Another Month | Another Year

Wow, can't seem to post lately. What's new lazy bones? Hmmm.

My birthday: Gone.

Christmas: Past. (Gosh, think it's a hockey stick?)

Wallet: Empty.

Kids: Happy. (Hello new laptop. Hello $700 summer camp for video game development.)

New Year's Eve: Fun.

Work: Busy. And in the midst of the madness, I moved to a small office in my little town. No indoor parking. No fire place. No coworkers.

Here's a snowy view from the side window of my new office. Bleak yet still charming somehow as the street wends along the canal. Now I can run next door for a cup of coffee or across the street for new Birkenstocks (as if). There's also a cute, cobblestone fire-placed, chandelier-laden crepes restaurant right here. Two awesome Greek restaurants. And one of my favorite places for fun cocktails just a few doors down.  Of course, I haven't ventured out yet. Too cold.

And here's a picture of the view out the front window above my desk. Until I snapped this, I had not noticed the prominent telephone lines! Instead, I watch everyone out jogging along the canal (even in the dead of winter) or walking their dogs and I get jealous. Wait 'til spring when they're in the sunshine enjoying ice cream cones and I'm sitting up here. Maybe I'll start throwing reams of paper at them.

Oh well. Happy 2012. The year of the Dragon. YEA! Good luck for me, Son #1 and my nephew Tim: all dragons.

But This Year Goes to Eleven

Well, Christmas has come and gone. And so have most of my memories. I meant to post over that week but I was either busy with relatives and parties or asleep.

In addition to having a fabulous time with family and friends, highlights of the week included:

1. The dance-off at our neighborhood party where Son #2 took his shirt off and swirled it in the air like a Chippendale's dancer while slapping his butt. Um, not sure where he learned that . . . 
2. Watching all of the kids at the party breaking open the Christmas crackers to find they were filled with non-kid items. "Yea, I got nail clippers!" Or "Hey, what's this?" (Answer: a shoe horn. Awesome!)
3. Two signed contracts not to wake us up before 6:00 a.m. on Christmas day that were reneged upon at approximately 4:00 a.m. by one and 5:00 a.m. by the other. 
4. A very sweet note left for Santa (see below). Santa responded with his own note including details of the beer he shared with daddy along with something vile about flatulence. (The lesser known perils of riding in a sleigh behind nine reindeer.)
5. The loot. And boy was there loot. Drums. iPod Touches. Xbox Kinect and Xbox Live. And much, much more. (Heigh-ho, heigh-ho . . . )
6. Sledding in Mendon Ponds Park. God's natural half-pipe. 
7. Culminating, thankfully, with the neighborhood New Year's Eve party which was very quiet this year (vs. years past). 12:01 a.m.: time to go! 

Looking forward (I think) to what 2011 can bring.

Happy 2010

After pulling my first all nighter in years (for work lest you think otherwise), I stayed up past midnight again last night (crazy, I tell ya!) ringing in the new year at home with my family and our neighbors. We played "Truth or Dare" with challenges that the kids made up and emceed like we were on a game show, and then the adults played a fun little board game called Loaded Questions. Generally benign questions like "what are you grateful not to be doing right now?" elicited written responses ranging from "work" to "shi&#ing my pants" or "paying attention" and whoever's turn it was had to guess which player had written each golden nugget. You learn a lot about people when drinking sangria and playing board games, I've discovered. Or maybe they learned a lot about me. The dad from across the street kept editing my responses when he had to read them. "I didn't write 'concubine,' I wrote, 'ho.' There's a difference."

For someone who hates the typical forced conviviality of New Year's Eve, I haven't laughed so hard in ages. If it's any indicator, 2010 should be a magical (and seriously off-color) year.

Happy New Year

May all of our dreams come true in 2008!