Merry Christmas, You're Fired -OR- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Stealth Bomber

I got some fun news this Christmas vacation. At dinnertime, CST, I got a call from a friend/co-worker who informed me that the computer lab I worked in was being "taken over" by another group on campus. Shortly afterward, my boss called me and confirmed that the library provost had declared the computer lab his territory, effective the next day. Long story short, I still have a job, but it's not in the computer lab. I'm now an audio duplication monkey, burning CDs for The Man. But I've got an application in for another sweet computer job on campus, and this one is full-time. If I get it, I'm buying steaks for everybody. Well, everybody in my immediate family.

Baby and I drove to Texas in a caravan with Colonel Rhombus. It was a beautiful drive. We stayed in El Paso, which is one of the ugliest cities I've ever seen. El Paso did treat us well, though, as our hotel was next door to a Taco Cabaña. I had my old college favorite, the chicken fajitas with queso. It was sublime. Although I prefer flying to spending about 24 hours in a car, coming in through Fredricksburg and Johnson City was very charming. The cowboy towns had all their Christmas decorations out. It was a pleasant end to a monotonous haul.

Baby and I spent half of the holidays in Austin with my family, and half in Beaumont with her family and friends. It snowed in Beaumont, for about three hours, but none of the snow really stuck to the ground. Baby's best friend's brother and sister did manage to make a 6" tall snowman, but I'll let her write about that if she wants to.

The drive back was more fun and eventful -- Rhombus and I drove back with Baby, Chet, Melio, and Mosesface, along with a ton of baby equipment (including a double-action breast pump) and my dog RAMONA. We stayed in El Paso again, but this time it was at a LA QUINTA. Baby freaked out, of course, being an LQ junkie. We ate at a unique Mexican restaurant. Chet had the filet mignon. I ate a chile relleno. There were wicker chairs and our party was seated in a separate room.

On the drive, we all watched The Office, Napoleon Dynamite, and Star Trek: Voyager. Mosesface was sad that we didn't get to see the windmills since we came in at night. I think the windmills are even creepier at night.

It was raining when we came in, and it's been raining continuously since, with one exception: fortunately, it stopped raining long enough for the Rose Parade and the Tournament of Roses. Anybody who cares about the game already knows about it and what a great game it was, but what they may not know is that the STEALTH FREAKING BOMBER was there. That's right, the B-2. That thing is HOTT. Just before the game, it did a flyover right above the stadium. It was beautiful and transcendant. Rhombus cried, and I immediately enlisted in the Air Force. There were high-fives all around.