My Tornado

After a relaxing six days in Michigan, my life has become a bit of a whirlwind over the last four.


First, the relaxing part. As usual, Michigan with my family was great. We brought Zelda along like we did last year, so the car ride was a little cramped (11 hours now, since we're an extra hour north after the move). She likes meeting new people, or remeeting old ones as the case may be, so it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.


We celebrated Christmas three times in total. Despite my earlier naysaying, the last of them ended up being white after all as we passed over the rain/snow line on our way up to Midland Christmas afternoon. Being one of those families that still celebrates with presents, I got a few things worth mentioning: a new microwave (Thanks Mom & Dad); an assortment of music, TV, and movies to add to our sensory entertainment choices; a D&D mega-adventure (anyone up for a little Elemental Evil?); and enough food to last me until June. In a bit of a surprise, no one hooked me up with any comics or video games (staples of the last few years). That's probably all right as I have a bit of a backlog in both categories right now.


When we weren't hanging out with extended family doing Christmas related things, we spent a lot of time relaxing. It was nice to not be sitting in front of a computer for most of my waking hours. I worked on the Hitchhiker's Guide omnibus I brought with me and we finished watching "The War" which we had started back at Thanksgiving. It's a lot to take in over such a short period of time, but to those with a DVD rental service and a passing interest in the last great World War, I would highly recommend it.


Anyway, the tornado took over starting with Thursday's trip back home. On the way into Chicago, our windshield got struck by a large piece of debris from the truck in front of us. Nothing too serious, but bigger and way more annoying than a little pebble impact, especially since it's right in the driver's eyeline. Incidentally, let me know if anyone knows a reputable auto glass place in Minneapolis. When we got home, we found ourselves locked out of the house because our catsitters had inadvertantly locked the part of the door that we only have one key for (and they currently had it). So we had to make a 45-minute side trip over there to pick it up, meaning we got home around 8:00, but didn't get into the house until 9:00.


The next day we had plans to drive down to Iowa to visit with some of Meaghan's high school/college friends. The weather was pretty lousy on the way down, but after skating by numerous ditched cars for 4+ hours we made it safe and sound. Among others, we got to see Mike & Andrea (our Jersey friends) which is always a good time, and as a special bonus got to see Meaghan's friend Austin. He won some kind of lottery to come home for the holidays from where he's currently stationed in Kuwait. We got back from all of that sometime around 3:00 AM. 20 hours of driving in two days is officially a lot.


Sunday was our own private Christmas. Meaghan and I typically wait until some date when we're not around all the rest of the family to exchange gifts. This meant that Saturday had to be used for putting the finishing touches on those gifts (wrapping, shopping for stockings, even some construction). We were also invited to a wedding reception at the Germanic-American Institute in St. Paul. Two of our local friends, Kate and Nolan, tied the knot after 3+ years of dating, so we popped over there for a couple hours of merriment. After finishing my Christmas preparations, I crashed and burned around 9:00.


Yesterday was fantastic: we opened presents, watched more episodes of the Gilmore Girls (now on season 5) than I'd care to admit, listened to music, watched Pan's Labyrinth. We basically just had a completely lazy day. I won't share all of the presents that we got for each other, but I will introduce you to the newest member of our family.



This is our new gerbil, Sylar. He spends his time digging, eating, and serving as eye candy for the cats and dog. Despite the name, he's a very friendly guy.


The tornado started up again today. I ran out of vacation so I have to work, and we have two New Year's Eve parties to go to tonight (one of them down in Rochester). To top it all off, I was woken up not once, not twice, but three times this morning by the sound of horking pets. (Seriously, who wants to be fed at 6:45?) Ain't life grand?


I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, too.