Whoa. Yeah that is by far the longest stretch of silence on this website in the last 20+ years. Consider it my little Christmas gift to you. But now, as the year ends, I’ll throw a quick batch of pictures out here and a short update on the CA Kenagys.

Probably the biggest update, if the least interesting, is that I am no longer gainfully employed. Wait, what? Yeah, fact. (If you are either one of my regular readers, you probably already know this, but I’ll throw it out there anyway, just in case.) After four arduous years of being at my latest company (which I never asked to be part of in the first place,) I was unceremoniously kicked to the curb. If I said I was upset about this, I would be less than truthful. So, currently, we’re just kind of winging it. I am applying for new positions, but it’s a rough world out there! That seems to be double-true for someone who has not looked for a job in 35 years. I’m a little… “out of the loop,” shall we say, on the whole job hunt process. I guess I can always just monetize this website! There’s another 35-cents a month in my pocket!

As far as “regular” events: We took a quick trip to Vegas the second week of December. On the upside, several of our friends were there, and it was great hanging out with everybody. On the downside, I absolutely abhor Vegas. I go there so rarely that, without fail, I always forget how much I dislike that place. Horrible. I cannot imagine ever going there again; But I’m sure I said that the last few times also, and look what happened. Maybe the highlight of the trip (for me,) was Donette’s “big hit” gambling. She likes to belly up to the bar at casinos and pump $20 in the video poker machine. If you put money in the machine, they give you a free beer. Upon receipt of said beer, she promptly cashes out and walks away. I suppose it is debatable if this is in the spirit of The System, but it surely doesn’t bother me. Charging $13 for a crappy bottle of beer is certainly against all standards of common decency too. Anyway, she was following this questionable strategy one afternoon, and gave the game a spin before taking her $20 back. One pull and she won $200! While not the big numbers some of our group scored on the trip, it was a fine win for somebody who wasn’t even really playing. Bonus!

Other than that week-long trip, we have been celebrating the holidays. We had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year, the food was top-notch. I even feel like we put in a pretty solid effort at “Christmas Spirit.” We put up decorations, went to a nice Christmas party… Downright festive! I have to admit though, being now faced with the prospect of taking all that junk back down, my elation has waned considerably. I am trying to decide if I even HAVE to take anything down. There is (at least) an 80% chance that it will be Christmas ’25 before anybody visits us, so it might just be worth a try…

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