v32.2: Happy Holidays

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

Christmas is only a few days away and the Holiday seasons has all but begun at this point.  Traffic coming to work this morning was so light I had to double check to ensure it wasn't Sunday or something.  I wasn't sure if I would get a chance to post again before Christmas, so I decided to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and happy holidays.

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This past weekend we had a family get together to celebrate Christmas.  As I've mentioned before, we all draw names and buy a gift for that person.  This weekend we did the annual gift exchange at my house and I must admit it was a great time.

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This year I got my mother's name and this year I went above and beyond.  While the price I paid was a bit higher than the limit, it was well worth the reaction and surprise on her face.  Let me lay it out for you in detail since it was the highlight of my day.

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First, I wrapped the gift Friday.  I started with a pair of nice wool socks.  The item was placed inside the socks and repacked.  I then placed that pair of socks in an empty box of chocolates (they were good).  I wrapped it up like a regular gift and then put the wrapped chocolate box inside shirt and tie box.  I wrapped the shirt and tie box up adding a bit of extra tape to make it more difficult and then placed the wrapped shirt and tie box inside a cereal box.  Now you can see where I'm going with this.  My childhood years were wrought with my mother wrapping my gifts up to make them very difficult for me to open.  It was payback time!

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After wrapping the cereal box up good and tight, I decided to add a few layers of packing tape and wrapped the entire wrapped gift in packing tape to ensure a good seal.  Yes folks, this present would survive a flood at this point.  I then grabbed a pizza box, placed the securely wrapped cereal box inside and sealed it shut.  This time I pulled out the duct tape and packing tape and coated the entire thing.  I ensured it was sealed good and tight; then I wrapped it like a regular gift.

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I placed the gift under the tree and then on Saturday we all sat around and started to open gifts.  Thankfully my wife recorded the whole thing because it was fun to go back and watch her struggle through each layer only to get to the chocolate box and open it to find a pair of socks.  You see, the last time my mother was in the city she went on and on about nice wool socks and how she didn't have any.  After all the effort put into opening the tightly wrapped boxes only to find a pair of socks, I thought she was going to hang her head and cry (I love you mom).  Then she picked up the socks and she could feel the "real" gift inside.

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She opened one of the socks and dumped it upside down and out popped an iPod Touch.  That is when the emotions started to flood in and my mother was displaying something between crying her eyes out and laughing her ass off.  Her face was red, she had tears in her eyes and she had no idea how to turn the thing on.  She was definitely flustered and when she first turned it on she was so excited she couldn't figure out how to unlock it; despite the message on the screen that said "slide to unlock" :)

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It was a great day and my gift gave a reaction I couldn't have predicted.  Myself, I picked up a real nice headset for gaming.  This bad boy has an attachment on it that either takes 2 AAA batteries or plugs into a USB port.  It causes the headset to actually vibrate which is an odd experience, especially when playing games.

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Anyway folks, work beckons and I must heed its call.  Be safe this holiday season and if I don't get a chance to post before the end of the year, have a Happy New Year.

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Cheers,

Al