I’ve spent another wasted Saturday in front of the TV. Only today, it was at my own house, and I watched several hours of The West Wing instead of America’s Next Top Model.

I’m about a third of the way through the second season of The West Wing. At one point, I did go out to Best Buy to get the fourth season. It has my favorite episode on it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qIy0AP1Sbrk

Anybody who knows me well knows that I’m a HUGE fan of NBC’s The West Wing. My parents bought me the second season on DVD for Christmas. I put the first DVD in while trying to get my DVD player hooked up. The first episode is amazing.

As I watch this episode, I realize just how gripping this show was in early seasons. It was incredibly well written. In this episode, the opening teaser shows the President getting shot and the mayhem that follows. CJ Kregg, the Press Secretary, is shouting “Is the President Dead?” I’ve been watching this show for years, and that scene still brings me to tears.

Yeah, I’m going to be watching this all night tongiht.

Reggie and I are back. I swear, every time I make that drive, it gets longer.

Unfortunately, I got a speeding ticket in New York. I fear this one might hit my MA driving record, which will certainly suck.

I saw a blog post wishing everyone a happy Kwanza. It begs the question: Do you know anybody who celebrates Kwanza? I sure don’t. In fact, I had to look it up. Who knew it was so controversial?

Last night, I told my mom that I most likely wouldn’t be home for Thanksgiving next year. We believe that we’re putting in a few financials system at work, and if we do, it’ll be on the start of our fiscal year, which is December 1. That will mean Mike will be in Boston for Thanksgiving.

Today, my mom and I did a little post-Christmas shopping. We picked up some nice wrapping paper and a few other goodies. Still, no chance of getting a Wii just yet.

Tonight is my last visit with Sarah until next time I’m home. Reggie and I are headed back to Boston tomorrow.

Speaking of Reggie, we had the ultimate chapter 7 moment today. My mom has these little cloth bags full of corn. You throw them in the microwave for a few minutes, and it’s like having a heat pack that you can use for parts of the body that ache. (Don’t ask me why it doesn’t turn into popcorn. I’ve yet to figure that part out.) We learned pretty early that Reggie loves these things and was pawing at them. They smell like corn, so of course he’s going to go after them. I was upstairs and heard my mom scolding Reggie. It turns out that I had left one of these bags on a chair, and Reggie tore it open. He realized that he didn’t like the corn, but there was still corn everywhere. Again, we knew he liked these things and I left it out where he could get to it. Yes, very much a chapter seven moment.

Here are a bunch of pictures from my family Christmas.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikehillwig/tags/christmas2007/

I’ve been watching Jeff Dunham with my dad on DVD and on Comedy Central the past couple of days. This guy is absolutely hysterical.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D60yjEbQnDg

My sister and niece decided that Reggie and I needed to be elfed.

You’ll find it here.

I’m watching Boomerang on TV and drinking a cosmo. Does it get much better than this?

I’ve had a good few days with my family. We made really good time getting here, too. I made it in just under ten hours, including stops. I made Boston to Buffalo in six and a half hours. THAT’s good time. 

Last night, I went up to my Aunt Velma’s house to see her family. Sarah went with me. That was was a lot of fun.

This morning, Reggie had a bit of a crisis when Purple landed on a ceiling fan. That was quite funny.

Today, I spent quite a bit of time with my sister and her boyfriend. Now I’m just chilling out with my dad and a few beers.

Reggie is having a great time, too. He loves my parents. He did have an accident on the floor, but it wasn’t that big of a deal since we had put him in the pantry (roughly the size of my entire kitchen) while I went to church with my parents this morning.

The weather here is pretty much crap, at least for Christmas. It’s just raining. We could sure use some snow.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, which is a big deal in my family. I’ll go over to my sister’s house after lunch and we’ll start with the cocktails early. Her boyfriend makes one hell of a cosmo. Later in the evening, the rest of the family will come over. We’ll eat and open presents. Then Darcie and I will have some more cocktails. It’s not a bad way to enjoy Christmas.

I haven’t written much of an update lately, mostly because I’ve been insanely busy.

Work has been good. My bonus came at a nice time. Yesterday, we found out that my group is losing an office, meaning we’re going to have to double up. My coworker Debbie and I are moving into my boss’ office, and he’s moving into Debbie’s office. Emily is moving into my office, since it was her office that stolen from us. We had to be strategic since Debbie is leaving on maternity leave soon, and we didn’t want to lose her office. Moving into my boss’ office is good for me, since it puts me closer to our network administration guys and our helpdesk.

Today was my IDP at work. That’s an Individual Development Plan/Profile. Something like that. Basically, my boss and I sit down and talk about my career goals, the company’s needs, and how they mesh together. It’s pretty good on that front. We’re implementing a new financials system in the next year or so, replacing both our current accounting system and at least part of our project management system. It’s going to be a HUGE learning curve for me, a lot of work, and a good bit of training. On the training front, I’m going to try to finish my MIcrosoft DBA certification this year.  The plan was to do it in 2007, but that gave way to SalesLogix training.

Comcast came yesterday to hook up my new TV. Food Network in HD is amazing. Sure, I’ve watched it at Beth and Paul’s house, but you just don’t get the impact until you watch it in your own living room.  I watched Project Runway last night in standard definition, and it kinda sucked after watching a few hours of HD programs. Don’t get me wrong, even standard def programs look better on the new TV.

Reggie and I are leaving tomorrow right after work to head to my parents’ house. I have a meeting from 12:30 to 2:30. Right after that, I’m hitting the road. I just might skip out on part of my meeting, though. It will depend on traffic.