Christmas Bits

The lighted train by the chrome tree, the rest of the village is on the hearth.

We put all the decorations up to see what was what and what we would keep. Punkin Head wants the chrome tree so it will be packed away for him. Also the train and village.

The spiral tree is going away, done with that one. Keeping the crystal and pearl and fancy balls.

We got new books for Christmas presents, from MIL The Two Week Wait by Sarah Rayner and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. From PH Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. Will let you know.

We got MIL an orchid and delivered it in a surprise visit on Christmas and then yesterday we took her and her friend to lunch in Blissfield. It was a nice day to travel. Oh, we also took her the Sister Pie chocolate chip cookies with buckwheat and another fan. They are the most incredible cookies.

We had our Christmas Eve lunch at Atwater Brewery in GGP and it was horrible. Not very good German food and mediocre wine. PH tells me the craft beer is not that good either. I don't drink beer as nothing in the US has ever matched the beer in Austria. And beer carbs are a weight gain for me.

Speaking of weight, Big Daddy and I got FitBits for Christmas. Supposed to help with our insurance rates with his work policy and just a general trendy thing for us to do to try and lose weight. I would like to know how many miles I walk a day at work. Last I knew was over 7. BD says I get special treatment for how many steps. We will see, I don't go back until Monday the 5th.

The Slavs brought us a Christmas basket I assume as a thank you for the pecan pies. It was sweet.

Wednesday is lunch out for New Year's Eve and I will take better pictures.

All I will say about work is I am off until Jan. 5 and Felice Navidad.

Saddest Christmas tree part 33

The polar bears are back. I love them.

If I can sneak it out I am gonna take a picture of this tree tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day.

People are now putting their parts on the tree as decorations. Mostly the badging parts. Those are the ones that say the name of the vehicle, or company, or a special assest of the vehicle like "trail rated" and no I am not at that plant.

Well today I came down the steps and said, WTF, someone took white garbage bags and fashioned them into a really bad Angel on top of the tree and tied it up with the used and discarded tape film from my parts. I cannot describe how hilarious and sad this looks. Guess I am not the only one who thinks this tree is in need of love or a Christmas Special ala Charlie Brown.

I bought pizza for the materials group today, 200 bucks worth of pizza and when I went down to get help they found the guys on the flat bed and another dude grabbed a vehicle and we all rode out to the gate to collect the food and sign the receipt. Hilo drivers are happy and my boss is not. He told me to keep it under 150.00 but that is just not realistic. Let him scream, let him scream, let him scream.

IBS acted up this afternoon and I had to run for cover. Thank goodness I made it home safe and tomorrow is the last day and we can relax and have some fun. Or sleep. I will start showing the Christmas pics.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, volume 82

The good is well, lets start with the ugly. It is Christmas and I think we should save the best for last.

The Ugly, these people are the stupidest asshats on the planets, in my humble opinion. I have not met every asshat, but of the asshats I have met they rank first. You used to could get a train ticket a week in advance. Then they changed it to 5 days in advance. Then 3 days. Now it seems to be whenever the bitch wants to sell the tickets, well it is her call. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe never. This is why I need to move home. Because at some point I am gonna blow. Sell me the ticket or don't sell me the ticket, just make up your fucking idiot mind. And this is not a white person thing, they do it to the locals too. The land of the high speed trains cannot sell tickets. I think we need to get Piers on this shit.

The supplier is driving us all back to Shanghai tomorrow as none of us can get train tickets. We all know this expense is going to go into the final bill from the supplier for this job, so the low cost country is not going to be low cost pretty soon.

That is okay, the China Daily-my fave for news-says China is going to teach Africa how to plant and harvest cotton. I recall a recent post where I told you that China is going to invent a machine to harvest cotton. Is this full circle or should I just drink more.

The Bad, remember the really important white guy from the dinner last night? He lives in this hotel. And he wanted to take us to dinner, thanks to BD for getting us out of that one. He is a pretentious-let us just say he is not my type. Hell to the no. And all the while he has 3 little Chinese girls fawning on him every minute while he is explaining they are all MBA's from China's most famous universities?

The Good, well when we walked inside the hotel, there was the tree. They light the tree at 4PM and we were a bit early for that so I was just checking out the lobby. Mr. Concierge came over and started chatting. I had to explain to him about the reindeer. That they were Santa's reindeer. That he got them in Lappland. I almost sent him to Badger's Blog, then I thought that might be cruel. Santa, reindeer, Badger talking about hiding in a reindeer carcass. No, I could not do that. 

Then I had to explain the presents. This guy was serious, how do the presents get there. Have you ever tried to explain Santa to someone about 30 years old? Yea, I did the whole nine yards, the cookies and the milk and the how when you are about 7 or 8 you know this is bullshit.

There is picture of Santa in the lobby and no one knew it was Santa.  I taught Santa. WTF.

If we are still here in the spring you can bet your ass I will have Easter Bunny books.

O Tannenbaum

Thought I would cheer myself up so I went down to soak up the warmth and beauty of our lobby Christmas Tree. It has been up for a few weeks now. It is so much better than the raggedy ass piece of shit they had on the counter.