fun in TN

so what have i been doing since i've been home for nearly 48 hours?

my many jobs with the family include...

* christmas gift consultant... apparently no one's sure if they got the others good stuff and i have all the answers... dad, for example, has a habit of taking mom's nice dishes outside and using them for animal dishes, so this year is the once every 5-6 years that he goes all out and buys her new nice dishes he claims he won't do that to, and he hopes she likes the color. i told him they're a good gift if he really doesn't take them outside this time... i also got the joy of unwrapping each individually wrapped piece (it's service for 8), taking off the price tag sticker, and then rewrapping them for him... mom, on the other hand, had found the perfect table lamp for dad at an antique store this weekend, but wanted a second opinion, and after an hour at the store yesterday we concluded it had been sold and she's back to square one... after helping dad today though, i have a list of backup suggestions to help her out when she gets home and is ready to shop again.

* christmas decoration assistant... in my family this is a little different than for most people. my dad is a horticulturist... moreover, he got his original college degree in floriculture. as he puts it, he's the closest thing to a professional christmas tree decorator that there is... so his tree has to look perfect, and you're only allowed to touch if you're doing something he asked you to do.... so it's not quite decorating in the sense most families do if you're not dad.

* court jester for the parrots... if you haven't caught on my now, my family has a zoo in the back yard... now there's an inside zoo too that i have to go through to get to my room, which includes a few iguanas, a few tortoises, 3 talking (correction, yelling) parrots, and 3 chinchillas... i definitely have a favorite out of the parrots (poncho), so i go entertain him periodically so he's not as bored... we bounce up and down and make strange noises together.

oh yeah, and technically i'm studying math too... i did learn what bruhat order and weak bruhat order are today at least... we'll see how much gets done later.

here it is 2pm and i'm still in pjs 6 hours after i woke up... i like days when i can run around in pjs half the day and still be productive... it might be time to get out of pjs and go to the park for a walk though -- 2 days til christmas and it's 60F outside right now... yay south? :)

later dudes... merry christmas to all y'all. :P