The color of infinity inside an empty glass

Whee!

2013-07-05T09:51:22Z

I can't recall what we did for July 4th last year. I suspect the answer is nothing. We probably tried to make plans, but ended up doing nothing.

This year, we did stuff. It was good.

At 9;00, in Edmond, which is half an hour or so north of us, we did the LibertyFest parade. It was a 1 1/2 hour parade of.. god, everything. Local Police and Fire crews. Local high schools. Local businesses. Even one of the local sports teams joined in. It really was a good time.

Then we came home, exhausted, and we ALL Napped.

Got up, puttered, and then we went outsides for our night time performance. There was no way boy was going up for fireworks, so we'd bought party poppers and snaps and we went outside and had a good time playing with those. We even let R pop some of both, with our supervision (and a lot of "No, you can't put your hand over THAT end of the popper.")
BEST TIME EVAR!

We also made a special holiday dinner: steak, garlic mashed potatoes and garlic apple tarts.

All in all, it was a really good day. We actually DID something for the holiday and it was good!

(/well-being)

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Hannukah

2009-12-11T12:46:14Z

Tonight, as some of you no doubt know, is the first night of Hannukah. Tonight's plans aren't big. When K comes home, if we can find the menorah (my job when I get home), we'll light the candles and open the gifts from Dad and Elaine.

Tomorrow will be a little more complicated since K is going to make some Latkes.

With a child being in the forefront of my thoughts, I keep wondering what holiday time in the Kellick Household will be like in.. 3 or 4 years, once the child is old enough to begin to understand.

I've never been the most religious Jew. I don't go to temple on the high holy days and don't belong to a temple, but Judaism is still a part of my heritage and I try to respect that, but I'm not sure what sort of .. expert I'd be to my children to teach them, if they want to know, what it is to be a Jew. I know traditions. I even follow some of them, because they're still important to me to feel connected to.. the memory or fantasy, maybe, of my childhood (not the actual thing, of course.)

And yet it's important enough to me that I do want them to understand the story of the miracle of the candles, to understand the importance of lighting the menorah, to understand, as well, that Hannukah is a minor holiday and not a major one like Passover.

I'm not sure how meaningful that is without the religious aspect. My child will probably not go to temple, since to do that he'd have to be Jewish, which he won't be, since I don't see us, as a family, agreeing to him being converted unless I REALLY pushed for it. And I'm not sure I'd do that since, except for right now, I've just never cared too much about my religion. It's more of a part of how I was raised than who I am now.
And to be honest, I'm only marginally more comfortable in a Jewish temple than I am a church, even K's UU church which is to say, when a religious service is going on, I'm not.

I'm not sure why this is bothering me now. Maybe it just sort of struck me. How meaningful is a tradition like lighting a menorah without the understanding of why this is supposed to be important?

I don't have an answer to that. It probably depends on how meaningful K and I make it. I think, as I said above, it mostly just sort of struck me. It maybe won't matter in 3 or 4 years, or maybe I'll find my answers by then.

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It's that time once again....

2009-11-30T12:38:47Z

The Holidays are a decidedly mixed bag for me. Have been for a long time.

I despise how.. fake certain Winter Holidays have become. Especially Christmas (Hannukah's got that weird thing where we know it isn't a major holiday, but we suffer from holiday envy, I think.) I hate that particular piece of Americana where people imagine they can turn their family and household into something out of a Norman Rockwell picture, no matter how much money it takes (and whether or not they have it or not) or how nuts it makes them.

And yet, Christmas means the world to my wife and her family and they try to inject a little bit of holiday cheer into my life a little bit of a time, including my wife slaving over a stove once a year making sure I get proper Hannukah Latkes (because there are very few traditions around Hannukah that are meaningful to me, due to what we had when I grew up, but Latkes was one of them.)

It isn't that I'm not appreciative to them for spending the time, effort and, yes, money, but.. it's like trying to thaw a glacier with a hair dryer. For each small meaningful gesture from those around me, there's a world of fake and nuttery and just... holiday craziness.

I don't know that there's much else to say. I'm going to close my eyes, hold my nose and see if I can't get through the madness without getting TOO annoyed this year...

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The Weekly Brain Dump

2009-11-24T12:30:56Z

I'm really enjoying The Sims 3: World Adventures. I'm really digging the tombs which is probably the most un-sims-like addition to a sims game every (there's an actual point to them.) There's not much depth to the actual world environments otherwise, but the tombs are fun!

I'm also feeling GW tugging at my interest again. Luckily, I have a four day weekend approaching and there WILL be gaming!

I had to go home early yesterday due to a migraine. Gah. I've only recently started suffering from them but I already hate them and what they do to me. It used to be that the rain would play hell with my sinuses. I wonder what changed.. :/

Thanksgiving is going to be quiet this year. Just K and I and a few things we're going to make together (Turkey Breast, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, stove top stuffing.) I have hopes that it's enjoyable (and a whole lot less awkward then the year we went to K's church for Thanksgiving. That was just.. awkward. Thanksgiving should be about a feast with family, not total strangers. :/).

I think we have plans to stop by Amy's place for desert and games Saturday. Excited about that too.

Still adjusting to the new cubicle. It's busier than I'm used to. And alot more open. A couple of us were having a slightly.. heated conversation in B's cubicle yesterday (next to mine) and today someone stops by and lets me know that she heard alot of it...

This morning I had my arm around my wife and I felt a very pronounced kick. Guess we woke up Babyboy.

And that's the weekly check in. Have a great holiday all!

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July 4th with Amy, Matt and Friends

2009-07-06T11:51:31Z

I have to say... over the last few years I've noticed our best July fourths have been local. This year and two years ago were probably the best because there wasn't huge amounts of travel or stress or anything. We hung out, did our thing and saw fireworks, which is, for me, what July Fourth is.

We got up. I got up earlier than K, of course, and Simmed for a bit while she slept. Then she got up. We got dressed, grabbed lunch at an... OK Italian Place at the Fair Oaks mall (It was there, we tried it. It was... OK.), stopped by Wegmans to get.. a few items and then went over to Amy and Matt's. They were both setting up, but we were welcome to stop over whenever, so we did. K hung up upstairs and chatted with Amy whilst Amy made Cake Batter Cookies (which were very nommy) and I went downstairs and played Wii.

See.. Amy and Matt got the new Boom Blox, Boom Blox Bash Party and I wanted to play it. Which I've been told I'm welcome to come over any time and do. :) So I did. :)

The game's better than the first and I may have asked for it for my birthday in August. :)

The guests are set to arrive a little before 7, so we help Amy and Matt set up a little (OK, so I washed down some tables, but I HELPED! ;) ) and then the party starts..

There were set to be 15 people there, but it ended up actually being, for the most part, 9 of us. Two others had stopped by, grabbed some food and, I guess, decided they weren't actually comfortable so split. But of the 9 people there, I already knew 8 of them (we met Nick and Roberta during Amy's Inauguration Party this last January and Kevin and Robyn a little while later for their superbowl party) so it was a pretty comfortable evening with friendly type people we were comfortable with. Boom Blox came out for a little little bit, but mostly we ate, we talked, we played .. I think it was Guitar Hero, not Rock Band.. oh, and we watched a helluva fireworks show.

The fireworks show was SPECTACULAR. Especially the finale which was, I kid you not.. it looked like a Volcano of fireworks.. bursting here and there and there and everywhere and smoke rising and magma coming out to kill us all and..

Poor Luna (Nick and Roberta's dog) was so not happy with the Fireworks, though. Poor Puppy. :(

So I guess we're all already on for next year. :D Which is fine with us. It was a great time! :D

Now the question is when do I come over next and play Boom Blox again? ;)

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