Catchup What has happened in the past 12 days? Well, let me tell you...no, it is too much, let me sum up.

On the 10th we went to a Christmas party that our friends hold annually. There was plenty of homebrew, as he is a fellow homebrewer, and other tasty beverages. My wife indulged a bit too much, the wine was fine but the shots were...nots, and ended up not remembering much of the end of the evening. She was quite embarassed, but we all get drunk from time to time and there was nothing to be ashamed of.

Last week was my wife's last week of school teaching for the calander year. That is fantastic for her because things have not been so hot there. She is having trouble with the Man and there are definate signs that the Man is doing his best to set up a paper trail to not have to bring her back again next year. This is really upsetting since my wife does so much every day to be the best teacher that she can be and this Man is more concerned about being in control on every detail of the school...down to where the front of each teacher's room is. In my line of work this is micromanagement and is an insult to the professionalism of his employees.

I went with my brother-in-law up to the Traverse Brewing Co. last Friday for their annual Christmas party. I have been there twice before and at most there were 10 people in the pub. Not for the Christmas party though. This was like a regualr bar...shoulder to shoulder everywhere. Of course, this is not a regular bar so people brought a dish to pass, there was a fire pit outside, you could attend a concert in the actual brewery part, and of course there was not one single Budweiser or Miller Lite to be found. Everything was fantastic micro-brew. Also, since we know the guys at the brewery we spent a bunch of time discussing beer and brewing with the head brewmaster there. It was an excellent evening. It must have been since I forgot my jacket there when we left and had to return to the scene of the crime the next morning (12:30pm).

Sunday we went to my Wife's family Christmas. There was no drinking to excess, thank God, but there was a fine bellydancing show. My wife has been taking lessons for almost a year now and she is quite good. So good, actually, that she was recently upgraded to the advanced class and her teacher is thinking about putting together an amauter troupe. My wife's cousins and such now this and demanded that she have a routine for the Christmas party. My wife's teacher lent her a costume and she put on a wonderful performance, they made her do it twice, and everyone was very impressed. I am quite proud of her.

Finally, if you have not caught my oft endorsed show you can now read the lothario's blog: Barney's Blog  ¶ 08:39