naptown

It�s a touch past 7:00 and I�ve been at work for almost half an hour. I have never been to work this early and quite frankly, I like it.

I went home with my Dad yesterday and hung out in Annapolis for the evening with the family. Kristin and I were trouble from the beginning and caused my Dad, Cocoa, to say on several occasions, �Carmen, the kids are causing problems�you need to do something.� All of this was said in good fun of course and Kristin and I cannot be left in the same room together alone. After a minute there will be giggling, laughing, shrieking, singing, scatting, air horn noises and any combination of the aforementioned disturbances to my parents.

While outside smoking we relived my father�s (Cocoa�s) run in with the Swiss Miss display. The commissary where it all went down has since removed the display and there is no longer Swiss Miss in the aisle. Cocoa told us he would inquire to management where he can find some Swiss Miss. This lead to the discussion of having cocoa at our grandparents house in California. Swiss Miss was a way of life and there would be a bag of mini marshmallows right next to the kettle type thing that you plugged in. Kristin and I would be left to our own devices when it came to adding marshmallows to our hot chocolate and needless to say, we really had marshmallows marinated in hot chocolate as opposed to a mug of hot chocolate with a few marshmallows in it. Good times.

Since I�ve been gone there have also been several new morning developments. While watching television there was some African themed commercial showing the huge sunrise over the Serengeti complete with animal noises and apparently some sort of call from what I only assume was a tribal mother. Carmen took one listen and decided that she needed a �morning noise� to sing when she got up. It sort of sounds like this: �YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA� (if you can call that a �sound�). She hits it in the middle as far as pitch goes so I�m going to go ahead and say she�s an alto. Kristin soon developed one of her own and hers kinda goes along with Mom�s only Kristin�s noise/voice is higher, thus making her the soprano of the group. Cocoa has a morning noise as well, but his sounds more like a noise one would make getting out of bed after a really, really long and difficult weight lifting routine. Truth be told, the noise he makes sounds like he�s sick and tired of hearing the �morning noise� of my Mom and sister. Being thrust into this ritual, I needed a noise and figured since the higher and mid-level sounds were already accounted for, I would go lower and be the baritone. When all three of us strike the noise it�s magic. Remember the opening of the Dark Crystal when the Mystics are �harmonizing� as one? It�s like that, only there are only three of us and then towards the end you hear my Dads noise of protest. What we need is a crystal shard in for morning inspiration.

We had a kick ass dinner of sausages, salad, and garlic bread, which I have not had in a while. I�ve done the sausages and salad thing but I cannot do real garlic bread with a grille and since I don�t get good bread from an Italian bakery like my Mom does, I tend to leave it to the experts in Annapolis to satisfy my need to rub toasted bread with garlic cloves.

While taking a quick bathroom break I noticed that Kristin had a disposable camera sitting on her sink still in the silvery wrapper. I took this as my cue and immediately opened it, snapped a picture of myself and new that at nights end, all 27 exposures would be taken care of. Needless to say, Kristin is going to a 1-hour photo shop this morning on her way to work. SUPER!

Having a discussion with Weymouth66 via our respective notes pages on Diaryland, I have come to find out a super duper use for the word �pants.� It is used when describing something terrible (i.e. a movie) or can be used as a one-word summary of a bad situation. Kristin and I took to this like a duck to water. Being tasked with salad preparations, Kristin and I were slicing onion, feta cheese, etc. I had originally thought �pants� would be used as a substitute for �damn it.� Even though I was wrong in it�s use we found fun ways to use it anyway:

Kristin: Aw, pants!

Eric: GOD PANTS!

Kristin: Ugh! DOCKERS!

Eric: GOD CHINOS! (This caused Kristin to almost drop to the floor and luckily I had put her knife down)

We�re so sharp we�re gonna cut ourselves one day.

I went to bed around 10:45, got up at 5:15 and here I am. It�s taken me a while to finish this entry but I�m amazed at the quietness of the office. Yesterday I was told there would be a meeting that they �thought I would be interested in going to.� They thought wrong. The meeting was full of ass heads and one of the higher-ups actually used the word �slowlier.� I covered my mouth with my notepad and almost left the room. I was whored out to the man who said it and I cannot tell you how much I�m looking forward to being at this person�s mercy.

The other bonus of being here at 0630 hours is that I get to leave early. Wait a minute�I do that anyway. DAMNIT! (PANTS!)

*AIR HORN* Time for espresso!

e.