Back from the Mother Country...

The wife and I are back in Budapest from our awesomely awesome weekend in Utah. We spent the weekend at Sundance at a corporate retreat/get-together. We had to sing Karaoke as an initiation. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't as bad as those of you that know me, might think. Oh it was BAD, but but in a good karaoke way. We at least didn't get boo-ed off the stage, like another group did. All in all, good solid fun. We sang (or made weird vocal noises that approximated singing) California Girls. The Beach Boys version. Not the DAvid Lee Roth version.

The cabin we stayed in was nice, the dinner was great, and the other part of my first-time initiation involved getting a watch worth much more than any other article of clothing I've ever put on. So I'm happy. I work for a great company, going on 9 years now.

As usual, we continued our boycotting of purchasing items in Hungary by loading up on all of our family Christmas items in Utah. We waddled through customs again with 5 full luggages of 70 lbs each, and three carry-ons loaded with electronics. Ho ho ho. Apparently we just missed a local airport strike upon arrival. Delta had announced we might be diverted to another airport had the strike started. We literally wouldn't have been allowed from the plane.

However, the strike DID apply to all train traffic, meaning I had to spend my first full day back driving my inlaws back to Debrecen, a round trip of about 300 miles. Just the way I wanted to spend my first day back. IT would have been more tolerable, but my new ipod car adapter sucks. Our old one broke and I haven't been able to find the exact replacement.

We just put up our CHristmas tonight. Count your blessings, fellow Americans. A decent tree in Hungary, with a a stand, runs about 140 bucks. OUCH. I got it stuffed into the back of my ever increasingly dirty Honda and into the garage and up the stairs. We just finished decorating. Only two broken ornaments. Not bad for a typical Palmer family session.