But first, I’d like to say happy fourth birthday to my nephew, Jackson Sawyer.  I called to wish him as much today, and when I did he told me the same then ran off to play with some Transformers he’d gotten.  As I was talking to Andra he periodically came back and asked her to transform them back.  Seems he could get them changed one way but not back to the other.  I asked him what they transformed into, and he told me, “Cars, airplanes, TVs, everything.”

I talked to Andra Sawyer (Jackson’s mom, my baby sister) about future Christmases, and it turns out that my parents had brought it up with her and had come up with the same idea as Amanda and I talked about last night, which was to have the weekend after Christmas with my family.  That should make things easier in the years to come.

There was a flurry of work this morning, and I saw that someone just sent something in that they want to have done tomorrow.  I was planning on not working on Christmas Eve, but it looks like I’ve got at least one thing that will need to be done.  What was sent in is not something that could be put off.

Amanda, Billy Supplee and I had lunch at Flaming Amy’s today.  Amanda and I split a burrito, and Amanda had a buy one meal get a meal free card.  We were going to just split it with Billy, but none of us had enough smaller bills to make it work so he paid.  Amanda said she’d pay next time.

Amanda and I went out this evening to pick up a last minute gift idea along with some cat food and litter, as Cobb would have been out of food tomorrow morning if we hadn’t.  We watched a little TV and tidied up some more.  As part of that, Amanda cleaned out the fridge.  I didn’t realize how much was in need of tossing out, and the fridge is now extremely barren.

Amanda took the first shower in the repaired upstairs bathtub tonight after trimming her hair.  All went well.  I’ve been showering downstairs out of habit and the fact that we hadn’t cleaned the upstairs tub yet.

So, Nick and Amy.  They left this morning, I think Nick said around 7:30, to drive to Michigan.  Amanda and I contemplated their whereabouts at lunch and figured they’d be in West Virginia, which Nick later told me was correct.  I was going to call them this evening to see how their trip was going, but Nick called me in the afternoon to tell me their story.

There are storms coming through their path, so they had been on the phone with a number of people trying to figure out the best way around them.  When they got off the phone they realized they were almost out of gas and they were in between exits, with several miles either way.  Then they ran out of gas.  Fortunately someone, some sort of road service vehicle, came by and called someone to bring them some gas.  It cost them a little over $40 to get them to come out, plus the price of the gas.  They happened to have just enough cash to cover it.

They were irked at the time, but afterwards they chose to see the positive- that God had watched out for them and someone came along who was able to help them, as opposed to having Nick walk six miles to a gas station then walk six miles back or hitch a ride.

Then they stopped for lunch at a McDonald’s.  This McDonald’s was apparently the only place to eat in whatever small town they were in, and it took them forever to order then another forever to get their food.

All that, and last I talked to them they would probably not be able to avoid the snow storm.  I hope they make it there and back alright, because nobody else hangs out with me and Amanda on a consistent basis.  That and we’d have to take in their cat, Gipper, and it would take him an eternity to adjust to a new house, new people, an extra cat and two dogs.

Zach Dotsey