Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas. Adam has likened our home to Santa puking (or some such thing) in years past. Apparently this year it's just right. The thing I love most about Christmas is giving people things. I love trying to find the perfect gift for someone. This isn't always an easy task to be sure. But I think I did alright this year. We'll find out over the next 24 hours or so.

The kids were here for a bit yesterday. Kids tend to rejuvenate us during this time of year. The cooking, the cleaning, the shopping, the snow....all of these things can stress an adult out. But for a kid, there is pure unadulterated excitement about the coming holiday. And sure, it's all selfish excitement. They're excited about what they're going to get. But seeing Dante and Sophia tearing ass all over the house yesterday made me smile.

So as I continue to clean the house and I prep the food for tonight, I will remember how lucky I am to have the family and friends that I do. And I will also appreciate that we are able to get together and celebrate...that by and large, we are not separated by distance this year.

So to all of you, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. Try to approach the day as if you were 6 and convinced that all is right with the world.

Inappropriate love

Last week a couple faculty members were in town to work with me on the definition of a new degree program. I can't say anymore than that. Insider trading and all that. I have enough problems. In any case, I have worked closely with these two individuals on previous projects and we have an excellent working relationship. One of these faculty members is Gary. Gary is a Faculty Chair (Capella's equivalent of a department head). Gary has been exceptionally supportive of my work towards my PhD and regularly refers to me as "Dr. Luopa" because he feels that if we say it, it will happen.

In any case, on Thursday morning I was in the conference room with the woman who will work on this degree program with us and we were waiting for the faculty members to arrive. When Gary walked in the door, I received the customary boisterous greeting (with a "Dr. Luopa" thrown in for good measure). What was not customary was the kiss on the top of my head. What?! It's true. Gary kissed the top of my head much like you'd expect a Grandpa to do. Very weird but very, very funny.

An ode to Phil

Oh how I adore thee. Let me count the ways.

1. Memories of many afternoons watching Clue and Labyrinth always make me smile.
2. CD upon CD upon CD upon magazine cut-outs across your dorm room wall. Genius.
3. Mixed CDs just for me with songs with lines like "I wanna do bad things with you."
4. Pancakes.
5. Light up snowmen ornaments that are so wonderful, the battery dies.
6. Chester Bowl, Eagle's Ridge (or whatever it's called), and trips to Gooseberry where we all tried too hard to be intellectual and (phil)osophical.
7. The way we started the bromance between our significant others.
8. Duplexes!
9. Our obsession with "Is the day over yet?" and "Who wants to blow off work today?" and never actually following through.
10. My goal to run a 5k. Your goal to run a marathon. Does our greatness show? Well mine doesn't because you want to run 26 miles. I want to run 3.
11. Blogs dedicated to one another and your commitment to finding all of the great status comments in a given day or week and showcasing them for all to see.
12. Making bad decisions with money. It is in this that we truly bond.

You, my dear, are truly s'wonderful. I am not good enough for you.

The stupid things stupid people say

I will start this post by saying that I am utterly and completely plagiarising an article on MSN. I do this because I can't improve upon it. I only give credit here.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines is the target of a defamation lawsuit by the stepfather of one of three 8-year-old boys slain in 1993.

Maines spoke out for three people convicted of the slayings and alleged the stepfather was instead involved in the killings.

Terry Hobbs, stepfather of Steve Branch, who was killed in 1993 with Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, filed suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Nov. 25. The suit names all three members of the Dixie Chicks, but focuses on Maines.

The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Hobbs claims he suffered loss of income, injury to his reputation and emotional distress.

((Okay, why does Natalie Maines even have an opinion? Why do people care? Why won't she keep her mouth shut???))

Hobbs told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a Feb. 1 interview that his reputation was in tatters and he wanted to clear his name.

"I want people to know I haven't done nothing wrong," Hobbs said. "I want them to hear it from me."

((I love the double negative!))

Housewives

There are many things in this world that never seem to surprise me. Like people at work blaming me for their mistakes or the inevitable phone calls where I'm getting screamed at and the only words I can make out are profane and strung together in a haphazard fashion. The crazy thing is, every once in awhile someone says or does something that seems so incredibly unbelievable that my jaw drops and I am rendered speechless. I know, right? Me? Speechless?

Alas, what prompted this blog...

...my sister referring to herself as a "housewife." The girl that forty years ago would have burned her bra. Who loves to break the rules. Who is as independent as they come. She gets married and suddenly she's a housewife? More power to her. Just surprises me.