We got back last night from our cruise to Cozumel and had a great time! The sun was out, the boat was very nice (although decorated with a tad too much neon), the food was plentiful and yummy, and it was a wonderful way to celebrate our second anniversary and the end of my first semester back in school.
Ben on December 26th 2006 in Holidays, Travel/Vacation
Note: This post from Thanksgiving had been saved as a draft but never published, so I am finally bringing it out of the vault just in time for Valentine’s Day!
The best things about Thanksgiving (besides the sweet potatoes!) are the conversations around the breakfast and dinner tables. And the best things about those conversations are when the whole family gets to laughing because one of us heard something entirely wrong.
Case in point: My brother-in-law Ty has been named to the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. That’s a big deal, and so Anne wanted him to share the news with the family at Thanksgiving dinner. “Ty, share your big news,” she said.
“Ok,” said Ty. “I’m now on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank.”
“What!?” exclaimed my Dad. “You’re on the board of the Federal Homo Bank?”
And the mis-hearing isn’t limited to Mom and Dad. The next day for some reason we got to talking about my grandmother taking road trips. My sister Kathryn noted:
“Yep, she always had her pecan with her.”
At least that’s what I heard. I couldn’t figure out what bringing pecans on a road trip had to do with anything, but it finally dawned on me what Kath was talking about. It wasn’t her pecan, it was her little portable pee can!
Grandmother was always one to be prepared for any emergency!
Ben on November 28th 2006 in Family & friends, Holidays
We had a good old-fashioned American July 4th.
We started the day watching a classic movie set in the aftermath of the Civil War, if you count Sommersby starring Richard Gere and Jodi Foster as a classic.
We then proceeded to Hunky’s Hamburgers in the Bishop Arts District for a nice 4th meal of a cheeseburger, onion rings and a Coke.
On the way to Little Mom’s house in Plano, we had to stop off at a McDonalds, so I topped off the Hunky’s meal with a nice 2 for $2 set of hot apple pies.
By that time, my knee was hurting like the dickens for some unknown reason, so I spent most of the rest of the day on the couch cuddled up with an ice pack as we watched more movies. I went to the doctor yesterday and she gave me some good drugs, which helped, so I’m back among the living today.
Around 9:30 p.m., we did try piling in the car to see if we could find the Plano fireworks show. It turns out we left a little too late, as all we saw were some faint glimpses of fireworks off in the distance and a line of taillights of other cars also trying to get to the fireworks.
So let’s recap: so-so movies, cheeseburgers and onion rings, McDonalds apple pie, and a traffic jam, followed by overmedication. Yep, I would say we had a very American Fourth, indeed!
Ben on July 6th 2006 in Holidays
Chelsea had an interesting experience when she called Cingular 411 a couple of times yesterday to get phone numbers. (I wish 411 had a frequent caller program, because she would be their number one caller.)
The computer voice came on and said “Cingular 411,” just like usual.
Then — “Happy Groundhog Day!”
The voice asked for city and state, the listing she was looking for, and then said, “Okay, I’ll connect you at no additional charge. Happy Groundhog Day!”
So, she got wished a happy Groundhog Day not once but twice by the Cingular computer voice. I didn’t know Groundhog Day was such a big holiday that you should wish others a happy one!
We decided that maybe it’s the only non-controversial holiday left that companies can endorse without getting in trouble. At SMU, we’ve decided not to send a happy holidays card next year because it offended those who wanted to hear us say Merry Christmas. We’re probably going for a Happy New Year card, with our fingers crossed that it doesn’t offend anybody who celebrates Chinese New Year.
Our anniversary, Christmas and New Year’s are all in a span of three short weeks! Gotta love it. This year, Chel decorated the Bug since we didn’t get the car decorated a year ago at our actual wedding drive-off, and we cruised to Fort Worth to visit some sentimental places and have a great dinner at Reata downtown.
I say Christmas, but apparently how you fill in the blank is the source of much controversy this year. At SMU, we got berated by a number of alumni for wishing folks a happy holiday season instead of a Merry Christmas. Some alumni said they won’t ever donate to SMU again and others asked to be taken off our e-mail list. I say good riddance, because I think they’re missing the love that the season is all about, anyway.
To start out Christmas morning (while I’m waiting for everybody else to wake up), I took CNN’s holiday spirit test and ended up somewhere in the middle on their scale. But for 7:30 in the morning I’m feeling pretty full of Christmas spirit and thankful for all the family and friends I’ll get to spend time with this week. So have yourself a merry little Christmas!
After I emptied my inbox into neatly-organized folders and threw away the little remaining Christmas junk food that my coworkers and our vendors bestowed upon me, I naturally decided to spend the rest of my holding-down-the-fort time goofing off, surfing the web. I found an interesting story about hurricane evacuees living on cruise ships and don’t know quite what to think of it.
Tonight the fam and I are headed to scope out the Christmas lights in Highland Park, one of the more hoity-toity neighborhoods in Dallas. It should be a good way to get in the Christmas spirit, although the last time Chelsea and I were in Highland Park was rather unsettling. We went to see Syriana at the little movie theater there and were blown away by both the movie and the crowd’s reaction to it.
“I don’t think I’m in Highland Park anymore.”
The movie interweaves several different plots to show how lives big and small are affected by the merger of two oil companies and the political battles for Middle Eastern drilling rights. I think the point in the end is that all the political battles, all the fights for money and power are useless, because in the end we’re all off to another place (i.e. heaven) anyhoo. It was clear leaving the theater that most of the Highland Parkies didn’t interpret it that way. A good number of them thought that the movie was endorsing terrorism and how dare they portray big oil execs as bad people. I don’t think there were really good people or bad people in the movie, just conflicted people, misguided people, all struggling for meaningless power.
So it’s back to Highland Park tonight, as soon as I get done holding down the fort. Merry Christmas Eve Eve.
It’s the time of year to stuff yourself silly with Christmas food. My favorite has to be English toffee…but I’m not too picky. Unless, of course, you’re using Weight Watchers recipe cards from the 1970s. Yum!