Been busy for the past week. Anyone noting the entry ID number on this post will notice that this is from last year. This is true: I started writing an entry about what I got for Christmas. I started in draft, and got really busy.

For any of you wondering, a partial list is below:

 

WHAT I GAVE:

• Amanda:
• a Victoria's Secret gift card (Juvenile comments from the peanut gallery will be deleted.)
• a bottle of perfume: Ralph Lauren Blue
• a $20 IOU because underarmour.com can't keep their inventory straight.

   

   

  Other:

• A Yankee Candle-in-a-jar to the "$20 Dirty Santa" pool, eventually to Forrest Forbes.
• A golf disc each to my brother & sister-in-law
• An Eeyore mug & pin (which will be converted to an ornament) to my mom
• A Team Fortress 2 wall poster, showing off Sasha, the Heavy Weapons Guy's mini-gun (thing weighs over 340 lb, I can't imagine there's much "mini" about it) to my brother
• An LSU straw hat to my dad (FINALLY something he'll wear)
• A beating to the Wii computer in Wii Boxing: 4 knockdowns but no knockout. I swear that clock is much too fast.

WHAT I GOT:

• XM Radio (from Amanda)
• A nifty little pot scrubber from the "$20 Dirty Santa" pool (beats getting one of the 5 bottles of Crown Royal, or the bottle of Amaretto, or the fifth of Jack Daniels, or...)
• $30 gift card to Tangier Outlet mall in Gonzales, LA (from Mom & Dad)
• $25 gift card to JC Penney (from Mom & Dad)
• $50 gift card to Walmart (from Mom & Dad)
• A nice corduroy jacket (from Mom & Dad) (Came in handy: I had only packed T-shirts and the temperatures dropped to freezing in Monroe.)
• A spiffy blue McNeese polo shirt, with an unnecessarily athletic fabric (from Mom & Dad)
• $50 in Best Buy gift cards (from Amanda's parents & sister & brother-in-law)
• $10 cash (from Amanda's paternal grandmother)
• Embarrassed at Wii baseball. I knew hitting was my weak point, but good grief: I scored 1 run in 6 games against Amanda! (3 were 0-0 ties)

This past weekend, Amanda & I went to Lake Charles for Saturday & Sunday. Why? Well, I needed a haircut, and I was thoroughly unimpressed with SuperCuts last time: I could get a better $8 cut at home than what I paid $14 for here. No, the price of gas didn't justify, but the existence of family did.

 

While we were at my parents' house, the local news ran a story about a Titanic exhibit at the old courthouse in town. I got the opportunity to show Amanda one of the most non-cookie-cutter fast food joints in Louisiana (a Wendy's that used to be a Hardee's that used to be a bank lobby), the place where I worked the summer & winter before going to Ohio (and meeting her ), and where 4 Gators on the Geaux (some cast concrete alligators scattered around Lake Charles, another entry) SHOULD have been. Unfortunately, some miscreants have sought to vandalize these bits of local art (like Seattle does pigs).

Like I said: another entry.

 

Back to the exhibit, I'm not sure if any of you have been to a Titanic exhibit, (and I think that this is a thing they do at most of them), but they gave us each a boarding pass of a passenger of the ill-fated ship. Mine: Benjamin Hart, a second class passenger en route to Canadia. He didn't survive the wreck.

 

I don't know if I'd feel a bigger connection if I had a relative on the ship, but in all honesty I don't care that much. I chalk it up to Man saying "I've accounted for everything; this plan I have made cannot fail." and God replying "Ha. I'll show you what your ego net you." With all the engineering statements and all the ice in the water, there's something to be said for tempting fate.

 

Time to go back into hiding.

 

Geaux Tigers.

 

-KIE