1 Pink Nightmare, 1 Pretty in Pink

Mom found this Ralphie bobblehead for us. You can see a scenario where Ralphie hated his Aunt's homemade clothes so much that he turned to the drink.

Jennie and I went to Mom's tonight for Pizza. Mom will have her back operated on tomorrow to correct a couple of degenerative discs. I hope this will fix the pain she's been going through the past couple years. She tougher than any of us. I know I'd whining like a sissy if I was going through the every day pain she's gone through.

Unfortunately she'll be laid up for Xmas. She may not even be home from the rehab facility.

Wish her well. There's no sweeter person than Trudie.

Building Character

In other words, we got our asses kicked.

Ipswich lost their opener by 14 points to North Reading tonight.

Co-Captain Joey looked good. I was especially proud of the cheap shot he gave to a kid by hacking him from behind to prevent a basket. The other coach was yelling for an intentional foul, which wasn't called.

I always believed that if the other team was running away with the game and getting too confident, knock them down a peg with a well timed hatchet job.

Next game Friday.

The other bad part about the game was that the parents of the Captains have to help out. Brenda and I had to sell 50/50 raffle tickets. I hate that job. Walking up to strangers asking for money....I've never been good at it. I wish Diane was there. She could have taken over that role for us.

The party may be over...

...but the hors d'ouvres linger on. Day three: cheese, pate, pear tartlets and onion tart. These were the aging food offerings that I brought to Denise's house for our dvd night. (The 'Lark Rise to Candleford' episode was especially good tonight as Miss Margaret and Thomas the postman finally come to an 'understanding' (that's an engagement for all you 21st century folks) after much misunderstanding.)
Only one more onion tartlet to go and the party will be officially digested.

Maturity Ranking

Dan and Chris know their way around a camera pose... always great to see our newly married friends.

But the party turned into a rumble as Aaron takes a swing at Chris. Tensions reached a fever pitch when Chris "allegedly" took the last pear tartlet from Whitney. Aaron had to come to the defense of his wife. It was a matter of honor ... and pear tartlets....

She proud of her man... and as a peace offering gave Chris the last pear tartlet.

Tony rocked a combination Southwest/Reindeer look. It was a huge fashion risk to combine his new python skin boots with his antler head gear. But as you can see, it totally paid off.

Bret joined the party for the first time as an adult. He and his mohawk were probably surprised to see that there were no other adults at this party. Then again, he's been around us enough to realized that he would be hard pressed to find anyone mature at our gathering.

Which makes me want to create a list; ranking the maturity level of our party guests:

Least mature

Jen - I can't imagine much debate here

Bill - Jen beats me because of her penchant to burp loudly

Dave - really just a large child... a child with a large head

Most mature

Dan - he carries himself with a polish that none of us can touch

Peter - his UK accent makes him seem sophisticated

Aaron - the drop off here is dramatic. Aron only gets this position because he writes about big-boy topics

Martha - would have ranked higher before she told her hitchhiking stories

The greatness of our friends is their ability to zip in and out of high and low brow topics.

Thanks to all for a fun night.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Another Christmas Party has come and gone at Atwood. While this blog can't possibly recap every fun filled moment we will attempt to capture the highlights.
First, of course, is this year's parlor game created by Bill and Photoshop. Everyone loves to see themselves as a cartoon. (that's really how I see myself all the time.) Now guests know what they would look like if they had their own show Saturday morning between Hong Kong Fooey and Super Friends. Movie quotes added to the excitement. How did Bill think that no one would remember "Mom always said, don't play ball in the house!"?

And then - the pear tartlets arrived accompanied by our favorite tart and tartlet - Lisa and Steve.


Steve and Bill obviously had the following text exchange before the party.
"What R U wearing?"
"OMG fab new blk v-nk. You?"
"Was going 2 wear pink shirt, green vest and plaid pants. But also have fab blk v-nk"
This is very subdued for my dude.

A festive overhead photo shot by the party paparazzi.

New comers Jessica and Dmitri fit right in. Jessica is obviously skilled at party socializing and was sure to ask people she met how they knew me. This brought out some oldies but goodies, all relating to my favorite subject (me). Watch for J & D next year!

Too many photos to post so this will have to be a multiple post update.

Party Notes:
Aaron - google points me to Edward Burns "Nice Guy Johnny". Is this the movie you meant?
http://www.niceguyjohnnythemovie.com/

Jessica - the dining room is painted in chocolate pudding by Benjamin Moore
http://www.myperfectcolor.com/Match-of-Benjamin-Moore-1014-Chocolate-Pudding-p/mpc0005365.htm

A Christmas Story

She's with the band... Jennie is a big fan of the local community saxophone band, The Big Sax of Newburyport.

That was just a bad little joke. Really though Newburyport had our Invitation Night. The few weekends preceding Christmas the town is abuzz as the stores stay open late, serve free drinks and create the perfect old tyme holiday mood.

The stores were completely packed. Undeterred, Jen pushed her way through her favorite store, The British Store. She didn't need to buy me any Curly Wurly's (the UK equivalent of Marathon Bars) because I brought home a few from our Ireland trip.

48 hours and one party prepper down

At some point between work and home Bill developed a migraine headache - the worst I have ever seen him. He went directly to bed. I'm not even sure he took off his shoes. I went out to get the Christmas tree by myself but Tendercrop was closed (when did they start closing at 6:30?!?) So needless to say, we are not making a lot of headway in the party preparations tonight other than the batch of chex mix that I whipped up. I think I might be the only person who actually eats chex mix - it seems like sort of a retro party food but I find it addicting and it's my party. (New plan - go to Tendercrop at 9am to get the tree in the morning to give it time to 'fall' before decorating it tomorrow night. My timeline is shrinking!!!)

Meanwhile the camera is in the dark bedroom with Bill and I do not want to sneak around looking for it. I'm a rather noisy sneaker. Instead I'm posting a picture of Bill in happier days sampling the whiskey on one of our snow bound days in Dublin.


Hopefully tomorrow will be a brighter day for Bill.

Welcome Home, Peabody!!

Poor Peabody was left in Kilkenny on the very first day of our trip. With fear in my heart I emailed Yvonne at Butler Court to ask, "Did you happen to find a little monkey in our room?"
All of the joy and happiness of the vacation was hinging on her reply. Thankfully, Peabody was found fraternizing with the cleaning staff (telling them how to do their jobs more effectively, no doubt) so Yvonne bubble wrapped him for his long journey home. I would lying if I didn't admit that it got a little misty in the kitchen when I saw his familiar head peeping out of the packaging. We missed you, Peabody!

We don't have Tennille, but we do have .........

Jennie gives the thumb up which is the universal symbol for "sweet!", while at the same time giving the "C" which is the universal symbol for JOEY WAS NAMED CAPTAIN OF THE IPSWICH HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL TEAM! He's actually co-captain. We're really proud of him. He had to give a speech in front of the team on why he should be chosen. I think his speech centered around how you have to be a special leader to overcome the yoke of having parents like Jen and I.

Go Tigers! First home game next Tuesday.

Career tip #155 - don't talk to VP of Sales about drag show

Last night we went to this show to bring in the holiday season. We go to all the Gold Dust Orphan drag shows. They are all campy and crude and really funny. The show is held at Machine, across from Fenway Park. It's other name is The Ramrod and as the name not so subtly suggests is a gay club.

When we went in we got a Ramrod stamp. I didn't think anything more about it until work today.

I was in a meeting with the VP of Sales and he noticed the stamp. I started telling him about the show and remembered that he is a pretty conservative guy. I changed the subject and got back to the hiring update report.

I thought it wouldn't have done my career any good to tell him about the guy who wore a kilt with nothing underneath and how Jen, Stacey and Diane were craning their necks to get a better view of his frank and beans.