Catching Up

So I have a bit of catch up to do with this post.

Thanksgiving weekend was great. After the feasting rituals, I introduced my mom to the awesomeness that is Madea by watching Madea Goes to Jail. As expected, she loved it; laughed so hard it hurt.

Friday during the day some cool kids came over and helped make Christmas cookies and drink egg nog and watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (new version). The cookies came out really well despite me almost messing up the dough. Jon was surprised by my cooking skillz, saying he had no idea I was “so domesticated.” What can I say, momma taught me well. Cool tip: chicks dig guys who can cook. Which explains why I have so.. many... *looks around* ... uhm... nevermind.

Friday night I got together with Matt, Sheryl, and Laurie for dinner at PF Chang's. This was a pretty fun and momentous occasion because we had not all been together as a group in probably 5 years. Good thing we planned it when we did, too, because Matt had just gotten a job in California and was leaving (has now gone) the next week. That's pretty awesome for him because he's a great animator and was getting tired of his job here; he'll have far better opportunities out there, obviously.

We did choose one of the busiest nights to be downtown - the same night they were lighting the “tree”. That made some things interesting, such as Matt getting locked out of the bank garage he parked in. He spent the night at my place and in the morning they just let him out without even charging him.

Clockwise from top left. 1) Laura, Myssi, me, and Jon sitting on a log. 2) “Watch my food”, Laurie said. Matt, Sheryl, and I watch it. 3) Beauties and the geek(s). Laurie, Sheryl, and me. 4) Matt holds up the wall.

Saturday night where did I end up? Downtown again. A group of us almost went to play hide-and-seek in the Hyatt, but since Suzi was feeling sickly she wasn't up for that. We went to Steak 'n Shake instead, then to the cheap-o theater to watch Pirates of the Carribean 2: How Corporate Whores Can Suck More Money Out of Pirate-Loving Audiences (I think that's only the working title). Ok, that might be a bit harsh; overall it was decent, but it was too long, too corny in parts, and I'm considering boycotting the 3rd movie just because of the lame tune-in-next-week ending.

Sunday was spent with Andrew and Laurie. Andrew lives in North Carolina these days and we have not seen him in a couple years, so it was fun to catch up with him, watch some of The Office (UK), go to church together, then - you guessed it - drive downtown around the circle to see the “tree” before dropping them off at home. Yep, three nights in a row downtown. Only that first night was it really crazy, though, and at least I was with good friends.

And one last thing, for whoever is bored enough to read this far. I have a new job! It's pretty much doing what I was before, programming PHP/MySQL/Perl, with the notable exception that it's work from home. The timing was perfect; my previous job told me a month ago that they would probably have to let me go by December (for various reasons which were not my fault; they liked me and my work). Thursday was my last day there, and I started this new job yesterday. Actually, I'm independent contracting with them for the month of December, but in January they will be making an offer for employment. Two days under my belt and I'm liking it pretty well so far. Check out my new office (with optional tomato soup and grilled cheese):