The XMAS Report
Puppy is dashing around the living room chasing her PETSMART 50% LOUD SQUEAKY THINGEE (fig. 1). She is pleased! Thus, I am pleased. And I just ate a yummy chocolate covered potato chip from Crookston, MN (fig 2.) That is also pleasing!

Despite being off from work since Tuesday afternoon, I haven't written much lately because the internet at home has been very goofy. So, I finally got so frustrated that I called today and they recommended that I bring it to the Comcast center in St. Paul and switch it out. (Had I been more clever, I would have gone to the location with the same zipcode as me instead of driving across the Mississippi river.) This ended up being a bit of a test for young Chris because I didn't have internet, Alissa was gone in the Aztek (and hence had the tom-tom) and the call center guy only gave me an address. Luckily, the phone book has maps and I was finally able to locate 10 River Park Plaza. I returned home with a new RCA Cable Modem (fig. 3) which eventually worked! Rejoice! Hail! Figgy pudding for everyone!

I just got home from Princess Garden resturant where I had some delicious Lo Mein and started re-reading one of my favorite James Clavell novels "Noble House". Well, technically I started to read "Noble House - volume One" (fig. 4). I requested a hard-cover version of the Hong Kong epic and my parents sent me the book. Hopefully, I'll get "Noble House - volume Two" for my birthday in a couple weeks! Alissa's parents also got me the DVD of Noble House (fig. 4) which I had requested, so the next time I have 364 minutes to spare, I'll be watching that.. on my new DVD player (fig. 5)! That was the terrific Holiday gift from my boss Angela this year and I've already put it to very good use - watching the entire first season of Dexter, mostly while waiting for my Tuesday night improv class to begin. (Which is going very well, by the way, despite the 18 people in the course, they are very cooperative and fun. I really enjoy teaching, especially adults that are just learning improv. They're so receptive and the improvements are so marked from week to week.)

I went to see Stevie Ray's Improv last night (fig. 6; they had a good show; best I've seen from that troupe) and when I arrived at home, Alissa & Melissa (fresh from Chicago) had assembled GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR (fig. 7) complete with drums, guitar, microphone and all the rest of the PS2 wireless glory. I was pretty terrible this morning when I tried, but any game that includes Dinosaur Jr.'s "Feel the Pain" can not be ignored! Rock! The show at Stevie's was interesting especially because they moved to the lounge near cabaret while they're remodeling. That's right, the righteous nautical theme will be no more, so the remaining sacraments may or may not have been redistributed among the cast (fig. 8).

Figure One

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8 is forthcoming!