The Whole "Twenty-One" Thing (Part I)

Christmas marked my twenty-first birthday, and apparently I magically became old enough to drink responsibly. So tonight Claire, her older sister Karla, and I went out to Houlihan's to break-in my new adult-status Minnesota Driver's License. I ordered Samuel Adams (2 for 1 during Happy Hour), but was, alas, not carded. The place was quite packed, so we ended up sharing a table with a group of seemingly random Minnesotans who happened to be friends. They all knew each other, but aside from one pair being sisters, they seemed to have no definite connection. They were all in high spirits, however, and before long started including the three of us in their rounds of drinks. The first was a shot of Rumple Minze; the latter - I was told - was a "Red Headed Slut" (1/2 oz Jagermeister, 1/2 oz peach schnapps, splash cranberry juice), but since it was served in an Old Fashioned glass (instead of a shot glass) I'm not entirely sure.

Missing person

Admittedly my posts have been infrequent this month, as they often are in December, but I've been wondering for quite some time what ever happened to Mr. or Ms. Jamessux (I have the feeling that 'Ms.' is correct, so I'll take a chance here). This mysterious character was my most frequent commenter back in 2004 around the election. I didn't agree with her (and didn't really like her abrasive style), but I can be rather nostalgic at times. Since we don't have any fresh material, let's revisit some of my favorite Jamessux moments:

"James, you are so lame. Why do you write stupid nonsense?"

Okay that's enough.

Jamessux, are you out there?

Christmas past

I had a full and enjoyable Christmas. Claire joined my family and my sister's friend Joanna for my official birthday meal at Joe's Crab Shack on Friday. She was ill that night (for reasons unrelated to the meal), so I stayed the night and took her to urgent care on the morning of Christmas eve. She was already doing better by the time she rejoined us for dinner, the candlelight church service, and, of course, opening of presents. The highlight of my collection was a Tom Bihn Brain Cell laptop case for my new Alienware notebook computer.

The next morning we opened stockings (Mom gave me three bars of dark chocolate!) and ate homemade lemon doughnuts. We were joined for a lunch of roast ham by my aunt and uncle and my cousin Karl and his girlfriend Natalie. Pictionary and chocolate chip birthday-cheese cake followed. Claire and I finished the day by creeping ourselves out with the unpleasantly dark movie Seven, and we were both glad to have each other near.

End Of Semester Summary

Since I've all but failed to post so far this month, I'd perhaps best summarize things, real quickalike: 5 December was the final review for studio. It was an amazingly stressful day, but I think my review didn't go terribly. I was told by my classmates afterward that I was "articulate" during my presentation, which is reassuring. Drawing class ended with much lower-key review one week later, although the preparation was actually much more time-consuming. Building systems concluded with an exam on Tuesday that turned out to be quite easy except for a couple odd questions. That afternoon and evening I got all my studio belongings to my apartment and then out of that jumble I picked out the things I needed to bring home. After a very short night's sleep I flew home on Wednesday. Thursday and the first four hours of Friday were consumed by the final paper for my Discourse class. Finishing at 4:45 EST, I wrapped up my semester in the true architecture school style. I'm by no means idle now, but the pressing deadlines are passed.

Intriguing Product

Claire brought these to my attention - the perfect gifts for your favorite geologist, rock hound, or birthstone enthusiast.

The tenth intriguing product is SoapRocks.