Boxing With the Family Day

Christmas day we had lunch at Grandma’s. I conquered the turkey with a new carving knife, and proceeded to devour it for the next hour and a half. Mmm… Turkey…

Family is strange, in a familiar sort of way. My uncle brought spicy Caesar Salad and homemade Root Beer/Ginger Ale; we debated for hours about the alcohol content of soft drinks made with yeast. (Yes, yeast=alcohol; no, there is not enough alcohol in the bottom of the bottle to burn; no, not even if you atomize it; yes, high-proof vodka will burn; no, Colin’s root beer is not high-proof; yes, bread has alcohol in it too; yes, you’re still safe to drive/operate farm machinery after eating Grandma’s fresh bread.) These debates happen every year; this time we managed to avoid pulling out the dictionary for definitions of terms. The next conversation was about parasites acquired from farm animals and jungle excursions (my aunt went to Costa Rica this year for some bird/bug watching courses.)

I think I've warned my family that they'll probably wind up in a novel someday, but I'm not sure how I'll ever work bird mites into anything remotely profound. (No, you do not want to go look up pictures of mites/ticks/lice on Google. There aren't many things that make me feel queasy, but parasites are close to the top of the list...)

After a few hours of recovery (turkey, potatoes, cheesecake and pie really take their toll) and feeding a friend’s cat in the city, I’m home for another few days. Our ISP has decided that blogger isn’t evil enough to warrant a block anymore, so I can actually see my own blog without a proxy now. (Hooray! It’s still there!)

My youngest brother (Zeke, 11) came with me on the trip home, and we had some interesting conversations about life and purpose and why school/real work is important. Then he told me that I shouldn’t have moved away from home so soon, and I promised that if I go to school in England next year he can come over to stay with me for a week. I’m now his ally in every sort of dispute or sibling rivalry; if Ruth (13) gives him any grief he’ll immediately ask me what I think. We also spent one hour talking about his friend’s 3,000 lines of code for a custom WarcaftIII map, and we’ve been alternating in a HalflifeIIDM tournament this morning. Little brothers are good to have, but it’ll be sad leaving for another semester.

I gave him The Phantom Tollbooth for Christmas, hopefully he’ll “get it.”

The ferret must be in her cage today, my feet haven’t been attacked even once.