Um…Yes…Where Was I?

I’ve been busy, but my regular blogging resumes now.

After Dad gave us a scare by first landing in the hospital with a lung infection and then checking out of the hospital only to have to be rushed back in a few hours later,

he’s doing fine. He’s been well enough to do all the usual Christmas

things including going to Christmas mass, visiting my sister’s house on

Christmas morning to see his grandkids open their presents and hold

court at Christmas dinner. Once again, thank you all for you prayers

and good thoughts.

Wendy, upon hearing that

Dad was very badly ill, managed to fly in a week earlier than she had

intended to. As a result, this visit marked the longest consecutive

number of days we’ve been together — a whopping sixteen! It may seem a

little odd that I’m marrying someone with whom I’ve spent more time

apart than together, but if you know us personally, you know how well

matched we are. Besides, proximity doesn’t guarantee a good

relationship — I’ve had one or two perfectly rotten girlfriends who’ve

lived a few blocks away. I’ll be extremely happy once Wendy’s here full-time.

If you know me personally, you’d probably think that I’d fit as well in a wedding registry department as Kunta Kinte at a Merle Haggard concert (to borrow a line from the Bloodhound Gang). However, I spent the holdiays registering at not one, but two places: The Hudson Bay Company (a Canadian department store chain) and William Ashley

(a Canadian foo-foo place where you’re supposed to register for china

patterns). The Bay had a little plastic wheel calculator that tells you

the dollar value of the wedding gifts you should receive given then

number of guests; apparently Wendy and I should expect the equivalent

of a reasonably-equipped BMW 3-series.

Ashley gives any couple who registers there a set of champagne flutes

and a handful of chocolate truffles filled with champagne truffle

cream. I never truly understood the motivation behind Jennifer Aniston’s character, “Rachel” in the first episode of Friends (she called off her marriage after she realized that she was more in love with the wedding gifts than her fiance) until now.

Another way I’ve been keeping busy was with the PlayStation 2

that Wendy bought me for Christmas. Videogame consoles are often a

point of contention for couples, typically with the cooler half being

into gaming and the lamer half into lame-o stuff like (you have to

imagine me making “finger quotes” and speaking a deep, saracstic tone)

“snuggling” and “talking about the relationship” (I kid, I kid). I

decided to take the high road and get some games that Wendy would like.

As a result, she’s now into the completly awesome and quirky Katamari Damacy. I tried to get into her into the “realistic” world of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,

but while I was marvelling at the fact that I could beat up crack

dealers, club cops with their own truncheons and soften up rival gang

members by running over them with a stolen ambulance and then finish them off with the

submachine gun, she was wowed by the fact the she got the character to

buy some pop from a machine in the game. If any of you can suggest some

games along the lines of Katamari Damacy that both Wendy and I would enjoy, please let me know in the comments.

(Maybe I can get her hooked on No One Can Stop Mr. Domino if I can dig up a copy…)