• Both the Mrs. and I have this cough that just won't go away. As a result, NYE was spent at home, with her in bed early and me watching football.
• Truth to tell, this isn't much different from our normal NYE celebrations; it's probably our least favorite holiday, and we tend to stay at home regardless.
• Overall, the holdays were low-key. Sarah came up Christmas Eve, and we did our gift dice game exchange Christmas morning, with my mom and our friend Gina.
• I made brunch, which consisted of the world's best breakfast potatos, eggs, bacon, sausage, and english muffins.
• For my birthday, the Mrs. gave me a very generous gift card to Sweetwater, and now I'm paralyzed with indecision. So. Many. Things.
• Also for my birthday, my son took advantage of the Steam Winter Sale, and bought Cyberpunk 2077 for me. I've been enjoying the hell out of my first real computer game in ages.
• As for Christmas, I received some fingerless gloves for typing (my hands get cold easily), and a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tote bag.
• Aside from the completely obvious, it was also easy to tell we had a low-key Christmas on trash day: We had our normal one-trash-can, one-recycle-bin out. The neighbors around us, who all have kids at home, had piles.

On to 2024. May yours be full of hope and love.

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was one of the better ones in a long time. It was just the Mrs. and I for the day, and we went up to Frederick to play pinball at Spinners and then spent the rest of the day in downtown Frederick itself, doing some last minute Christmas shopping. We had a lovely lunch at The Orchard, and later in the evening, when it was dark, we went to see the boats along Carroll Creek Park. Every year they have lighted boats and they're all amazing.

It was pretty much a perfect day.

We had a nice, quiet Christmas; both kids were here, my mom, and our friend Gina. I made everyone breakfast, and then we did our gift exchange. Rather than buy presents for specific people, we each buy two gifts to bring to the table. Then we roll dice, and depending on the number, pass them left, right, across the table, etc. The randomness is fun, and some hilarity is bound to happen. For example, my mom ended up with the Cuss word coloring book my daughter brought. Mom said she was going to get markers, color the pages and stick them to her door.

Pre-Covid, I would typically go to Gina's house (Gail dislikes NYE, so she opts to stay home). Covid put a stop to that, and this year we ended going out to sushi with some friends. I don't like fish as a general rule (but I love tuna fish on crackers. Go figure), so I got the cashew chicken the place offered. The wife had something called a Steeler roll, which I tried. And liked. A lot. And then my buddy offered another couple of pieces of his.

Lemme tell you what... I might not like fish, but I think I'm changing that to "cooked" fish. Sushi is awesome. I can't wait to go back.

Otherwise, it's back to normal. Work has me figuring out some Salesforce stuff (yuck). We've been having some house work done, and are planning a re-plumb ($$$), and we're looking to head to AZ for the wife's and her dad's birthday.

Happy New Year!

Yeah, it's been awhile. But I have a good reason. A couple actually.

Back in March, my stepdad passed away. He and my mom had been married for 35 years, so he'd been in my life more than out of it. After he died, once a month I would travel the 6 hours to my mom's house and stay with her for a week. It helped her from being too lonely and as I can work remotely, I didn't need to burn vacation. And then my mom decided she wanted to be closer to us.

Happy New Year everyone! 🍾 Here’s to hoping 2022 doesn’t look at 2021 and say “Hold my beer”.