Christmas, All Systems Go

The Hough family has officially endorsed the Christmas season. Yulefully.

Although the pairing of Clark Griswald and Scrooge McDuck might seem a bit odd, more or less that's the holiday dynamic between Preggosaurus and myself: I tend to rather enjoy Christmas lights year-round, and therefore see no problem with stringing them up the weekend before Thanksgiving in order to relish in festiveness throughout my week-off of work. Kris, on the other hand, foams at the mouth when she sees anything related to Christmas pop up in front of her before Thanksgiving (i.e. the day the Lions always lose).

As we've done in recent years, the Griswald and McDuck have come to a compromise in regards to holiday decorating: I get to string up Christmas lights the weekend before Thanksgiving, but the actual Christmas Tree, as well as anything that has Santa's face on it, may only be put up the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday, as I guess we're calling it now).

It might seem a bit unnecessary, but that's what keeps our marriage chugging along.

Anyway, so this year we ran into a bit of a dilemma. I have always, always, always hated our Christmas Tree - we've had it since we first got married and were throwing together Christmas decorations, and therefore what we've been using for the last three years is a $20 Family Dollar tree that could pass off as Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree's mentally disabled step-brother.

Taking this into consideration, this year I opted to upgrade to a $70 pre-lit tree that was a foot taller and much more filled out - still not the $250 job I'd like to own someday, but I can't really bring myself to spending that much money on something I throw up for a month.

Kris wasn't gung-ho with this purchase, but she relented eventually, and now our Charlie Brown-esque auxiliary tree is positioned back in my man-room, if only to keep the Hermit Crabs company during the holiday season.

Merry Commercialism,

- Brian

Side-Project Shmorgasbord

Booya.

Finding oneself out of work for the week is an awesome, awesome thing. Granted, grad school still feels like work, and I generally do have a lot of crappy homework to do, but a week off is a week off. Its time for side-projects.

This week, I've got a couple things planned. Not necessarily major things, per se, but stuff that I've been wanting to do but haven't yet had the chance to work because of work and (get ready for it) grad school. Side-projects that are to be tackled this week include the following:

Long Ridge Writing. I've got to submit a story to these guys by the end of the month, so hopefully I can finalize this and mail it out before heading back into the school year. So far the writing program is working out real well, and its by far the coolest thing I'm doing right now... cross your fingers this stupid story thing gets finished this week.

Tattoo Design. Christ (brother, not spouse) and I are getting some ink done when I go home in December for Christmas. Initially we were going to get brother tattoos done with Jeff, but since Jeff is leaving for the Air Force in March, he can't get anything new done without messing up his enlistment (not sure how that works, exactly). So, in the meantime, Chris and I are getting separate work done. He's not sure what he's getting yet, but I know that I want our family's coat of arms and motto on the inside of my left arm, right above where I have my existing adinkra symbol from Ghana. I want to try and finalize the design before heading home, so a week off is the perfect time to do it.

Organize iTunes, iPhoto, and iEverything else. Yes, nerdery galore, but its necessary stuff that, while boring to hear about, keeps my sanity in place and my day-to-day sense of normalcy running as it should. Don't make fun of me.

Categorize Vinyl. I've been meaning to categorize my vast album collection, if only for insurance purposes - if there were a fire or something, I wouldn't know half of what to replace, and I've got some great, great pieces of music that are definitely worth saving.

I'll stop now, but that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I have in mind for this break. I probably won't get half of it done, but its nice to aim high once and awhile. More than likely, I'll just end up sitting on the couch and decompressing in front of the TV between spurts of chasing the Cannonball around the house.

Let's do this.

- Brian

Gorilla Poop

So I got to see a gorilla eat his own crap the other day. That was a first.

I suppose generally that wouldn't have been all that impressive, had it not been for the manner in which the gorilla decided to eat his own crap. At Animal Kingdom, there's this gorilla sanctuary. 'Sanctuary,' in this sense, referring to a caged area where gorillas are housed (I think companies and zoos enjoy throwing 'sanctuary' in there in order to fluff up the fact that the animals are, in all actually, still surrounded by a giant fence). Anyway, within this area, there's a spot where visitors are able to walk up and, from behind the safety of what I can only assume is a really, really thick piece of glass, check out their ancestors.

The gorilla in question, having been stared at probably the sound majority of his pathetic life, wasn't shy about eating his own crap in front of intrusive spectators. Upon crapping into his own hand (paw, whatever), he walked the morsel over in front of the glass wall and, with a touch of pride, began chowing down on his freshly made meal right before the gathered masses. He could've done this in private, but this gorilla was a showman, and probably on a contract.

He works at Disney, so I guess that shouldn't be surprising.

- Brian