Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, blah blah blah.  Phil On The Hill is closed for the holidays, so I shall be brief.

Friday I took the day off for reasons unknown to anyone, including myself.  I spent the day Christmas shopping with Donette.  It wasn’t as bad as I expected.  The stores were actually tolerable, but the traffic was horrific, particularly on the bad side of the state line.  Freaking idiots.  We got almost all of our shopping done though, so I guess it was time well spent.  I was pretty worn out after that excursion, so Donette dropped me at Kennedy’s where I wasted the rest of the day with the boys.  She picked me back up around 6:00 and we went out for a fancy date at Taco Bell.  We dropped $15 for dinner somehow;  Now that is a lot of Taco Bell, people.

Saturday I tried to catch up on some of the broken PC’s that have been piling up on me.  I got mine going finally, after spending an entire week with no computer.  After that I headed south to Mom’s house and worked on hers for a bit, and luckily was able to get it going again.  We had a good lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Peculiar while I was out there.  MAN that place is solid.  We picked up a dozen tamales from them too, which we will be having for our Christmas Eve dinner.  That evening we were supposed to go out with the Martins for a fancy-schmancy dinner at The Sky’s, but we ended up nuking that idea because of the nasty weather.

Sunday was spent in the typical fashion;  Sitting at the Brooksider watching football.  I ended up winning one of my Fantasy Football leagues, which goes a long way towards proving the theory that those things are all about luck.  Well that is about it.  Like I said, we are closed for the Holidays.  Have a good one!!

Brrrr.  Surely it is almost Spring by now.  What is it, mid-February?  Poor little Belle, big mean pit bull that she is, gets so cold that she won’t hardly even go outside.  We bought her some boots and a sweater (seriously) but she still doesn’t get too excited about “going” in the snow.  And who would?  I need to take a video of her walking in her boots though, it’s pretty comical;  Probably worthy of a you-tube submission.  Don’t laugh in her face though, she’s very sensitive.

Friday ranked in my “Top 5 Boring Days of All Time.”  Probably somewhere around number six, but maybe as high as four.  I started a two-week stretch of oncall and I was trying to get in work mode I guess.  Finally around 8:00 I got so bored I popped “U-571” in the DVD player.  Not a bad movie, maybe a little Macgyver-esque for my taste.  Donette, meanwhile, went to bed around 7:00.  Whew, wacky day in the ‘hood.

Saturday I got up early and cleaned out the basement, waxed all the floors, and sealed the driveway.  Or, I might have drank coffee and very slowly read the paper.  Something along those lines.  Luckily Donette’s parents come over around noon to take us out to lunch, before I actually burst into tears from the boredom.  We went to Princess Gardens at 89th & Wornall, which, despite the close proximity to our house, we’d never been to.  It was a good lunch, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t make it back there.  Good food, good price, etc, but Kin Lin is closer and we’re used to it.  But, you never know, we may decide to branch out again some day.  After lunch, I worked on my computer a bit, which resulted in a large pile of parts and a non-working PC.  Boy did THAT upgrade go wrong.  But then, what doesn’t go wrong when you put a screwdriver in my hand?  What can ya’ do.  I am still reeling from the scathing feedback given last time I tried to post an exciting expose’ on my computer projects, so I will skip the gory details.  Briefly, my super-duper blazing fast PC has been reduced to rubble for want of a $2.50 piece of plastic, which nobody has in stock.  Sigh.  For evening entertainment, we went to our first (and likely only) Christmas party of the season.  It was at John & Susan’s house over in the good part of town, which we don’t get to venture in to very often.  We had a fine and festive time;  It was pretty much like being at the Brooksider (same people) but with all the cheese you could eat.  My stomach still ain’t right.  After ingesting several pounds of assorted cheeses, I had to go fulfill some oncall obligations, so our evening was cut a bit short, but we had fun all the same.

Sunday I slept in a bit, since I was up well past my bedtime working.  What the heck, I don’t have a PC, why get out of bed anyway.  I had to drag myself up eventually though, as my Mom and niece Rebecca were coming over for lunch.  We fixed a tasty fritatta and some pancakes… more like breakfast I suppose, but that’s OK.  After eating, the girls put together a very Christmas-y gingerbread house.  Now how’s that for festive?  Next thing you know we’ll be putting up a tree and everything.  (Not likely.)  Later in the afternoon I headed down to the Brooksider to watch football while Donette did some shopping.  I took a new tact this week in monitoring my fantasy football team, which was to totally ignore it, and so far my strategy has payed off.  (Well, in one league anyway.)  It ain’t over yet, there are still a few players to go this evening, but so far I am looking like a team of destiny.  And that’s all I’m gonna say, I don’t want to jinx myself.  (If I didn’t already…)

By the way, Donette put up a few pictures of our Mexico trip in our photo gallery.  For a much more comprehensive set, check out Ed’s.

Well that was a nice little diversion;  We spent a “long weekend” down in Playa del Carmen celebrating Donique’s 40th birthday.  We flew out early Wednesday morning on Frontier, which was our first time on that airline.  They got high marks in my airline rating system, which has admittedly low expectations.  Pretty much “Get me there on time and don’t lose my luggage.”  Sounds easy enough, but I don’t have a very good success rate with it.  Anyway…  We took off from KC around 7:30, and were checked into the hotel and sitting in sand by 12:30.  That includes the roughly 45 minute drive from Cancun to Playa.  Sweet!

I guess I’m obligated to give some type of summary of the trip, although I don’t suppose it has to be overly detailed, or for that matter even factual.  We flew down with the Martins, and caught a shuttle service to our hotel, the Gran Porto Real.  We’ve stayed there once before, and it’s high on our short list of “Places We Would Go Back To.”  We settled into “beach mode” right off the bat, and then were joined later by our friends David & Jill, who flew in from Texas, and Ed & Kim came in from Denver.  All your worldly needs are for the most part included in the price of the hotel, so we spent the vast majority of our time sitting in chairs on the beach.  The one exception was Donette’s birthday, when we actually ventured off the resort and went to some club in downtown Playa.  Good times, although I found it rather hard to adhere to my cardinal vacation rule of “don’t attract attention” when walking around with four girls in pink boas.  (Yeah, thanks for that Kelly.)  Other than that, regarding the rest of the trip, there were no events that I wish to retell, or that you want to hear.  I can vaguely say that the birthday girl kept me busy with her rather over-the-top hi-jinx, and the Mexican jails aren’t really as bad as I’ve heard.

We flew back home Sunday afternoon;  Wow, was THAT a rough transition.  We spent the morning sitting on the beach in 85 degree weather, then 3 hours later we’re scraping ice off the car at KCI.  Bummer.  It was late enough in the evening that we just went home and went to bed.  This morning we woke up to the same stupid Van Morrison song that we’ve been too lazy to change for the last 5 years, made a pot of coffee and ate my usual bowl of Special K, and shuffled off to work.  Ahhhh, just like we never left.  Yay.

That was a rather lame weekend, which I am sure will be reflected in this lackadaisical effort at a weekly entry.  Plus, we are going out of town on Wednesday, so I have all my focus directed at getting ready for that excursion.  Actually, the events of Friday escape me totally… I may have just gone home and sat in front of the PC.  As a matter of fact, I think that is exactly what I did.  Edit:  Donette reminded me, I went out to the temporary Kennedy’s location with Bob, Joe and Martin and hung out for a while.  Even played a little pool, for the first time in several years.

Saturday brought only marginally more excitement.  Just never really got out of the gate.  Additionally, in a rather odd turn, one of our neighbors parked their car in the driveway, effectively blocking us in.  Somehow, in our years living with a shared drive, we’ve never run into this situation, and it was a bit baffling.  They didn’t answer the phone or the door, leaving us pretty much home-bound all night.  In truth, I probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere anyway, but knowing I couldn’t leave if I wanted to made me downright claustrophobic.  Luckily one of our neighbors up the street was having a party, so we ambled up there for some entertainment.  We hung out for a while and watched the MU game, but felt compelled to sneak out the side door when the karaoke machine came out.  Hmmmm.  I spent the rest of the night watching TV and fuming about the car in the driveway.  By 11:00 or so I had actually convinced myself that, for the first time in history, I felt like driving down to the Plaza and walking around for a while, and worked myself into a downright seething fury knowing that I couldn’t go because my car was blocked in.  Ahhhh, nothing like a little random bitterness to pass the time.

Sunday morning the car was out of the drive, thankfully.  By this time, however, the urge to go out had passed so I wasn’t able to take advantage of my new-found freedom. Instead I spent all morning fine-tuning my Fantasy Football lineup.  (Which, incidentally, ended up being totally wrong as usual.)  After a while I did venture down to the Brooksider to hang out with the usual gang for a while.  I stayed way longer than I intended, mostly sitting around listening to the griping about the way the college football rankings came in and speculating about the different bowl scenarios.  I had no idea what anybody was talking about, as usual, but it seemed to be a manly thing to do on a cold, crappy day, so I feigned interest for the better part of the day.  Everyone certainly seemed intent on it, so I’m sure it is very interesting stuff.

Hopefully everyone had a fine Holiday feast;  We sure did.  We had a full-fledged gorge-a-thon out at Mom’s house this year.  I’m counting sixteen people in my head right now, which made for a few full tables.  I got up bright and early and smoked a turkey breast, and Mom did a big roasted one in the oven, plus all the standard accompaniments;   Mashed ‘taters, cranberries, noodles, gravy, salads, etc.  After dinner I settled in for an evening of football, while Donette braved the lighting ceremony.  I guess I’m done with the Plaza Lights…  If I can’t sit in the warmth and quiet of Todd’s apartment and watch it from across the street then I’ll take a pass on the whole thing.

Friday morning Donette got up and hit the Black Friday sales.  That’s usually my one shopping trip of the year, but I wasn’t up for it this time around.  The only “home run” deal I saw was a decent laptop out at Nebraska Furniture Mart.  But, I figured it would be a mob out there, and then there is the fact that we don’t really need a new laptop.  Indeed, Donette reported she was several hundred people out of the running on the laptop, so her pre-dawn outing in sub-freezing weather netted us a pair of boots and some long underwear from Cabela’s.  Oh well, maybe next year.  For evening entertainment we headed up to the distant Northlands to celebrate Josh’s birthday.  Nightmarish drive aside, we enjoyed still more good feed.

Saturday most of our day centered around the big MU – KU game.  Donette bravely volunteered for “table duty,” so she had to head down to the Brooksider around 3:00 and reserve some chairs.  Her sisters Ronda and Jackie came down with their broods and joined us, so we had a pretty good crowd.  I thoroughly enjoyed the game;  I would almost go so far as labeling it the single best sporting event I have ever witnessed.  While I don’t claim to be a die-hard MU fan, I do maintain a pretty strict anti-KU-fan sentiment.  Naturally, as luck would have it, we ended up next to a big table of “those guys” for the game.  (Not really lucky I guess… What are the odds we would be by the two civil KU fans in the city;  Those two must have been at the game or something.)  You know, the ones who stand on their chairs, rant and rave obscenities about each play, and just make general spectacles of themselves.  During the first few possessions, while KU still had a chance, they were so unbearable I didn’t think I was going to make it through the first quarter.  But, after the tide was going decidedly MU-ish, I got to enjoy the game in relative peace and quiet, with the bonus side-show of watching them sulk in silence, AND revel in the satisfaction of knowing we won’t have to endure any more loud-mouth rednecks in the Brooksider until well into basketball season.  (Well, during sporting events anyway…)

Sunday I got up bright and early and actually went to church.  My niece Rebecca got baptized, and as the official God-Father I was naturally obligated to show up.  Whew, 8:30 is early on a weekend.  Miraculously I survived though.  After church we all went out to a nice breakfast at good ol’ IHOP, which was even tastier when Mom picked up the check.  After that, well, you know the drill.  Horizontal on the couch watching football.  I was so bored by the evening game that I actually thought about taking the dogs for a walk or something.  Unfortunately for me and them, I never made it past the “thinking about it” stage.  Maybe next week.