Another One Of *Those* Posts

It's the holiday season. That means more time spent out of the house visiting friends and relatives and shopping as well as more time in the house making and wrapping gifts or imbibing adult beverages that numb the pain. Whatever the reason it means less time for blogging.

I have been popping up on Facebook a lot more lately. It seems a lot easier. For one, I can do it from my phone so it's more immediate. For two, it's an ideal forum for quick messages that convey my thoughts at the moment. The blog always seems like a blank sheet of paper begging to be filled in its entirety.

Thanksgiving went well. We didn't have "the dinner" until Saturday because it wasn't until Saturday that all the niece and nephews could gather. When we did there was the usual fecetiousness, joke-telling, all-in-fun insults and general mirth. We arrived on Thursday so by Sunday, we were ready to head home.

In general, we did not participate in Black Friday. There were a couple of small items my wife wanted from W-Mart so she got up just before 5am, popped across the street from our hotel to the store, grabbed the 2 or 3 small items she was interested in, and was out of the store less than 45 minutes later. When she returned to the room, she went back to bed.

On Saturday, The Wife's laptop gave out. It was generally unresponsive and completely unusable. I tried everything I knew to try to revive it including installing a brand new hard drive with a fresh load of Windows and flashing the BIOS but it didn't help. Parts for her computer are scarce and expensive. To get a new motherboard would have cost over $200 dollars (assuming we could find one in stock) so we were forced to participate in Cyber Monday where she found a new laptop of the same brand for $400. It was a necessary expense since she is currently in an online-only Master's program. Luckily there was still some financial aid money sitting in her account to help offset (or cover) the cost.

That's about it for now. I'm sure I'll be back soon but in case I miss you, may you all be blessed this holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah/Hanukkah, Joyus Kwanza, Uprorious Festivus, or Blissful Binging... whatever floats your boat.