Feature Present-ation
The Molerat cons us into letting her open presents a day early, as usual.
Believe it or not, Athennia was supposed to work Christmas Eve day.
But, since she recently discovered that she was basically the ONLY person at her company who had actually been working the so-called "mandatory overtime" for the past two weeks, she told her boss that she would be playing hooky for the day!
And, what do you know? The universe found a way, as always, to turn our joy to ashes in our mouths...
There really is not a F@#K YOU big enough, bold enough, or loud enough to convey my response to such a horseshit threat backed by horseshit logic and delivered in such a horseshit manner by whatever horseshit excuse for a human being typed up this jackassery and taped it to our door.
There is nothing in the lease we've signed where we've agreed to refrain from using power strips; nor is there any law on the books that expressly forbids the safe and correct use of power strips (and more importantly, surge protectors).
Needless to say, I will be THOROUGHLY educating myself over the coming weeks on the exact letter of the National Electric Code and the specifics of Morrisville Borough's adoption of it. And then, whenever Dickass McSchmuckpants does eventually come out and waltz into my home against my protests, he will do so with my camera in his face to record his every word, and then the borough and the landlord can answer for all of this in court when he utters even a single inaccurate word and I sue the ever-loving crap of them for their incessant badgering and repugnant violations of the Fourth Amendment.
For now? It's Christmas!
Riley begged us last night to wake up at the crack of dawn so she could open her presents.
And let the record show, I was there...
...But, curiously enough, she wasn't! So I went back to bed.
And instead, she had to wait until after dinner this evening!
There was a lot of pink...
And frou frou girly stuff...
And also a Kirby—of which I'm moderately jealous!
Penny was quick to remind us that she too is a girl—who therefore also likes frou frou pink stuff.
Even Odin was thinking about changing his pronouns for the evening, just to try to cash in on some of the prizes...
Finally, after watching the Molerat unwrap... erm, basically three of everything that Bath and Body Works has ever sold... I got to give her something that was just from me!
It appeared to have the exact weight and dimensions of a vinyl record...
My God; what ever could it be?
It was a mystery all right...
Apparently she's not familiar with Celldweller at all :)
Then it was back to the regularly scheduled programming...
At one point, Lucky came up the hallway and thought he had located a secret passageway to parts unknown...
...but he was totally floored to find that it just led to the living room...
Finally, it was a Molewrap; and Riley was finished opening her 6,000 gifts.
So, it was time for Kitten to have a turn...
Whoa. A personalized recipe binder...
I did not make this myself, because my laser engraver hasn't arrived yet.
But I did make all the recipe pages inside :)
And Riley and I gave Kitten some tabs and stationery so she can group and organize her recipes in whatever fashion she'd like...
So, I had to buy Kitten a special hole punch as well.
Speaking of kittens, Penny decided that she's as good a gift as any, and she joined the others under the tree...
Then—surprise—the Molerat had another gift just from me!
I wrapped this one in a different box so that she'd never suspect it was another record—much less two records!
So, she got 2000's Mer de Noms by A Perfect Circle, 2003's eponymous album by Celldweller, and 1998's Mezzanine by Massive Attack...
And, though I'm limited by our laser printer only being black and white, I like to have a little fun and make custom little introductions with lyrical snippets and such...
For Mer de Noms, I took the album art's "glyph" theme and ran with it...
Celldweller used a more space-y, futuristic vibe on his album...
And, even though I've never felt that Mezzanine's harsh black and white artwork accurately serves to Massive Attack's sound, I kept with that theme as well...
Not too shabby. Hopefully she'll love the music :)
Then it was my turn!
Kitten got me a Raspberry Pi 5 and a tiny case for it—which will probably mean nothing to most of you...
(It's a tiny computer about the size of a credit card, which is great for things messing around with electronics projects, or sticking in a corner somewhere and turning it into a server for something like streaming music, playing Minecraft, backing up family photos, hosting shared calendars, et cetera.)
Then there was a bag from both Kitten and the Molerat...
Ah, two new T-shirts!
So, now I don't have to grow up for at least another year!
Good thing, too—or else, I wouldn't legally have been able to open this Muhweegi bag that Kitten had made!
Nice—a bunch of Super Mario power-ups!
Odin was a little miffed that nobody seemed interested in getting him as a gift at that particular moment...
...And shortly after we finished opening everything, Jeff and Lillian came up to give us this beautiful plant arrangement with a cypress sapling and some Christmas cactus that looks like it belongs in the desert on the property I just sold out there!
