There is something really bizarre about making your Christmas plans in July. It does, however, make you think of snow, and this can be a nice thing. :)

So for the interested: we fly into St. Louis on December 19th, theoretically arriving about 1:30. We will be renting a car there, and driving down to the Carbondale area (Johnston City, specifically) to visit Jerome's family for a few days. We're also hoping to get tattoos while we're there, but we have to see if our favorite artist is available when we will be there. I'm sure there will be C-dale area people who want to see us while we are there, so we'll try to orchestrate that as much as we can. We will definitely need to spend some time with assorted parts of Jerome's family, however, so we may be somewhat occupied.

Either on the 21st, in the evening, or early in the morning on the 22nd, we'll be driving back to St. Louis for my family's Christmas, which is almost never on actual Christmas. This is okay, though. :) After that, we will probably just be putzing around in the St. Louis area for a few more days, as we fly back to Seattle on December 25th. Oddly enough, flying on actual Christmas was cheaper than flying on Christmas Eve.

Still haven't figured out the rental car situation, but we will be getting one for at least the C-dale leg of the trip. While we're in St. Louis, we may just return the car and rely on the kindness of family members to cart us around. :) We're still exploring options on this, as I think I can get a discount on a rental car through work. :)

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Other than that, life in Seattle is going smoothly. Jerome started school on Wednesday of this past week. He has two classes on Wednesdays, one on Thursdays, and two on Fridays during this quarter, which lasts until mid-September. His Wednesday classes are non-design classes, and they seem pretty silly. He doesn't like one of his design classes, but that may have something to do with the teacher telling them to bring construction paper and glue sticks to class next week. As Jerome says it, "I'm not in %&#(*@! kindergarden!" His two design classes on Friday, however, are much better. So it all works out okay. :)

Work is going well for me, I'm trying to get more involved with the assorted things that the office does, and trying to help people out when they've got more work than they can handle. I'm not able to do a lot of the technical stuff, but I can at least help out a little. :) I really do love the laid back atmosphere of both the office and Seattle in general, though I still tend to dress up most days at work. :)

In fun and exciting stuff, we saw "Transformers" last weekend and loved it. On Tuesday, we're going to see Voltaire play, which will be awesome. We missed his show at Dragon*Con cuz I was tired, so we made sure to get tickets for this show. What makes it even more fun is that his opening act for this show is an 80s cover band... but not just any 80s cover band... it's an 80s cover band of five transvestites... :) Rock on! :)
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