The Family

OK! We are ready to do this!

Our Christmas in July party will be Sunday, July 10.

It will be at Mom & Dad’s place. Chris is in charge of the meats and in coordinating the rest of the food. I’m in charge of … um … organizing.

First thing – drawing names for gifts! From the random number generator, here’s what we have:

Luke -> Christina
Nelia -> Joseph
Chris -> Nelia
Christina -> Ramona
Joseph -> Chris
Ramona -> Luke

Rules for the gifts: Since this is very close to the 4th of July, there’s going to be a certain holiday fusion aspect to all this. So, for the gifts, think Colonial! The price cap is $1, in 1776 money. Mom found a source that says that that’s equivalent to $33.60 – and not a penny over (including tax)! What do ya’ll think, should we include the receipts?

And bonus points for gifts that would have fit into the colonies well – something they would have given, used, had, etc. Homemade is great. Re-gifted things you already have is great. We found this site, which has some great inspiration ideas – https://shop.colonialwilliamsburg.com/18th-century-goods/.

I have my usual set of games in mind, but if anyone would like to brainstorm with me that’s always welcome.

I’m also thinking that we’d carve out some time for celebrating the July birthdays – any objections? It does kind of move us in all kinds of different directions, but I think it should be fun.

As last year, I’m reaching out to the CCCC for a family in need. If anyone would like to join me in getting stuff for said family, let me know.

And if you all have some other giving/community thing you do, post that too. Even if we can’t do everything, it’s nice to see what we’re all doing.

OK, so Etsy can make a personal ‘favorites’ list, and they can make a wedding registry, and they can’t make a wish list? What’s up with that?

So, in an utterly unforeseeable turn, Joseph and I have a wedding registry on Etsy with the big date set for 12/25. I wonder just how many other folks have Christmas weddings on Etsy year after year and go make a few update every November or so.

And if you all are Etsy types, you should totally put together your own registry too.

And I wonder how long before Etsy figures out that maybe a sharable wish list for other occasions might be a thing they can explore.

Well – let us hope & plan for having a Christmas party.

I’ll host and make the ridiculous games.

Chris will coordinate the food – bring the main dish & coordinate with the rest of us on what to bring (Chris, can you link your Apple Note lists here? that would be convenient.)

Mom will do the gifting details – drawing of names. And I understand that this year we’ll all give the kids, there will be names drawn for an exchange, and we’ll have an family exchange too. I like!

The 2-item exchange game this year is called Monsters and Aliens.

You see, this year has been a rough one, with all kinds of monsters (microbes … politicians … etc.). And if there were ever a year that aliens would land, this would be it. We’d probably all just say, sure, pile it on.

So let us assume that you may be called up, at any moment, to face these perils. To fight off the monster or the alien. Well – how should you be prepared? We all know that you need garlic for vampires and tin foil to fend off the greys … but what else? What if you are facing a bunyip? Or a flying brain spore?

So that is your task – bring something that you could use to defend yourself (or at least survive the encounter) if you met a monster (defined as originating on Earth) or an antagonistic alien (defined as originating anywhere else). For the sake of argument, we’re just worried about the antagonistic aliens. No friends here!

Be prepared to explain your item – what monster or alien it is effective against, and how to use it. It will be convenient if you wrap your monster item in green and your alien item in red, if you can find red or green wrapping paper at this time of year. But failing that, just label them however you’d like.

And since we can’t raise the monster or alien’s suspicions about what we’re doing, these items all must come from a grocery store (loosely defined as HEB, Target, Walmart … anywhere you can buy milk). And let’s put a loose $10 cap on each item.

And another note.

It would be so good, so good for my mental health at least (I assume for everyone else’s as well) to get together and have fun. But it’s certainly not worth dying for.

I have figured out how to adapt most of my games to a virtual setting if we need to. So let’s touch base before hand – when would be good? I’m thinking the weekend before, say the 18th or so. Would that be enough time to pivot on the food if necessary?

And if we look mournfully at each other on the 18th and say, no, the winter surge is as apocalyptic as the doomsayers said, then I will pack up party boxes and shuttle them (and the gifts we have for each other) about that weekend. So be sure to have all your gifts in place by that weekend just in case.

And then we will have a zoom call, and we will have music and decorate cookies and play silly games and have fun anyway.

Luke is building something and has made a rough drawing of it. He asked me if I would make a drawing on the computer. “Of course,” I said. I am always drawing house plans so I even have a ruler set up. Easy.

Only my rulers are set to measure by the inch, a pixel equals an inch. And he has all these measurements that are half inch (2×4’s for example, are actually 1 1/2 x 3 1/2) No problem. I shifted things around so a pixel is a half inch. Only he also has measurements that are 1/16 inch.

I am determined, so I started trying to set my ruler to measure smaller and smaller units. Soon I was so confused. There are 12 inches to a foot but inches are divided into divisions of 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.

I find myself remembering how, way back when I was in high school, they told us that the Unites States was fixing to go metric. Everyone groaned. We didn’t want to learn a whole new way of measuring and thinking of measurements. We knew approximately how much an inch or cup or pound was. Metric was a mystery.

But, the teacher told us how much better the metric system was because it is all based on 10. Everything, length, weight, volume… all measured in units of 10. I thought, “What an amazing idea!” I knew it would be a pain to adjust my thinking, to learn to think of an amount as a liter or millimeter, but what a pay-off! I would not have to divide and multiply by all these odd numbers for the rest of my life!!! I can divide and multiply 10’s in my head!

So I learned the metric system. I talked it up at home, told my mother the benefits. Of course, I realized, it would be harder for her and for people even older than her to learn to think in these new units, but we would! Once everything was measured in metric, we’d have to. And once we got the hang of it, it would be so much better.

Of course, I forgot the metric system. I never used it anywhere but math class. For 50 years, probably longer, we have been “going to go metric” but we never have. Water and soft drinks started selling in liters and I bet everyone has a good feel for how much a liter is now, but nothing else is sold in metric units. They might have a conversion to metric on the label, but, since it is easier to think in the units of measure we know, we ignore any other measures.

And here I sit trying to make a ruler, 12 units to a foot, 4 or 8 or 16 units to an inch. And I am thinking of how teaspoons are broken down to 1/8 and there are 3 teaspoons to a tablespoon and 4 tablespoons to 1/4 cup. All our measurements are needlessly complicated! It would be so much easier if we could divide an multiply everything by 10.

One of the great things about being into fountain pens is the wide variety of inks available. I’ve been at it for a while, picking up a bottle here and there when something interesting came by.

Since I’m at home more, I decided to make an inventory of all my ink. I wanted to fill in a col-o-ring card for each one as a I went, but I quickly discovered I didn’t have enough blank cards. I’ll get another one and get that done, but for now I need to put the ink collection back on the shelf.

Before I do that, I took a picture:

Franklin Christoph pens are a highlight in my collection. Right now I have six of their pens. In order I bought them: Model 66 Stabilis, Model 02 Intrensic, Model 31 Omnis, and Model 46 XLVI. I have two Model 02 and Model 31 pens. The 02/Intrensic is my favorite model though I’m warming up to the 46.

As it happens, two of my pens – an 02 and a 31 – had issues. I dropped the 31 just so to break something about the clip. The 02 had an overly tight cap; enough that it would unscrew the section from the body at times. After some reluctance on my part, I mailed them off to Franklin Christoph with a letter of explination. I did a tracked package and bought extra insurance on it. The tracking was listed as “number not found” for a long time – I stopped checking when Franklin Christoph sent me an e-mail saying they had the package, assessed the pens, and had them both off to the production department to make new parts. Well, actually I called Franklin Christoph to ask if they had happened to receive the package before I checked my e-mail. The lady that answered the phone was the one that handled my pens. She let me know it might be a week before the parts were done since they were in crunch time before the Philly Pen Show, just a week away.

This was all a relief. The pens were in good hands. A week for parts doesn’t sound bad at all, especially before a pen show. Explains why they haven’t been listing many one-off colors online recently. I was quite suprised when I recived an e-mail on wednesday of the same week: Your order of (blank) has been shipped from Franklin Christoph, tracking number ####.

Natrually the tracking on that package was also weird. It started as “due for Friday delivery” but on Friday it was still somewhere in the midwest. Over the weekend the “due for delivery” went totally blank.

Monday the pens did arrive. I opened the package at work. Both pens look fantastic. The 02’s cap had a small, distinctive dot of color that looked misplaced. It was the kind of thing that bugs you, you can’t un-see it, and is always… there. Well, the new cap doesn’t have anything of the sort. I’m lucky here – these are custom materials with expected batch variations. Having the same type of raw stock available isn’t a sure thing, much less stock that matches so well. The other pen’s remade cap also matches well.

This alone would leave me a happy camper. My pens are back with fixed caps. I was suprised to see on the material order form a note: “nib testing gave a hard start; adjusted nib and replaced feed” and another seperate sheet of paper in the other pen “nib testing had some skips; replaced feed and adjusted nib. Looks ok for an Extra Fine”. Hmm… I think someone prefers Broad nibs there!

So not only did they make new parts during an extra busy part of the production schedule, they gave the nibs some love, attention, and new parts. Total cost: Shipping and my extra Insurance, about $20. That’s it. Nothing for their labor, parts, time, or shipping it back to me.

I’ll be back for more Franklin Christoph pens in the future. There are more nibs to try, models to explore, and endless limited edition colors/materials.

I have a wonderful Brisket in the fridge that I will start cooking Friday night. If the last time is an indicator, it’ll be done around 9:00 – 10:00 in the morning. An hour or two to sit and rest gives us plenty of time to have a great lunch. Fortunatly the meat can sit for a while and be just fine. Or it’ll cook longer and we have dinner. Whatever.

That’s the main dish and we need sides. Here’s a quick list for proposed foods:

• Mac & Cheese (regular, not spiced up! Super kid friendly food here)
• Buttered Potatoes. (think Rudy’s style. Chopped potatoe with buttery goodness)
• Creamed Corn
• Potatoe Salad (ok, I usually avoid this but other folks like it)
• Cole Slaw

I’ll bring the bread.

OK, you guys said I was at liberty to do games again. bwahahahahhahahah

Ahem

So here’s the rules for the “Best Friends” game

• Think of a common two item phrase that has an “and” in it. Like “bed and breakfast” or “guns and roses” … except perhaps with items that are useful, a bit cheaper, and easier to come by. There’s no set price point, but I’m thinking under $10 and things that one could get at a grocery store.
• OK – go get your two things. Remember: Useful. Pairs. Fairly easy to get. (This is supposed to be fun, after all)
• Wrap them – but make sure you wrap them in different wrapping paper. This is important! They have to be wrapped separately, and the wrapping paper must be different. No labels (just, you know, remember which gifts are for the best friends game)(ok, maybe you can have a label that says “best friends game”)

And there’s another set of rules for the treasure hunt, but I’ll be in touch with all of you separately for that.