"You're Mauling Your Face to the Beat."

Julia said that to me tonight while we were out for a romantic New Year's Eve dinner at Volterra in Ballard. I can think of nothing I'd rather hear, can you?

Actually, she was right, I had my hands over my face and was moving them in time to the music we could barely hear in the background. But it made for a funny comment.

Okay, so what's been going on?

Julia and I left for Wisconsin on the 19th, visited family, did the whole Christmas thing in Burlington, then went to Madison to stay with Kim and John for a couple of days. Their pair of Boston Terriers had had puppies earlier in the month, so we enjoyed playing with the clumsy, little pups. Dang, they were cute. When we returned from Madison, we packed everything up and flew back to Seattle on the 29th.

Overall the trip was very good. We had a great time visiting with everyone and even though I had a spot of the flu and now I have a nagging head cold, it went alright. Heck, one of my nephews liked Julia and I so much he wanted to come back to Seattle with us, but that didn't happen for a number of reasons.

The dinner we had tonight was a special event that we were able to attend because our realtor sent us a nice gift certificate for Christmas. We wouldn't have gone if we hadn't received the gift, so it was pretty special. He's a good guy and I'm sure we'll send him a thank you very soon.

I still have a lot of work to do on my freelance work, but my head cold is making it difficult to sit and concentrate for long. Hopefully I'll be back to speed tomorrow as I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Okay, it's the end of the year, so I thought I'd do my second annual recap of the books I've read this year. Here they are:

Homeland: Book 1 of the Dark Elf Trilogy, R.A. Salvatore

Shadowrun: Poison Agendas, Stephen Kenson

Shadowrun: Fallen Angels, Stephen Kenson

Tunnel in the Sky, Heinlein

The Golden Compass, Book 1 of His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

The Traveler, John Twelve Hawks

Shadowrun: A Fistful of Data, Stephen Dedman

The Subtle Knife, Book 2 of His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

Gotrek & Felix Omnibus, Book 1: Trollslayer, William King

Only nine books this year (compared to a dozen last year), but I think that's pretty good considering the fact that I have a girlfriend, a new house, and a new company. Oh, and lest you think I'm resting on my laurels, I'm currently reading The Amber Spyglass, Book 3 of His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. Shane recommended them to me, so I sped through them this year so we could discuss them.

For the roleplayers among you, I picked up and read (more like devoured) The Esoterrorists by Robin D. Laws this past week. It's slim, but it's excellent, with a nice, simple game system that introduces some great new ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the Gumshoe system and more books in The Esoterrorists line.

Okay, that's all for now. I'm going to go spend some time with my girl.