Robot Parrot

Intrigued by the title? Try actually seeing the toy. Yes, Christmas was a merry one, and netted me the bewildering combination of a professional-grade stethescope and an animatronic toy parrot.

That last bit is made creepier by the fact that the last parrot I spent a lot of time around was this one. To vindicate myself, I didn't actually kill the thing, but I did piece its skeletal remains together into a festive pose for profit, which may be sufficiently damning for the robot parrot to kill me in my sleep.

And yes, articulating skeletons is as ridiculously fun as it sounds. If I thought it were a remotely long term employable market (since I never learned to do true taxidermy), it would be ahead of Alaskan crab fisherwoman in my backup plans for what to do with my life after I've replaced my first patient's heart with a baked potato and have my medical license revoked.

I suppose, we could just restate this as "Christmas was awesome". I'll go with that. My mom arranged a huge to-do; my dad flew up from Winston Salem and we picked out the tree so we had a nice family Christmas with snow on the ground. I got my mom a fancy car GPS unit, which is worth mentioning because I've never had a GPS before and am now orchestrating winter road trips in a two door Hyundai Accent just so I can play with the thing before I head back to the land of no-car. I am getting one the *second* I get back to the USA for good. I cannot even imagine the amount of free time I'll have when I can actually go from one destination to another without getting lost, not to mention the reduction in stress from not having to watch out for cops as I make my 19th illegal u-turn.

HUGE thank you to my cousins, aunt, and uncle, for the Czech travel book with the enclosed crowns, and the beautiful shirt!

It was also a wonderfully practical Christmas, with a huge amount of provisions to take back with me to base simple meals around, since my parents heard about how very poorly I've been taking care of myself when my stocks run low and I'm too lazy to go to the store. Mmmm... food.

For any incomings reading this, by the way, don't waste space on your first luggage trip on food or unless you have very specific requirements, since you are not going to go hungry on the island (unless, like me, you are too useless as a human being to climb onto a bus during finals week). Save your package space for living necessities, since your dorm comes equipped with nothing but a shower curtain and toilet paper, but once you're established, go nuts on the return trips. A good cooking pot is an early must though, since cookingware on the island tends to be low quality and REALLY expensive, and no, as you can likely tell, I am not picky when it comes to what I cook, how I cook, if I cook, and what I eat.

Hmmm.... I'm sleepy and disoriented so I'll probably come back to this tomorrow. Happy Holidays!