Ho Ho Ho

Background music: 4 Non Blondes, "Bigger, Better, Faster, More!" Track 4, "What's Up"

'Tis the season, eh? Getting ready for the Big Day. Presents purchased, such as they are; the ones for my kids will go out FedEx Overnight tomorrow. I'll be seeing my parents for Christmas Day.

It's been a few years since I was able to see my folks on a regular basis. At that time, I was out of work; I was on food stamps and had moved into their house while they were away for the winter. The look of surprise on Mom's face when she walked into the house was memorable. Hey, the place that Social Services put me up was roach infested and didn't have a phone line; how was I supposed to find a job in my line of work if I didn't have Internet access? Nobody posts circuit board design positions with the County Employment Office. You need to hook up with Monster.com and you need to be able to get phone calls and email.

Mom just got out of the hospital. She was put there by a bad reaction to Celebrex - they drained 14 pounds of fluid out of her abdomen in one session. Hmmm ... the pharmaceutical company doesn't mention that in the literature ... it says that adverse reactions are "minor and rare," or something to that effect. Odd, when I did a Google search, it seemed more like the adverse reactions leaned a little more toward the serious and fatal. Can't imagine why the manufacturer would neglect to mention that!