Seasonal Recap
Dec. 27th, 2005 12:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseIf I haven't wished you Merry Christmas in some way on the actual day, rest assured that the wish was sent, if in silence as if a prayer. And if I have not replied to your merry wishings, rest assured, they were read and felt. Though, admittedly, some were read today...
The rest of this will be scattered among general seasonal ephemera.
Chrismtas Eve service went very well. My mom made it after all. The choir did very well -- I think we fell ragged on one song, which, alas, is the one the organist actually wrote for us. Some people noticed and agree, some said they didn'thear anything,a dn it was very lovely and poetical. Since some of the altter are people who hear us most weeks, adn thus know what we're capable of, I believe they were sincere.
One of the things about being in the choir is that it's harder, in a service where every second item is, quite literally, a song, with or without the congregation, you're too busy to get really truly reverent for much of the service. Loraine did manage to draw out a bit of the feeling when she spoke, and patrick does a farily good reading, but in all honesty, the service which had me feeling more of the whole "Jesus is born" joy was the Christmas Day noon service, led by Jordan, where the reading of Luke was from a translation that, like the Huron/Wendat Carol, sets it in an Aboriginal locale (Forest Cree, I would guess - definitely Canadian Shield) though the pattern and order of sentences, and more of the wording than you'd think was kept the same.
Absolutely, totally and utterly too many dinners:
- Last Sunday: Colin's sister and Brother-in law form Ottawa.
- Last Wednesday -At Colin's aunt's, also with sister and brother-in-law.
- Friday - Over to old family friends.
- Christmas Eve - Mom's place, with us, my brother, Mom, and Grandma.
- Christmas day - Extended family, over at my uncle's.
- Tonight - one more foray to Colin's aunt's.
All of which included far too much main course (Though only two featured turkey, and at the extended family gathering, I managed to eat neither turkey not smashed potatoes without missing either. We've still got leftovers from Sunday, and they won't last much longer.) and all included dessert, and most included dainties. Some, yes, I resisted. But most were after the stated deadline, so I went ahead.
Plus, there were also two other social activities - the choir's post Christmas-Eve service party, and the Agape meal service Christmas day (Which food-wise was relatively light).
I like Colin's aunt, but I could really have done with an evening at home tonight, without being sociable, and eating a light dinner. In fact, were it not for the fact that i do like seeing my relatives and wouldn't mind doing it mroe often, I could actually have gone hermit by Christmas day.
Ah, well.
For the Agape meal, I signed on to bring buns. I asked if I could get them as a donation at work, Danny said yes, so I decided that, instead of the three or four dozen I'd ahve bought (Knowing that others were bringing bread, and that the church wasn't expecting high attendance), I just went ahead and requested ten dozen.
And promptly forgot that the whole plant would be closing by three PM on Christmas Eve. Or rather, forgot I ahd anything to pick up then. So, when I remember at 3:30, on the way to mom's place... I called the office, the shipping atrea (Just in case), then my manager's Cell. He called back within a few minutes, and gave me the number of the person who would be within easy reach of the building and who could unlock it all (I have the back door code, but not the one for the alarm...) Said person, when I phoned, was about to leave for his own family dinner. BUt he did stay by the bakery until we showed, about 20 minutes later.
So the church got their 10 dozen buns -- bout 7 dozen of which went in the freezer to use for the usual weekly Oak Table activities. (Which is about how many I would have expected had we been the ONLY provider of bread. We ahd more people show than expected.)
Presents were appropriately evil. Colin had requested 24 Pairs of identical black socks, and I took him at his word. He found three pairs in his stocking. Then he opened his first present, and under the first two layers of wrapping, he found three pair, themselves wrapped aorund another two layers of wrapping. Those revealed another two pair... and a solid wrapped object that was one of his major gifts. And the giant box full of white tissue paper, interspersed with coloured pieces, wrapepda round... well, except for the copy of the Third Hitchiker's Guide tot he Galaxy radio series, which was bundled somewhere in there.
I wasn't nearly as mean to my brother. After one easy-to-spot item, he pulled out one of the wrapped bundles from the bottom of the box, and unwrapped it to find a piece of cardboard with a note; "This is just a mysterious, solid, wrapped up object to confuse you. Keep digging." Kitty corner to that was the real second ahlf of the present. There were, in fact, hints int he tissue paper as to which side was correct and which was doing to lead to cardboard, but jeff pulled it all out too fast to note that the "cardboard" side was the side with the only BLACK tissue paper scraps.
Then Colin upstaged me. The last present I unrwapped, I could feel clearly through the wrapping was a slightly leger than usual hardcover book. I opened it, and found a plain black book, no dustcover. Since I sdid actually request a couple of old books, I looked at the spine: Brain Research, 1971.
I flipped it open. The man had HAND CUT out all the middles of the pages to fit the First season DVD of Veronica Mars.
He was almost as bad to my brother; actually, I think more clever, because what he did is a trick I haven't seen before, and I have seen things hidden in books, though not usually that obviously hand trimmed, or that thick a book.
Jeff's present was two boxes, tied together with ribbon. This stack was weirdly top heavy, and the heavier upper box... sloshed. He tore off the ribbon after a srtruggle to untie it, then started to lift the upper box - which insisted on sliding off diagonally, at the angle Colin had had to wedge the hard-cover role-playing book to fit even in the two boxes. The sloshing was a bottle of Coca Cola fit into the remaining hollow space. (If my brother ever stops drinking the stuff, they will notice the dip in profits.)
But the weird thing is the CD my brother gave me (Sarah Slean's Night Bugs); when I put it in the player, it registered two tracks - even when I tried again. So I played it, and the first two tracks played. Looking at the CD, yes, that's about the amount of data actually written onto it. There are supposed to be Eleven. That, I'd say, is one of the odder bits of damage I've ever seen on a disc. Well, Jeff did find the receipt. And the first two tracks are good enough to convince me to hunt out the rest.
Today -- I finally got through hammering out a scene I started struggling with Christmas Eve. I did zero novel-writing in the week before the holiday, though I got most of a review written. Alas, on the work computer, and I didn't e-mail it to myself, so I couldn't finish it. No work tomorrow, so i mean to get the next novelly bits ready. Sigh. I Blame part of the gap in writing on one of those annoying realizations. I'd read someone's rant about unfair lvoe triangles, where one person is plainly so much worse for the love interest thahn the other. I'd decided I hadn't really done that with any of the branches of my love-septangle (Or however many sides the thing has) -- but not only had I done so, I'd done so with a character who'd needed more fleshing out anyhow. So. New solution. Make him nicer. Also, make protagonist less nice about oen thing, which I already knew he had issues with. Yay! Headache... but the result, as usual, should be a better book.
And I started watching Veronica Mars, figuring I'd go one episode, two if it was promising - I went three. Those who've said it's good... so far, you're right. Those who liked Buffy but haven't watched this - fewer demons, more Nancy Drew, but you'd probably like the feel.
Other gifts of note (Received, that is. Some of the gifts to be given haven't been yet...):
- Madrigaia's Pleaides. Beautiful a capella work from various cultures.
- Terry Pratchett's Thud! (Who can ever argue with getting Terry Pratchett?)
- A tiny stocking-stuffer thing, price-wise, but nice - Colin spotted a copy of something like the only Diana Wynne Jones book I don't have but do want (Eight days of Luke), remaindered. Since I was right beside him at the time, you'd tink I'd have remembered. Nope.
- Caroline Stevermer's Scholarly Magics (A Book Club collection including both A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics. Admittedly, I already had a copy of the former. Now to find someone to force it on, since it's a fabulous, fabulous book that should be shoved into the hands of as many friends as possible -- well, who like fantasy.)
- And yes, like everyone else SF-ish, it seems, I now have a copy of Serenity.
The rest of this will be scattered among general seasonal ephemera.
Chrismtas Eve service went very well. My mom made it after all. The choir did very well -- I think we fell ragged on one song, which, alas, is the one the organist actually wrote for us. Some people noticed and agree, some said they didn'thear anything,a dn it was very lovely and poetical. Since some of the altter are people who hear us most weeks, adn thus know what we're capable of, I believe they were sincere.
One of the things about being in the choir is that it's harder, in a service where every second item is, quite literally, a song, with or without the congregation, you're too busy to get really truly reverent for much of the service. Loraine did manage to draw out a bit of the feeling when she spoke, and patrick does a farily good reading, but in all honesty, the service which had me feeling more of the whole "Jesus is born" joy was the Christmas Day noon service, led by Jordan, where the reading of Luke was from a translation that, like the Huron/Wendat Carol, sets it in an Aboriginal locale (Forest Cree, I would guess - definitely Canadian Shield) though the pattern and order of sentences, and more of the wording than you'd think was kept the same.
Absolutely, totally and utterly too many dinners:
- Last Sunday: Colin's sister and Brother-in law form Ottawa.
- Last Wednesday -At Colin's aunt's, also with sister and brother-in-law.
- Friday - Over to old family friends.
- Christmas Eve - Mom's place, with us, my brother, Mom, and Grandma.
- Christmas day - Extended family, over at my uncle's.
- Tonight - one more foray to Colin's aunt's.
All of which included far too much main course (Though only two featured turkey, and at the extended family gathering, I managed to eat neither turkey not smashed potatoes without missing either. We've still got leftovers from Sunday, and they won't last much longer.) and all included dessert, and most included dainties. Some, yes, I resisted. But most were after the stated deadline, so I went ahead.
Plus, there were also two other social activities - the choir's post Christmas-Eve service party, and the Agape meal service Christmas day (Which food-wise was relatively light).
I like Colin's aunt, but I could really have done with an evening at home tonight, without being sociable, and eating a light dinner. In fact, were it not for the fact that i do like seeing my relatives and wouldn't mind doing it mroe often, I could actually have gone hermit by Christmas day.
Ah, well.
For the Agape meal, I signed on to bring buns. I asked if I could get them as a donation at work, Danny said yes, so I decided that, instead of the three or four dozen I'd ahve bought (Knowing that others were bringing bread, and that the church wasn't expecting high attendance), I just went ahead and requested ten dozen.
And promptly forgot that the whole plant would be closing by three PM on Christmas Eve. Or rather, forgot I ahd anything to pick up then. So, when I remember at 3:30, on the way to mom's place... I called the office, the shipping atrea (Just in case), then my manager's Cell. He called back within a few minutes, and gave me the number of the person who would be within easy reach of the building and who could unlock it all (I have the back door code, but not the one for the alarm...) Said person, when I phoned, was about to leave for his own family dinner. BUt he did stay by the bakery until we showed, about 20 minutes later.
So the church got their 10 dozen buns -- bout 7 dozen of which went in the freezer to use for the usual weekly Oak Table activities. (Which is about how many I would have expected had we been the ONLY provider of bread. We ahd more people show than expected.)
Presents were appropriately evil. Colin had requested 24 Pairs of identical black socks, and I took him at his word. He found three pairs in his stocking. Then he opened his first present, and under the first two layers of wrapping, he found three pair, themselves wrapped aorund another two layers of wrapping. Those revealed another two pair... and a solid wrapped object that was one of his major gifts. And the giant box full of white tissue paper, interspersed with coloured pieces, wrapepda round... well, except for the copy of the Third Hitchiker's Guide tot he Galaxy radio series, which was bundled somewhere in there.
I wasn't nearly as mean to my brother. After one easy-to-spot item, he pulled out one of the wrapped bundles from the bottom of the box, and unwrapped it to find a piece of cardboard with a note; "This is just a mysterious, solid, wrapped up object to confuse you. Keep digging." Kitty corner to that was the real second ahlf of the present. There were, in fact, hints int he tissue paper as to which side was correct and which was doing to lead to cardboard, but jeff pulled it all out too fast to note that the "cardboard" side was the side with the only BLACK tissue paper scraps.
Then Colin upstaged me. The last present I unrwapped, I could feel clearly through the wrapping was a slightly leger than usual hardcover book. I opened it, and found a plain black book, no dustcover. Since I sdid actually request a couple of old books, I looked at the spine: Brain Research, 1971.
I flipped it open. The man had HAND CUT out all the middles of the pages to fit the First season DVD of Veronica Mars.
He was almost as bad to my brother; actually, I think more clever, because what he did is a trick I haven't seen before, and I have seen things hidden in books, though not usually that obviously hand trimmed, or that thick a book.
Jeff's present was two boxes, tied together with ribbon. This stack was weirdly top heavy, and the heavier upper box... sloshed. He tore off the ribbon after a srtruggle to untie it, then started to lift the upper box - which insisted on sliding off diagonally, at the angle Colin had had to wedge the hard-cover role-playing book to fit even in the two boxes. The sloshing was a bottle of Coca Cola fit into the remaining hollow space. (If my brother ever stops drinking the stuff, they will notice the dip in profits.)
But the weird thing is the CD my brother gave me (Sarah Slean's Night Bugs); when I put it in the player, it registered two tracks - even when I tried again. So I played it, and the first two tracks played. Looking at the CD, yes, that's about the amount of data actually written onto it. There are supposed to be Eleven. That, I'd say, is one of the odder bits of damage I've ever seen on a disc. Well, Jeff did find the receipt. And the first two tracks are good enough to convince me to hunt out the rest.
Today -- I finally got through hammering out a scene I started struggling with Christmas Eve. I did zero novel-writing in the week before the holiday, though I got most of a review written. Alas, on the work computer, and I didn't e-mail it to myself, so I couldn't finish it. No work tomorrow, so i mean to get the next novelly bits ready. Sigh. I Blame part of the gap in writing on one of those annoying realizations. I'd read someone's rant about unfair lvoe triangles, where one person is plainly so much worse for the love interest thahn the other. I'd decided I hadn't really done that with any of the branches of my love-septangle (Or however many sides the thing has) -- but not only had I done so, I'd done so with a character who'd needed more fleshing out anyhow. So. New solution. Make him nicer. Also, make protagonist less nice about oen thing, which I already knew he had issues with. Yay! Headache... but the result, as usual, should be a better book.
And I started watching Veronica Mars, figuring I'd go one episode, two if it was promising - I went three. Those who've said it's good... so far, you're right. Those who liked Buffy but haven't watched this - fewer demons, more Nancy Drew, but you'd probably like the feel.
Other gifts of note (Received, that is. Some of the gifts to be given haven't been yet...):
- Madrigaia's Pleaides. Beautiful a capella work from various cultures.
- Terry Pratchett's Thud! (Who can ever argue with getting Terry Pratchett?)
- A tiny stocking-stuffer thing, price-wise, but nice - Colin spotted a copy of something like the only Diana Wynne Jones book I don't have but do want (Eight days of Luke), remaindered. Since I was right beside him at the time, you'd tink I'd have remembered. Nope.
- Caroline Stevermer's Scholarly Magics (A Book Club collection including both A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics. Admittedly, I already had a copy of the former. Now to find someone to force it on, since it's a fabulous, fabulous book that should be shoved into the hands of as many friends as possible -- well, who like fantasy.)
- And yes, like everyone else SF-ish, it seems, I now have a copy of Serenity.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
book mangling
Date: 2005-12-28 03:10 am (UTC)Colin (a man of many socks)
Re: book mangling
Date: 2005-12-29 09:41 pm (UTC)But I'm impressed with this book mangling, and they can probably guess what I'd do to you if you hurt one of the books I own.