Thank our Lord in Heaven that this madness is over for +/- 11 months.

[wednes]

For people who don't actually send out cards, our Wall of Tidings was impressive as ever:



We don't put up a tree due to JoJo, and to a lesser extent, Pentelope. But Peter Alway gave us a train a while back, and it is now our Christmas thing. We tend to leave it up until the 12th Day of Christmas. This year though, we're leaving it up a few days longer since my favorite little girls are coming over Jan 8th and I want them to see it. Anyway, here's a short vid in case you don't know what a toy train looks like. I also found out that my camera has a mic. Neat!

I spent a bit of money on H this year. He doesn't really buy himself things like I do, as he is much less impulsive and much better with money than I am. He got me some really cool and thoughtful gifts. Some fancy pants foot lotion for my fancy pants feet. He also had my logo and one of my novel covers (S4S) made into a sheet of postage stamps. Sweet!

My stocking had an asterisk again this year, which meant part of my gift was in the fridge. Last year, this happened because H went out on Christmas Eve to get me fruit dipped in Godiva chocolate. Mmmmm. I assumed he was doing that this year. But no...he went to 3 different places trying to find Proper British Bacon without success. Instead, he bought some Bentley's Hickory Smoked bacon. Seen here, frying on a less than pristine stovetop:


There was a whole half pound of it. So, our Christmas dinner was carbonara pasta with some random veggies, no eggs, and a touch of cheese and cream. It was indescribably amazing.


We got a couple of gift cards and plenty of well wishes. Was hoping to see more in the way of friends and family, but that hasn't really materialized. Can't complain too much since I did just have a crazy rocking bash one month ago.

And then, this happened:


Back to work tomorrow for a 3-day week. Dropping down on the hours so I can get some real work done. Have to finish The Finster Effect by the end of summer, which means I'll be working my ass off on it. New podcast ep this week, and new ZZN article and ParaBlog article too. That's right, no more dicking around. Back to the REAL work! Apparently the main difference between being somewhat talented and actually being successful is a metric fuckton of hard work. My new desk setup is awesome, so I really have no excuse for not getting everything done that I need to do. Well--unless that new HDMI cable that lets me watch downloaded vids on my big TV counts as an "excuse." I'm hoping not...but there is an awful lot of Bugs Bunny here.