December 24, 2002: Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve. Min and I are celebrating Christmas at my parent’s today. We started the day by heading up to Rochester with my parents so that my mom could get her chemo and then we ran off to the mall to do a little last minute shopping (good thing that we did because I manage to find a couple of things for Dominica that I had been looking for!) Dad and I also had to stop by the University of Rochester to do a littel bit of work installing a new workstation there because the one that they had been using just died on them and they needed something right away. We made it back home just in time for me to do some last minute wrapping before my relatives came over for Christmas Eve dinner. We ate and hung out for a little while and then we went down to Leicester’s Union Presbyterian because my cousin was singing and playing the trumpet in the service. After the service, we came back to my parents’ to open presents. Dominica got a new watch, SimGolf and a Land’s End “snuggle sack” (which she was REALLY excited about.) I got some new tools (for my in-car Network Tech tool kit), a new Eclipse Computer Workstation light (Thinkgeek.com is the coolest place to shop for geeks) and some clothes (including dress clothes.) I also got some spending money to get more stuff with. 🙂

December 26, 2002

Christmas is over. I never thought that there could be so many presents at Christmas as there were yesterday. I was overwhelmed with the holiday activities. We were planning on heading over to see Min’s relatives today but the snow is still really deep and the flu is starting to hit so we decided that it was best that we didn’t all get together again. Bennie started rebuilding Min’s parent’s kitchen today, it will keep him occupied while he is in New York. After looking at what it was going to take to install the dishwasher and the garbage disposal, he decided that he would install some new cupboards and a new countertop while he was at it.

I did go shopping today and got some stuff with the money that my Grandmother had given me for Christmas. I got two more GBA games – Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Metroid Fusion as well as a new soft side tool box for my new tools that are going to go in my car.

December 22, 2002

Min and I drove back to Ithaca from Washington this morning. I have been away from home for a long time and I am looking forward to my one night of sleep in my own bed before hitting the road again.

Before leaving to head back to New York, Min and I decided to exchange our main gifts due to logistical concerns. We ended up (not TOTALLY by coincidence but the story takes too long to tell) getting each other 17″ MAG Innovision flat panel computer monitors. We both really wanted them so this works out really well. They are a little bigger than standard 17″ monitors (as flat panels usually are) and are 1280×1024 at 75Hz. Not really very good for fast first person shooter games but really good for slower games and normal computer work. Perfect for what we will use them for. I will still use my 20″ Sampo for Quake2!

December 21, 2002

The day after the big Christmas party. John and Michelle spent the morning picking up and cleaning from the party. Eric, Amanda, Min and I went out for breakfast at the Double T Diner before Eric and Amanda headed back to New York. In the afternoon, I headed back out to the office while Min, Michelle and Jen went out to do some shopping. While we were all out, John worked to set up his new D-Link Wireless Ethernet Router which is really cool because now Eric and I can use out wireless laptops in the house (or out on the dock) and still be able to get onto the Internet and get lots of work done (and update the web site.) Very cool. I also did some last minute Christmas shopping for Dominica today. There is just SO much stuff to get.