A Very Dierenfeld Christmas...

Well I'm now heading home after a wonderful Christmas with my family.

And being who we are, we do Christmas a bit different than others. Following our ethnic German roots, our family goes to the Christmas Eve service at church (as kids this was known as the Horror Before the Rapture of New Gifts) and then head home to open gifts that evening. That's right folks... for almost 30 Christmases now... I got to open my gifts before you (unless you also were a part of a more enlightened, Germanic family too). Christmas Eve is the great night, were everyone in my family feigns "oh you don't need to get me anything" and "I really didn't get anything much for anyone" unless it's me... and I really mean it.

My Father's favorite pastime while I grew up was to try to convince my sister and I that there wasn't going to be any gifts for Christmas. That and hiding and mis-wrapping gifts to completely confuse us. Like one year were my GI Joe super-cool airplane was wrapped in Rainbow Bright paper, making me think it was for my sister. Or the other year where he hid our new bike/scooter in the back yard, and my poor sister stepped in dog waste and tracked it through our yuletide living room.

In later years it has been a less commercial affair and more about having a wonderful time together as a family. This is usually centered around various processed meat and cheeses, as well as my mother's infamous Sour Cream Cookies. If you think it sounds nasty, then I'll let your ignorance remain and have your share... because there is NO cookie that beats them. This year's spread was even improved upon, adding the wild game / exotic processed meats. We had Elk Salami, Buffalo Summer Sausage and Duck Summer Sausage. And if you think that they sound nasty, well then I'll have your share of that too.

Perhaps the greatest part of it was the addition to the family, Nicholas. He's already a sweet kid and super cool. When I get home, I'll be posting pics and some short video of him. I'm a proud uncle of a month old baby boy, who doesn't like naps and makes faces at people. Looks like the Dierenfeld genes might dominate...

However, what really makes Christmas wonderful is knowing that my Savior was born around 2000 years ago. Sure, not on Dec 25th, but we couldn't let the pagans have all the good holidays. I hope you had a wonderful time of merriness, joyfultude, and general good cheerifulocity. And I wish you the most blessed New Year!

Christmas Time Traveling

Well something actually interesting and “blog” worthy is happening! I’m off to Wyoming to see my sister and the whole family (including new addition Nicholas). Of course I waited until the last minute to do laundry and pack, but with the help of the “Captain” and some egg nog, I had no worries.

I gathered everything together and got a bleary-eyed Mr. P out of bed to drive my rear to the airport. It is always the case (at least for me) that if I get to the airport on time, there are no lines for anything… not at check-in, security or Starbucks counter. It’s like life is one easy breeze. I never have travel nightmares! My bags have never been lost, I’ve only missed one flight (due to my own procrastination) and never has my flight been cancelled. I’ve never sat next to the screaming baby, the annoying salesman and (to my consternation) the cute, single, hot gal. I do have delayed flights, but I feel like compared to the ease of everything else… this is no big deal.

So in the Sea-Tac main terminal, past the Starbucks, the Anthony’s Fish Café and multitude of salmon-and-lumber themed kitschy gift shops, there lies a slice of Americana, Terminal “C”. At Sea-Tac, this is where all the small turbo-prop, egg-beater, puddle jumpers arrive and depart. This is where the real people fly in and out of. The plaid-clad contractor and his family of 10 heading to Pullman, the forever-tanned fisherman off to visit his land-locked brother in Boise, and the young Native couple and their baby heading to Kalispell in Montana. Just your everyday man, woman and child on a yultide journey for the Christmas spirit with family and friends.

And now my journey has ended. I’m at my sister’s place in Wyoming… and met my new nephew for the first time. There will be pictures coming soon!

Going back to "school"

Well today I finally committed myself to getting my A+ certification.

For all of you un-techie types, it's basically the high school diploma of the computer world. I know a little of this and little of that, but this would prove that I know "stuff" about computers. So along with my experience and few books off of Amazon, I'll be attending Ayric's School o' Nerdiness for the next month or so. Gives me something to do over the holidays, and I can always prod my techie father about stuff when he's not distracted by the new grandson.

For my own laziness... I'm adding some links on the sidebar, so that I have them when I'm away from the home CPU.

Well that's about it... I might post more about the wonderful world of computers later, but now it's off to bed.

Update: My job, My Nephew and Curious Dating Rituals

Hey Everyone... I'm back from dead. It's been a trying month... work completely died on me, which brings me to my first piece of news.

My job has been reduced from full time with salary and benefits to just part-time with zippo perks. Kind of a bummer, but I've been in far worse scrapes in my patch-quilt of a career. I've been bouncing back and forth between faith-filled optimism to gloomy curmudgeony. Can't say I thought I'd be in the last months of my 20's, still not sure about my career and being single. But alas, am but a pot in the hands of Potter... (Romans 9:15-20)

So on happier news, I'm an uncle for the first time! My nephew was born on the 28th of Nov just before 6am. Healthy guy coming in at 7lbs 6oz. Looks like he has some of my sister's traits (which bodes well for him). Either way however, he's got two of the best parents a kid these days could hope for. I got the other set myself.

And lastly I'd like to pass along a little story that's in the midst of developing. I will leave out names to protect the gutless... er innocent. Here goes.

Let's say I know a guy named Bob. Bob is a good guy, with a great heart for God. Bob has helped me out immensely in the last few years, and I cherish the guy. Well Bob picked up a hobby as of late, which he seems quite adept to. Well at this hobby's shop is a certain lady I'll call Susie. Susie I'm not so acquainted with, but she seems (at a distance of 10 meters and 2 minutes) to be a sweet gal. Bob thinks he likes Susie, but isn't sure. Bob has talked about Susie to me for about two months now and hasn't done much to get the ball rolling. Luckily Bob has another friend who put his feet to the fire. He was told that Susie is going to get a call if he doesn't bite the bullet and just ask the poor gal out for a simple meal or a cup of joe. I maybe wrong (being the antithesis of Casanova if there ever was one) but I can't see a scenario where Susie is going to explode, turn into a wolf, or melt if he asks her out. So she might have a boyfriend, so she might not be interested, or possibly scarier than that... she might wind up liking Bob alot. I say go and ask her out before the Lord and give it all to him. In that there is no fear and no risk. But of course, if I were in Bob's shoes, I would be no different. Are you still a hypocrite if you admit your hypocrisy? Tomorrow is "the day", friends... we shall see if Bob can do it.

If you want to give Bob advice, just comment... he reads the blog. :)