desertwolf

Started out by waking up around 4am and then again every following hour until 8am where upon I said "fuck it" and got up. I didn't want to open presents until my mom got up, didn't seem right to open them by myself. Got some clothes, but the pants were a size too small. I'll have to take those back. I got the Madonna and Tori CDs I'd asked for. Got Zoo Tycoon from my sister. I had mentioned the game to her in passing a while back and she actually remembered it. Got some of my favorite gift as well: money!! Not too much, but enough. I immediately thought of nifty things to buy but then the adult hidden (deep) inside reminded me of some practical things I need to get, mostly clothing and some new shoes. Then again, I'd like to get Ages of Empire II so I might blow some of the money there.

My dad called to wish me a happy Xmas which was cool. My step-mom and I had a decent conversation without me feeling apprehensive for once. That is until she asked for my email address. One of my step-sisters has an old computer she didn't know what to do with so she thought my step-mom could use it. She'll most likely just use it for keeping financial data, but with a lot of her family out of town and in Illinois it'd be a good tool to keep in touch... just not with me much I hope. *G*

Called my sister and reprimanded her for sending so much considering she and my bro-in-law are trying to buy a house. I had told her not to send anything and spend what she would have on something she could use for a new house but did she listen to me? Nooooo. *sigh* Still, it was sweet of her.

Went down to my aunt & uncles for dinner. Typically, Xmas dinner is a recap of Thanksgiving which is fine by me but a certain few said they wanted something different this year. The thinking then went along the lines of Cornish game hens which was a total turn off for me. I'd rather have hamburgers or hot dogs, thank you very much. Luckily last minute the idea was switched to ham which is just fine by me.

My cousin L's daughter brought a friend with her and had volunteered to say grace. Usually for us it's just a sentence or two. This guy went on and on and on. I wanted to hit him upside the head to shut him up but I thought that might me frowned upon.

Five of us went for a brief walk after dinner out in the crisp night air. My cousin L's son was acting like a goofball and had me laughing for half of the walk.

L had bought a CD burner for her kids to use and I didn't think much about that other than that now the kids wouldn't be asking me to burn stuff for them. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew something was wrong with that. Until it hit me: she doesn't know anything about computer hardware to install the puppy and I knew what that meant. Sure enough she hinted if I could install it for her. Now I've never installed one before but I figured I could handle it. I headed over to her house two blocks away and gave it a go. There were two things I had questioned. There was a metal shielding plate where the new drive was to go and I wasn't sure how best to get rid of it. A screwdriver sufficed. According to the instructions the audio cable should plug into the sound card but of course the sound chipset is built into the motherboard. I found a plug next to where the DVD drive was plugged into and hoped that would work. It did. The hardest and longest part of it was installing the software included.

Headed home and played some Zoo Tycoon. Built up a nice park and then deleted some of the fencing to let the animals loose upon the park. Ahhh, the sound of screaming park patrons everywhere! LOL