Today we passed around the Christmas presents we had bought for each other. My parents liked their frame and we got a few things from them. Andy gave us a copy of Family Guy season 3, and a WPT plug-in game along with a poker mag he probably bought at the airport, read and threw in the bag. No matter. We plugged in the WPT game and played some good old fashioned hold ‘em. Debbie went out very fast and Andy and I were the last two. I lost out when he hit a lucky straight on the river.

Dad had wanted to take us to a pizza joint in Ypsi so we moved the car seat to the Escalade and all squeezed in. I had to sit forward in the back seat so my mom could also fit. It was a somewhat tight squeeze but all 6 of us made it. Dad took 23 down to Washtenaw and then drove down to Historic DepotTown in Ypsilanti. Along the way we had passed the old Putt-Putt which was something else now and made reference to the Super Saturday talks from the day before.

The joint Dad took us to was called Aubree’s and it was housed in a brick building which was on the National Historic Register having been built in 1870. Apparently Dad wanted to split a couple of calzone’s but I thought he wanted pizza and put in an order for a spiniach and artichoke pizza and a pizza with pepperoni, mushroom and sundried tomatoes. We also ordered 10 buffalo wings. The pizza was really good - not Pizza Popalis good - but good enough that I’d like to go back.

Afterwards I started a discussion about heading to The Parlour in Jackson after lunch. I didn’t think Mom and Dad wanted to come but I invited them along. They decided to accept this and rather than drive home and splitting into two cars Dad decided to just go from here. He took 23 to 14 to 94 and 40 minutes or so later we were there after a few turns.

The Parlour in Jackson, Michigan is an landmark ice cream joint that I used to go to all the time as a kid. My parents and I would usually stop by anytime we were near the Jackson Mall and I remember parents of friends taking me when I hung out with them. This would mark the 3rd time I had been there since 1983, the first being in 1998 when we stopped by after a trip to the Birch Run Outlet Mall, the second being last year after Andy’s blowout with mom after he told her he was married with 3 kids. This was the first time we had the whole family there again +2.

Last year I went a bit overboard and ordered 2 sundaes - so excited I was to be there. It was a huge mistake as I had just eatne a large Zingerman’s lunch and the ice cream scoops at The Parlous are HUGE. This time i scaled back and got 2 of the kiddie sundae’s i used to get as a kid. Nicknamed the ‘Dynamic Duo’, this sundae featured a scoop of ‘blue Batman’ icecream, a topping, whipped cream and a cherry. Sadly the waitress told me they were out of blue Batman ice cream. What to do now? I scanned the menu and substituted Superman ice cream for once and french vanilla for the other. Then she asked me which toppings went on which (I randomly ordered butterscotch and strawberry). I told her it didn’t matter.

Our sundaes came out 5 minutes later. During the time between the order and the sundae presentation I read an article on the wall about how The Parlour actually closed for a few months back in 2002 because the owners were sick of running it long distance. This created an outcry in the community and investors lined up to buy it. One man stepped up and bought it, made a ton of renovations and reopened it to the delight of the community. I don’t recall the guy’s name but his age stood out for me. He was only 24 at the time. I started thinking about how cool it would be to buy something historic like that and make it even better.

Even through the sundae’s were smaller I still had trouble finishing. My mom picked up the bill but not before questioning why there were 6 sundaes on it instead of the 5 people who were eating ice cream. Dad explained to her that I ordered 2.

Before heading back home Dad drove the Escalade up to 4773 Bavarian Drive to get a glance at the old house. This turned out to be a slight mistake as Lillian had hit her afternoon car time limit and cried all the way home.

It was now about 5pm and Dad had planned to take us to dinner at a Korean place at 6pm. None of us were close to hungry by now and not wanting to stress the baby we decided to eat a Chinese hot pot for dinner. This was all set up after Lillian was bathed and put to bed. Mom ended up putting chicken, fish, beef, tofu, pork rinds, greens, fish balls, squid and white radish into the boiling broth.

After dinner we chilled out by playing more WPT Hold ‘Em, and alternating between watching the ball drop and watching a tape of the 1989 NLCS that I dug up between the Cubs and Giants. We made remarks about how bad Dick Clark looked and sounded and felt bad for the guy.

When I woke up around 10:00am or so Lillian had already been up for a couple hours and dad had breakfast ready. I made everyone some oil sticks and soa bing and we all had oatmeal. Adter breakfast I told everyone we were heading to the Zingerman’s Roadhouse. First we had to run one errand.

Debbie, Lillian, Andy and I piled in the car and we headed over to Best Buy on Ann Arbor-Saline road to buy the iPod Nano I promised him for Christmas. Lillian fell asleep on the way over so Debbie sat in the car with her. Andy and I ran in to look at the offerings. I offered up the 2 gig nano and said he could go for the 4 gig if he chipped in the extra $50 bucks. It just so happened that he had a $50 GC with him that a customer gave to him for the Holidays. The 4 gig I was informed was sold out long ago so Andy decided on the 30 Gig Video. Good choice I told him. When it was all done and purchased I had a thought and asked him a question.

“Hey Andy, you know how to use this right?”

Bad question - it turns out that he didn’t really know.

“Hey Andy, You’ve used iTunes before right?”

Blank stare.

Oh Boy.

After Best Buy I headed back home. Dad called and said that we should just head straight to lunch as he was bowing out. We had to head home to feed Lillian anyway so I insisted he come. At the last minute he changed his mind and went.

The Zingerman’s Roadhouse opened a year or so ago and is focused on providing good American food with the mark of Zingerman’s quality. I have been dying to hit this place ever since it opened and had never had the opening until today. I read about their many offerings - fantastic cheese flight appetizers, an amazing macaroni and cheese, an amazing fried chicken, amazing barbecue, etc. I couldn’t wait. We headed over at around 1:15pm and had to wait a bit for seating. Once inside we sat down an checked out the cheese and beverage menu. We had browsed the main menu while waiting and I decided on a pulled pork platter with mashed potatoes and collard greens. I also got a cheery concoction from Traverse City. Andy got a Saginaw fish sandwich and something called a Boston Cooler which consisted of Vernors with a big scoop of vanilla gelato in it. Debbie got the grilled cheese with wild mushroom soup which was cool because she got to choose the cheese (I suggested the 2 good 2 be true 2 year aged cheddar). Dad got a shrimp enchilada. It was all really great.

After lunch Andy and I got hot drinks from the Zingerman’s Roadshow and then we headed back home.

Back home Mom called and asked if we could bring Lillian down to the bank to show her off. She was bundled back again and we were off. Mom’s co-workers fell in love with Lillian immediatly and because it was a slow day they played with her for like half an hour.

We stopped at the card store afterwards to pick up an 8 x 10 frame for the photo I had printed out for mom and dad’s Christmas present. Then we headed over to the children’s toy store next door to get a toy for Lillian. I looked around and then Debbie and I found the perfect set of toys. The company that had made a plastic burger set I bought at the Puzzle Zoo in Santa Monica also made a toy sushi set! I had to buy it. It cointained a black glossy serving platter, a tea cup, a bowl with removable rice, a tuna roll, a tuna hand roll, chopsticks, chopstick holders, a shrimp tempura, a wasabi leaf, a piece of salmon nigiri sushi and a fatty tuna nigiri sushi piece.

Mom came home from work and then made pan fried noodles for dinner.

Lillian was bathed and put to bed and after a rousing game of NCAA 2006 Andy and I left for the Ford-Wyoming Drive-in at 8:30pm intending to catch Aeon Flux at 9:40pm. When we got there at 9:00pm we were informed that theater 5 was shut down because of technical problems so we had to choose another screen. We chose screen 4 with had started showing ‘The Legend of Zorro’ at 8:50pm. After a few roundabouts we hit theater 4, parked the car and then hit the snack bar. I got the soda and popcorn combo for $3.00 and Andy for the hot dog, fries and drink combo. It was freezing but we made it over and watched the flick. It turns out that the 20 minutes we missed were unnecessary.

After the movie we drove back. At around the airport it started snowing - first lightly and then more heavily.

I volunteered to sleep in the newly finished basement so my coughing wouldn’t wake up Debbie. The blankies and pillows were all set and I layed down for hopefully a decent nights rest. About 5 minutes in I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and 2 minutes later another one. Feeling a bit suspicious I turned on the light and looked at the couch. There were two ants there that had just bit me. I killed them with a nearby napkin, looked for more, didn’t find any and then went right back to bed.

Today Debbie, Lillian and I were leaving for Ann Arbor to visit my parents and brother. We had planned to leave at about 3:00pm or so because we both had to get a bunch of work done and then pack up the car. Mom hit lunch with Patti and Jason at Cheeburger Cheeburger (no no no, I know what I saw - it’s Cheeseburger Cheeseburger!). We decided to skip out to maximize our time and Mom genrously brought us a to-go order. Mom tried to take Debbie’s order first with much difficulty.

Mom: What do you want Debbie?

Debbie: Uhh I don’t know.. a cheeseburger?

Mom: What kind of cheese?

Debbie: American I guess?

Mom: What kind of toppings?

Debbie: ???

When she got to me I had my order neatly written down with all the specifics. a 10oz Semi-Serious burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, guacamole and tabasco sauce cooked medium.

The burger and onion rings were pretty good. My rapidly expanding stomach said so.

We then packed up the car, said our goodbyes and took off aroun 3:30pm.

We hit Ann Arbor around 6:00pm and I made a detour into the Evergreen Restaurant for some spicy Mongolian Beef. While we waited for our order we wandered around the small mini-mall checking out the Chinese grocery store and the Curves stations inside. We then picked up or order and headed home.

Mom and Dad were home to greet us and they were very happy to see the kid. While we were there we found out that Andy had missed his 4:15pm flight and had to take the next one at 6:15pm putting him in Detroit at 9:52pm. Nice. We ate dinner then gave Lillian her bath and put her to bed. Debbie went to bed shortly after and Dad and I hopped into the Escalade her borrowed and went to pick up Andy.

At Detroit Metro we drove to the Northwest arrivals and baggage claim and I hopped out to wait for Andy while dad circled around. While I was waiting for him a crazy lady started trying to get the attention of someone inside. I walked by and she asked if I could run in and get her. I was just about to when Andy arrived. I greeted him and the the crazy lady hopped out, gave me a fiver and asked again if I could head inside which I did this time. Easiest 5 bucks I ever made. Dad then arrived and we all hopped in.

At home Andy ate dinner and then broke out the thin Playstation he brought with him. He popped in the World Series of Poker game and we started trying to take down Scotty Nguyen and other pros staying up until 1:00am or so. I then went to bed. I couldn’t sleep howver. My cough combined with the 50 glasses of tea I drank kept me up. Debbie was up too with stuffiness and she hadn’t brought her Afrin with her. I decided at 2:30am enough was enough and got dressed to hit Kroger to get some stuff for her. When I went down to put my shoes on Andy was also up due to too much caffeine and we both went to Kroger. I got medicine and an impulse purchase of some TGIFriday appetizers that were on sale. Andyt grabbed two cartons of OJ.

At home I wanred up some rolled quesadillas and played more poker until 4:30am.

My cough and sore throat persists so off to the Urgent care I go again. I headed over there at around 10:00am and had to wait a bit as it was full of sick and burned people. I listened to the iPod and read a Newsweek until I was called.

Inside the exam room I was again asked about my symptoms and then the doctor came in and decided to give me some Albuterol through a breathing machine to help my wheezing. For about 5 minutes I sat breathing vaporized albuterol. It was great. Then I was given new antibiotics, a cough syrup with codine so I could sleep and she told me to get something called Mucinex DM. I was also given a typewritten doctor’s excuse with a raised seal so I could get off work. Thanks!

I hit the drug mart to get the perscriptions filled and while I was there I grabbed some more Vitamin Water’s and a Snoopy Thank You card.

Debbie, Patti and her mom headed out for lunch at the Columbus Fish Market so I watched Lillian. Dad took her for a walk outside in which she promptly fell asleep.

I spent much of today in some sort of recovery, however I seem to have developed a nasty cough. The fog that was in my head the last few days has started to fade however. The throat is still sore and the tonsils still look like boulders.

I was well enough to grab lunch at Skyline Chili today and then I watched Lillian from 3-5pm while Debbie went to Charles Penzone to get a very badly needed hair cut.

I spent much of the day editing the Christmas video which I think turned out decent.

Usually anything that afflicts me is completely gone within 48 hours. Not so with this thing. Sadly this ailment has be down for the count this week and I think I spent much of Monday in bed. I can’t even really remember. I think I remember eating breakfast and lunch and sugary, sugary Vitamin Waters but that’s about it. I think we had flank steak for dinner.

No sickness is great enough to keep me from opening up Christmas presents. I did however sleep until an unprecendented 10am on Christmas morning. Debbie and Dad hit the 9:30am mass which I sadly had to skip out on. When they returned mom made up a huge breakfast of french toast, eggs and a big mess of bacon. It was great.

Patti, Jason and Andrew soon arrived and we began the marathon of opening presents some time after noon. Usually we start out with the stockings, then one presents at a time and then a free for all later on where everyone finds a presents for themself and opens it. I started out by getting a really great Orioles NikeTeam shirt like the one I had been wanting for months but held off on. I also got a ton of stuff from Zingerman’s, Red Bulls, lots of green tea, Simpsons Season 5, two O’s hats, a pedometer, an Under Armour shirt and a huge H&M gift card!

From Debbie I got an installment from the Z-Club at Zingermans, a book with recipies from Nobu Matsuhisa, the Zippo BBQ lighter that was stolen from us this past summer, badly needed jumper cables, a Ben Sherman shirt and the Year 3 of the Chen photo album.

Patti and Jason got me a card from the NikeID store which will allow me to custom make my own shoes. Nice.

The Smith’s sent Lillian a footie sleeper and scarves from Paul Frank for Debbie and I which I’m loving to death.

We took a few breaks between opening presents and I kept the DV camera running. The final result is here:

http://www.viewaskew.com/~ming/christmas.mov

Christmas dinner was at around 5:30pm and consisted of prime rib, a baked potato, rolls and vegetables. Debbie got the Jason dinner and ate a bacon wrapped filet.

After dinner I cleaned up my loot and moved it upstairs and out of the way like I usually do.

Best Christmas ever.

Saturday I woke up feeling like complete crap. My throat was sore and tonsills swollen (which is usually a premonition for something worse) and my head was killing me. Debbie took my temperature and the slowest electronic thermomter in the world spit out a readout of 99.4. Debbie convinced me to hit the Urgent Care place on Sawmill and Debbie’s dad was kind enough to drive me over.

We left around 10:30am or so and Dad dropped me off while he went in search of some rye bread. I signed in at the counter, filled out my paperwork and paid the $15 bucks. I waited about 10 minutes and then was shown to a room where my temperature was taken (99.6) along with my blood pressure. I was then asked about my symptoms and then waited another 5 minutes until I was seen by the good Dr. Bell. Dr Bell took a look at my throat and diagnosed it as pharyngitis. I asked if he could perform a throat culture just to make sure it wasn’t strep and he swabbed the back of my throat. 10 minutes later the nurse appeared with a perscription for an antibiotic and told me the test was negative. When I went out dad was already waiting for me.

I spent much of the day in bed and skipped mass that evening. I did enjoy our traditional dinner of kielbasa, sauerkraut and pierogies and then tried to go to sleep at around 11:00pm to no avail. The wicked combination of Santa Claus anticipation and the fact that I had slept all day kept me awake. at around 12:30am the phone rang. Usually late night calls are a bad thing. Debbie went down to find out what was going on and discovered that Dad had been called to fix a problem at work. Ahh - gotta love the X in the AM calls from work. I decided to head down and get some work doen myself and was up until 2:30am or so.

After last nights ordeal I would have liked to have slept in. However I got up bright and early at around 7:30am to take care of something at 9am. After that business was over with I ate some fruit for breakfast and then planned a trip to get some supplies for the next 11 days. I left at around 11:30am or so and headed over to Trader Joe’s. Inside I picked up some staples - McCann’s instant Irish Oatmeal, Vitamin Waters, a bar of Valrhona 65% dark chocolate, tortilla chips and spicy black bean dip. I also picked up some microwable red and yellow curry that came with a pouch of rice. These were new to me so I decided to give them a shot in case I needed a quick lunch. I also grabbed a jar of chicken stew. All this came out to a mere $20 bucks or so. I love it.

I then headed over to Whole Foods (just down the street, Columbus ain’t so bad) and grabbed some cocktail shrimp, 3 pink lady apples and some Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness juice.

The next errand was to head to Kroger in Polaris to grab a Carvel Christmas cake. After that I hit Panera and tried to pick up a rye bread. Sadly they were out. By this time I was starving so I grabbed a carnitas burrito from Chipotle. I ate the burrito at home, played with Lillian and then zonked out until dinner. Debbie made a couple of quiches which instatly drove ther Uhrig’s away. Oh well.

After dinner I spent an hour or so in the basement wrapping Debbie’s multitude of gifts.

Today was the day we had planned to leave for Columbus for the long Christmas holiday. I had to stop into work to get a bunch of stuff done for Friday and I had some photos to print out - namely an 8 x 10 that I was having framed for my parents. I stopped into work fairlyearly and decided to eat a big breakfast I headed over to NoJoe’s to grab some of their awesome oatmeal and a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. When I arrived I saw Mike Zapcik and said, “Hey, didn’t they ban you for life from this place? They should take your picture and put it on the wall.” Luckily that didn’t put him off too much because he was there buying gift cards for people and one of them was for me! Awesome! I used it to fund my breakfast purchase.

Also on the errand list was to pack up and mail a few things at the post office, one of these things being Margaret’s Christmas present.

The rest of the morning and afternoon flew by. I arrived home at around 2:30pm much ti Debbie’s dismay because we had planned to leave sharply at 3pm. After packing up the food bag and my big black duffel and my Christmas presents, we were off at around 3:30pm.

The drive was fairly uneventful. Lillian slept much of the way and didn’t cry too much. The portable DVD player Debbie bought just for this trip helped a lot with that. We stopped at a rest area near Valley Forge to feed Lillian at around 6:30pm and I noticed a new roadside food stand inside called Cereality which describes itself as a ‘Cereal Bar & Cafe.’ Basically what tbhis place offered is a chance to mis 2 or more name brand cereals with a topping and milk creating a candyized version of breakfast. An oatmeal as a base option was also available if you wanted a hot cereal. The concept was decent I suppose but I decided to pass.

A couple hours later we stopped again and indulged in greasy Roy Roger’s fried chicken for dinner at the rest stop before Sideling Hill. I believe this was the same rest stop where my car battery died and my radio code enabled this past September.

Lillian slept quietly the rest of the way and we stopped once in New Stanton for a drink break. I grabbed Debbie a diet Dr. Pepper and searching around for something unique I found a large 24 oz bullet can of Jolt Cola. I hadn’t had Jolt in many years so I decided what the hell. It still held up I guess and it kept me up.

We hit the house at around 1:00am and tried to move Lillian to the crib at 1:15am. Sadly she became aware of her new surroundings and decided not to go to bed again until 4:15am.