I appears I will be ringing in the New Year with a head cold. Yay... No parties for me tonight, unless people like getting sick! I guess I'll just be sitting in the house, reflecting on the past year, while watching television that lets me know when the new decade starts. I don't care what you mathematicians say, it's a new decade! posted by Phillip at 5:22 PM
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Tuesday, December 29, 2009
This is the void between holidays. Christmas is over, but New Year's has yet to arrive. Kind of a weird time, where the Christmas decorations stay up, though their purpose is really over. After Christmas sales have begun, and stores have giant, empty shelves that make it seem like the place is closing. And everybody's making plans for a party that celebrates one minute, really. Then we sing a song that no one knows the lyrics to, while wearing stupid hats. Strange times! posted by Phillip at 7:39 PM
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Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas, everyone! Unless, of course, you're not Christian. In which case, have a nice Friday. Enjoy the Chinese food. posted by Phillip at 2:38 AM
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Saturday, December 19, 2009
Mike's been in town for the last week and takes off again tomorrow. So tonight is our early Christmas party for him. got some friends over, dad pulled out the wine (when doesn't he?), and later Mike will be opening some presents. Kind of reminds me of when I went through something similar back in 2006 before flying out to Japan! posted by Phillip at 8:26 PM
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Friday, December 18, 2009
Only a week until Christmas! My how time flies. Thankfully I think I got all my Christmas shopping done on Monday. I'm not certain, though, as I have this nagging doubt I forgot to buy a present for someone. I'm sure I'll find out soon enough! posted by Phillip at 11:09 PM
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Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Late last month I picked up a Transformer that was not Optimus Prime. Shock! Scandal! Well, he was Leo Prime, and his head looks like it belongs to Optimus. The character was originally a Japanese exclusive, so bringing him into the States was a bit of a fan shout-out. This version of the character was retooled from a different Transformer altogether, though. Amusingly, there is a third mode for the toy where he can connect into an arm for a larger Optimus Prime! Kind of fun having a Prime connected to a Prime. posted by Phillip at 11:24 PM
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Saturday, December 05, 2009
Happy December everyone! Last night we threw dad a surprise birthday party. This was something mom had been planning for months, yet we had some pretty big problems trying to pull it off. Who knew mom's casual announcement of her idea in early October would be so hard to accomplish?
We originally set it at a restaurant in Brea on November 21st. No real problems there, though I was tasked with printing the invitations. Well, the printer ink dried out in my cartridges, and Fry's didn't carry the cartridge I needed - only a refill kit. I reluctantly bought it, and of course that didn't work. Trying on the home computer, we found the printer there had alignment issues when you changed the paper size! I developed a workaround that was pretty slow and tedious, though - I made a little cardholder out of a sheet of printer paper that would hold the invitations in the proper place when printing. Unfortunately, this meant I could only print one invitation at a time! I finally got through them all, and the invitations went out.
Around November 4th, mom gets a voice mail message from the restaurant - they were going out of business as of that night. Sorry, can't do the party! Panicking, mom drags me out of the house to find a few more options. We decide on two possible restaurants, ready to make the change of venue known pretty soon.
Then grandpa got gravely ill and passed away. Mom decided to outright cancel November 21st as the party date. We'd set it for after dad's birthday instead, but had more pressing matters to attend.
After the funeral and related family gatherings were over, mom picked which of the restaurants she liked best and decided on December 4th as the date. Of course, a whole new set of invitations would have to be printed out and mailed, but this time I used Photoshop to orient where on a normal piece of paper to print out the invitations, and could then print them all at once. Much simpler that way, I wonder why I didn't think of it before? We send out the invitations again.
Then dad starts thinking about going back on the business trip he was attending before he had to interrupt to attend grandpa. He was thinking of going this past week! Mom kind of had to convince him to go next week, without being able to give him a reason why!
Then some invitations came back with "insufficient postage" stamps on them this Monday. What the hell?? We add more postage and send what we couldn't hand deliver back out. We actually got two more returned yesterday, but fortunately they were for our neighbors who already knew about it, and the family friends who would be helping mom with the ruse to get dad to the restaurant.
I knew I had to dress nicer than normal, but that alone would make dad a little suspicious when he saw me. I made up some vague dinner get-together where I didn't know most of the details. Dad bought the story, but he was a little annoyed I was going to a dinner with so little information about it!
Through it all, we somehow managed to keep dad in the dark, and the surprise went over quite well. We had a great dinner, and a more relaxed reception at the house of the family friends afterward. I'm glad mom made it work out. posted by Phillip at 12:06 PM
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The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of Phillip Donnelly. Unless explicitly stated, all statements are those of Phillip Donnelly. So there!
