Holiday Roundup

Now that it's been a whole week, I can finally talk about the trip. I promise the next vacation I have I will not have a massive paper that I must do and will be able to blog more regularly. Or at least when things happen so I don't have to depend on my fuzzy brain.

Mom and I left Wednesday morning November 21st. The drive wasn't that bad despite not leaving as early as I wanted to, the day before Thanksgiving, and a 55-mile stretch of I-10 closed due to an exploded gas well. (No snarky comments about how my stupid state puts Interstate highway systems over or very close still-working gas and oil wells. I made enough of them until I'm sick of the topic and it's all fixed now.) We found a Paulito's an Italian grill and pizzeria that has the absolute best chicken Caesar salad on the planet. I could eat it every single day.

Atticus and I invented a new game now dubbed Up-Down. We were dancing during Hairspray's credits (and Christopher Walken can sing and it's not scary). Neither one of us could do the twist--me the carpet, Atticus is only 16-months-old--so I showed him how to do the squat to music. Then Thursday morning Elmo covered up and down on Sesame Street, and when Atticus would squat, the grown-ups chorused "up down." Now he says "up" squatting down and "down" coming up. Unfortunately, we never got it on camera.

Pictures I am proud of getting will go here as soon as I get them off my camera.

However the baby caught the crud and passed it to me. Mom blames the forty-degree weather that hit. There was frozen rain where we were in Austin and snow just west of the city. But we didn't get to leave until Monday morning because the nasty rain and cold was heading to Louisiana.

It worked out well. I kept Atticus and they got to shop. I got to go to Best Buy, Ikea, and Half-Price Books (I would seriously consider opening a franchise in Louisiana if I had the capital.) and got the stuff on my list and then some.

Books: all the South Beach Diet stuff, couple of medieval Britain reference books, the Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr first edition in hardback, a book on Celtic mythology, and a couple of historical mystery anthologies that had been on my list for a while.

Ikea: replacement lamp that I forgot to find lightbulbs to fit it in the store (HINT: if buying lamps at Ikea turn around and find the lightbulbs to fit. Found the lamp on clearance and luckily Mom had the bulbs to fit it at home since they didn't work for something else), spotlight lamp for the computer desk with green spotlight bulbs that had very confusing labeling, present for Kay depend on if I see her at Christmas or closer to her birthday, and another set of Benno shelves. I love those shelves, no deeper than a DVD case and much taller than any selves I can get locally so it matches better with the entertainment center, and I can fit more of them into the space I have available. I think after this purchase I will be buying more for free shelves instead of replacing what I'm currently using to hold the DVD collection.

Best Buy: Dad gave us Christmas gift money early, I actually went to their Black Friday sale, and got a TOMTOM! WOOT! Course, I haven't had time yet to set it up and use it yet. I'm hoping this weekend. Also bought Hot Fuzz (hyseterical) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit on DVD, Van Halen 2 disk collection, Harry Potter 3 Soundtrack and Doctor Who soundtrack (more about this one later) on CD.

Beyond that, I kept Atticus occupied and my crud at home while Mom and Kai had fun in the stores. Atticus also totally got into the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Either he's fascinated with Jim Carrey in green make-up or Cindy Lou reminds him of his big sister, Lauren.

Got home safely and plunged into finishing school work for the semester. I haven't even really started unpacking yet. Need to do that tonight.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/