So my main journal at js is dead now. Sadness...someone wrote over every sector of data they had...oops...Pat says someone went nuts with dd...and they did say they were pretty sure it was malicious hacking. Oh well just means I'm down to 2 journals and facebook now.

I haven't written much lately so here goes the epic update of epicness.

First I worked about 80 hours while doing my baking etc etc for Christmas...that was over 3 or 4 weeks but baking up somewhere in the neighbor hood of 20 normal sized boxes, 3 larger boxes and 2 huge boxes plus getting info on what to buy, buying and wrapping stuff for the few people we couldn't just give baked goods to was hard. Also I was fighting off a cold or something so I was not at my best.

The original Christmas plan was that mom would come down here on the 23rd and stay the night. Christmas Eve afternoon she'd head home to the Christmas Eve service that she was running. Christmas morning we'd go to Elgin for the family Christmas and get back late Christmas night or early the day after. Things did not work that way.

The weather reports were looking sketchy so we took the family Christmas gifts up in mid December when we took Anna to the airport. Just in case... We got so behind schedule that day and barely managed to spend time with anyone as we raced around delivering our Chicagoland gifts.

The weather was not fun so Mom didn't come down the day before. Christmas Eve we ended up taking her gifts down in a very short trip. I was sad though because we'd really wanted her to be here for Christmas Eve since we've never gotten to do anything Christmas here before. The roads were definitely not fun in a few spots but in general were pretty good despite all the ice and snow around that time. Then we discovered that Christmas was at the Aunt and Uncle's in Grayslake not in Elgin so change of plans we're going straight there. Don't know why we didn't realize it was in Grayslake this year. There are only two locations that switch back and forth each year. We're in Elgin the years we have Sarah and David. We're in Grayslake the years we have Rachel and Matthew...and we had Rachel and Matthew...but somehow it didn't really dawn on us.  But anyway we drove up on Christmas day and the other Aunt and cousin didn't so Pat didn't get his gift then. He did get a supremely awesome gift from his Mom though...she knitted him a Dr. Who scarf. Once again my Christmas gift from them was a fail...but not because of lack of trying. It was a great gift...a digital photo frame! Unfortunately it only works under windows or Mac OS. Sadness. We were also given the first season of Get smart...a very thoughtful gift...but not really something we wanted or needed. My gift exchange gift was blokus trigon. We're loving it:) From my Mom we got a new cookie sheet, pop, slippers, nuts, candy, blankets, a cookbook, some new silicon spatulas (which we desperately needed) and the mixer from black friday...which died when I used it the first time.

As for Pat's Dr. Who scarf...the day after Christmas we went thrift storing to find more of the costume and the 27th I made him a crazy red plaid vest so now he has a relatively complete Tom Baker Dr. Who costume which he got to wear to a friends Birthday costume party on the 27th. pictures may be posted on facebook soon.

So Pat returned the mixer to Target. We got 2 pyrex dishes with lids and a nunchuck for just a bout $5 more than the return on the mixer. We returned the picture frame and added almost $60 to get a really awesome new stand mixer. Get Smart was returned and with just a few dollars more became Kolchak the night stalker. And we made a haul at game exchange. We picked up the following games: PSX Legend of Dragoon, FF Origins, FF Tactics, Frogger, Pipe dreams 3D, and Jigsaw madness; PS2 FF X, FF X-2, Champions of Norath, Crazy Taxi, Disgaea 2, and Warriors of Might and Magic. We got all this for our Dreamcast and Frogger and Crazy taxi and our 64 plus the few games we had for it and less than $15. In the last year we'd used the 64 twice. Once last Christmas when Pat rebeat the Ocarina of Time and once at my birthday party for the Mario Kart challenge. Since both these games are available on virtual console there really isn't a need for the system. And the Dreamcast was pulled out on those same 2 occasions for Crazy taxi playing during break and for Crazy taxi and frogger playing during my party. Since we found both Frogger and Crazy taxi for the PS there's no longer a need for that system either.   Yeah for space saving. And while the new mixer is big it will allow me to make lots of the crack mints...as soon as I get the right molds.

Let's see what else happened...the new year I guess. That also didn't happen quite the way we'd planned. We were coopted to be in and help setup and tear down a murder mystery dinner party at the parents. We were sure the commitment would take us from about 6-midnight but that then we could run over to a friends party and hangout and play games. However after the mass quantities of chocolate and the smokey candles etc etc Pat was feeling much too crappy to move so we crashed in the parents basement...and forgot to set an alarm or anything so his parents woke us up just before 11. So we headed over to our friends place and got to tell everyone good morning and good bye. Well mostly. We did get to play Miserian War for the first time. It needs some serious rules revisions. Despite planing to leave the house by 2 at the latest to head to our next stop the game didn't end until 3. Then we headed out to spend time with the friend we'd missed on our flying trip in mid-December. Much fun but stayed way too late and then couldn't find the food we wanted on the way and added an extra hour to our drive finding the place and another hour eating there. Our kitty was quite distraught when we finally arrived at midnight.

Let's see what else... I've discovered just about everyone I know that is in a relationship and not already married is now engaged. Wow we're going to be going to a lot of weddings in the next few years.  Also found Adecco to be incompetent again...they were the place that messed up my pay and lost my time cards and stuff while I was working for scholastic. The reprocessed one of my lost expense reports right before Christmas so I got to buy a money order and mail it back to them...grumblings. Still have not heard if they got it back and it better not mess with my taxes.

Thinking tomorrow I may take down the Christmas tree.
Sunday we're running sound for Oasis.
Think that's all for plans right now.
Pat starts back to work Monday.