Christmas Meanderings

Back at it on Christmas week. It will be a short week with Friday off and Darla and I may end up driving up to Reno on Thursday night for a holiday party. It depends on the snow conditions over the pass in Truckee. So far it has been clear, but storms do blow in rather quickly this time of year.

I awoke to a white morning, although there was no snow in evidence. The white of which I speak is FOG. It was a heavy blanket of fog that took hold on Saturday night during our staff Christmas party and stuck stubbornly with us through Sunday and into today. It tried to clear up yesterday afternoon as the sun peeked out for about forty minutes, but quickly gave way to the wet and cold presence that often mars our days this time of year. It is supposed to clear up this week and we should see the sun win the battle later in the week.

The staff Christmas party was Saturday night and we had a ball. The company footed most of the bill for the food and drinks and I bought each of the staff members a gift. I bought Cross pens for everyone and business card holders for the assistants. I had the assistants order business cards when I promoted them to renewal Underwriters and only one of them had seen fit to display the cards at their desk, so I bought each of them a nice cherrywood card holder to display the cards at their desks. I appreciate the support that the staff has shown me in my transition to the manager of the office. We had a great time, singing Karaoke to Christmas songs and playing billiards. We had a gift exchange and plenty of laughs and good times. We ate turkey and ham and Cora fixed an awesome cod and shrimp soup and a medley of fresh vegetables as well as garlic bread and corn bread muffins. It was a feast by any definition. I bought seven bottles of wine, three cases of beer, two cases of water and two cases of soda. Everything lasted except the wine. We ended up opening two bottles of Dinda's wine to fill the gap. All of the staff were able to attend except for Kathy, Gail's assistant and Gwen, our third commercial underwriter. She is not the most social of beings and has yet to attend any of our social events away from work. To each his own, I say.

I was able to finish the enclosure around the air conditioner yesterday. The contractor ended up cutting out two of the posts surrounding the unit in order to fit the new slab in to the space. The problem is that the slab was so close to the edge of the "box" that I couldn't get enough room to tear out the old base for the 4x4's much less dig holes for the new ones. I ended up tying into the two remaing posts with horizontal 4x4s and attaching the upright 4x4s to the horizontal ones with sheet metal anchors. It was a little wobbly until I was able to hammer everything together and add the latticework around the base. I gave it a new coat of the Flood UV Protectant stain and need to add another coat next weekend. I had pulled out the vines that the prior contractor had used to surround the air conditioner as our contractor said that the unit needed air space. I think the unit looks even nicer with just the lattice work around it. This project turned out better than the wallboard job in the laundry room.

Darla and I have been invited to dinner tonight at our friends' house and then they have tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Arco Arena tonight. It is a holiday concert, but includes a light show as the orchestra plays and I've heard some great feedback on the concert. Our friends happen to be our heating and air contractor and his wife. It should be fun tonight. I have several lunches this week with our agents and it starts today with lunch at Benihanas. If I don't gain weight this holiday, it will be a Christmas miracle.

I talked to Jennifer yesterday. It was six am her time and she was preparing to leave for a day at the firing range. As Armorer she has to be present during the certification in case any of the weapons jam or need to be checked. She is actually the assistant Armorer, which she said is better. The Armorer has to check out weapons and be present in the weapons area at all times whereas Jennifer gets to roam the facility and freelance her way through the day. Darla also talked to Jenn and she is also having to be recertified on the M-16, so she was doing target practice as well. Jennifer has updated her blog and she is absolutley thrilled to be back in Kuwait as you'll see by her latest entry, which I think she entitled "Back in Kuwait and hating it" or something like that. Jen will spend Christmas at a party being thrown for her unit. I think she's already looking forward to the holidays next year when she'll be home free. Her unit is currently in lockdown where no one can leave Kuwait until they get back to a "mission" ready unit. Apparently they are short of bodies in the unit. Hopefully, they will not be in lockdown when she is ready to leave next year.

I want to wish each of my family members and friends a truly inspired and faith filled Christmas celebration this year. The greatest gift that any of us will ever receive came from God when he sent Heaven to earth in the form of his son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, to live and die for our sins. If we have accepted that gift we have nothing to ever want for again. Praise God, eh? Take care of each other. Ciao.