Square America: Christmas

It's almost over! Just another week of stressing, wrapping, spending too much, crowned with a glorious weekend of stuffing yourself till you pass out, and then we can finally get back to normal.


Lamp!


Back in the days when second-hand smoking was good for you. It built character.


Lovely Do, lovely tree.


I have nothing.

Square America: Together

Monday at work I was tasked with arranging a meeting with Italian business partners who'd be in town on the last week of November. I sent out an email, with a gentle reminder that there was a holiday over here this week. Their reply was "Silly goose, (not exact wording) we're coming the week after. So I had to explain, that if we didn't nail down the time of the meeting by Wednesday noon the latest, there would be nobody around to reply emails or meeting invitations till Monday. The Italians were somewhat surprised - I don't know why; they themselves took the entire month of August off for vacation. And by that I mean the whole country of Italy.


If you live in the US you know what's going on. If not, let me explain. Dive the amateur anthropologist at least should appreciate.


Thanksgiving is a practice run for Christmas; people - generally related by blood or marriage - come together, play out weird family dynamics, watch TV (football), eat way, way too much food, and drop off into a food coma.


There are some variations on the theme; consuming copious amounts of alcohol or playing football (the American kind) may be involved. In some cases both. There's nothing like drunk men ramming into each other on a cold afternoon. The pain will manifest itself the day after.


The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is the day when crazed hordes of people swarm the shopping malls. It's a lot like a zombie movie, but the participants move faster, and there is more carnage.

Square America: Winter - Part 2

I really haven't got much to comment here. Enjoy the pictures.

Christmas and Stuff

Yay! We are almost at the finishing line! A few more days, and the season of Peace on Earth will be over, and we can have some real peace. I can barely wait till the grocery stores go back to playing their usual crappy music. Meanwhile, let's mock other people's holiday miseries.


Nothing says Holiday Cheer like stuffing the youngins into uncomfortable miniature suits. Also, nice buzz-cut, dad.


These guys look miserable. I would too in front of that wood paneling. Auntie Marge looks happy enough, but I suspect that's booze smiling.

Square America: Winter - Part 1

Time for some goofy old pictures!


Most of the photos I find are of white people, so the group of ski trip photos of this Asian family was a uncommon discovery. I think it's the same family. It would be a strange coincidence if the pictures of two different Asian families were mixed together. Although the one above seems out of sync with the others. Oh well.


Judging from the dates on the photos, there were several trips.
I'm rubbish with races; I have no clue where this young gentleman would be tracing his ancestry. No matter, he is in California now. We are all transplants here. (Rumors of people born here have been unconfirmed.)


I'm shamed to admit, I'm not into skiing. Or winter sports. Or snow. Ok, a fresh blanket of snow has an aesthetic appeal - for about five minutes. Then it's all snow shovels, salt, slush, frozen slush, bulky clothing, the car doing a 360˚ at 25 mph on a thankfully deserted Indiana road. I've been traumatized by winter, can you tell?