College Traditions

Today marked the end of an ultimately satisfactory winter break with my husband returning to work and yours truly running errands by pedaling around town in near freezing temperatures (the days of luxurious lounging in the car with the heater blasting and zipping from store to store have ended for me since my handsome chauffeur is gone during the day doing frivolous things like earning a living).

As most of you know, my in-laws visited us in our icebox shanty. What you don’t know is that they came bearing many gifts, including real cheese (after trying different variations here, I’ve concluded that the only real cheese is the Kraft and Tillamook variety), warm and soft and cuddly fleecy fleece blankets, original Toblerone (my secret chocolate weakness that makes Amy’s choco-holism look tame) and the all coveted tortilla, which in turn gave us a perfectly legitimate excuse to liberally blast the heat (you know, to show our gratitude and all). Everything considered, our finicky wall heater performed admirably, only ceasing to work a few times during the entire ten day span where we had a full house.

And of course, we had a wonderful time spending over a full week with family. Mom & Pop are a kind, generous, fun, and loving pair. We love & appreciate you two, and not just for the goodies you bring us.

There’s really no possible way for me to condense everything we saw, did, and experienced together into one entry, and so I’ve decided to post current adventures as usual (and hopefully more frequently) while randomly sprinkling individual stories of our time during the tail-end of 2005 amongst them.

After all, I did promise to share interesting things… eventually.

In the spirit of my college days, I would like to share with you the best two quotes of the entire time. Pop is the undisputed king of this round.

Context: It is bleeping freezing here. If you think you’re going to warm up from being out & about by returning to the (dubious) shelter of the apartment, think again.

Walking home from a rousing two-hour round of karaoke, Star & Ash break into a trot as they near the apartment.

Pop (calling out from somewhere behind them): The kids must think they’re going someplace warm!

**Zing! I’m so ashamed it was us that gave into that illusion…

One morning, as everyone is getting ready to brave the outdoors, Pop is in the middle of exiting into the brisk fresh air before anyone else is even close to being ready when…

Star asks: Where are you going?

Pop replies: Oh, just gonna go lie down in the gutter and warm up a bit.

**Check… and mate.