Now, actually let me give you a little background. My two little monsters like to tease their old uncle. For one thing, they call me ‘Grandpa’ – Toast once did it by mistake, but they keep doing it thinking they’re being cute. They once called me on my birthday and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me with their mom. But when they got to ‘Happy Birthday dear ______’ they substituted ‘Uncle Greg’ for ‘Grandpa’. They must have planned it because they both did it. They were laughing like little wild hyenas and my sister went into a laughing fit as well.

Cute.

Here’s the postcards they sent, a day apart each. First up, Toast’s:

“Hi grand-pa and grand-ma, wish you were here! P.S Happy Birthday Grand pa! P.S.S. sorry uncle greg! Love ___”

And the younger one’s:

“Hi! grandma Grandpa. P.S. Sorry uncle Greg I forgot you Love ____ =D”

Then I went over to the Lundy’s and hung out with them for a while. We caught about about various goings-on (going-ons? Whatever – you catch my drift) before heading downtown to Wilson and Kate’s (was it proper to only add the possessive stuff to her name, or should I have added it to both, making it ‘Wilson’s and Kate’s’? I figure they come in a package so the two names together make one noun or something). So I hung out there, was blessed enough to attend a Bible study with some old (but not too old! We’re all the right age) friends and then I think we watched Ratatouille.

Wednesday we went to Niagara Falls with Danny and Nelson and Nelson gave me a lesson on how to drive manual! Thanks Nelson! Nelson drove the whole way there and back too, so thanks again Nelson! It was a ton of fun. Since I only have dialup I can’t share too many pictures, but at some point I’ll embed a nice picture into this post (maybe). The fireworks display at Niagara Falls seemed kinda lame, but we watched it by driving past it anyway, I took a video. So we didn’t get the whole effect.

I said something entirely embecilic on the way back, but I blame the high dosage pain killers and antibiotics I’m on.

That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Thursday was cool too, even though it involved me being in Long and McQuade and Saved By Technology as we were pricing keyboards for Kate. Two places that are extremely dangerous for me to be in. Thankfully for me Monster Days were over (too bad for Kate) so the ridiculous bargains were at a minimum. I didn’t even get too tempted at either store to buy a VST or some hardware that I can’t afford.

Thursday night we watched Doubt, which seemed like it’d be an awesome movie except for the fact that we were watching the ‘Momento’ version, which was all out of sequence. We figured out the problem (but not what the cause was) and restarted it but I had to leave before we could finish it. It did seem like it’d be really good though.

So, at this point I’d like to address the subject of this here post, ‘Time And Relatives’ Development In Space’. It’s of course a reference to Doctor Who, but the less said about him and the devloution of the character the better. I’m referring to a weird Doppler Effect type thing that’s going on with me and my sister and nieces. They live a few hours away, and I see them less frequently than I’d like, but more than I used to because Belleville’s a lot closer than Toronto was, and they tend to come here or we tend to go there much more than when I was in Toronto. Anyway, I saw my nieces just a few weeks ago, really, and I saw them again this weekend and they seem genuinely changed from before. I know part of it was that they were at home (rather than at my parents’ place and without their parents) but they really seem to be maturing at a rate that seems more rapid than it is because our visits are so far apart. It’s not the time between visits that seems pronounced, but it’s the changes in them over the span of time that do.

Weird, but they’re still ridiculously fun loving, and have great voices so they’re not quite more mature than I am – yet

But they will be soon.

Ahhh, so nice.

Ottawa was great too, but being more urban it feels a little less desolately beautiful. Looking out of a window at a row of houses isn’t the same as looking out on acres of snowy pasture, the odd tree dotting the landscape….and off in the distance the Bay of Quinte.

Anyhoo, makes me appreciate God’s creation. The city can’t measure up.

So…Christmas itself was good. I already mentioned that as much as I love my nieces, I find them a lot of work. Entertaining, feeding, giving attention to them. Wow, I don’t know how my sister and brother-in-law do it. As the Honourary President of the Scatterbrained club, I don’t think I could ever measure up (but in some ways, to be fair to myself and maybe not that objective I’d surpass them in some ways, maybe).

Hahaha.

I dunno what I’m doing.

I need a job

Me? I doubt I have that much of either quality, maybe not enough to sire and raise my own. Kids are demanding, and what’s the reward?

Just sayin’.

1) They kept banging on my bedroom door (my parents’ house used to be a bed and breakfast, so luckily all the bedrooms have locks) on and off as soon as they got up.

They said I promised to make them pancakes for breakfast the night before, which I most assuredly did not. I promised to make myself pancakes.

My sister asked my dad to make extra porridge last night. When she did I told him not to make any for me because I was going to have pancakes. Nieces were in the room. Meaning, somehow uncle Greg promised to make them pancakes.

2) After their parents dumped them on me this afternoon, the older one bit me and thought it was funny

3) They never do as their told

4) They touch unportioned out food with their little grubby fingers

5) They get overexcited when playing Luigi’s Mansion

First prize for being an uncle: A couple of days with my nieces.

Second prize for being an uncle: a week or more with my nieces.

So she starts talking about the presents she got, and this and that, and to be honest I don’t really know what Webkins are (I do know about Pokemon though) so I let her talk on about the cool stuff she got.

She got $100 from her paternal grandparents and wanted a Butterscotch Pony. I didn’t know what that was but just saw it on Toys R Us’ website.

$299. Yikes!

So this morning I got up and my mom had made me lunch. I made sure not to forget it and brought it into the office with me. It was sitting on my desk this morning when Kyle came over to read something off my screen, saw the bagged lunch and said “Are your parents in town?”

It was great, got to spend time with all my cousins. I can’t name everyone in a picture I was sent (it included me, so it won’t be shared), my grandma had 10 kids (four of them are left – including my mom) and countless grand and now great-grand children.

My sister and cousin haven’t sent me any pics of grandma (she cut the rug with my father for about a minute at the party), but my cousin sent me three. One of them had a close-up of me, so I won’t include that here, and the other had a shot of me with the whole family. I’d like to show off my cousins and aunts and uncles, but since I’m in the pic I won’t.

Here’s my cousins John, Rachel, Wayne, Mikey and Michelle.