Amazing

It's nice being home, possibly because I haven' t been home long enough for everyone to have gotten sick of me yet. Maybe, since I haven't been here in two years, it'll be a little while before everyone starts getting annoyed with me.

This morning was amazing, though. I get a big queen-size bed with really really super soft blankets all to myself, and my mom found my old teddy bears, so I get to sleep with a stuffed animal again! I mean... um... not that I would sleep with a stuffed animal... seriously, how childish... ahem.

So anyway, it's a little chilly in the basement, but I kind of like it when the air is a little chilly and I can burrow under my warm blankets. Mom also had laid out some books for me like the Lexicon of Stupidity. Maybe she normally keeps them near the guest room, I don't know, but I'm enjoying the books just the same.

I woke up this morning to my dad inviting me upstairs for breakfast, which I didn't have to cook! Dad made home-made pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs, southern-style. Apparently, he added just a touch of vanilla, almond flavoring, and sugar to the scrambled eggs. Not enough to taste it specifically, but enough to make you go, "Wow, there's something special about these eggs!" Then I asked if we had any orange juice, and Dad said, "We will in about one minute," and he pulled out some oranges and juiced them right there. It was the most delicious orange juice I've had in years. Or maybe ever.

Dianna was working all day, and Dad's planning on running some wires through the house to hook up ten speakers for Mom so she can listen to music anywhere in the house. But Dad's getting too old to climb around in the attic with a drill, so I get to do the fun stuff. We haven't gotten to that part yet, though. Instead, Dad spent all morning teaching me about how electricity works, and explaining watts and amps and Ohms and resistance and pie. Seriously, pie. Then we measured, cut, and stripped some wires, which turned out to be the wrong size, so then I got to learn how to solder too.

We called up the airport in the afternoon and retrieved my checked suitcase also, so I have my pocketknife back. Oh yeah, and my clean socks, and my family's Christmas presents and stuff. Then we went downtown to take back one of the speakers that was broken, but we got all the way to Harrisonburg before we realized that we had forgotten to bring the broken speaker with us. Drat.

So instead, Dad took me to his office and showed me his video editing software, then dragged me around his office to show me off to his friends. Two of them were there, and of course, I knew both of them before. It was a pretty funny contrast between the two, though. Dad interrupted the first guy and dragged me in to the guy's doorway, and the professor and I chatted formally for a minute or two. "Hi, how are you, how's school, how do you like Alaska, well, it's good to see you again." Then Dad dragged me to his dean's office to show me off to Brad Roof. The moment Brad saw me, his face split into this enormous grin, and he started flipping out, demanding hugs and talking about juggling and eating fire and Rob (apparently, Dad showed him the videos I made). Then he walked us all the way out to the parking lot because he didn't want to stop talking, and he demanded another hug before we left. What a happy guy.

Mom took us out to a Japanese place called Messaki for dinner. It was one of those places where they cook the food in front of you and juggle their knives and set fire to things and make a volcano with onion rings. Fantastic food, and I got a few good pictures, but don't feel like uploading them tonight. Plenty of leftovers, too, so I guess I've got lunch tomorrow, too.

When we got back, Dad showed me a few constellations and then Dianna and Mom and I played Upwords (it's like Scrabble, only you can stack letters). We didn't keep score, though, and we kind of cheated a lot, just to keep the game going. It was great giving Mom a hard time, though, because first she made the word "nads," and then she did "jugs." Oh, the jokes that flew!

After that, we recruited Dad to play Monopoly with us. It was probably the quickest Monopoly game I've ever played, because nobody had a monopoly on anything. I figured Dianna and I should try and put our stuff together to work against Mom because she always wins. Unfortunately, the only properties we could combine to make a monopoly were Mediterranean and Baltic (the cheapest ones on the board). So we did, and then we put hotels on them. $250 for Dianna if someone landed on Mediterranean, and $450 for me if someone landed on Baltic. Well, in retaliation, Mom cut the same deal with Dad, but they used Park Place and Boardwalk. $1100 for Mom if we landed on Park Place, and $2000 for Dad if we landed on Boardwalk. Dianna and I landed on Park Place at least four times, and Boardwalk at least once. No one ever landed on Baltic or Mediterranean. Dumbest game ever! :P