Merry Cheesemas
Christmas season is upon us, which means that I am sick. Why am I sick? Because every year I think it's a good idea to exercise a real lot before the holiday, so that I may commence my best Jabba the Hut impersonation for 2-3 days. This year was no different, with the slightly altered aim being a somewhat drunk version of the rotund Star Wars figure. Sadly, by Christmas Eve I was hacking up congestion and my Sierra Nevada Stout was tasting like crap. I slept about 4 hours that night.
But that didn't prevent me from opening up my cadre of gifts like a 12 year old child. Far be it from me to not fling the wrapping paper off any number of gifts like Ralphie's brother and scream with excitement. Though for me it's more about coffee, bike stuff, and beer than zeppelin's. And I tend not to hide under the sink, more or less. Still, I would be lying if I said the yearly spending fest isn't of great value to my materialistic side. In fact, I quite love it.
I should warn those of you who don't want to hear all about my new goodies to just go ahead on to the next blog, since I'm just talking about myself here. I might as well enjoy the few minutes of present freedom left to me before Rutgers gets crushed in the Insight Bowl by Arizona State. As an alum, I suppose I should have more faith. I don't.
So what was this year's haul? Starting with the wife, she got me one of those
old time coffee grinders you manually crank. I couldn't find a good picture of it, but it was like my grandmother used to have, with the little box on the bottom. Not terribly practical, but cool as hell. I used it Monday morning to grind some coffee that I roasted after I got up. She also got me some coffee (1 pound each of all the Costa Rican beans), and a pair of LL Bean slippers that I'm wearing right now. The puppies are comfortable; very fuzzy.
She also picked me up a few herbal teas from Teavana (Yerba, Night Night, Egyptian Chamomile, Floral Sunset, and Turkish Tea). No I'm not gay, it's just nor practical to drink beer or wine every night. I also find that chamomile tends to help me sleep better. They say it'll do that. To ensure my non-gayness, she also got me a 6 pack of Pilsner glasses. To counter the possible cool points I earn by getting beer glasses, I also got a computer game, The Longest Journey. I've been talking about setting up some old video game systems downstairs for a few weeks. Seems like she's been paying attention, a thought reinforced by the fact she got me CDs by Gorillaz (Demon Days) and PJ Harvey (Uh Huh Her), 2 artists I've been listening to a lot lately.
I gotta say, she's been paying attention to all the shit I say I want. Of all the CDs I have on my Amazon wish list, those are probably 2 of the 3 I wanted most, the other being Martin Luther's Rebel Soul Music.
My parents got me a new Camelbak insert, a Cateye Mity 8 bike computer, a new road chain, replacement chainrings (52, 42, 30), and 3 pairs of CoolMax socks (obviously road bike, mountain socks need to be dark). CDs from Radiohead (OK Computer), Rufus Wainright (same), and Nick Drake (Five Leaves Left). She also got me green coffee beans (Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Columbia, Kenya, El Salvador, Brazil) and 4 books (Soul Mountain, The Club Dumas, White Apples, and The God of Small Things).
Finally, they got me one of those 13 foot ladders that folds up to about 3.5 feet tall. After an initial inspection, it seems pretty solid.
And that's all. I just bought myself some Shimano 105 shift levers, something I've needed for about 500 miles but waited until now to buy. It's a good thing, as they're a discontinued item and I managed to get them for $120, a savings of probably $50 since they come with the cables and housing. Funny, because my in-laws gave me $120 for my birthday.
So that's it. I'm sure nobody is reading this by now, which is the intention really. I just like to record what I get for Christmas so I don't forget anything I got. With such a plethora of things injected in my materialistic world, it's easy to forget about a book here, or a water bladder there. Now I can go back and read about all this shit I got and realize that I should already have something or other that I forgot about.
Plus, this is the last time the landslide comes to our laps. Since the wife is fat with child, you can be sure that future Christmas lists will be a pair of socks and a 6 pack caliber. 18 years after that, when we're burdened with college costs, I hope to be able to list my dignity as my sole Christmas present. That is, if I have time in between shovelling the neighbor's driveway of snow.
But that didn't prevent me from opening up my cadre of gifts like a 12 year old child. Far be it from me to not fling the wrapping paper off any number of gifts like Ralphie's brother and scream with excitement. Though for me it's more about coffee, bike stuff, and beer than zeppelin's. And I tend not to hide under the sink, more or less. Still, I would be lying if I said the yearly spending fest isn't of great value to my materialistic side. In fact, I quite love it.
I should warn those of you who don't want to hear all about my new goodies to just go ahead on to the next blog, since I'm just talking about myself here. I might as well enjoy the few minutes of present freedom left to me before Rutgers gets crushed in the Insight Bowl by Arizona State. As an alum, I suppose I should have more faith. I don't.
So what was this year's haul? Starting with the wife, she got me one of those
old time coffee grinders you manually crank. I couldn't find a good picture of it, but it was like my grandmother used to have, with the little box on the bottom. Not terribly practical, but cool as hell. I used it Monday morning to grind some coffee that I roasted after I got up. She also got me some coffee (1 pound each of all the Costa Rican beans), and a pair of LL Bean slippers that I'm wearing right now. The puppies are comfortable; very fuzzy.
She also picked me up a few herbal teas from Teavana (Yerba, Night Night, Egyptian Chamomile, Floral Sunset, and Turkish Tea). No I'm not gay, it's just nor practical to drink beer or wine every night. I also find that chamomile tends to help me sleep better. They say it'll do that. To ensure my non-gayness, she also got me a 6 pack of Pilsner glasses. To counter the possible cool points I earn by getting beer glasses, I also got a computer game, The Longest Journey. I've been talking about setting up some old video game systems downstairs for a few weeks. Seems like she's been paying attention, a thought reinforced by the fact she got me CDs by Gorillaz (Demon Days) and PJ Harvey (Uh Huh Her), 2 artists I've been listening to a lot lately.
I gotta say, she's been paying attention to all the shit I say I want. Of all the CDs I have on my Amazon wish list, those are probably 2 of the 3 I wanted most, the other being Martin Luther's Rebel Soul Music.
My parents got me a new Camelbak insert, a Cateye Mity 8 bike computer, a new road chain, replacement chainrings (52, 42, 30), and 3 pairs of CoolMax socks (obviously road bike, mountain socks need to be dark). CDs from Radiohead (OK Computer), Rufus Wainright (same), and Nick Drake (Five Leaves Left). She also got me green coffee beans (Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Columbia, Kenya, El Salvador, Brazil) and 4 books (Soul Mountain, The Club Dumas, White Apples, and The God of Small Things).
Finally, they got me one of those 13 foot ladders that folds up to about 3.5 feet tall. After an initial inspection, it seems pretty solid.
And that's all. I just bought myself some Shimano 105 shift levers, something I've needed for about 500 miles but waited until now to buy. It's a good thing, as they're a discontinued item and I managed to get them for $120, a savings of probably $50 since they come with the cables and housing. Funny, because my in-laws gave me $120 for my birthday.
So that's it. I'm sure nobody is reading this by now, which is the intention really. I just like to record what I get for Christmas so I don't forget anything I got. With such a plethora of things injected in my materialistic world, it's easy to forget about a book here, or a water bladder there. Now I can go back and read about all this shit I got and realize that I should already have something or other that I forgot about.
Plus, this is the last time the landslide comes to our laps. Since the wife is fat with child, you can be sure that future Christmas lists will be a pair of socks and a 6 pack caliber. 18 years after that, when we're burdened with college costs, I hope to be able to list my dignity as my sole Christmas present. That is, if I have time in between shovelling the neighbor's driveway of snow.
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