January 05, 2004 - 9:15 p.m.

The Evil Has Landed

The Secret Satan party was a blast, though the gifts weren't quite as mind-bogglingly bad as past years. Like last year, we used a yankee swap format to exchange gifts. I brought a pair of DVDs, Surf Ninjas (featuring Leslie Nielsen and Tone Loc) and Kindergarten Ninja, and ended up with a pair of wind-up dancing leiderhosen and a set of nesting clowns (in which the smallest doll, appropriately enough, is a devil). I found my booty pretty amusing without being totally ghastly. Sam contributed a DVD as well, MVP:Most Valuable Primate, which ended up with our friend Emily, who was recently the creator of a mix of songs featuring references to monkeys. :) Sam originally got a Barney video (one of the more evil items) but swapped and ended up with a DVD entitled Manster - half man, half monster - that looks delightfully atrocious and which he actually intends to watch.

Sam and I were the objects of mingled enmity and admiration for our beverage contribution to the festivities. While looking for some sort of monkey related food item to go with his DVD at a local bargain basement store we happened upon a selection of tiny bottles of Chubby brand sodas. The sodas came in a revolting variety of flavors: banana, pineapple, cotton candy, bubble gum, and grape. As an added bonus, they were flat, which may have made them even more gross than we thought they'd be.

Sam left this morning, and I went back to work. It was sad to watch him drive away, but it was so nice to get to spend an entire week with him. With neither of us working and with minimal social obligations, we spent a lot of time just hanging out, playing Mario Kart: Double Dash, cooking, and talking. Yesterday he even got to see me sing in a concert in which New Century Voices performed. The concert went very well, despite the fact that we hadn't rehearsed in three weeks (four in my case, since I missed our last rehearsal due to the play.) The concert was originally scheduled for a couple weeks before Christmas but got snowed out. It was a very small audience, but we sang well for them. It was our first performance as a group, so it was kind of exciting.

Well, I still have some sleep to catch up on, so the rest of my catching up here will have to wait. If the week continues as quietly as it began today, I should have plenty of time for posting. The kids were incredibly well behaved today, and I think we have already conquered most of the post-holiday chaos. It was a pleasant return to work.

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flutter back - fly ahead