twenty-two seconds to live

Christmas resulted in a veritable treasure trove of electronic diversion. Marissa apparently is acutely aware that the way to my heart is at the speed of light over a 65 nanometer wire. Also, for a woman who despises being ignored during video games, she sure is an enabler!

• An XBOX 360
• An extra controller
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance
• Forza 2 Motorsport
• Bioshock
• Halo 3
• New York Times Crossword Puzzles for Nintendo DS
• A Megaman game I didn’t even know existed for Nintendo DS

Also making VERY notable appearances:

• New socks (this is not an ‘ironic’ or gag gift. I REALLY needed socks)
• A cashmere sweater from Banana Republic that is the most BEAUTIFUL shade of blue I’ve ever seen (except for, you know, when I look at myself in the mirror haha)
• A valet for my nighstand that holds all the junk that comes out of my pockets every night, and it has a little power strip built into it so I can plug in my phone and DS and stuff without cords going everywhere. This is as much for her as it is for me, so my “man mess” doesn’t spider all over the bedroom anymore.
• A George Foreman “Next Grilleration” grill with waffle plates, griddle plate, a panini press, and everything else. This replaces my old “First Gen” George Foreman grill that is a nightmare to clean (read: never gets cleaned.)
• Tempurpedic SWEDISH FOOT-CRADLING slippers.
• An OBAMA ’08 T-Shirt
• Crazy high-end Bose headphones

Of course what I got her made her weep with joy:

• A pink laptop with a pink sleeve
• A pink super-small digital camera with a pink case as well
• A 1GB high-speed XD card for the camera
• The Sims 2 and all the expansions and stuff packs

I also surrpetitiously transferred all of her music and photos and stuff over from her old computer, and combed through her iTunes library and updated all of the IDv3 tags, and set her up with an RSS reader with all of her crazy celebrity news sites. She was blown away by all of the effort, so mission accomplished!
Absolutely the best Christmas I’ve ever had!

1. Did up the Christmas lights on my home in an extravagant fashion, by my own design and purchase.
2. Procured and erected a huge-ass live Christmas tree in my home.
3. Stayed up late into the night wrestling with said tree, causing me to wake up late for work bleary-eyed and reeking of pine sap.