Twelve Days

It's hard for me to beleive I've had 12 days off. And that I haven't really thought about work the entire time. Part of me thinks that's a bad thing, like I've lost some of my passion for it, but mostly I think I just needed a break from it. That's probably more accurate anyway.

So what have I been doing?

Flew back to Wisconsin to visit with family and friends. Had a great Christmas. Spent time with my nephews -- including taking them to see Christmas with the Kranks, of which, the less said the better.

My nephews are always fun to see because they change so much from one visit to the next. It's very clear very quickly which "phase" they're going through. They're so much more dynamic than adults.

I only managed to spend a day in Madison and I missed out on seeing Tim, Kevin, Kerry, and the guys at FM, but I got to spend time with Kim, John (who I hope gets to go back to England soon), and all the Monkeys at the get-together that John and Lisa hosted. Lisa was happy to report that she'd finally found work in the Detroit area, so she and John could live together again. (Briefly, John's been working in the Detroit area for over a year now and Lisa's been looking for a job out there all the while. Now she's found one. Hooray for them!) Anyway, the party was a lot of fun. Very low key. We pretty much sat around and caught up on what everyone was up to. It was especially nice to see Becca, Doug, and they're little Henry, as well as Scott. Man, I just don't get to see those people enough. Scott really, really needs to come out here sometime. The only people missing were Kevin, Lori, and Karen. It would have been nice to have them there as well.

Wow, I'm really enjoying typing right now.

I read A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin while I was home, too. It's the second book in the series (I read the first last year sometime) and I think I liked this one better than the first. Very, very, good stuff.

Oh, Christmas stuff; I received a number of really nice things for Christmas, but I wanted to note the things I picked up with gift money/certificates so that I don't forget. I know I'll have to send a note to my sister and grandma so they know their gifts went to good use. So, here's the stuff I've picked up since my return:

Pet Sounds CD (Beach Boys, y'know.)
Garden State DVD
The Simpsons Complete Fourth Season DVD set
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (the next book in the series mentioned above)
The Hedge Knight, also by Martin. This one being a comic adaptation of a short story that's a preqeul to the regular series of books.
Batman: The Long Halloween TPB (for half price!)
The Savage Tales of Soloman Kane by Robert E. Howard. I can't wait to dig into this.
A new calendar for my house (also half price!)

That's all certainly worth more than would be covered by my Christmas money, but I also exchanged some gifts that had gift receipts with them for some local stores -- plus I sold two big boxes of books to Half-Price Books which netted me $53.00. So, more goodies for me. Really what this all means is that I'm restocked on fun stuff for a while. I have plenty to read and catch up on.

New Year's Eve was fun. I was invited to Sandra and Javier's for an evening of fun and poker. I had a really good time visiting with everyone and learning how to play poker better. I did all right, but I made a couple of mistakes. I may start playing regularly with Javier and some of his friends -- good business contact. Very. Very. Good.

I've been talking to Jen daily for a couple of weeks now and I really like it. Hmm, I'm never sure how much I should write about my dating/social life here, but I guess I'm enjoying the time I spend talking with her enough that I want to mention it here. It's been nice to reconnect with her -- even if she is in L.A. Maybe a visit is in order.

Hopefully Mom will read this on Monday and know that I'm thinking of her and hoping that she goes to her appointment.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you're all well and that you had a relaxing holiday or two in the past couple of weeks. I'll update more soon.