*stretch*

grr. argh.

so, one down, one to go. somehow my (rather large) family always decides to do things the complicated way, and SG's has decided that any day my family is doing something, they must do something that day too... spent the 24th working, then did the usual reveillon at my parents' (though without my godparents this year, which was a real shame). of course, this degenerated into all of us sitting around the kitchen table playing brelan (a card game no one but my dad's family has ever heard of -- it's highly addictive and very, very long, hence the nickname "why me?" amongst my friends) til all hours of the night. yesterday, i struggled thru a 4 hour long meal at SG's parents'; was not bad, except that it was mostly made up of seafood and various pastes that i couldn't pronounce. i tried just about everything (even the pink stuff that looked like icing and really, really wasn't) but didn't like any of it. luckily, there was a little chicken involved, so i didn't go completely hungry. oh, and let's not forget the absolutely amazing fruit cheesecake they got. even SG was amazed by it, and is currently trying to figure out where they bought it.

then proceeded to my uncle's house where we sat around uncomfortably for a while, SG attempted to fall asleep, forced ourselves to eat some of the lovely buffet (it was tasty, but we were a little overstuffed after the 4 hour meal 2 hours earlier), then proceeded to snap and play brelan again, this time with my dad's youngest brother. turns out he's got some info on the family name (i'm a minor amateur genealogy buff) and is gonna send it to me when he digs it up and has time to scan it. =)

my grandfather is doing better than i was expecting. he actually remembered why i was giving him that damned piece of cross-stitch for Xmas (my step-grandmother started it years ago, he dug it up when she died and asked me to finish it, despite the fact i haven't done cross-stitch since i was 10 or so), which is good as it ended up costing me nearly $100 to frame it, etc. *wail* i'm so broke! it was also a little strange to see him so vital; he was deteriorating pretty badly while my step-grandmother was still alive (she spent 2 years in the hospital before she died last year). he kept calling me "la p'tite" which he hasn't done in gods know how long (i was the only grandchild for 6 years, til my brother came along, then all my cousins). very strange, but kinda nice.

so on saturday i get to brave SG's grandparents (who, by all accounts, are evil and will hate me on sight), but at least his brother's girlfriend is being subjected to the experience as well, so one of us can have a break while the other is being quizzed, or something like that. nothing like sharing the pain.... then it's off to my parents' party, which i was supposed to set up for and my dad is making me feel really guilty about, but as i have to be elsewhere... *shrug* then it's back to the real world... *slams head against keyboard*

on the plus side, i got Age of Mythology.... *eyes light up* am gonna go install it now...