were only about ten minutes late. Since we were schlepping our gifts up as checked luggage, there were three cardboard boxen to retrieve. Box #1 - OK. Box #2 - OK.
Box #3 - ooer, that looks and smells like red wine coming out the bottom. [It was.] One bottle in six in that box had the bottom knocked out of it - it was the best bottle to "lose" however - a nice but inexpensive one, which we had a spare of back at our place, and it was the "secondary" gift for my folks. "Items marked fragile can't be claimed if they're damaged in transit," the baggage clerk tells us.
[Which begs the question - if you bring something fragile, and mark it as such, you don't have a claim; if you bring something fragile, and -don't- mark it as such, it gets rough treatment, and is more likely to be broken, and you -do- get to make a claim. Am I the only one who finds that really fucking stupid?]
First stop, the finest tacos in the United States, Period. Lunch for four: $7.64.
Then it was to my folks' place [since they'd picked us up] to unload and reorganize the giftage, followed by the trek to K's homestead by way of a couple mutual friends' places and minor gifting. Bestowed: Mullet Lip Balm, a beer-cap candle, and Omaha Steaks to
yokes1971 and his GF, and an assortment of mild cajun seasonings and a cordless phone to MBB [my buddy Baal].[insert immersionin in K's clan and snacking here - many hugs, etc]
Back to my folks' place by myself for dinner with one sib, her guy, MBB and MBI & his dad and other minor gifting.
The hauls:
MBI - Star Wars pens, LED flashlight [belated b-day gift], Project Gotham Racing 2 (xbox)
MBB - see above, plus a deep fryer from MBI
Sister's beau - one pound of "WAKE THE FUCK UP!" brand coffee
I scored the Alien Quadrilogy and John Carpenter's Vampires from MBI, and the sweet combo gift from MBB &
aishlynn of the Cosmos box set of DVDs.Our pre-arranged schedule was adjusted to do K's family's tradition of opening the kid's gifts on xms eve, so I drove down to meet up with them after their candle-light church service, and the six and a half of us [K&I, her bro & sister-in-law, and her folks - her best friend was there but had to leave before the festivities were complete] unwrapped and chatted until about 1:30 [some kitchy silliness, a couple pairs of pants, some other stuff rec'd - booze to the parents, jewelry for the s-i-l, and a small briefcase that said CORPORATE WHORE for her brother *G*] before taking leave to visit MBI. . . at work.
The poor bastard was the only pharmacist working in the city of Buffalo that night. At 2:15am, there should -not- be fifteen people in line at the register on Christmas morning. I'm sorry, I'm a bad procrastinator, but you people are assholes.
XMS morning was relatively relaxed, then over to K's place for some snacks, then back to my parents' to exchange gifts with my sisters and parents with K. Movies, video games, clothes, gift certs, and a cool clay mask were the bulk of my booty. I inflicted Pirates and Nemo and Rings on all and sundry, along with the gift of booze. Yeah, that's a stunner to you folks, I bet.
And, for the sweetie, she got assorted stuff from the family, and I managed to surprise her with a pair of nice kinves [Wustoff] and a replacement for her stolen Palm Pilot.
She still said she liked the sappy cards I slipped in with her mail the best, tho.
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