Cephalopodmas - things are only looking up from here!

` Ah! The smell of doom is in the air! The time before The Big Day was a time for cleaning and getting rid of various useless items we had around the house....

` Yes, we can safely say that the much-anticipated day shall not come. But that's not a problem, as you will see....
` Then, on the twenty-first (the day of my last post), Lou jumped on me early in the morning, promising me Ritalin if I would go with him to get his prescritpion filled. I was in.
` To say the least I was amazed when my normally intrusive thoughts were no longer there. Just carrying on a conversation was no longer a struggle - in fact, it was more fun than it was tense. And if I wanted to do something I normally have trouble getting motivated for and staying focused on, I could just get on it, no thoughts in the way.
` The first thing I did after we got back was a total scouring of the toaster oven. Then, I did this for an hour and a half....

` That's a flatbar, by the way. Even though I was armed with such an intimidating scraping device, the stove gunk could not be completely vanquished.
` Later on, I went down to Cheshire's house and saw their Christmas tree and their Christmas cat....

` That would be Tippy, once again. He's the one that loves bringing inanimate objects home to his owners, apparently believing that he is contributing to their wealth. One funny incident I've mentioned before involved Cheshire's mom waking up to Tippy's meows, absentmindedly opening her bedroom window... and screaming when a scary giraffe head walked in!
` Yes, Tippy was carrying a giraffe mask in his mouth. What use would it be to the family? Why don't you ask Cheshire's older brother....

` What do you think? Halloween: Mad Giraffe Disease. Or not.
` Then, at some point after our trip to Denny's (at which I was highly conversational, thanks to my Ritalin), we snuck into Cheshire's uncle's house while he's away and watched my new home video DVD on his big entertainment system. As proof of this, I took a picture of a novelty poster:

` Don't think we were being totally irresponsible hooligans - actually, he gave her the key so that she could throw a party there. (Unfortunately, I was too sick to attend, and hardly anyone showed up, so I don't think her uncle has to worry about the house getting trashed....)
` The next day, Lou and I picked up his mother at the airport. I don't know why, but he looks kind of snarly in this picture where we're sitting on a cart, watching for her luggage....

` She's a really awesome lady, that's all I can really say about her. And a math professor, too! Anyway, the next morning we walked into town so that I could run a few errands/buy Lou a present, and it just happened to be Protestor Time (Fri 12-13 PM)!
` Ever the weather/season gauges, you can even tell it's almost Christmas by looking for bright red Santa hats!

` At one point, we stopped at the music shop where, I discovered, Lou had also bought his African drum! The black-hide one he got has the African lady's name (J Funka) and address still on it - I recognized that this white and brown one must be the other one to the set.
` Too bad Lou's mom didn't photograph as well....

` So what did I buy for Christmas - I mean, Cephalopodmas? Besides musical-type things, chocolate and socks - which were much appreciated - I went to Radio Shack and got these great little Walkie-Talkies for keeping track of one another on the cruise. (WOW! I've never been on a cruise before!!)
` I couldn't afford too much because, thanks to Sprint, nearly six hundred dollars were wrongfully deducted from my bank account. (Thankfully, my mom got us presents, including some Sore Old Ass soak for Lou!)
` By the way, I really cracked up when I got my bank balance thingy from last month and saw the last two parts of 'Your Account At A Glance':

Deposits - $1,061.00
Ending Balance - $42.63

` Yeah, Sprint got me good. Luckily, both my mom and Cheshire's mom got me a hundred bucks for Christmas. My grandma gave me seventy, so that almost makes up for those overage charges. Plus, Cheshire is giving me twenty to buy my Crappy Digital Camera (which is probably worth less, but that's as low as she'll go from $50).
` (A few minutes later: OMG! I just got a phone call that $115 more in overage charges was put back! Hooray!!!)
` Of course, my digital camera days are not over. Only my Crappy Digital Camera days.... You see, on Cephalopodmas morning as myself, B-Dizzle, Lou and his mom were crowded around the mini-tree, opening our gifts, I just about exploded when I opened one from Lou and it had a Fabulous New Digital Camera in it!!
` Let us contrast and compare: Crappy Digital Camera - 2.0 Megapixels. Fabulous New Digital Camera - 7.1 Megapixels. No more pixellated-looking photos! In fact, I'll also be able to use it as a scanner, so high is the resolution! I could even go through my photo album and capture the best of my photography days!
` Now I'll be able to take really Fabulous Photos during our cruise! Only problem is, I don't yet know how to fit more than twenty at a time on the 1-gig memory chip-thingy. The guy said it was supposed to hold 800, so I'm kinda stumped. Maybe that's only when I shrink the pictures down forty times to itty-bitty size? I'm not sure how it works....

` Anyway, hope your CephaloChrismaHanuKwanza was every bit as good as mine! And have a Flappy New Year!