55 thoughts on “December 23, 2011: At Long Last”

  1. I just finished printing my first edition at Seacourt printmaking workshop. I'm starting my second today guaranteeing that I'll be in the shop for a couple of hours on Christmas day.

    1. awesome. any chance at loosening the permissions so we can get a closer peek (can't get more than the thumbnail)?

      1. Victim of the bait and switch - for now. I'm restricted here by the size of stones available, but don't worry that one is coming back -

  2. Who wrote it?

    This is my "Nice" column for 2011, "Nice" referring to the city in France where hockey scoring was invented so the locals could claim to be 0-0-2 against the Germans in World Wars, giving the French a couple of consolation points despite shootout losses.

    If France was 0-0-2 in the two world wars, does that make Germany 2-0-0?

    1. I saw the twitterverse (is that a thing?) exploded last night after the Colts won. Hold on here, the Colts still have the upper hand when it comes to schedule strength and also the Vikings have 2 more games to play. Also, if the vikings get Andrew Luck, who is going to protect him? because outside of the center John Sullivan the line is a sieve. The crappy Saints defense was just running amok in our backfield last week. Luck is going to get killed.

      I want a stud offense lineman

        1. speaking of grievances, I just had a new hire (due to start Jan. 5) back out of the position an hour after coming over to pick out her office, fill out final paperwork and order business cards. Ack! (she got a better offer and I had to let her go)

          and another staff member just told me that he's retiring and won't be back in the office. Nice notice!

          and I'm sick with a nasty head cold, so I can barely taste the holiday ales I've been drinking the last few nights. That REALLY p!sses me off.

    1. Shoot, is that today? Maybe I'll get to grievances after the kids go to bed and my wife heads to Target for the last shopping until at least Boxing Day. It's not for gifts, but for guest bedding & towels. With my parents coming tomorrow, and my inlaws on Monday, there will be a need for fresh sheets.

      D'you have authorship privileges, SBG? Might be appropriate to set up a separate post. I don't think I'm familiar enough with the traditions of the holiday to start the proceedings.

    2. Special airing for the person who destroyed our inflatable dreidel-bear in our front yard while we were at Shabbat services tonight.

    1. I have not tried it. Thanks. Though if I want alcohol in me, I usually just drink brandy. Less filling, as it were. I even like the taste of moonshine straight. Yeah, I'm weird.

  3. Ugh, yesterday at work was no picnic. I love being busy because the day flies, and this was no exception, but I got a few of those people who pulled the "You should never be out of anything ever" card. One guy tried to bait me three times by saying "Well, you don't have any more of the thing my kid wants and it's only three days from Christmas. I guess you aren't much of a best buy."

    I had to bite my lip to keep from saying "It's three days from Christmas and you're finally getting around to buying the only thing your son asked for. I guess you aren't much of a father."

    I know the counter-argument that some people are at their best around the holidays, but the vast majority of people I see are at their worst.

    1. Last Sunday after mass, there was a little Christmas program put on by the Sunday school kids, which includes my daughter. My wife and I headed to the social hall, but every chair was filled and people were standing everywhere. My wife and I went to stand on the side of the chairs. A couple of minutes later, a woman behind me said, "Could you please sit down?" Note: there wasn't a single chair open. There was no one behind me when I stood where I was. She just waltzed up and expected me, an almost 47 year old man, to sit on the floor, I guess, in which case I wouldn't have been able to see anything. I turned to her and said, "Where do you propose that I sit?" She said, "Well, you are standing right in front of me." It wasn't like I just went and stood in front of her. She could have moved to my right, where there was an open spot. Nope. So, I moved over so that idiot could see her paste eating child.

      Methinks that it wasn't the Christmas season that brought this out of her, though. I'll bet she's a regular pill year-round.

      1. I have found that in a situation like this that a sudden bout of silent flatulence can be a much stronger response than mere words.

    2. You can admit it. The real reason you were frustrated was because I was so far into your head.

  4. Threw my back out today, big time. I went to the bone cruncher and he said it adjusted really easily, so that's good.

    He told me that he sees a lot of clients this time of year. People work hard and when they relax, the back gives way.

    I worked very hard this year. I earned every cent in the paycheck, for sure. I'm a little sore tonight, but it's a good feeling to have crushed it like I did this year.

  5. Jim Bowden on a possible Matt Garza to Toronto trade:

    Garza typifies the type of player Anthopoulos has acquired in the last couple of years, such as Yunel Escobar, Colby Rasmus, Sergio Santos. All of them are young and not quite in their primes, thus still possessing upside. Further, they all are contractually attractive. Garza remains under team control through the 2013 season and is due to make approximately $8 million via arbitration in 2012. Though he went just 10-10 for a struggling Cubs team this year, he had 197 strikeouts in 198 innings. Plus, he originally cut his teeth with the Tampa Bay Rays, so he can handle the AL East.

    Emphasis mine.

  6. About to tear down my desktop, last thing before the big move tomorrow. I'll leave you all with the horror movie I most want to see.

    1. About 15 seconds in, I realized it was real, and I laughed. Joe Estevez is the "star," as he is in a lot of extremely low budget horror movies...

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