Closing In

Last Tuesday, I ventured over to Ohio. This is what I saw:

Despite the long day out there, I only whetted my appetite for gray and wide-open nothingness.

So, I went out again on Wednesday.

Luckily, there were a couple bright spots. The rest of the week was spent in the comfort of my polychromatic office.

In other news, I did manage to go nuclear on my Christmas budget. 

I found some cool things at Filson for my parents and managed to snag some hatchets from Gransfors Bruk for some other fine folks. You know, because we're outdoorsy. Not to be outdone by Santa, I finally bit on a new camera for myself.

On Saturday, my parents had extended family over to their house for Christmas. Cookies, wine and fun times.

Smells like a New Year...and Catnip

I can hardly believe it's 2013.

Christmas was nice. A couple weeks prior, we spent the afternoon and evening at my cousins' for Palermo Christmas. Although twenty years older, they are still part of the next generation that has begun to take on more responsibility in hosting and prepping for the annual gathering.

We used their house. Ian, Joey and I cooked a bunch of food.

My super awesome yams and sweet potatoes.

Insert Joey / pulled pork joke, here.

Not pictured: Ian's billion calorie mac & cheese.

My Aunt Patty and Cheryl still cooked, though.

It was fun. I was getting really tired at the end of the night, so Angelina gave me a bunch of red bulls before we left. I think she met someone who drives one of those trucks with the giant can on the back. She donated some to an event at the Wheel Mill and kept a couple cases for herself.

I rounded up most of my Christmas shopping pretty early on. I stuck to my new rule of only buying local, although I bent it on a couple things. Joey must not have been able to find everything he needed on Amazon, so he got this crazy notion to go out and step foot in a physical establishment that transacts currency for items, instantly. They're called stores. I think he was fascinated by them.

I captured this blurry shot of him exiting one of these mythical places with a vacuum cleaner for himself.

It's a nice Dyson, specifically designed for animal hair. Definitely a good purchase considering he and Lauren rescued their cat, Geno, early last year.

I got Geno a hemp catnip mouse.

I think it's been getting him high.

Ry and I drove out to Minneapolis a week before Christmas. We managed to beat the blizzard coming through Chicago and Wisconsin by about four hours. But...more on this trip later. In the meantime, check out their cool suburban houses.