Saga gets potted...
31 December 2004
New Year's Greetings!
It has been a great year for me and my family! I hope it has been so for you as well.
New Year's Greetings from Don and Saga!
The year started in a great rush of activity. I was working on projects for my company and having project after project cancelled from under me. It was frustrating, busy but frustrating. Around the end of January, as I was beginning to wonder if my job was secure with all my projects being cancelled, I was offered a position on a new development project that we had started the year before. I had been involved tangentially - mainly because my boss was involved and I had offered some support research and development - but this was a more direct involvement.
February was fairly quiet. I continued to work on developing my new projects and went to a couple client sites for sales pitches on clients we were in danger of losing. It would be the last trip I would take for my old product line. I believe that we saved both of the accounts. I know that one extended their contract and the last I heard, they were planning on installing one of the sister-stations of the other.
March came in like a lion. I was moved to a new office and worked with a new team on development of the new project. It was fun and exciting as well as occasionally frustrating. There is so much that we are doing on this project that is completely outside the confines of my comfort zone. I love it! I have needed to do something new, to save my sanity if nothing else.
In April I was assigned my own piece of the project to be completed. It was a trip! I got to completely step outside my comfort zone and work on something that I had no preconceived notions about. The fact that it was reengineered when they decided to change the underlying technology does not change the fact that my team and I turned out some great code!
May came along and my Dad celebrated his seventieth birthday. It was fun. I showed-up at the party having time to go to Minnesota at the last minute because we had a lull that I could take advantage of. The drive was lovely and the party was great. My brothers and I made it to the party, my sister was not able to make it. On my way back, I made a record trip. Thirteen hours, forty-five minutes door -to-door. (I have about an eight hundred mile drive to my parents' place.) My brother made it in 13:15 on his way back from Christmas, but there were two of them (dad was with him) and he was going to Minneapolis, not to Kensington, which has less off-interstate driving.
My annual pilgrimage to the beach, in June, was great. I brought Saga, she surprised me by running out to Chip when she saw him on the beach. My old roommate and his family have been renting a beach house for years just a few miles up the beach from the MacKinnon-Karrer house in South Carolina. This year, his family and my group made it to the beach the same week so I got to see Chip and his family when I was out there. Saga hates water, but apparently not as much as she likes Chip!
New Year's Greetings from Don and Saga!
The year started in a great rush of activity. I was working on projects for my company and having project after project cancelled from under me. It was frustrating, busy but frustrating. Around the end of January, as I was beginning to wonder if my job was secure with all my projects being cancelled, I was offered a position on a new development project that we had started the year before. I had been involved tangentially - mainly because my boss was involved and I had offered some support research and development - but this was a more direct involvement.
February was fairly quiet. I continued to work on developing my new projects and went to a couple client sites for sales pitches on clients we were in danger of losing. It would be the last trip I would take for my old product line. I believe that we saved both of the accounts. I know that one extended their contract and the last I heard, they were planning on installing one of the sister-stations of the other.
March came in like a lion. I was moved to a new office and worked with a new team on development of the new project. It was fun and exciting as well as occasionally frustrating. There is so much that we are doing on this project that is completely outside the confines of my comfort zone. I love it! I have needed to do something new, to save my sanity if nothing else.
In April I was assigned my own piece of the project to be completed. It was a trip! I got to completely step outside my comfort zone and work on something that I had no preconceived notions about. The fact that it was reengineered when they decided to change the underlying technology does not change the fact that my team and I turned out some great code!
May came along and my Dad celebrated his seventieth birthday. It was fun. I showed-up at the party having time to go to Minnesota at the last minute because we had a lull that I could take advantage of. The drive was lovely and the party was great. My brothers and I made it to the party, my sister was not able to make it. On my way back, I made a record trip. Thirteen hours, forty-five minutes door -to-door. (I have about an eight hundred mile drive to my parents' place.) My brother made it in 13:15 on his way back from Christmas, but there were two of them (dad was with him) and he was going to Minneapolis, not to Kensington, which has less off-interstate driving.
My annual pilgrimage to the beach, in June, was great. I brought Saga, she surprised me by running out to Chip when she saw him on the beach. My old roommate and his family have been renting a beach house for years just a few miles up the beach from the MacKinnon-Karrer house in South Carolina. This year, his family and my group made it to the beach the same week so I got to see Chip and his family when I was out there. Saga hates water, but apparently not as much as she likes Chip!
Chip & Saga at Pawley's Island
In July, my company had a picnic where I took first prize in the desert contest. I submitted a summer berry trifle as my entry. I received a gift certificate to Williams Sonoma where I got myself a nice food processor. Later in the month, my brother, Denis and his family came out and with Dad and Flo and I we all went to Mesa Verde in the Southwest corner of the state. It was fun.
August was hot and uncomfortable. Especially so since I started it in the hospital. I got bit by a spider and had a really bad reaction to it. At the worst, I was in a fever of 106.5-degrees. I was back at work a week later, and have no lingering affects.
September was at all exciting. Good thing! I was given the task of writing the interface guidelines for the project I was assigned. This means that I worked with a technical designer who was prototyping the software while I put down the expected behavior. It was, again, something I have never done before. It was interesting and challenging.
For the first time ever, I was able to get the trip I have wanted since I started traveling. I started November getting ready to go to the United Kingdom. It was great! I worked for four weeks with a group of people from my company's Thames Ditton office. It was also in November that my company was sold to a competitive company. For the first time since I worked for that television station in Tampa, I am working for a publicly traded company.
Finally, there is December. My trip being extended meant that I had very little time to get ready for my family who were coming to visit for the holidays. I had a wonderful visit with my Sister, her husband and friends, and my brother, nephew and father. It was great!
The year has been a great one for me, I hope it was great for you and I wish you a happy new year!
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 31, December, 2004
30 December 2004
Solitude
The house is too quiet!
I took a walk in the park yesterday with the dog. We went all the way up to the Damn on Bear Creek. Saga wanted to go to for a walk and I really needed to do so after the holidays.
I have almost got my home back into the normal routine. I have got to get the rest of holiday decorations down and away, but that can wait a few days. I did not really send the entire day watching DVD's. I did watch one movie, but it was more like Dad "watching" TV. I fell asleep half way through the movie.
Today I am going to go through the park with the dog again. Then I have to go by my friend Chip's place to check on his cat. I will be then cleaning and organizing my home so that I am ready to go back to work on Monday.
I hope your holidays are going well.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 30, December, 2004
I took a walk in the park yesterday with the dog. We went all the way up to the Damn on Bear Creek. Saga wanted to go to for a walk and I really needed to do so after the holidays.
I have almost got my home back into the normal routine. I have got to get the rest of holiday decorations down and away, but that can wait a few days. I did not really send the entire day watching DVD's. I did watch one movie, but it was more like Dad "watching" TV. I fell asleep half way through the movie.
Today I am going to go through the park with the dog again. Then I have to go by my friend Chip's place to check on his cat. I will be then cleaning and organizing my home so that I am ready to go back to work on Monday.
I hope your holidays are going well.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 30, December, 2004
29 December 2004
Relaxation
It is nice to have some solitude! I may do nothing but watch DVD's and pet the dog all day!
My sister and her group left for South Florida yesterday and my brother and his family took off for Minnesota this morning.
I have run my dishwasher more times this week than I had for most of the previous month. Strike that - more than in an average month. Of course I ran it more than last month, I was gone all month.
I cannot wait until I have company again. Yes, I love my family dearly, but it will be nice after the hectic month of travel, the holiday, and then having company, to be able to do nothing today. I hope your day is as restful.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 29, December, 2004
My sister and her group left for South Florida yesterday and my brother and his family took off for Minnesota this morning.
I have run my dishwasher more times this week than I had for most of the previous month. Strike that - more than in an average month. Of course I ran it more than last month, I was gone all month.
I cannot wait until I have company again. Yes, I love my family dearly, but it will be nice after the hectic month of travel, the holiday, and then having company, to be able to do nothing today. I hope your day is as restful.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 29, December, 2004
28 December 2004
Pike's Peak
The Manitou Springs and Pike's Peak Cog Railway is a great day trip for anyone who is visiting the Denver/Colorado Springs area. It takes about four hours but is really a fun way to get to the top of the mountain. Yesterday morning, We all trundled into two cars and headed south to Manitou Springs to take the train up to the summit of Pike's Peak.
Mary, Corey, Eric
Mary, Corey, Eric
Corey, the master of Fart Putty, entertained the masses by making rude noises with the present he gave my nephew for Christmas! Fart putty is a thick, viscous liquid, about the consistency grape jelly might get if you thickened it with some corn starch. You pull your fingers through it and it makes rude noises. (hence the name)
Barbara and Mary
We were kept in stitches most of the trip. (I guess it doesn't take much!) I cannot say what the rest of the people in the train thought about us. My apologies if we offended anyone.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 28, December, 2004
Barbara and Mary
We were kept in stitches most of the trip. (I guess it doesn't take much!) I cannot say what the rest of the people in the train thought about us. My apologies if we offended anyone.
(Oh, Dad and I were on the trip too, but nobody offered to take our picture... we were on the opposite side of the aisle.)
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 28, December, 2004
27 December 2004
Housekeeping
For the first morning since my return from the United Kingdom, I have had no problem sleeping to a normal hour! Last night's party was a great opportunity for me to mingle with a number of friends that I do not get to see often enough.
As is my usual party mode, I put out way more food and alcohol than I needed to. I am left with platters of meat and cheese - no problem there, I'll just have to make omelets and sandwiches out of the remains; there are bags of Chips and crackers left - again, no problem… my brother, nephew and dad are driving back to Minnesota soon so I can pack them car snacks and I can pack a bag of snacks for my sister and her party who are going to fly back to Miami today. The alcohol and unopened pop will keep, the dips are really the only thing that will probably go bad before they are consumed.
Oh, well.
There is something of a mess left, but that will wait 'til another day to be cleaned-up. This afternoon my family and I are going to take the cog railroad to the top of Pike's Peak. I have never driven to the top, but I have taken this train a number of times. It is a great trip and I highly recommend it to anyone who comes to this area of the country and wants something fun to do.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 27, December, 2004
As is my usual party mode, I put out way more food and alcohol than I needed to. I am left with platters of meat and cheese - no problem there, I'll just have to make omelets and sandwiches out of the remains; there are bags of Chips and crackers left - again, no problem… my brother, nephew and dad are driving back to Minnesota soon so I can pack them car snacks and I can pack a bag of snacks for my sister and her party who are going to fly back to Miami today. The alcohol and unopened pop will keep, the dips are really the only thing that will probably go bad before they are consumed.
Oh, well.
There is something of a mess left, but that will wait 'til another day to be cleaned-up. This afternoon my family and I are going to take the cog railroad to the top of Pike's Peak. I have never driven to the top, but I have taken this train a number of times. It is a great trip and I highly recommend it to anyone who comes to this area of the country and wants something fun to do.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 27, December, 2004
26 December 2004
Boxing Day
The day after Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is better known as Boxing Day. The term may come from the opening of church poor boxes that day; maybe from the earthenware boxes with which boy apprentices collected money at the doors of their masters' clients.
When I first heard of Boxing Day, on a business trip to Canada that kept me there over the holidays, I had no idea what the heck they were talking about. It still, even now that I know what it is, conjures up images of Mohammed Ali and George Forman… I used to think that it was called Boxing Day because you gave your relatives boxes to take their gifts home in. I guess I was wrong.
My family and I had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you did as well!
I am having a party this afternoon so that my friends from Denver can meet my family from all over the country. I will, therefore, have to make this a short entry. (Mercifully short, some of you may be thinking after yesterday's missive.) Well, I am off to the supermarket to get the food for the party.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 26, December, 2004
When I first heard of Boxing Day, on a business trip to Canada that kept me there over the holidays, I had no idea what the heck they were talking about. It still, even now that I know what it is, conjures up images of Mohammed Ali and George Forman… I used to think that it was called Boxing Day because you gave your relatives boxes to take their gifts home in. I guess I was wrong.
My family and I had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you did as well!
I am having a party this afternoon so that my friends from Denver can meet my family from all over the country. I will, therefore, have to make this a short entry. (Mercifully short, some of you may be thinking after yesterday's missive.) Well, I am off to the supermarket to get the food for the party.
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 26, December, 2004
25 December 2004
A Christmas Story
The following Christmas Story is true; and none of this namby-pamby changing the names to protect the innocent! I am telling this tale bare, unvarnished, and exactly as it happened. Sort of...
It was Christmas Eve 1969 and the entire brood; my sister, Mary, my brothers, Denis and Chip, and I were all lined up against the kitchen wall a police line-up in miniature. Dad was doing his best Colombo impersonation as he strode back and forth before us. It seems that my parents had just discovered that someone had carved two small (practically invisible, really) notches into the top drawer of one of the cabinets. Mom was off in another room somewhere. She was "so mad she could spit tacks" as she used to say. (Something all of us would have loved to see if she could really do... but none of us ever had the nerve to ask her to demonstrate.)
"Now, here, you see," he said, "we have a dulled knife. And over there you see the notches in the kitchen drawer." Dad displayed the evidence as he explained it to us and then looked at us expectantly. We'd all seen the TV show. We knew he was waiting for one of us to crack, but we just stood there looking at him. Well... Mary, Denis and I looked at him. Chip just kind of fidgeted. The weight of the evidence was clear. There was the notched drawer. There was the newly dulled knife. The implication? One of us little people had used the knife to notch the drawer. Open and shut case. But who? Who would do such a thing?
Now, about this time, I expect that you are asking yourself "But, Don..." which is strange, because unless your name is "Don" and you are in the habit of talking to yourself, but I digress. You're asking yourself "Didn't your parent's see your name written all over this one? Weren't you the trouble maker in the group? Shouldn't they have know that they should at least suspect you? Have I asked enough rhetorical questions for you to resume the narrative yet?" to which I say
"You sure ask a lot of questions. Whose story is this anyway?"
No, seriously! My point is that you are right. They should have known that I was guilty! They should have just naturally assumed their troubled middle son did this. But no! When we were children, our parents were idiots! My siblings and I could not believe excruciatingly dim our parents could be! We kept fearing that the men from the government would some day arrive at our door and inform our parents that they were just to nitwitted to have children and we would never see them again! But that is another story. Back to Christmas Eve - 1969.
So there we are, all cool as cucumbers, the little kind that they make sweet pickles out of, standing against the kitchen wall and none of us willing to speak up and claim responsibility. Dad was livid. "Okay, then" he decreed "we'll just let you sit here and think about it. When one of you wants to tell us what happened, your mother and I will be in the living room." You see, the idea was to let us think about the ways that they might punish us and have us turn against each other so that the guilty party would turn themselves in.
Dad's plan was devious enough for me to appreciate, but not good enough to trap me into confessing. (Assuming that I was in fact guilty. Please note, all that I have admitted to at this point is that they should have suspected me.) We sat there. My brothers and sister probably wondering who had done it, how they would be punished, if whoever had done it would go free, or what was on TV that we were missing.
My thoughts were on Santa Claus. I knew that he was on his way and that he wouldn't be stopping at our house if the Bergquist children were still in the kitchen when he made it to Miami! I had to think of some way to get us out of the kitchen so that we could all enjoy Christmas. A selfless act, if I must say so myself.
"Look," I said to Chip, eyeing my elder siblings conspicuously and lowering my voice to a conspiratorial tone, "Chip, we've got to get out of this Kitchen before Santa makes it to Florida of there will be no Christmas here. Now, I would go out there now and tell Mom and Dad that I did it, just to get us out to the kitchen, but you see the laws in the state of Florida say that any kid over the age of six can be legally killed by their parents for acting this bad." I looked to my elder siblings for support. I think they just wanted to see what was going on. Or perhaps they were still thinking about what was on TV. The result is the same... not a word of back-up!
"Now, which ever of them," I continued jerking my thumb at Mary and Denis, "did this horrible thing to Dad's kitchen is in for it! They're old enough that they are goners for sure! You don't want Mom and Dad to kill which ever one of them did this, now do you?" Mary and Denis eyed each other. I think that they were following my impeccable logic and thinking that I may have hit on something. Or perhaps they were thinking that my parents' idiocy had passed down to at least one of the members of our generation.
"As I said, I'd tell them that I did this, but I can be legally killed." I said again. "Now, who do we know who is under six years old who could save Mary or Denis..."
"I'm three." Chip said.
"That's right! You are only three! You're too young to be killed and since you're the youngest and the cutest they would let you get away with anything. You could tell them you did it and save Mary or Denis. Whoever did this horrible thing!"
It was a lovely plan. It was also only seconds after Chip left the kitchen that Dad came back with Chip in tow. He explained exactly how unlikely it was that Chip was actually guilty. He was way too short to reach the knives. Wasn't able to reach the drawer. And could produce no reason he would want to do what he had claimed to have done. No, Dad, for all his lack of mental capacity had seen right through my beautiful plan. Chip was allowed to leave the kitchen and the time passed.
And I'll tell you. Coming up with a Plan B wasn't easy what with the miniscule half life of my Plan A, with the prospect of Santa bypassing our little house on 122nd Avenue, and with Chip dancing around outside the kitchen door as if to say "Ha ha! I don't have to stay in the kitchen because I'm young, cute, and they love me!" I had to have a Plan B and I needed it now! (If for no other reason than to get out of the kitchen so I could thump my brother for so horribly spoiling my beautiful Plan A!)
I looked at my siblings, I looked at the drawer, I looked at the dog... nope, nothing there I could use. I looked at the clock. I couldn't actually tell time yet, but it seemed that it was getting late. And then I had it! It was a lovely plan. It was simple, it was elegant, and best of all it would work! There was no way that Plan B could fail. It was, the best performance of my six-year career of being a trouble maker.
I cried! I flopped apoplectic against the kitchen wall. I threw a full-blown class a tantrum. I screamed and pointed at the general area of a point midway between my elder siblings and shouted that which ever of them had done that horrible thing to the cabinet drawer should just admit it and get it over with. Midnight mass was coming up soon and it was my favorite mass of the year and I wanted to go to midnight mass right away. If we didn't get out of the kitchen we would miss mass and it would be all their fault.
Miraculously (and who said there are no miracles any more... it was Christmas Eve after all) I was right... it was getting late. Mom and Dad came into the kitchen, herded us into the bath, then into our Christmas Eve finery, and then off to church. The incident was never mentioned again. Santa came and stopped at the Bergquist household that night and all was, if not actually forgotten or forgiven, at least not discussed in polite company again.
And I want to go on the record once again. I didn't admit to it then, I haven't admitted to it now. I just can't imagine who did this horrible thing. Not on Christmas Eve, at least!
Merry Cristmas all!
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist - Lakewood, Colorado - 25, December, 2004
*Editor's Note:
The author would welcome comments from anyone out there who might have enough legal expertise to be able to tell what the statue of limitations on this kind of thing would be. Say someone, me for instance, were to have done such a thing thirty-five years ago in, say Miami, and then moved to somewhere out west, does that change the culpability? I am not admitting to anything, mind you, just interest. And a little fearful. I am still over the age of six!
It was Christmas Eve 1969 and the entire brood; my sister, Mary, my brothers, Denis and Chip, and I were all lined up against the kitchen wall a police line-up in miniature. Dad was doing his best Colombo impersonation as he strode back and forth before us. It seems that my parents had just discovered that someone had carved two small (practically invisible, really) notches into the top drawer of one of the cabinets. Mom was off in another room somewhere. She was "so mad she could spit tacks" as she used to say. (Something all of us would have loved to see if she could really do... but none of us ever had the nerve to ask her to demonstrate.)
"Now, here, you see," he said, "we have a dulled knife. And over there you see the notches in the kitchen drawer." Dad displayed the evidence as he explained it to us and then looked at us expectantly. We'd all seen the TV show. We knew he was waiting for one of us to crack, but we just stood there looking at him. Well... Mary, Denis and I looked at him. Chip just kind of fidgeted. The weight of the evidence was clear. There was the notched drawer. There was the newly dulled knife. The implication? One of us little people had used the knife to notch the drawer. Open and shut case. But who? Who would do such a thing?
Now, about this time, I expect that you are asking yourself "But, Don..." which is strange, because unless your name is "Don" and you are in the habit of talking to yourself, but I digress. You're asking yourself "Didn't your parent's see your name written all over this one? Weren't you the trouble maker in the group? Shouldn't they have know that they should at least suspect you? Have I asked enough rhetorical questions for you to resume the narrative yet?" to which I say
"You sure ask a lot of questions. Whose story is this anyway?"
No, seriously! My point is that you are right. They should have known that I was guilty! They should have just naturally assumed their troubled middle son did this. But no! When we were children, our parents were idiots! My siblings and I could not believe excruciatingly dim our parents could be! We kept fearing that the men from the government would some day arrive at our door and inform our parents that they were just to nitwitted to have children and we would never see them again! But that is another story. Back to Christmas Eve - 1969.
So there we are, all cool as cucumbers, the little kind that they make sweet pickles out of, standing against the kitchen wall and none of us willing to speak up and claim responsibility. Dad was livid. "Okay, then" he decreed "we'll just let you sit here and think about it. When one of you wants to tell us what happened, your mother and I will be in the living room." You see, the idea was to let us think about the ways that they might punish us and have us turn against each other so that the guilty party would turn themselves in.
Dad's plan was devious enough for me to appreciate, but not good enough to trap me into confessing. (Assuming that I was in fact guilty. Please note, all that I have admitted to at this point is that they should have suspected me.) We sat there. My brothers and sister probably wondering who had done it, how they would be punished, if whoever had done it would go free, or what was on TV that we were missing.
My thoughts were on Santa Claus. I knew that he was on his way and that he wouldn't be stopping at our house if the Bergquist children were still in the kitchen when he made it to Miami! I had to think of some way to get us out of the kitchen so that we could all enjoy Christmas. A selfless act, if I must say so myself.
"Look," I said to Chip, eyeing my elder siblings conspicuously and lowering my voice to a conspiratorial tone, "Chip, we've got to get out of this Kitchen before Santa makes it to Florida of there will be no Christmas here. Now, I would go out there now and tell Mom and Dad that I did it, just to get us out to the kitchen, but you see the laws in the state of Florida say that any kid over the age of six can be legally killed by their parents for acting this bad." I looked to my elder siblings for support. I think they just wanted to see what was going on. Or perhaps they were still thinking about what was on TV. The result is the same... not a word of back-up!
"Now, which ever of them," I continued jerking my thumb at Mary and Denis, "did this horrible thing to Dad's kitchen is in for it! They're old enough that they are goners for sure! You don't want Mom and Dad to kill which ever one of them did this, now do you?" Mary and Denis eyed each other. I think that they were following my impeccable logic and thinking that I may have hit on something. Or perhaps they were thinking that my parents' idiocy had passed down to at least one of the members of our generation.
"As I said, I'd tell them that I did this, but I can be legally killed." I said again. "Now, who do we know who is under six years old who could save Mary or Denis..."
"I'm three." Chip said.
"That's right! You are only three! You're too young to be killed and since you're the youngest and the cutest they would let you get away with anything. You could tell them you did it and save Mary or Denis. Whoever did this horrible thing!"
It was a lovely plan. It was also only seconds after Chip left the kitchen that Dad came back with Chip in tow. He explained exactly how unlikely it was that Chip was actually guilty. He was way too short to reach the knives. Wasn't able to reach the drawer. And could produce no reason he would want to do what he had claimed to have done. No, Dad, for all his lack of mental capacity had seen right through my beautiful plan. Chip was allowed to leave the kitchen and the time passed.
And I'll tell you. Coming up with a Plan B wasn't easy what with the miniscule half life of my Plan A, with the prospect of Santa bypassing our little house on 122nd Avenue, and with Chip dancing around outside the kitchen door as if to say "Ha ha! I don't have to stay in the kitchen because I'm young, cute, and they love me!" I had to have a Plan B and I needed it now! (If for no other reason than to get out of the kitchen so I could thump my brother for so horribly spoiling my beautiful Plan A!)
I looked at my siblings, I looked at the drawer, I looked at the dog... nope, nothing there I could use. I looked at the clock. I couldn't actually tell time yet, but it seemed that it was getting late. And then I had it! It was a lovely plan. It was simple, it was elegant, and best of all it would work! There was no way that Plan B could fail. It was, the best performance of my six-year career of being a trouble maker.
I cried! I flopped apoplectic against the kitchen wall. I threw a full-blown class a tantrum. I screamed and pointed at the general area of a point midway between my elder siblings and shouted that which ever of them had done that horrible thing to the cabinet drawer should just admit it and get it over with. Midnight mass was coming up soon and it was my favorite mass of the year and I wanted to go to midnight mass right away. If we didn't get out of the kitchen we would miss mass and it would be all their fault.
Miraculously (and who said there are no miracles any more... it was Christmas Eve after all) I was right... it was getting late. Mom and Dad came into the kitchen, herded us into the bath, then into our Christmas Eve finery, and then off to church. The incident was never mentioned again. Santa came and stopped at the Bergquist household that night and all was, if not actually forgotten or forgiven, at least not discussed in polite company again.
And I want to go on the record once again. I didn't admit to it then, I haven't admitted to it now. I just can't imagine who did this horrible thing. Not on Christmas Eve, at least!
Merry Cristmas all!
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist - Lakewood, Colorado - 25, December, 2004
*Editor's Note:
The author would welcome comments from anyone out there who might have enough legal expertise to be able to tell what the statue of limitations on this kind of thing would be. Say someone, me for instance, were to have done such a thing thirty-five years ago in, say Miami, and then moved to somewhere out west, does that change the culpability? I am not admitting to anything, mind you, just interest. And a little fearful. I am still over the age of six!
24 December 2004
Visions of Sugarplums?
My nephew was nestled snug on my couch
and Saga just lay there and didn't say "Ouch!"
The rush and worry is over. My family arrived last night at about 19:00 and we had a toast to the holiday season. (My thanks to the Publican at The King's Arms back in East Molesey for the recipe for mulled wine. It turned out great!) Everyone recounted their trips here, Mary and Corey came in from South Florida; Chip, Dad, and Eric drove in from Minnesota. Everyone arrived Safe and Sound!
Mary called from the concourse. She said that everyone was ribbing her about getting her heavy coat and sweatshirt on before she walked off the plane, but they quit chuckling when they stepped onto the jet way. Mary said that the temperature that they had been given was 2 Degrees (Fahrenheit - that's -16.666 to those of you on the metric system!) outside and she was, apparently, the only one that knew the jet way was not sealed and insulated. I hated to point this out to her, but according to the register of the actual ambient temperature (available by looking at the national weather service site on the web, which I happened to have up to check weather for my Dad and Brother who were driving) was -4 Fahrenheit (-20 Celsius). Pair that with directions that, living here, I would not have been able to follow to get to her hotel, it was just like most of my business trips to Canada!
My brother, Chip, drove here from Minnesota yesterday with his son, Eric and my dad. They made amazing time. I have made that trip a number of times, and he did start from Minneapolis. But when I leave at what I affectionately call "Butt-Ugly-Early O'clock," I generally arrive around seven. Chip called me from the lounge at his hotel while the 06:00 news was still on to tell me that they had just arrived. It is no wonder that my nephew saw Saga and thought: "Hmmm… She looks like a pillow!" Good thing that Saga is such a good sport!
Mary's friends, Barbara and Mickey made it out as well. So there will be eight for dinner at this evening. The menu is:
Starter:
Tomato Bisque
Mixed Greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Main Course:
Barbecued Brisket
Or
Lemon-Dill Salmon (I'm serving both because some of my guests do not eat red meat)
With:
Dauphinoise Potatoes
Steamed Mixed Vegetables with Pesto
I've also got a Plumb/Spice cake for desert.
Well, I guess I had better get cooking! Merry Christmas!
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 24, December, 2004
23 December 2004
Preparations
It is Thursday morning in Lakewood. I have had a wild two days getting ready for guests. The mulled cider is on to simmer; the mulled wine will soon join it. I have had a whirlwind of activity trying to get the house ready for company. I am now enjoying a cup of coffee and
Soon enough I’ll have to get the laundry done and get to cooking so I best make this a short entry. Merry Christmas!
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 23, December, 2004
Soon enough I’ll have to get the laundry done and get to cooking so I best make this a short entry. Merry Christmas!
Have a great day!
Don Bergquist – Lakewood, Colorado – 23, December, 2004
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