Ghost of Christmas Present

Food poisoning is no joke, kids. At least I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. All I know is that I woke up at 4 AM on the 26th with my entire metabolism on blue-screen, and spent the next twelve hours hanging out with Bobby Hurley and Rhea Perlman (ask the DC folks) and outright delirious (ask the wife) before finally crashing to sleep, hard, for the next 17 hours. By morning on the 27th, the fever was broken and I was generally asymptomatic, and I posted on time for the Emerald Bowl tailgate on a rooftop in China Basin. What can I say, I’m a gamer.

I will say, however, that it was basically the WORST hangover of my life, and I treated it as such – nothing stronger than a couple bottles of Guinness save for one very dilute Irish coffee at the ballpark, nothing wilder or spicier than a plain hamburger on the rooftop or a bowl of oatmeal at breakfast or cold fried chicken after the game. (I didn’t eat one bit of solid food on the 26th, but I can put away the Pedialyte and Gatorade like a CHAMP.) And I had to keep the shouting to a bare minimum – in a state like that, every decibel is precious and has to be saved for the most vital moment, like that defensive surge in the final moments that led to the Pain Train liberating the football and Cal eking out a bare victory over Al-Qaeda University. Actually, I suppose I would reluctantly root for the ‘Canes over Al-Qaeda…but I would pray like hell that they didn’t cover. EIther way, there’s nothing like seeing a bunch of Miami fans trying to chant that Cal didn’t cover and telling them “Congratulations, you’re officially the Miami Commodores.”

I’m not sanguine about our bowl, obviously.

Christmas? Oh, that went very well. I got a lot of nifty little things (especially the $illy coffee siphon, which is a brewing mechanism for engineers and smart-asses if ever there was one) and will finish with a whole stack of books and DVDs that have long needed reading/viewing. And before you mock me, I will point out that the wife has had the Wii on her Amazon wish list since the summer and when I found one available for ready money, I took the opportunity. She has controller #1, in case you doubt whose it is. (And in case you think “oh right, he got HER a WII, suuure,” I also got her another little something that came in a box in a fetching shade, so I did my husbandly duty and don’t you forget it.)

I did however get myself NCAA Football 09. I’m not made of stone.

I also got a High School Musical night-light in the White Elephant swap, but managed to unload it in trade for a teapot. Not a particularly fetching teapot, I must say, but there’s another swap next year…