Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

Well the juggling of the holiday visits went fairly well. The families all live within forty-five minutes of Bunktown, so we were able to visit one half of my family Christmas Eve, the other half Christmas morning, and Miss Tori's family on Christmas afternoon. The gifts were nice. We both got stuff we liked. I even used my spare key to hide a gift from Santa over at Miss Tori's place. Major points scored for yours truly. I have to admit, sometimes I can really pull off the sweet moves. Which is nice, because most of the time I'm sort of a schmuck. I didn't even like King Kong.

The ducks are still hanging out at Hall of Elders North. Five are wintering there this year, up from two last year. Unfortunately, Carpenter notes how they always nibble away at the dirt right at the waterline of the pond. The pond is surrounded by landscaped hills on about 2/3 of the shoreline. Granted, they may be going for bugs or whatever, and not just digging at the dirt for the fun of it, but it's a micro case of erosion issues. They undercut the banks a bit, and a bit of dirt drops into the pond. It's just a dirt pond, without an artificial lining, so it's not an issue of making the water dirty. It's also not like the trees and plants bordering the pond will be toppling into the water next week. However, it is a problem that needs to be addressed. My understanding is that the neutralization solution will not be approved for cute ducks.

Of more pressing concern is the fact that Miss Tori totally left me in the virtual dust when we played Super Mario Kart at her parents' place on Christmas. The only race I won was when her controller cord was accidentally kicked loose by her cute little niece. I saw my shot, there was no danger, so I took it. Miss Tori is nothing if not clever. She was always getting some sort of turbo boost at the start of races. Somehow she forgot to mention that this happens if you hit the gas button at just the right point on the countdown to the start of the race. She was kind enough to fill me in on what each weapon does. This advice took the form of my car getting blasted and her saying something like "That's what the red shell does." Isn't she sweet? But what am I going to do? Nothing. That's the key to good relationships: give on the nothing things, so you can keep the power on the big things. Works like a charm.