November 28th, 2006
Obviously, Thanksgiving break was well appreciated, especially since Dah Boss was able to grant us a couple extra days ("we've earned it," he informed us). Spent Wednesday driving home... unfortunately, LA County was maddening, even at 1 in the afternoon (and 2, and 3...) Thanks to an accident and a couple stretches that were painful for no particular reason, it took four hours to clear the basin (normally takes half that); then I hit the Grapevine and managed to get from there to Santa Clara County in the same four hours.
Andrew was deployed and JW was just stingy (just kidding), so it was me, the parents, and my grandmother for Thanksgiving dinner. Still glad to see Grammy, although she wasn't up for staying long. But since it wasn't Thanksgiving without some more noise, we swung by some friends of the family (yes, invited) afterwards and ran through a game of Munchkin with them. Winner, as is often the case, was Mom, who always pretends she doesn't know what she's doing with these games and then kicks our butts anyway.
A friend of Mom's was performing this week, so we caught A Christmas Twist at a nearby theater. The play can basically be described as what would happen if a playwright wrote a Dickensian play while stoned. Concluding line: "God help us, everyone!" Much amusement.
Monday morning was spent at the family dentist. I was sure going in there that I had a cavity, but to my pleasant surprise it turned out to be nothing more than a cracked dental sealant, which is much easier (and less painful) to deal with. Due to the stupid system of my dental insurance, I'm not covered for another appointment for another six months and one day, so hope they got everything, because they won't hear from me again until Memorial Day at the earliest.
Trip back was much better; the same stretch of LA County that took four hours going up took one going back when I hit it about 7:30pm. Probably used between 20 and 25 gallons of gas round-trip (yay for fuel efficiency!), which cost me $60 tops as opposed to the $100+ for round-trip airfare. Whether that, unlimited carryons, and departure time flexibility made it worth the extra 10ish hours of travel time is another question, but I really didn't feel like hunting down a flight at the last minute when I had no clue what my weekend schedule would look like less than 24 hours before I left.
There was, incidentally, some entertainment from Mom's new cat, but that deserves its own entry (largely due to photos). Patience until then...
Andrew was deployed and JW was just stingy (just kidding), so it was me, the parents, and my grandmother for Thanksgiving dinner. Still glad to see Grammy, although she wasn't up for staying long. But since it wasn't Thanksgiving without some more noise, we swung by some friends of the family (yes, invited) afterwards and ran through a game of Munchkin with them. Winner, as is often the case, was Mom, who always pretends she doesn't know what she's doing with these games and then kicks our butts anyway.
A friend of Mom's was performing this week, so we caught A Christmas Twist at a nearby theater. The play can basically be described as what would happen if a playwright wrote a Dickensian play while stoned. Concluding line: "God help us, everyone!" Much amusement.
Monday morning was spent at the family dentist. I was sure going in there that I had a cavity, but to my pleasant surprise it turned out to be nothing more than a cracked dental sealant, which is much easier (and less painful) to deal with. Due to the stupid system of my dental insurance, I'm not covered for another appointment for another six months and one day, so hope they got everything, because they won't hear from me again until Memorial Day at the earliest.
Trip back was much better; the same stretch of LA County that took four hours going up took one going back when I hit it about 7:30pm. Probably used between 20 and 25 gallons of gas round-trip (yay for fuel efficiency!), which cost me $60 tops as opposed to the $100+ for round-trip airfare. Whether that, unlimited carryons, and departure time flexibility made it worth the extra 10ish hours of travel time is another question, but I really didn't feel like hunting down a flight at the last minute when I had no clue what my weekend schedule would look like less than 24 hours before I left.
There was, incidentally, some entertainment from Mom's new cat, but that deserves its own entry (largely due to photos). Patience until then...
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