Wading in the Velvet Sea

In short, no one wanted to travel yesterday, since the latest forecast called for anywhere between 1 and 46 inches of snow, along with Hot Hail courtesy of Ming the Merciless. We were thus alone, the four of us, for the first Christmas ever. Well, not entirely alone, my father snuck out before the storm and picked up my maternal grandmother around 11, when NBC cautioned all viewers to make their last peace with their Maker.

We did end up getting a fair bit of snow, enough to warrant as little travel as possible, but all in all a pretty decent storm…nothing to sneeze at but certainly no reason to re-memorize the “Our Father”.

Gift-giving went from “we’re not giving anyone anything these year, we’re all strapped for cash” to an orgy of gifts we hadn’t seen since the 1980’s…you remember the 1980’s, when the middle class had money? Yea, good times. We miss them too.

The highlight for me was the look on my brother’s face when my dad and I brought in the home theatre system I bought for him at Best Buy a few weeks back---just excellent times. The folks and I chipped in for this 600watt ass kicker of power. That night, after a bit of fumbling on the install (we McGees are far too proud to, you know, read directions), we cranked it up, threw in the “Mines of Moria” sequence from “Fellowship of the Ring”, and proceeded to have our minds and eardrums blown away. The subwoofer drilled a hole in our chests when the Balrog first roared. Most excellent.

Also excellent is the following, which is is mostly funny in context. What you have to know about my house and my mother:

1) Everything works. Sort of. And by sort of I mean the “spit and a wish” variety.
2) Every time 2 or more people are gathered in our house, my mother insists on taking pictures
3) These pictures usually are in front of the fireplace.
4) The fireplace is now theoretically gas-powered, one of those eterno-logs. Problems is, it’s never worked for more than 24 hours straight ever.

So my brother left the room, right after dinner, and did a little artwork. The asked for my camera, and told my mom for once, HE would take a picture of HER in front of the fireplace. “Great,” he’s saying. “A bit to the left…bit more, ok, now smile!” And took this:

I had to leave the room during the photo shoot lest I give the game away. All I could do from bursting out laughing. Other than that, not much of comedic merit happened. Well, until I put my hand through a window.

Oh, you wanna hear about that?

So downstairs, operating again under the spit and a wish principle, is a lone window. It is covered by a large blanket and some tape because rather than fix the window and the gaping hole in it, they did a poor man’s spackle and shoved an old sleeping bag in the window alcove. Since the home theatre was going in, my dad decided to try and close the window a bit more. Excited to hook up the system, I offer to help with the window. Atop the wood frame, I see a small latch that hooks onto a notch in the back. Great, I think, all I have to do is push the window far enough back to get it to connect, and…

Well, my hand slipped off the wood and went right…through…the window. Ouch.

Luckily, I have only a sliced up pinkie to show for it. But couple that with bruised knuckles from carrying the home theatre up and down stairs and banging into walls, well, my right hand looks like someone’s prison bitch.

Came back home today, with a car load of presents---my family spoils me well. Of note is the new wine rack, replete with six bottles of goodness, and the new computer chair I am currently plopped on while writing this entry. Also picked myself up a copy of “Goldmember” on DVD, which I think I’ll wade through tonight.

As my ode to Moxie, I leave you with two sunset shots that I took outside of my apartment tonight. Click on each for a larger image.