Tone Parsons

Since my wife had her accident last week, I’ve been doing the mass transit gig (she needs my car for her job).

Going to work in the morning is a breeze. My wife drops me off at the downtown plaza in the morning (where the buses all hang out), I get on my bus, and it drops me off right in front of my work. Coming home, on the other hand, is a different story. I have two issues with the evening ride:

1. The bus that picks me up from work arrives downtown 2 minutes after my connecting bus leaves the plaza (giving me a 28 minute layover).
2. The bus I take to get to my house is the same bus that goes to the Gospel Mission (the homeless shelter).

So… I’m surrounded by interesting characters at the plaza, and interesting smells on the ride home. I’m also now very aware of how many people with mental ailments live in my town. It’s a little shocking.

But I’m not complaining. I honestly don’t mind riding the bus, and it’s only for a couple of weeks. It does get me pretty close to my house (about 5 blocks from my front door) and it beats the hell out of walking. Plus, it only costs me $2 a day to travel to Liberty Lake (the town I work in) and back. I can’t drive my car for that cheap (motorcycle maybe, but car… no).

Other news: I have been assured from an OMG SUPER SECRET reliable source that Eve (of grumpyoldwoman.net fame) is going to make a glorious return to the intrawebs next month. I eagerly await her witty banter! We’ve missed you, babe!

Christmas at Casa de Tone was good this year.

The kids seemed more than pleased with what came under the tree (those little bastards have gotten expensive as they’ve gotten older), and my wife was happy with the diamond “Journey” necklace that Santa delivered. Me… I’m totally thrilled with the JVC surround sound system that we got each other.

Christmas dinner as amazingly good. The turkey and stuffing were pure perfection!

My sister and brother-in-law came over for games and such. My sister brought her famous hot buttered rum mix (which tastes sooooo good, but is horribly bad for you). Here’s the recipe (to the best of my memory):

• 1/2 gallon of ice cream (the cheap kind they sell in a box)
• 1 pound of butter, (softened to room temperature)
• 1 pound of powdered sugar
• 1 pound of brown sugar (light brown)
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

In a large plastic container (with a lid), slow melt the ice cream until it’s very soft, add the softened butter to ice cream. Add brown sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg slowly while mixing until everything is thoroughly blended. Chill the mix in the refrigerator until it’s ready to be served.

To serve: Boil some water. Fill a mug about 1/4 the way with butter rum mix, add a shot or two of dark spiced rum (I like Meyer’s), and fill with hot water. Stir until the rum mix is dissolved (it will be foamy on top).Enjoy in large quantities.

You can also prepare this without the rum for kids or people who don’t drink. It’s still very, VERY tasty (my kids love it!)

After consuming a few of the coveted hot buttered rum beverages, we played a DVD video trivia game that my sister brought over. It was all ’80’s trivia, some read from cards, others from the DVD (they show you a video clip and then you have to guess either the band name or the song title). I’m a huge 80’s fan and this was still very challenging for me.

Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling so hot (damn you, hot buttered rum mix!!), so we just kicked back and took it easy. I napped a lot and we watched the Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest movie. If you haven’t seen this yet, I’ll not spoil it for you, but I will say the following: the special effects are very, VERY good, and it totally sets you up for at least one more movie.

And that’s about it for the big holiday wrap-up. How was your Christmas?

Welcome to the wonderful world of Friday!

Today, I got to ride the bus to work. Mass transit is an experience that you must have from time to time. The sights, the sounds, and the smells… all memorable.

Yesterday, we woke up to an inch or so of snow. Unfortunately, it was the light fluffy stuff that makes for really nasty ice on the roads. She narrowly avoided one accident (some moron didn’t use their turn signal and my wife narrowly avoided hitting them), but hit some black ice and hit the curb…. hard! She was only going about 10mph (16kph) when it happened.

The Jeep Liberty she drives is a fairly good sized vehicle and has quite a bit of mass. When she hit the curb with the rear passenger tire, it bent the drive axle and scuffed up the chrome wheel (bending it at the edge of the rim). I called the dealer and they were able to get it in right away, but the parts need to be ordered, and it’ll take up to 2 weeks to get it repaired.

So… she’s taking my car and I’m riding the bus.

This makes perfect sense… I go to work, sit in my cubicle, and then go home. Her job requires that she drive from site to site. That’s not exactly bus friendly (while my job is). Thankfully, the holidays are upon us and we aren’t working all that much during the next two weeks… so it’s really no big deal for me.

And speaking of the holidays…

Gather ’round little children and read Scott Christensen’s holiday classic: “I Was Santa’s Rubber Clad Love Slave: An Elf’s Story” (I’ve posed this every year since 1996… so this is the 10th time… Scott should pay me for this!)

And finally… watch me dance like a monkey.  The server this is on is stupid busy.  If it gives you an error (“page not found” or “server busy”, hit the refresh button until it works).

Big thanks to JC for that one!