My pants are tight

Ok, time to get back into fighting shape. Even with the benefit of missing 4 holiday parties this year due to work and other conflicts, I still have done some good damage to my body! Ohhh, this past Sunday night, for example. M. came with us to drop the baby off. We will not see her again until January 7, sadly, but that's b/c I chose to give up New Year's with her since we had her for NY's last year.

Anyway, M. had told us that his girlfriend was having a dinner party at her house and that he would like for us to come. I wanted to go, but wasn't sure about S. On our way back to Houston from the Shitslands, M. and I talked S into going, so we headed down to Missouri City, which is where the girlfriend lives. M. also wanted us to come b/c his girlfriend's family members would be there, and he has a hard time understanding them when they talk. See, they are from Belize, but speak with a heavy Caribbean lilt, which is interesting, mon. Anyway, this was the 1st time I'd seen her new house since she bought it last year. Gorgeous! And the food was catered from an Italian restaurant. Man, oh man: Calimari. 3 kinds of shrimp dishes. Spaghetti w/huge meatballs. Chicken parmigiana. 3 kinds of salad. Several kinds of bread. Steak. Garlic mashed potatoes. We filled our plates and grazed! I. had seemingly all her sisters, brother, and their kids running around but there was so much food it was hard to tell if there was even a dent made in any of it! S drank a wonderfully tasty Guatemalan beer, and I had 2 glasses of Sangria. Later I ate a cupcake that was as big as my hand.

M. gave us the grand tour of the house. Lord, it was huge. Something like 5 bedrooms and numerous bathrooms. The closets were the size of small bedrooms. Humongous foyer that looked like a ballroom. Custom kitchen. Upstairs balcony. S said it was like MTV's Cribs. The backyard went on forever. What I didn't understand was why someone would buy a ridiculously huge house like that, when it's just her and her teenage son. Neither M. nor S could explain it to me. I guess just b/c she can. She's one of those scary-intelligent people, with an undergraduate degree from Rice University and a PhD and an MD. She treats cancer patients at MD Anderson, and her bonus check last year, according to M., just the bonus check, was $70,000. Those cancer patients will pay high bucks in order to keep on living!

BTW, M. gave us the sweetest X-mas present: Season 2 of Reno 911 on DVD! Yay! We gave him the collectible Harley-Davidson tank set. S got a good deal at work.

I actually didn't eat too much yesterday. I made 2 batches of my sausage balls, but only ate maybe 5 of them. And this year my aunt had ham for the meat, instead of turkey, and I generally don't eat ham, but I had a small slice along with the usual sides. Then I was done! No seconds! I did eat a couple of desserts, however. My aunt gave us, along with our individual gifts, a gift card to Walmart. Although we despise Walmart and refuse to give it our business, I will be happy to use the gift card to buy some ammo. A box of .45 for me, a box of .40 for S, and then we will have a great time at the shooting range soon! And man, do I need the practice.

Doing the right thing note: This a.m. a girl who works in another dept. whom I chat with occasionally, came up to me at the desk and presented a moral question to me. It seems she was getting a money order this weekend for $300, and gave the man at the convenience store $320. He gave her back $99 in change, instead of the $18 or so he was supposed to, along with the correct money order. She got the hell out of dodge. Her question to me was, that was ok for her to do, right, since it was HIS mistake, not hers? She said that another coworker of ours had told her she should have given it back. I said that if it were me, if I had noticed the error at the store, I would've given it back; however, if I had already gotten all the way home and noticed it later, I probably wouldn't have spent my time and gas going back (well, maybe I would've but I would've taken out $5 for gas). She said she noticed it at the store, but didn't say anything and left as quickly as possible. Then she said she had discussed it with her preacher, and he said to look at it as a gift, as a blessing. She said maybe the man was giving her a donation. Wow.

At the KFC last week, I pulled up to the window and my chicken pot pie was sitting right there, ready to go. I had my money, but no one was at the window to take it. I sat there for probably 2 minutes, waiting. Did I ponder briefly just taking the pot pie and leaving? Yeah, but not even remotely seriously--not just b/c that's stealing, but b/c it's just wrong. Anyway, I mostly thought about it b/c of how easy it would've been, and if it were another person besides me, another person might've done so. I sat there another minute or 2--fortunately, I was not in any hurry. Finally the guy came to the window and said I should've said something about how long I'd been waiting! OK, to whom? Anyway, then he offered me a free drink, which I accepted. I've had fast food workers give me too much money back, and I promptly pointed out their error and returned the money. It's WRONG to do otherwise. Why is that such a foreign concept to some people? I'm appalled at my coworker's preacher's advice. What kind of a corrupt person is he? Which just goes to show, yet again, some of the worst people in the world can be found lurking in churches and other holy places, hiding behind religion.

But the moral is, besides the benefit of doing the right thing (see my "What I've Learned" post below) and how we should all put out as much positivity as we can into the universe b/c we all have to live here and frankly, that's what should motivate us singlehandedly, there's also that little thing called Karma. God. Santa is watching. Whatever. It isn't worth it. See for yourself if you must!