Month: January 2011

After a long and relaxing Christmas holiday, Kelly and Christian start back to school today.  We got maybe ten percent of the stuff we planned done over the holidays.  That is a good thing.  We DID spend a bunch of time cooking, working out (semi-regularly), talking about life, and just hanging out.  I think we all needed that.  Over the last couple of days we spent the last significant chunk of money for school on this semester’s books and a new laptop for Kelly.  Her netbook died on us.  Her only criteria was that her new computer had to be pink.  Amazingly, our SysAdmin (Christian) was able to find a refurbished computer at Dell with all the features she REALLY needs with the added benefit that it is pink.  We bought our books from Amazon and saved a bundle.  Pretty impressive actually.  We got hardcover texts less expensively than it would have cost us to buy the electronic versions.

Both the kids have significantly heavier loads this semester.  Kelly has a 16 credit load with both Calculus II and Statistics.  Christian has 17 credits.  They have one class each on Mondays and Wednesdays, so they are loaded up from dawn ’til dark on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Christian has a three-hour night class on Tuesday evenings.  We drove to Target yesterday afternoon to buy new folders, notebooks, and pens for all their classes.  It is amazing how this remains exciting, even after many years.  I envy them a little.

Lorena lost a part of a fillings in one of her teeth just before the holidays started last month.  She set up an appointment for January 3.  We have a good level of confidence in all three dentists at the dental practice we visit, so when she drew the oldest dentist (and probably the guy who started the practice decades ago) she thought it was great.

He looked in her mouth and said, “Well, you didn’t lose the entire filling.  I can fix this much faster with none of the numbness if we don’t use anesthetic.”

Lorena thought that was fine idea, but about halfway through the repair, after an number of “stop it hurts” events, she decided it hurt pretty bad and asked for some anesthetic.  The dentist told her it was too late know–he was halfway done.  So Lorena toughed it out.  At that point (or a LOT sooner), I would have been screaming bloody murder and demanding something to kill the pain.

The amazing part of the whole deal is the, if she had to do it over again, she would do the same thing.  She hates that numbness on half of her face for the rest of the day.

We had a pretty quite evening on New Year’s eve.  Lorena and Kelly made up a batch of 106 tamales.  We had several, but word has it that we will freeze most of them for future consumption.  We really need to make some green salsa now. Hand made tamales are WAY better with tomatillo salsa.  At midnight (NC time) we called the annual Joyce New Year’s party in Oregon on Skype.  We very much lament the fact we could not be there.  Let me tell you, in our humble opinion, that is the very best New Year’s party in the country.

To make up for it, Christian is going to drive me over to get some gas and then on to McDonald’s for my first Egg McMuffin of the year.  Maybe we will go to McDonald’s first because if we don’t get there quick, breakfast will be over!  If Lorena does not find out, I might even be able to eat a couple of tamales for breakfast, too.  Come to think of it, we ought to stop at Harris Teeter for some tomatillas on the way home.  Here are a couple more holiday pictures:

Christmas Dinner


Leftovers

Eight inches of snow on December 26