Hippo, Birdie, Two Ewes...

... to chatworthy!

Happy Babbage's Birthday

Here's wishing everyone out there a happy Babbage's Birthday, and hoping you all celebrated Newton's birthday yesterday with appropriate levity.

The Xmas Files

(If you were expecting fanfic or a filk, I'm sorry to disappoint you. It just seemed like the right title for a post-Christmas wrapup.) Just as a reminder: this year's Starport party is this coming Saturday, 12-31. I'll post a more explicit and detailed invitation later today, but if you're reading this, you're welcome to come.

The flower_cat and I exchanged only small, token gifts this year; our big-ticket items (the knife set and the walk-in tub) were all a sort of give-as-you-go, combined Christmas and anniversary extravagance. I found some great little 8-LED flashlights at Computer Surplus to use as stocking stuffers. The Cat gave me/the house a big tray of dried fruit, the same as the one we always order for my brother. I wrapped up the copy of Peter Beagle's The Unicorn Sonata, which I had picked up at either ConChord or Loscon but was pretty sure she had forgotten about. She had.

The big-ticket item for super_star_girl was a new computer: a WinXP box plus LCD monitor from Fry's. She really needed it -- her old box was still running Win98 at 700MHz. Looks like that one's going to misdev -- one less box to clutter up the house. Naturally, I spent much of the morning getting it set up and installing Firefox 1.5, OOo 2.0, and putty, and configuring the printer (shared, on the main server). The rest of the morning was spent doing dishes and working on the borscht.

Our traditional meal for Christmas Day is a big pot of borscht -- the flower_cat found a good Ukrainian recipe in Please to the Table a couple of years ago. She kind of overdid the sour salt (pure citric acid) this time, but most people seemed to like it. We always throw the house open to drop-ins -- nothing is more miserable than having noplace to go on a holiday.

Big change in the relationship between chaoswolf and grendies -- they're now "brother/sister" instead of "boyfriend/girlfriend". Doomed from the start, probably, but it's hard on both of them. Here's hoping that neither of them ends up doing something stupid on the rebound. (Update 9:22pm Or maybe not. At least they're talking about the relationship instead of basing it on unfounded assumptions and wishful thinking. This is a major improvement, no matter which way things eventually go.)

torpor

I'm feeling particularly torpid today. I don't think I'm actually sick (unlike several people on my flist -- get well, please!), but I pulled a muscle in my neck last night, and the flower_cat tells me I didn't sleep at all well. Meaning, no doubt, that I woke her up more than once but she's too polite to say so.

All I really want to do at the moment is sit like a lump. I should go take a nap walk.

Update: 3:30 I took a walk. I'm still tired, and my neck hurts even more. Half an hour before another dose of aspirin. Flu? Possibly.