What a great day!

Matty showed up at around 0600, and the front door was iced shut so he came in through the bottom only to find that it had been plasticked shut on the inside. Unfortunately, he didn't relaize this until too late and so just finished the job and came in to add to stockings and have a bit of cider. I went back to sleep around 0630 and didn't get back up until the sun had firmly risen.
We had Yulekaga and EggKaka and assorted other traditional foods for breakfast and then the arm wrestling began.
But that's another story for another post, suffice it to say the day was well spent and ranks among the best Christmases I've had in a long time.

It's so cold here.
19 below zero when I got home last night.
26 below this morning.

Samui Tamatama

Christmas leave is going great. It's only been one week, but I already feel like a new man and have more or less cleansed myself of the military mindset. It's so stinking cold here that I'd laugh about it if I weren't afraid of freezing my lungs. You think I'm kidding, it was -19 when I woke up this morning! But I digress.

Looks like Chad and I might be able to meet somewhere on Christmas Eve, so I'm pretty happy about that. I've never met his better half in person, but she's a journalist, and she's managed to put up with Chad now for a bit, so I'm sure she's a stand up gal.

Check out my new site Ask Ace which also appears as a link in my sidebar.
Go ahead, hit me with your best shot.
-Ace

So I made it to Minesoooota alive and man is it cold here.
I've been telling all my friends in Japan about how cold it gets here but found that I'd forgotten how truly cold it is. I'm here to tell you it only got down to -4 here this morning and I'm officially ready to not have it get any colder.

So i did it!
well, almost did it.
I completed my last post and have gone home for the day.
Now it's a three day weekend to pack and then I sign out and am off to the states!

In honor of that, here's a poem about life in Duluth and eating a little bad chinese up on seven bridges road.

Stopping on a Sunday night
for teriaki beef,
I'm reminded of when you and i
ate barefoot on the river rocks
while rushing water passed us by
with laughter.

I have decided that since I'll only be back in the states for two weeks, I don't think I'm going to fritter any of it away on the second floor of UTC; the first floor however is a different story as those fools were always pretty nice to me.

Have yet to hear back from my brother, who's car I may be using to get around, so there are no hard and fast dates yet as to when I'll be in the Brainerd area but right now it's looking like somewhere around the 17th. I'll shoot smartypants and that can-guy an email when I know for sure and maybe we can put out the word for lunch at that Chinese place... Hey Canman, are you still on speaking terms with any of the girlies from Marketing?

Chad, if I don't get my brothers car I probably can't make it all the way out to your new place but if you're going to be in Brainerd or D.L. or even the Fargo area just let me know when and I'll get there if it means hoping one of the coal cars...