14 shopping days!

I can honestly say I am pretty close to being ready for Christmas, so bring it on!  The house & yard are decorated.  I may end up getting a few other things for the family (and myself) and a few things here & there for the extended family.

Speaking of extended family. {insert eye roll here} Ever since Dad passed away in 2009, sister Laurie has been determined to have family get-togethers at practically every occasion.  But she won't have anything to do with my brother Bo, who lives up north.  He's made some dumb choices in life, but he's never done anything to her except her honey-do list!  Not getting into that story, since I don't know all the details, but what I do know seems ridiculous.  And my other brother, Terry is an over-the-road truck driver, so catching him home is tough!  So she wants for all of us to meet Terry halfway between his house in Dayton and here to spend the weekend before Christmas together.  Which somehow she worked out to be Lima, OH.  Lima is in the middle of nothing.  There's not crap to do there, so I predict being bored to tears about about noon Saturday.  I don't see sitting around in a hotel room for 2 days to be any sort of fun at all.  The highlight of this weekend will be finding a city sign for Angel to get a picture with, since her favorite show, Glee, is supposed to take place in Lima. Woo.  Are you jealous of the excitement??

Damn it's cold out there!  However, we are lucky, unlike most of the USofA, we hardly have any snow!  Probably not even an inch.  Ok, Apparently since I started this post, we've gotten quite a bit, but still only an inch or 2.  Here is Scooter the Christmas Skeleton (the star of my Creepmas posts over at Maple Grove Cemetery ) taken last night, making a snow angel.

I don't normally watch football, since I don't care in the slightest for it, but I admit to turning on the Lions / Eagles game last weekend after seeing this pic a friend put on FB...

Holy crap! 

Everyone kept saying the Lions should be used to the snow / cold, but HELLOOOOO!  They play in a cushy warm dome!

OK, I may watch a game this weekend.  The Army / Navy game is on Saturday.  This "spirit spot" is pretty funny - a parody of Timberlake's Suit & Tie. btw, SDBs are Service Dress Blues.

The Air Force one from earlier this fall is pretty funny, too.  A parody of "What does the Zoomie say?"

I'm sort of cheesed, tho.  When I was stationed in Alameda, CA on board the USS Lincoln CVN-72, we were across the pier from the Carl Vinson CVN-70.  Imagine 2 aircraft carriers right next to each other -  awesome, right?  A bunch of us had to beg / borrow / steal white dixie cups (the traditional guy's hat) and lined up on the flight deck to spell out "Go Navy" on one ship and "beat Army" on the other.  Then stand at attention while helicopters circled overhead, getting PR photos.  Do you know I have never been able to find that photo online ever???  I reported to the Lincoln late 1994, and we moved to Everett, away from the Vinson in 1996, so it had to be for the 1995 game.   ~~grumble~~

This is the amphibious assault ship, USS Boxer CV-21.  

That's as close as I could find. Meh. 

Anyhoooo, yesterday Miss Angela got her braces off finally!  We had corn on the cob at dinner tonight to celebrate.  That is the only thing she would not eat while she had her braces on.  She still chewed gum, ate Skittles / popcorn / Doritos / everything bad but I had to cut corn kernels off the cob for her.

I was mildly concerned about her willingness to wear a retainer for the next year, but she put my mind at ease.  "Mom, the ortho took 'before' pictures and it was horrible.  I don't know how you could be seen with me in public!  I don't want to ever look like that again, so I will wear the retainer!"  I didn't think she looked that bad, but she did have 2 huge beaver teeth in front and if she bared her teeth, you could slide a pen right thru the gap behind them.

I told her NOT to wear the retainer next week during the Dodge Ball tournament she was invited to play in.  Or she needs to wear a football helmet!  It's pretty neat that the team of big guys needed a girl on their team and they specifically asked her to play. Guess they know of her reputation of punching bullies / cross-checking other players in floor hockey / tripping random running classmates / tackling (and taking down) bigger boys to get her kickball back.  Maybe they think she'll be a secret weapon - who would expect a sweet, innocent looking little girl to be so damn evil??  LOL, this will be entertaining to hear about!

Alrighty, Maddie told me it's bedtime, so i need to sign off.  I'll leave you with a few random things I've heard at work recently....

From Ado, (imagine a heavy middle-Eastern accent) "Dominic!! You're being a diva.  I'm going to get you a Snickers bar"
Also from Ado, in the middle of a conversation to someone else, about something else - to me...."You drive that green Escort out there, don't you?"

(Scooter normally isn't sitting there)

Gee, whatever gave you that clue??  The fact I'm the only one who decorates my desk?  They had a good laugh, I told them that's how I choose my Christmas tree. I drive thru the lot and whichever one sticks, I keep!

Later ya'll.  Keep warm!