Monday night LG and I had our own little Christmas and opened a few presents. Also unveiled her cedar chest (birthday present), and we went out for a nice birthday dinner.
Departed Tuesday afternoon, 21 Dec. Arrived St. Louis, hung out with Kathy and Vern and David. Ate some food, received Oodles, a new and quite enjoyable party game. K&V are not pregnant (as are, it seemed, most everyone else we heard about over break -- except those who were "merely" engaged). I don't know how accurate it would be to say K&V are "trying" to be pregnant, but the impression I get is that they are certainly willing to be pregnant again soon.
Left Wednesday morning, arrived at KCI ~2 hours ahead of Doris and Aaron. Hung out with them until Evelyn arrived a few hours later. Headed out with an extremely tightly-packed trunk. Arrived at Larned (Grandma's house) just in time to watch the overtime of the KU > Indiana game (actually, we caught something like 2.4 seconds of regulation too). Went on over to Rita's house (sister) to spend the night.
Thursday was your basic hanging out day. Went out to Garfield (LG's parents' house) for most of the day. Wrapped some presents. Thursday evening was soup supper at Grandma's. Large numbers of family members, including Joyce and Mark (and Anders and Lars) from Lindsborg. Joyce is LG's cousin, and Mark is from Lindsborg, two years ahead of me. He has a brother my age, so I am my classmate's brother's wife's cousin's boyfriend. Played some Taboo. Ever played Taboo? It's a good one. Thursday night at Rita's house again.
Friday, more hanging out. Went out to Pauline and David's new house (another sister and brother in law). Church in the early evening, home for supper, opened presents. Sang Happy Birthday to LG. Got lots of good stuff. Packed most of it up to ship home (not enough room for it all in the car).
Saturday, Christmas dinner (lunchtime, that is) at Rita's, headed out to Lindsborg. Hung out with Mom. Ate snack food, watched TV. More Christmas and birthday presents.
Sunday, went to Salina. Shopped a little for after-christmas junk, Went to the mall. Bought DB 1994 calendar. Also bought a wall calendar entitled "Castles of the World" or some such. Between us, LG and I have done at least 2 of the 12 pictured (one in Bergen which I did, one in England which we both did, and one along the Rhine in Germany which it is possible LG sort of did -- they saw a bunch along a tour -- but she didn't recognize it). Went to "Mrs Doubtfire". Highly recommended. Went out to dinner. Made phone calls to Lawrence and Columbia to finalize end of the week plans.
Monday my Mom and I went to Hutchinson to see a watercolor exhibit by Warren Taylor. He was my well-liked art teacher in 7th, 8th and 9th grade, and has since lived in Midland, Texas and taught at Midland College. It was kinda neat to see some of his stuff. Apparently he has done quite well in the watercolor world, having some national awards, and appearing in well-known exhibits and publications. Back in Lindsborg, had supper and visited with Joyce and Mark (and kids) in a considerably quieter setting (their house, sans large numbers of family).
Tuesday, hmm, I think Tuesday was the day we went to Hutchinson. I wonder what we did all afternoon on monday. Must have just laid around. I can't remember. Anyway, we also mailed home three boxes of Christmas loot. Tuesday evening Lisa's parents brought Doris and Aaron to Lindsborg, we all ate pizza, then her parents went back to Garfield. Doris and Aaron stayed with us so we could take them back to KCI on Wednesday.
Wednesday. Took Doris and Aaron to KCI as intended, again arriving inexcusably early. (This was the leg of the trip that required us to have mailed home our Christmas presents.) Bopped down to Annie's Santa Fe (Oak Park Mall) for lunch. Headed to Lawrence to Tom and Terri's. Called out for pizza, watched Cliffhanger, which they had rented. It was pretty good, better than I expected, if perhaps a bit gratuitously violent on occasion. Watched some Mystery Science Theater 3000 (that's MST3K on the net), which I had heard about before but never seen. You know it?
Thursday, watched another movie they had rented, but I forget what it was. Went shopping and so forth in Lawrence with T&T, went to KC, some Oak Park Mall things, then to Jeff and Anne's. Dinner out at Italian place (name I forget), back to J&A's for hanging out. Back to Lawrence for the night.
Friday morning I had a meeting with Dan Wildcat, Chairman of Natural and Social Sciences at Haskell, about a teaching job that Marilyn put me onto. Can't remember if I told you about that. Doesn't matter now anyway, since I decided to stay here. It would have been a year-long teaching position, funded by some federal fund-shifting. Would have been ironic in a vague way. Creation of the temporary opening at Haskell was an ultimate result of the death of the supercollider project and other defense budget rearranging; the death of the supercollider project, which led to the end of one of Golin's grants (though not the one I was paid by), is one of the reasons (though not a major one) for Golin's leaving here to go to industry. So I might have had an opportunity open up for me sort of as a result of the same event that caused me to come to the end of my current occupation.
Anyway. Friday afternoon headed out for Columbia. Spent New Year's Eve with Joe (former roommate from here) and Ann. Played cards and other games. Made homemade pizza. Played new game Oodles for first time; it moved immediately high up on my list of favorites. Popped some champagne at midnight, went to bed fairly soon after.
Saturday, came home. Nothing eventful.