You know, I've mentioned several times on this here blog that I'm nothing if not a dirty, dirty liar. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to you two or three loyal readers that, even though I alluded to a Friday post, no Friday post happened. This, again, is because I am a contemptible liar (additionally: I'm lazy). With that out of the way, here come some letters strung together to form words and, dare I say, even sentences...

Christmas Shopping Is An Endeavor Best Completed In The Summer Months...
So on Friday evening, mostly because I had to return some junk that didn't work to the junk that doesn't work store, the wife and I thought to attempt to get some Christmas shopping out of the way. Of course, what we ended up doing was spending monies on items which we needed as opposed to getting things to give to others. This all means that we still have Christmas shopping to complete with shipping deadlines breathing down our collective neck. The only bright light amongst all of this commercially-driven gloom is that we did do a heavy bit of gift buying back when it was warm out, before the big holiday push began...The question, of course, to be asked here is did we buy YOUR gift before things got all panicked? Gosh, you'd better hope so...

A Hundred (or so) High School Kids, 4 Mats, 5 Officials, One Gym...
On Saturday I was one of 5 officials which were assigned to a specific JV wrestling tournament on the north end of town. As much as I love being a part of the sport and getting exercise and "making a difference," blah blah blah...Well...Tournaments are, if nothing else, just huge bacterial breeding grounds. Don't get me wrong, I'm not obsessive compulsive or anything, but you know that if you're on the same mats as these sweaty little (insert your choice of plural noun here) and you have to raise the hand of the sweaty winner after every match, you need to be careful about hygiene or you're gonna end up on the side of "sick" before everything's said and done. Thankfully I had opportunities to clean my hands a couple of times (specifically before I had lunch) and, as of today, I haven't come down with anything debilitating. All that aside, the tournament was a lot of fun to be part of...I had a handful of really good, close matches and, overall, the coaches and parents were pretty well behaved. I only had to warn one coach the whole day in regards to behavior and didn't have to hand out any misconduct penalties (which I consider a very good day).

It's Not The Deans' Party, But Then Again, The Deans Wouldn't Likely Invite People Like Us...
My aunt and uncle host an annual Christmas party which they kind of go all out for...This party happened to be Saturday evening and, since my dad does all of the party food, my mom needed to catch a ride up with the wife and I. Even though I would've gone anyway, I too had an assignment for the party in that I was the official bartender. See, my aunt and uncle are kind of in an unofficial competition when it comes to holiday parties with "the Deans." See, the Deans' party is THE holiday party 'round where they live and last year, the Deans had an official specialty drink at their party. As such, I was charged with concocting something for my aunt and uncle's party. I provided them with a list of several ideas, from which 2 were chosen. Both specialty drinks were ice cream based and contained booze which always mixes well with ice cream. Just so you all know, even though I was mostly exhausted from working the tournament, I had fun at the party and my drinks were very well received. Also, planning for NEXT year's big party has already begun...

I'd Love To Close With Something Witty But, As You've Likely Figured Out, Nothing Remarkable Happened This Weekend
So yeah, Sunday was filled with watching football and trying to finish up the holiday shopping. I wanted to get some holiday decorations up (including lights and other festive things for the exterior of the house) but the time, she just wasn't there. Maybe before Christmas, we'll get them lights up...Anyhow, as always, thanks for stopping by...You kids have a great Monday now...

Labels: lame stories, sports, stagnation