I was up at eight thirty this morning just five hours after going to bed. Every time that we are in Geneseo I realize how much I miss our awesome seven foot square platform bed that Art Ralston built for us. Sleeping on the floor in Newark is okay (we have a foam mattress on the floor so we are not sleeping directly on concrete but there is no “bed”) but the giant, sprawling feel of the haphazard bedding on the platform frame in Geneseo is my favourite. Oreo really like it too as he has plenty of space and can choose where he wants to sleep and can migrate around the bed during the night. In Newark he is pretty much stuck sleeping directly between us generally with he head on one pillow or the other.
Once Dominica got up about an hour after me we showered and got ready for the day. Dad came over for breakfast around ten thirty. We went, as always, to the Omega Grill and hung out there for about three hours which is actually pretty short for us. Dominica and my pictures from Disney World are still on the milk fridge there. It has been well over a year since they were first put up there.
Dad went back home after brunch and Dominica, Oreo and I did some work around the house and then ran out to Walmart to do some shopping. The Walmart by our house here in Geneseo was “packed” (read: the parking lot was full) which is a totally different thing than a packed store in New Jersey. In NJ the parking lots are three times the size and almost no one is working in the store. Here in Geneseo the store is well stocked with stuff to by, the people shopping are more or less polite and orderly and there are more than enough cashiers and stock people that you are able to easily find items that you want, pay for them and leave the store very quickly. In New Jersey the parking lot would be just half full and the cashier lines would be snaking back into the store and most of the registers would be closed or the cashiers would be moving like molasses in, well, December. Amazing how much the culture of Upstate New York varies from the culture of Northern New Jersey.
The Ralstons came over to visit right after we got back from shopping. They have been trying to get down to Newark to see us but haven’t been able to squeeze in the trip yet. Art and Michael have never been to New York City so it will be a really neat trip for them. We all visited for about two hours. Michael got to open his Christmas presents from us. We got him a The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe video game for the Game Boy Advance. We are getting him a GBA SP but we were totally unable to find one yet so he has to wait on that but he has an older GBA that he can use to play his new game in the meantime. He also got, but not officially as a Christmas present, our year old Kodak digital camera to take to New Guinea with him so that he can take pictures and make movies of the island so that he can share it back with people here.
After the Ralstons left it was time for us to head over to Perry to go to the Lumberyard Restaurant. Dad took the extended family out for a nice Christmas Eve Almost and Sara’s Birthday dinner (Sara turned nineteen yesterday.) We had a really good time. Dominica and I both went for stuffed, broiled Haddock which was very good.
From dinner everyone drove over to dad’s farm and we spent the evening visiting there. Dominica, Oreo and I stayed until almost one in the morning before returning to Geneseo. Dominica and Oreo were very tired (as was dad) but I stayed up until three working on SGL as I really wanted to get the Christmas theme onto the site so that everyone would see it on Christmas Eve morn. Getting the theme was easy but there was an issue with any files that I managed to transfer to the server and it took quite a few hours to get everything actually working and to diagnose the issue. What a pain. But it is working now and looks awesome, I think.