Holidays’ End

Hey, it’s a new year!

We had a nice New Year’s Eve visiting some friends and their kids; the kids conked out around 10, but we made it to midnight (despite plenty of alcohol earlier in the evening), and then somehow managed to stay until 1:30 in the morning. We quit drinking around 9:30 so we weren’t at all tipsy, though we were pretty tired, but the roads were quiet and we got home without incident.

New Year’s Day we met Nadyne and her husband for lunch, having all been communicating online for a number of years (not to mention living just a couple of miles apart), but we’d never actually met, so that was great to do, and they’re both very nice people (which we knew!). I guess this means we can invite them to our open house this year!

Debbi and I actually went back to work on Thursday, but our offices were both very quiet as most people took Thursday and Friday off to extend their holidays. I think we both got some stuff done, but it was not a fast start to the year.

Friday night we went to Cascal for dinner, and then we mostly had a quiet weekend. On Saturday I read Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane on Saturday (I don’t often read a book – even a short one – in a single day). And we watched the football games. I was indifferent towards most of them, but I did root for the Niners over the Packers in the Really Cold Bowl today. The Niners won by a field goal, but it felt like they should have won by more given how the Packers defense (wasn’t) playing. Still, a win’s a win.

We also took down our Christmas trees. It’s nice to have the living room back to its normal state, but I do enjoy having the trees up for 1/12th of the year. We decided to leave the outside lights up for another week, which will probably make us about the last people in the neighborhood to take them down. But, not a big deal.

Hard to believe another holiday season – and another calendar year – is behind us.

All I want for this new year at this point is some rain. Northern California just completed its driest year on record, and the snow packs which supply a significant fraction of our water are at 20% (or less) of average for this time of year. Unless the next three months are a significant turnaround, it looks like it’ll be a water-rationing summer. And frankly I’d rather have the frigid temperatures the midwest is getting this week.

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