Happiness is Sleeping

The sleep has been on short supply over the holidays, and obviously I have not been spending too much time blogging. This is probably for the best. I guess the summary is that we've been playing games, watching too many movies (I am not a big fan of the Boob Toob), and spending lots of quality family time.

The sis arrived it feels like two weeks ago now, arriving on a Weds or Thurs. The Bro and SIL arrived the following Friday. The SIL was not feeling well at all—a nasty, nasty cold, and it did not really abate much during their stay. My comfortable bed was little consolation, as they were not very well able to sleep due to the illness.

Some relatives from the Empire State arrived Saturday, and stayed until Sunday, when we opened a few presents (the bro and SIL went to New Jersey for the Christmas day, where her family resides). Mother was happy to receive a camera; she has been wanting one for awhile, I think. I got a book of science stories from the brother and SIL, which has proved quite interesting. There are a lot of interesting anecdotes and short descriptions of what are probably considerably more difficult experiments than they appear on a single sheet of paper.

I got Carcassone from my folks, and we have played several games among several groups. I hear the brother picked up a copy for himself when he went back south. It really is a fun game. Each game is different, and I like that.

The relatives from Arkansas arrived with the ones from New York, which was exciting (I know this isn't linear, but it's my blog, so you'll just have to deal). We don't see each other too often (they have lived quite a lot of time in Kenya, so we would only see them on furlough or the rare trip back for significant events).


I had expected family to leave much earlier this week, but they didn't. Which is a good thing, for sure, though it complicated the work schedule and some social events that I ended up not attending.

The studio had a clinic this week, too. I was able to do some aikido, which I have been woefully out of practice at. Not that I was ever good. But we had some elementary drills to do and I remembered a little bit as we went. It was good. Sensei is one bad dude (by which I mean, "extremely dangerous"). He once dropped about a storey (while building the gym) and rolled out of it.

So that was good. But I was unable to attend a couple other parties, one with an old friend from high school I haven't seen in a couple years. Another I have seen more recently, but we were out of touch for probably aobut seven years or so...so it would've been nice to have been able to go visit.

Nonetheless, it was worth spending time with family, whom I have not seen in a long time and will likely be much farther away for some time to come.


We saw Superman Returns last night, and I confess I was utterly unimpressed. Superman is not my thing, per se, but the plot was gaping, the villians unconvincing, the dialog wooden, and the experience quite disjointed. At least Stranger than Fiction made up for it.


I am having a very difficult time coordinating thoughts. The time for me to get a Nikon D50 is rapidly approaching, as they are phasing out the D50 in favor of the D40, which does not support mechanical servo-motors for auto-focusing. This means that the lens selection is more limited, and I am under the impression that Nikon makes mostly only high-end lenses that are CPU-controlled. It might be nice to work with some used glass someday.

I think I have found a fairly good deal on the works, so I will go for it at some point soon, I think.


So the end of it all, I think, is that Christmas was good. I am looking forward to the new year, and that for the first time in awhile. Last year at this time was fairly difficult, and in reflection, I cannot explain how happy I am not to be in Florida. While the work and the people were good, there is not a day that goes by that I wish I were back there. It is just scary to think of moving into that apartment. Yikes. I think I'll stop that train of thought.

I have enjoyed family. The music of the last week holds a special place in my heart, as my name is intricately connected to Handel's seminal work. It seemed appropriate, given the season. Gloria in excelsis Deo, indeed.