Christmas is almost over.

And it was a good one. Just have to go see the Grammas and the Lewis's. And Gene's coming over. Here's the rundown.

Christmas Eve: At Becky's sisters. Tyler had to work til 7 so the girls just played with Robyn. Rob made me a pretty potent rum & eggnog. But really, the rum just rose to the top. didn't get stirred up. The eggnog was really yellow. Like fluorescent. We had a nice turkey dinner and exchanged gifts. I got a pretty nice tea pot for loose leaf tea. And some flowering tea. I know, I'm a grannie. Had 2 rounds in the hot tub! Hot tub at Christmas. Oh yeah.

Christmas Day: We kinda got up before the kids. The girls opened their gifts first. Both very excited. When all that landfill paper was unwrapped, Becky and I attempted to open our gifts. We were constantly interrupted by requests to "open this". And of course, kid's toys need an instruction manual just to get into the box! We made it through before Dad, Zena, Dana, Barry, Dakota and "Uncle B" (Brian) came for breakfast. Poor Dakota had a wicked cold. More gifts were exchanged and we padded our bellies some more. It was a pretty nice morning.

(Next year, Becky and I are going to set alarm and get up even earlier ahead of the kids and open all ours before the get up.)

Boxing Day: We were slated to go my parents for supper. And we did. But not without some adventure first. We were going to kill some time and go look at a couple houses we saw online. One happened to be down a dirt road. There was 2 entrances to this road off the main road and they came together in a Y. We took the first one and came upon 2 cars being pulled out of the ditch. We tried to turn around and the front wheels got stuck on some ice. The 2 guys waiting for the vehicles helped us get going. So we went to the other entrance. When we came to the Y, the car didn't turn. We went right into the ditch. Luckily it was mostly snow bank but there was no way we were getting out under our own power. So I ran up the road to grab the tow truck before he left. We got pulled out after about an hour of standing around in the rain for about an hour. Needless to say, it did not leave a good impression of that road. We decided just to not look at the house and head home. Even though the road was "the worst I seen it in 30 years", I didn't want to see it again. We made it to Dad's more or less on time. Played some Wii, watched Canada HAMMER Latvia, exchanged more gifts, (we got a CAA membership. We needed it) and had another turkey dinner. More belly padding.

27th: We had the McCaugherty clan over to our house! Our first time hosting a holiday get together. It went great. Not everyone could make it but they were here in spirit. If we had a teleporter we could have had them here. haha. It wasn't a meal but there was more than enough snacks. MORE than enough. My belly should get more padded over the next couple days as I finish everything off. Then to get back on the EA Active Wii workouts and the elliptical. Or rather, start those things.

All in all, it was a great holiday season. Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Merry Christmas!

and Happy Holidays.

I had a messed up dream the other night. as always. This time I remembered. I was a replacement Chicago Blackhawk. If someone got injured, I would play in their place. So they didn't have to call anyone up from the minors.  I remember I was Patrick Kane, and Niklas Hjalmarsson. Wouldn't that be great!?

Get Thrashed!

I just finished watching Get Thrashed. It's a documentary about the history of Thrash Metal. It was pretty good. I'm kinda late to the thrash scene so it had a lot of info I didn't know. Thrash started in like '82-'83 when I was 4-5 years old so you can understand that I wasn't a metalhead back then. All I heard was Sharon, Lois and Bram or the country crap my Mom listened too. I got some CCR and stuff like that from my Dad, but it wasn't metal. I didn't get into metal til "One" by Metallica and even then, I wasn't INto it. I hadn't denounced everything else yet. (Sepultura did that for me) Of course, I got into the Big 4, had no idea about Exodus, Testament, Kreator, Death Angel, etc etc. I have heard of them before this but didn't really know the history or how they fit into it.

If you are into metal at all, I highly recommended this doc. Great music, great insight. It's different than Heavy Metal in Baghdad because it's not just about one band. It's not quite as good as Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, but better than that one Penelope Spheeris did. The Decline of Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years. I might even say it's better than Global Metal. The sequel to Headbanger's Journey.

I really dig documentaries on stuff I like. And I love metal.

the Countdown is on.

I will officially be on holidays in just over 7.5 hours. 18 days off. With one exception. I have a double-time shift Dec 29. It's only one shift. and it's double time. So it's worth it. I'll have 3 days "to myself" this week. kinda 4. but I'll be sleeping most of one. I'll try to get all my Christmas shopping done Wednesday so Thursday and Friday I can relax. And by relax, I mean clean the house. I can't wait. Woo! (dripping with sarcasm) At least I can crank some tunes to keep me movin.

Also, the Olympic Torch is coming through Napanee in the morning. It's passing a block from our house. I'm gonna take the girls to see it. They don't know the significance of it, but it's something I can explain to them when they are older. It's a once in a lifetime experience. I still remember when Rick Hansen wheeled through and we went out see him and make a donation.

Excellent Documentary

I watched The Union: The Business Behind Getting High last night. An excellent doc about the business of marijuana. It really showcases how stupid the war against marijuana is. Billions of dollars have been wasted try to enforce marijuana prohibition. It hasn't stopped anything. What it does, is make criminals out of innocent people, and fills prisons that run on our tax dollars. If pot was legalized and regulated similar to alcohol, instead of wasting tax dollars, it would generate tax dollars. The LCBO generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the province every year. Marijuana could do that too and ease the tax burden on the rest of us. Lower income taxes, scrap the HST crap, etc.

Marijuana is still a drug. Alcohol is a more dangerous drug. Nicotine is even more dangerous. Yet, MJ is the only one that is illegal. MJ has numerous health benefits. Look at how many people a year die from tobacco. Or drunk driving. Or prescription meds. Or caffeine overdose! ZERO people have died from marijuana. Not one death can be attributed to marijuana alone.

I am not condoning drug use. I wouldn't condone cigarettes or booze either. But really, if you are going to have a vice, marijuana is probably the "healthiest" choice. Don't get high and drive. That's just stupid. Or go to work high. etc.

I could go on and on about this, but really it would be best if you just watched the movie yourself. Think about it. It won't necessarily make you go out and start smoking pot but it should make you think. And open your mind a little. If alcohol was illegal (like it used to be), would you break the law?

Not only am I bored, I'm feeling "ranty"

Here goes.

Ever since they changed the hiring process at work, the new hires are becoming increasingly "questionable". To put it nicely. Nate and Adam's group wasn't bad but after that....

They're getting cocky. You're productivity is higher than mine? So what. I still make more money than you.

Lazy, lazy, lazy! Oh dear gawd, lazy! Taking shortcuts, not following procedure, more concern for numbers than actually doing it right. And who has to clean up the mess? Me. And the other people that should let them learn from their mistakes the hard way. Trouble is, most of the time they wouldn't be the ones getting burned by it. So we'd have to fix it anyway. Don't get me wrong, when I was new I made some mistakes too but it wasn't because I was being lazy. If anything, it was because I was trying to do (the right thing) too much.

The guy I am working with tonight is especially aggravating. I don't want to go into specifics because I don't want to get in trouble.

It seriously makes me wonder how these people made it through the process when I know at least a half dozen people that would be ten times better than some of these guys who haven't made it through.

Maybe idiocy is just drawn to me.

Because I'm bored and not in the mood for Theosophy

I wrote this in my notebook and now I will copy it to here.

Am I just a figment of my own imagination? Is any of this real? Not in a Matrix sense because that would mean I have a physical body. I mean more like a dream. Like my life is the recurring dream of some other entity. It is said that dreams don't last as long as they feel. What may seem like days is mere seconds. I believe that the human brain is capable of so much more. So it seems reasonable to me that the entirety of what I feel is my existence, is a small imagining of some entity's mind when it is not in what might be a conscious state. Of course, if I'm just a character in a dream, what I think isn't real anyway. Or is it?

But, what kind of mind would dream up a place like this anyway?

sigh

I miss my wife. we've both been working so much we hardly see eachother.
I had a coffee this morning and I've felt like shit all day. I swear I'm allergic.
On sleeping pills now.
nothing on TV.
i think i'll fall asleep on the couch now.