I Had To Glue My Ass Back on This Morning

because I laughed it off last night. Kenny and Spenny raced rats. I texted Lynne, as I figured that noone would appreciate this debaucle more than rat-girl herself, but unfortunately she didn't get the message until this morning. I won't give away the ending, nor give away some of the tangential activities during the training week, but I will mention that there was a Capybara involved. This was especially funny to me, as it reminded me of one May 2-4, many moons ago, when we were sitting on Mac's cottage porch downtown Grand Bend, and sure as shit a Capybara went running by (only I was able to identify it thanks to being raised on National Geographic's Encyclopaedia of Mammals). Brilliant.

I have finally been bitten by Christmas spirit. As Friday was a light one (after a few congratulatory pints with Kevin and Carrie) that saw me in bed before 1:00, I was able to capitalize on Saturday morning Christmas shopping. Yes, Anderson has started her Christmas shopping a full 7 days before normal. I feel really on the ball. I also realized that if you can make it into the stores before noon, even 2 Saturdays before Christmas Eve, you will avoid the horrific onslaught of shoppers. So it wasn't even unpleasant. I'm not done yet, but there's a good dent in my list.

On Saturday evening, I went over to Michelle's for her first Annual British Christmas Abroad. She and Mary did a lovely job in preparing the turkey, roasting the potatoes, setting the table and organizing one all-in-all fantastic Christmas affair. And I finally realized what a good roasted potato is supposed to taste like. Unfortunately, this nagging cold finally got the better of me and I was not able to imbibe as much as I would have liked. However, I did go home with my first Christmas presents: a Martini Set and a little plastic deer that poos brown jellybeans.

And yesterday, after working for most of the day, my full Christmas Spirit kicked me in the ass and got me out to buy a teeny-tiny Christmas tree to put in my teeny-tiny apartment. So, now not only do I have some Christmas presents purchased, but they are also wrapped and under my 1.5 foot tree. So now, I'm ready for the great Homecoming of '05 to start on Saturday. It's only 5 days 'til Hessels.

Hockey for Southerners

I'm happy to report that after a weekend chock full o' coding, Stink almost has a lab that runs. Although if I hear another piano rendition of "The Plough", I think there might be a little bit of throw up.

After finishing up for the day on Saturday, we headed over to Laura and Mark's to meet Brianna after her Christening. That is one cute, cute kid. Very happy. Laura's brother was also up from Atlanta to enjoy all the snow and hockey that Canada has to offer. Which led to a conversation about Southern hockey. Which led Tim to list a couple of pro hockey teams located in Georgia. Which led to the conclusion that, while Southerners may not know much about hockey, they 'shore do know how to name their teams.

My Favorites:

The Florida Everblades
The Louisiana Ice Gators
(hee hee, took me a minute to get that pun)

And the coup de gras:

The Macon Whoopee (hailing from Macon, Georgia)

Note the Whoopee's team logo (it took us a few minutes to figure out what was going on with the birds and the bees).

These are all pro teams to boot.

And now I'm pumped to go watch the Leafs play the Kings tomorrow evening at the ACC with Michelle. My first NHL game. Unbelievable. How is it that the Brit has seen more Leafs games live than I?