I have successfully completed 11 events in the “Twelve Trials of Christmas” series.  We have Doni’s work party early next month and then I’ll be done with the season until next year rolls around.  Of course it wasn’t really as bad as I built it up to be.  I took off last Friday to “prepare” for the flurry, so I had a nice little four day weekend out of the deal.  Gabe and I went and hung out at the “Bark Park” all afternoon.  The rest of the weekend was spent doing Christmas stuff.  That’s all you need to know.

New Year’s Eve is at Todd’s shack.  Consider this your invitation; be there.

Not too much to report in on, again.  I’ve got a lot of stuff I SHOULD report on, but not the time or inclination to do so.  Stuff is starting to back up on me;  I’ve got a bunch of Gabe pictures to post, and I need to set up some type of section to document the progress of “Project Ice Age.”  This project, for the uninformed or uninterested, is the creation of a frozen drink maker which is currently under construction by ChudZim Technologies LLC.  I must say, the project is coming along quite famously, and certainly bears sharing.  The progress thus far has been rather remarkable, considering launch date was mere weeks ago.  I find myself questioning whether more time is spent at ChudZim Tech or their “real” jobs.  I guess that’s not my business, just so the drink maker gets finished on time.

I think I forgot to report on the big date Doni and I went on in last weeks post?  We went to Capitol Grille to celebrate Doni’s birthday, which was on the sixth.  MAN that place is good.  A bit pricey, but I’m going to say worth it.  Granted, the tip alone was considerably more than my typical bill at the Brooksider, but I suppose you get what you pay for.  The service was quite a bit better too.  I noticed a distinct difference between the two places in that area:
Capitol Grille: “Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Kenagy, would you like to hear about our specials?”
Brooksider: “Hope you guys wanted chicken nachos again, that’s what you’re getting.”
Again, I guess you get what you pay for.

Let’s see… Surely I did SOMETHING last weekend.  We went to a Christmas party Friday night, in a continuation of the never-ending onslaught of holiday events.  This one was at Susan W’s house though, so at least it was close to home.  We actually stayed pretty late (for us) so we must have been having a good time.  They were having their annual Christmas party down at the Brooksider Friday too, but I didn’t stay long at that one.  It was too crowded; veritably overflowing with riff-raff.  Free food will do that.

Saturday didn’t bring a whole lot of action.  I had to work all night, so I spent the day resting up in preparation.  We did take Gabe up to Petsmart and had his picture taken with Santa Claus.  Embarrassing, but true.  It was worth it just to see the look on Santa’s face though; kind of a “You have got to be kidding me, this ain’t in my contract” kind of expression.  But of course Gabe behaved just peachy, even when the little yippy dog ahead of him barked at him.

Sunday was similarly slow.  I worked on the stupid refrigerator for a few hours.  It’s been leaking water all over and warped up the kitchen floor.  $%&#@*.  Remarkably, I think I may have actually fixed it.  After that project, it was pretty much a day of football games and monitoring my Fantasy Football scores.  I lost.  Again.  It was not particularly notable that I lost, but who I lost to.  This is a perfect example of why I don’t gamble:  The guy I played has won 2 games all year, and averages 50-some-odd points per week.  He’s so far in last place it ain’t even funny.  He didn’t even bother turning in a lineup for this week, so it defaulted him to some bunch of schmuck players.  But, since he was playing ME, the stars aligned and all these bench-warming schmucks got at least one touchdown, catapulting him to 103 points for the week.  I can’t stand it.  And other than posting some rather inflammatory remarks on the message board, there’s nothing I can do about it.  Sigh.  After watching that train-wreck develop, we went over to Susan W’s house again for dinner.  The Brooksider Gang is preparing for their annual Christmas Caroling event, and they were having their first practice session.  I am not singing with them, thank goodness, but I am filming them for a documentary.  Expect to see it at the Sundance Festival next year… I am predicting a hit.  This could well be the big hit movie that turns around Hollywood’s recent woes at the box office.

Not too much to report in on, again.  I’ve got a lot of stuff I SHOULD report on, but not the time or inclination to do so.  Stuff is starting to back up on me;  I’ve got a bunch of Gabe pictures to post, and I need to set up some type of section to document the progress of “Project Ice Age.”  This project, for the uninformed or uninterested, is the creation of a frozen drink maker which is currently under construction by ChudZim Technologies LLC.  I must say, the project is coming along quite famously, and certainly bears sharing.  The progress thus far has been rather remarkable, considering launch date was mere weeks ago.  I find myself questioning whether more time is spent at ChudZim Tech or their “real” jobs.  I guess that’s not my business, just so the drink maker gets finished on time.

I think I forgot to report on the big date Doni and I went on in last weeks post?  We went to Capitol Grille to celebrate Doni’s birthday, which was on the sixth.  MAN that place is good.  A bit pricey, but I’m going to say worth it.  Granted, the tip alone was considerably more than my typical bill at the Brooksider, but I suppose you get what you pay for.  The service was quite a bit better too.  I noticed a distinct difference between the two places in that area:
Capitol Grille: “Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Kenagy, would you like to hear about our specials?”
Brooksider: “Hope you guys wanted chicken nachos again, that’s what you’re getting.”
Again, I guess you get what you pay for.

Let’s see… Surely I did SOMETHING last weekend.  We went to a Christmas party Friday night, in a continuation of the never-ending onslaught of holiday events.  This one was at Susan W’s house though, so at least it was close to home.  We actually stayed pretty late (for us) so we must have been having a good time.  They were having their annual Christmas party down at the Brooksider Friday too, but I didn’t stay long at that one.  It was too crowded; veritably overflowing with riff-raff.  Free food will do that.

Saturday didn’t bring a whole lot of action.  I had to work all night, so I spent the day resting up in preparation.  We did take Gabe up to Petsmart and had his picture taken with Santa Claus.  Embarrassing, but true.  It was worth it just to see the look on Santa’s face though; kind of a “You have got to be kidding me, this ain’t in my contract” kind of expression.  But of course Gabe behaved just peachy, even when the little yippy dog ahead of him barked at him.

Sunday was similarly slow.  I worked on the stupid refrigerator for a few hours.  It’s been leaking water all over and warped up the kitchen floor.  $%&#@*.  Remarkably, I think I may have actually fixed it.  After that project, it was pretty much a day of football games and monitoring my Fantasy Football scores.  I lost.  Again.  It was not particularly notable that I lost, but who I lost to.  This is a perfect example of why I don’t gamble:  The guy I played has won 2 games all year, and averages a pathetic 50-some-odd points per week.  He’s so far in last place it ain’t even funny.  He didn’t even bother turning in a lineup for this week, so it defaulted him to some bunch of schmuck players.  But, since he was playing ME, the stars aligned and all these bench-warming schmucks got at least one touchdown, catapulting him to 103 points for the week.  I can’t stand it.  And other than posting some rather inflammatory remarks on the message board, there’s nothing I can do about it.  Sigh.  After watching that train-wreck develop, we went over to Susan W’s house again for dinner.  The Brooksider Gang is preparing for their annual Christmas Caroling event, and they were having their first practice session.  I am not singing with them, thank goodness, but I am filming them for a documentary.  Expect to see it at the Sundance Festival next year… I am predicting a hit.  This could well be the big hit movie that turns around Hollywood’s recent woes at the box office.

I’m sure everyone has been on the edge of their seat all week waiting for the results of Gabe’s big test, and the good news is that he passed easily, first time through.  He was one of only two dogs in the class to pass.  OK, there were only four dogs total, but that’s still a 50% fail rate.  His nemesis, the big standard poodle, failed.  Hee hee.  (That’s not very nice.)  So, Gabe is officially certified as a “Canine Good Citizen” now.  Here’s a list of stuff he had to do for the test: CGC Test Items.  I’d say he aced everything, although he was a bit sketchy on the “Accepting a friendly stranger” section.  Gabe knows no “strangers”; You get too close you’re gonna get jumped on.  But, he managed to contain himself long enough to get a “pass” score.

The remainder of the week, and subsequent weekend, are something of a blur.  Had a wedding Friday night so that killed that evening.  Saturday I don’t know exactly what happened… We had no plans, but ended up down at the Brooksider around 3:00.  We ran into Christie and Todd down there, and ended up going to the Cigar Box downtown for appetizers.  From there we still had a little bit of gas left so we all went to my neighbor’s house for a birthday party.  Nothing like bringing a few extra guests along to the neighborhood fiesta.  I’m not sure how late we stayed… about and hour too late I think.  That was a long day.

Sunday I hunkered down for a day of football.  Other than a trip to 75th Street Brewery to meet the Munkirs for lunch, I didn’t see the light of day.  (Munkirs bought too…. SCORE.)  I did disassemble my “webserver” and put it in a new case, so that ate up a few hours.  I was having this odd electrical problem with my server, see; every time I would plug something into it, it would shock the bejeebees out of me.  I have to think that was not a good thing for the PC, and I know it wasn’t good for me.  Quite painful, actually.  I’ve tried fixing it a few times, with no success, so I finally just gutted it and put everything in a new case.  Of course I don’t know if it’s fixed yet… I’m too scared to test it.  It gave me enough juice last time to make me a bit leery of ever touching it again.  So next time you’re over at my house and I ask you to grab hold of the PC in the basement, go ahead and give it a try, let me know how it goes.  If you can’t let go of it for like five minutes I’ll assume it’s not fixed.

Man that’s all I got.  Why do I update this thing on Monday anyway?  I’m entirely too spent to be thinking creatively.  Plus I was rather rudely awoken at the unholy hour of 4:30 to come to work this morning.  Oncall is definitely a young man’s game.

It’s friggin’ freezing out there!!  I generally don’t mind cold weather, but I guess I wasn’t quite ready for it yet.  It’s only December!!  EARLY December!!  Ridiculous.

Not a whole lot to report on from the weekend.  Friday was irreparably marred by work… Pretty much just sat at home and waited for pages.  Saw some movies, did a little “homework” with the dog, that kind of stuff.  Donette was out kicking it up with some group of yahoos, who knows what they were up to.  No good I’m sure, most likely something in the “shenanigans” category.  She got home quite ridiculously late, that’s all I know.

Saturday I got up early and went and helped a guy cut down a tree.  Nice “outdoorsy” kind of activity.  A friend had an apple tree that had split in half so we went over and cut it up.  We got as far as we could; The “standing” half of it was placed rather perilously between a power line and the cable TV line.  We circled it for quite a while, cipherin’ on the likelihood of a service interruption, and eventually decided the odds were pretty good.  So, we just cut up what was down and called it good.  I’ve got a nice little stack of smokin’ wood in the back yard to show for the mornings work.  Saturday night was the first in an upcoming rash of “Christmas Parties.”  Shudder.  I think I’d rather spend the evening poop-scooping the yard.  Of course, once I got there I had a good time, which is usually the case.  I spend the week before these parties dreading them like a flu shot, but then I always end up going and having fun.  Plus, I scored a cool little present, the XM receiver that I’d been wanting.  Pretty cool little unit.  Of course now I have to actually install it and sign up for the service… I’ll do that tomorrow.  Donette, meanwhile, was the only spousal unit not present at the party.  Once again, she was out running around with some rogue gang, and once again got home quite a bit later than I.  Seeing a pattern here?

Sunday was generally uneventful.  We went to Jalapenos for lunch with Christie, then hunkered down in front of the TV for the football games.  Donette finished decorating the TV room last weekend, so it’s really quite the cozy little hangout now.  I did venture out to the Brooksider with Todd to watch the second half of the Chiefs game, but then scurried right back home.  My Fantasy Football team was doing uncharacteristically well, so I wanted to watch the scoreboard.  I thought I had it all wrapped up, but then the other team came storming back and we ended up all tied up.  Both of us have players in the game this evening, giving me a rare reason to actually watch MNF.

Well, tonight is Gabe’s big “test”.  The culmination of 8 weeks of training is at hand.  The current line on him passing is 3 to 1.  (Whatever that means… Sounds good.  I’ll say 75%.)  He might be just a bit too young for such a class, but then he is something of a puppy prodigy so he may have a chance.  He is by far the youngest in the class, that’s for sure.  His biggest problem is with the “brushing”.  They’re supposed to sit still while some stranger comes up and brushes them, checks their teeth and paws, blah blah.  I tried to get a waiver on that part, since Gabe has about as much use for a hair brush as I do.  But, apparently it’s just part of the rigorous curriculum and can’t be left out.  The problem seems to be that Gabe’s little pea brain can only interpret an inanimate object in the hand two ways: 1) food, or 2) a toy.  And, the only way to differentiate between these two possibilities is to grasp said object firmly in the jaws and throw it around a bit.  This behavior can only lead to a “fail” mark, not to mention the poor tester going into cardiac arrest.  We’ll just have to see if he’s “on” tonight.  Worst case, we’ll just take the class again in the Spring.  I haven’t exactly been keeping up on his homework so he won’t be totally at fault if we get tossed out of the program.  Wish us luck…