Hello
family! Here’s what’s been going on since our last email.
Thanksgiving week
was nice for us. We worked Monday and Tuesday and took the rest of
the week off. Susan and I were tasked to bring
pre-Thanksgiving snacks and bread to supplement the main
meal. We probably made a little too much as we brought homemade Chex-mix,
bacon-wrapped lil’ smokies, M&Ms, a pickle/olive platter, onion dip and
chips, and various deli meat-wrapped cheese. I ended up snacking
enough that I was hardly hungry for turkey. In one way I was lucky as the
stuffing was absolutely terrible. I previously thought I liked
basically all stuffing but was proven incorrect. I believe I masked
my disappointment relatively well as I didn’t want to offend the person who
perpetrated the food crime. It was a lesson learned and I will make
sure to know who is preparing the stuffing at our next family
gathering. If need be I’ll happily bring some myself.
The day
after Thanksgiving we went to visit an old friend’s new business
location. Dan Cichon was a delivery driver when I worked at Domino’s
Pizza back in high school that we’ve kept up with. Many years ago he
developed his own tasty hot sauces and has made a budding business out of
it. The old Village Inn at Wadsworth and highway 285
is now serving as his kitchen, distribution center, and store front. The
process of moving in and fully establishing the space is ongoing and he gave us
a tour of the facilities. Dan works very hard and I hope someday his
company rivals Tabasco in size (it’s already much better tasting in my opinion).
On Sunday we drove Tia
(our 1997 Miata) in a winter-series autocross. During the colder
months the local region holds events that don’t count towards season points and
are generally much more relaxed. Not nearly as many people show up
and thus a lot more driving versus standing around commences. We
ended up going along with several other rallycross peoples. Because we
have some history autocrossing Susan and I were asked to help out more than one
normally would. We were in charge of assigning workers and also working
in the timing truck. Autocross is the most popular of the racing
that the SCCA provides in Colorado (as well as the rest of the country) and
thus the equipment is more expensive and tailor-made for the
sport. Susan and I were not impressed and found some basic issues in
how it works. Perhaps not surprisingly we prefer the more basic approach
used in our local rallycross events (yay Excel!). Tia seemed to be
running fine but Susan noticed quite a bit of oil where we were parking her between
runs. Evidently the car leaks a lot of oil when pushed hard and upon
checking the levels we found it was around a quart down from where it was when
we left home in the morning. A quick drive to the nearest gas
station yielded a few quarts of oil and Tia managed to make it the rest of the
morning. The car also was driven by our friend Jeff in the afternoon
and only lost another half-quart in that time. It seems some major
seals aren’t holding well so we’ll have a little work to do soon. Besides
the drama of Tia leaking her lifeblood all over we had a great
time. Driving these little cars is always exciting and there was
much sliding about.
We celebrated our 15th going-out-anniversary
the next Saturday with a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to see
the Mythbusters exhibit and dinner at Vesta Dipping Grill. The
exhibit was interesting and very interactive. We enjoyed it but
thought it would have been a lot more fun if we were kids. Vesta was
great (as always). Susan experimented and got duck for her main
course while I stuck to my usual chicken. Very yummy!
The next weekend was
work holiday party time. On the evening of Friday of 13th Susan
and I went to her employer’s holiday party at the History Colorado
Museum. You all in the core family will remember that we took
pictures there during our 2012 reunion. The night was enjoyable for
us and the food was tasty. We were allowed to
walk through some of the exhibits and we made the most of
it. On Sunday Susan went with Kari to her employer’s holiday party
at a bowling alley. They each played five games and were both very
sore for the next several days.
Susan and I were able
to finagle taking off a whole week through Christmas from
work. We spent the time hanging with the pugs and getting ready for
having family over on Christmas day. On Christmas Eve we went up to
John and Karen’s for dinner and the gift exchange. We brought Sophie
up with us and she was relatively good. She spent much of her time
looking for Susan when she wasn’t right next to her and begging for
food. I can’t complain too much as it was my idea to bring her
along. Karen made a family favorite beef and cheese macaroni
casserole dish which was wonderful. The gift exchange was fun and Susan
and I made out like bandits with our goodies. We stayed until past
midnight talking about this and that.
The next morning had
us prepping the turkey and putting it in the oven. This was our
second turkey we’ve cooked, we bought it from Costco. We wanted a
big one for leftovers and had to look around a bit to find ours which was 20
lbs (you may have read a little about the shortages on larger turkeys this
year). We did have issues finding a pop-out turkey
timer. We ended up ordering from Amazon after looking at two
different Wal-Marts, a King Soopers, and our local Safeway. Just in
case they didn’t ship in time we went to a third Wal-Mart and found timers
(we now have extras).
It was a smallish
gathering for the meal this year with John, Karen, Alvin, Kari, Susan and
myself in attendance. Of course, the pugs were underfoot when we
cooked and sitting around our feet watching for scraps while we
ate. Karen brought stuffing and Kari brought ingredients and whipped
up green bean casserole on the spot. Susan skinned potatoes and I
mashed and mixed them with sour cream, green onions, bacon, and cheddar cheese
(I figured they were a bit too bland at Thanksgiving). After
the turkey was done I asked John to cut it using his handy electric
knife. I guess Alvin was the only one who didn’t participate but
he’s always good to have around just in case something breaks. All
the food was excellent and we were collectively stuffed.
After the meal was
cleaned up our neighbors and some other friends came by for a white
elephant. There were some great gifts given a few I would put in the
bizarre category. Susan ended up with a little picture frame and a
pug statue and I got a women’s shake weight. One of our
contributions was a puzzle pack we cobbled together consisting of 3-D puzzles of
varying degrees of difficulty. By the time everyone left most of us
were engrossed trying to figure them out.
A few weeks ago we
bought a Chromecast dongle since our Blu-ray player doesn’t like to stream
Netflix anymore. Since then Susan has watched many an episode about
hoarders. Susan is NOT a hoarder (perhaps a low-level pack-rat) but the
underlying message of the show (that junk is bad) made an
impression. During the weekend after Christmas Susan decided to take
action. She began by de-junking the kitchen closet and, with the
help of Kari, also tackled her spare bedroom. By New Year’s Eve they
had amassed seven full bags of trash and a car-load of items to
donate. Not to be outdone (although I clearly was) I gathered all my
old gaming stuff and traded it in for credit. While the work
continues a lot has been accomplished and I’m extremely proud of Susan.
New Year’s Eve was at
our house again this year. Susan and I have hosted a New Year’s
party almost every year since college and have a jar of signed champagne corks
to prove it. This time we made snacks and played Cards Against
Humanity right up to the last hour of 2013. The food was prepared by Susan
and Kari as I had, just before, lost a battle with scissors after opening a
shipping box and was band-aided up. The ladies did a great job and
the queso, artichoke-spinach dip, and bacon wrapped lil’ weenies were
tasty. Cards Against Humanity was fun and after a marathon session
somehow I was the winner. At the appropriate moment we all went
outside to blow on noisemakers and have a sip of the worst champagne ever
champagned (or whatever). Our guests left shortly thereafter which
was fine by me as I had the pleasure of having to work the next day (the
year-end books won’t close themselves or some nonsense).
Since then it’s just
been Susan and myself doing our thing and me thinking about finally writing a
family email.
Pug news – They are
all doing well. Bella has made a place for herself in the pack as
the “licker” and “annoyer” of the others. They all tend to get along
although we still keep Bella in a separate kennel due to her perpetual
licking. Satchel’s hair has grown back. We’re not 100%
positive but we’re thinking her pain pills were the problem. We did
switch to buying higher quality food but it is somehow cheaper than the old
kibble so we’re not complaining. Sophie is still infatuated with Susan and
Tweetie still finds ways to get in trouble. We’re going to remain
active in the Colorado Pug Rescue but I’m thinking we may be finished fostering
for the time being.
Tldr: We found
that Thanksgiving was not all tasty, visited an old friend’s
business, beat up our Miata, celebrated 15 years, went to work holiday parties,
took off time from work, celebrated Christmas Eve and Day with family and
friends, cleaned up the house, hung with friends on New Year’s Eve, and the
pugs are doing alright.
We hope this finds you
happy and healthy!
Max and Susan
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