Yes, they did. Mom is very excited about the new series of books and Dad was thrilled with both of his books.

Oh good. And your niece and sister?

Oatmeal:

My battery on the laptop is running low. I'll check in via phone in a bit. Hugs.

Yep. Neice loved the iPod so your gift certificate was very popular and Jen loved the Sirius radio system so you gift certificate went quite well as an addition to that as well.

Laura, I'm so sorry your boys hurt your feelings like that -- so, so sorry.

ND, I hope the rest of your time at your parents' passes quickly and more comfortably.

Oof. ND, you're a good son for putting in the time. At least you minimize it for your own sake and I recognize the need to at least show, despite the awfulness of the situation. By the way, this is the program my BiL is looking at. He hasn't decided definitely on a major yet but he's very into music (high school marching band, drum line, pep band and his own garage band) and he loves the tech side of music, too. I'm 99% sure this is the school he's going to end up at (it's our alma mater, too, and it's a decent state school with a half-way respectable music department).

Laura, your sons are DEFINITELY old enough to learn a lesson on thinking of others--especially the mother that goes out of her way for them 24/7/365. Feh. I wish I was close enough to take you out for mimosas tomorrow morning.

I'm counting this Christmas as one of our best ever. The kids are really enjoying their toys (and it's really the first time this whole holiday thing is sinking in for Owen so it's a blast to see him excited about it.) DH and I didn't buy for each other because his present was his trip to Vegas two weeks ago and mine will be an upcoming trip to NYC.

I made a Christmas dinner of Steak Oscar and I must have gotten really lucky on the steaks I bought. Just inexpensive strip steaks (no filets) from the supermarket but they were well marbled and tender--no gristle, no large inedible pieces of fat. The Hollandaise sauce was store bought, the crab meat canned and the asparagus was frozen but when I put them all together, it turned out to be the best Christmas dinner we've had in a long time.

It looks like it is a good enough program from the description. He should make sure he gets at least one good internship while he is a student. If he wants to do studio recording then it should be in a good studio where he can learn how the workflow happens.

Thanks, ND. My in-laws visited the campus with him and apparently they've got a kick-ass department with lots of brand new equipment. I'll pass those tidbits along to him. He's a talented kid so I want to see him use his abilities to the fullest extent.

Make sure he keeps in mind that it really isn't about the flashiest gear. I know more than a few schools that have great gear but are lacking the instruction to really teach with it. They turn out sub-grade students all the time. In my opinion the new gear is the easy part to learn, it's the listening and people skills that are very hard to develop and are the ones that will carry a new engineer far.

There are two pictures of Dubya and Laura Bush sitting in the living room. It was a thank you for my father's long support of the RNC.

Shoot me.