2005 Holidays

So, it’s been a while since I’ve written; indeed a while since I’ve been inspired to write. If you're following along, you'll notice I've written quite a bit in the last 24 hours. Coincidentally, it again took a good conversation with Grace to get my fingers tapping… weird.

So December and January were pretty darn impacted. I put October’s photos online and made a bunch of 8x10’s. Yowza, that was a freakin project. I used my old standby, Ritz Camera to handle it. They’re cheap, fast, all over the place, and if you’re working with the right lab tech, they can put out some good quality. It took a month to nail down all the variables, and out of it all I learned that the best way to do it is to bypass as much of the consumer-grade digital handling as possible. Skip the CD’s, and skip the store-front kiosks. Hand the negatives to the tech, and have them input them straight into the developer. It’s still digital; the negs are scanned; so it’s fast and I was also able to negotiate down to $4/ea on roughly 70 prints. I made copies of a bunch, so I can hopefully display them somewhere this year. Za Pizza and Burning Man are my two goals for ‘06.

Anyhow, I showed them off in digital and printed form to a bunch of friends and, during Christmas, family. I received a lot of ooh’s and aah’s with them, and consequently, my next project. I need to frame a bunch of them and either hand them or mail them out. Hey, if just one person puts it on a wall somewhere and tells me about it, I’ll be happy.

Rewind… Thanksgiving was cool. Spontaneous and somewhat hectic, but a lot of fun. There was not a flake of snow yet to be had, so skiing was out of the question. I thought about hitting the cabin anyway and hopefully enjoying the holiday with some buddies, but not a sole was planning on going up there. Oh well. Looks like I’ll be home alone for this one. Then something or someone reminded me about a voucher that Southwest had given me in exchange for bumping me from an overbooked flight. I called up Mary Wednesday evening and asked what she and Steve had planned. She was stoked that I could come up, so the next Morning, off to Seattle. It had been a while since I’d been up there. I hadn’t met Kathrine, I was worried Christian wouldn’t remember me, and I hadn’t seen their new place. I was stoked too.

Christian is a charmer, just like his cousin Amelia. That little dude will have the ladies eating out of the palm of his hands. That is, once the guy learns how to talk. He’s a little late in that department, so I’m told. But the smiles, the mimicry, his boyish interests and choice of toys, the affection he shows for people once he knows them… ya, he’ll be a popular guy. Kathrine (Kit, after her Great Grandmother, Mary’s and my late “Nanna”) is lucky to have him as an older brother. She’s still a pink, drooling, smaller version of Mary, but if Christian is any indication, she ought to be a pretty cool kid too. Got to hand it to Mary and Steve. They’ve created a house and home that broods love and understanding, and it shows with how the two kids behave.

Christmas was the first time everyone got together since the two new babies arrived. Holy cow the family is getting big. Mom and Dad proudly counted their chicks around the table; 14 including grandchildren, spouses, and one postulated spouse; Alex’s Aaron. I played Santa with the suit I bought last year. Mo figured me out this go-round. I couldn’t hide my red beard under the white one and, oops, I wore my regular glasses. Can’t fool them forever, I guess.

Here’s a tip. Don’t go to Disneyland with a group of 14 family members… on Christmas (or, in this case, the observed weekday of such), during the 50th anniversary of D’land, on a day with nearly perfect weather, on the week of the reengineered Space Mountain’s reintroduction to the world… if you plan on getting in a bunch of rides. The big signs leading to the parking lot saying Disneyland was actually “Sold Out” (!?!?!?) meant it was going to be an interesting day from the get-go. Hooray Mom for pre-buying the tickets. That was her present to the gang, and it scored bigger than any gift-wrapped Toys-R-Us or REI widget (with one exception, I guess; see below). It had been about 10 years since I’d been there. It seems about half the size it was then. The crowds made it even smaller. But the time spent with the family, the fireworks display, and Mo’s squeals on Matterhorn made it a great day in spite of the lines and having to body-check our way to the next ride. Mary, Susan, Mo, and I were the last ones standing; we blitzed through 5 rides in the last hour before midnight… that’s the good-stuff right there.

After that, a day of work on the RFID gig, then on up to Tahoe to meet up with the buds. What a month-long weekend that was. We had a great day Thursday, except I had a pretty good spill over the Wave off chair 4. It was stupid, really. In the middle of a sweeping turn just above it, I looked down and saw my reflection in the ice. Uh oh. My feet came out from under me, I lost my left ski, saw the “cornice” sign as I slid by on my back, and went over the lip head first. I remember thinking “this ought to be fun; hope there’s no rocks”. Poof! I landed in a pile of fluffy goodness, tumbled, lost my other ski, and eventually stopped. A sprained thumb from the pole strap was the only injury. Thank you Landon for the REI gift certificate… the helmet came in handy that day. I can only assume someone else was also watching over me that moment. I thanked Him profusely and started hiking back up for my equipment.

The storms socked us in the cabin for the following three days straight. We partied in the New-Year by candlelight after the 80 mph gusts through the basin knocked out a power-pole in our neighborhood. Good-times to be had when you have 15 like-minded people in a dim, flickering house, good tunes provided by ipods and a battery-powered boom box, plenty of booze including a keg of Matt and Carlee’s latest brew (delicious), and a rousing game of poker. For a night, the weather and cabin-fever didn’t matter; we knew that patience would net us a nice powder-day soon enough. No kiss for this bachelor, though… woe is me.

The powder day came just in time. Monday after New Year’s was the big payoff, and it capped off 2005 perfectly.