Long Break

Well, I had a great Christmas break. It was a week and a half of warm weather, fried nonsense, bonfires, presents, and jokes. These days, going home almost has a sort of summer camp feel to it. During the holidays, there are more bodies than beds, so cots, air mattresses, and couch-sleeping is all pretty much par for the course.

As you can see, Mom made a visit to the App State bookstore before Christmas. I nabbed Bailey a Cubs outfit, too. We're doing our best to indoctrinate her nice and early.

It was warm. One day I washed my car in a bathing suit and a t-shirt. Another couple of days we drove around with the top down. We ate like kings, spent lots of time with friends and family, and even drove through Boone on the way back.

One night we even had this little redneck extravaganza:

The smoke in the foreground is from a bonfire. In the rear (in front of the barn and under the tarp) you can see a silver pot on a burner attached to a propane tank. That contains a frying turkey. The pickup truck contains several wooden pallets that fueled that bonfire.

yum.

Anyway, the trip was awesome. It 's good to be back in Chicago, but things are pretty hectic right now. 0-60.