This was Julie at like 6:30 a.m. christmas day. I won't show you any shots of me and my half-open bloodshot eyes, or of my less than awake wife. Let's just say there are somedays when I feel more like a grown up, and some days when I feel more like a lump on a log.

Still, there is coffee in the house at last, and I think that I shall get lost in the steaming swirls of black brew.

Well, it's been nearly a year and a half since this picture was taken. It's taken quite a lot of whining and inspiration (mostly other people's inspiration) to get any of those photos back from Yahoo, but finally I have started to get actual photos. It's a tedious process that will take me a little longer than my previous estimates, and most of the pictures are a much lower quality than what I put on the web these days. Of course for most of that summer I only had the 16mb card that came with the camera. I still only have a 56mg card.

Spent the better part of two hours working on this. I have ten pictures that have been properly harvested which doesn't feel like much of a yield given the amount of time that went into it today. Trust me though, it was (and will be). Some pictures, like this one, had to not only be harvested, but then they had to have some color processing. Fortunately Graphic Converter, even unregistered, is just excellent.

Just two days until Christmas. I'm actually a little bit excited. Just a little bit. I just have to remember to charge up my camera batteries. Still have to get that loose one that slipped between the wall and all the heavy furniture in the bedroom.

Sheesh

Well gift shopping is nearly complete. I really have no idea how we are going to get the final present, or rather shop for the final person, but besides him we're all done I think.

Did a quick exchange with the guardian angels (Sorry we missed you Steve).

Found a good present for the wife, even if it isn't a surprise anymore.

Yeah this is a sweet detail of that lovely stuff that makes getting to work all the longer. I've only lately been wasting gas in order to heat the car up and thereby soften up the ice on the windows.

Well out o fthe blue I put a little bit of time into my home system. I decided to start up a bare bones skeleton-rules structure a while back, and every now and again when I come up with or get some advice on how to manage some rules issue I update it. I had forgotten about it for a while, especially since NaNo (you may recall that I was using NaNo ultimately as inspiration to get over my writer's block with Protege?!?!).

I've been adding more and more the CD collection to iTunes, which suddenly seems like magical radio I never had. There's enough stuff on there now that I am actually pleasantly surprised at the variation of songs and artists.

I've also finally starting gathering my old Japan photos from Yahoo using a very round about system. Basically because the mac lets me print to PDF I'm using the Print-At-Home function. It takes less time that I though it would because you can do them in batches of ten photos each, but I have a lot of gosh-durn photos. It also crops the hell out of the larger pictures which means that some of my high res images will present a small challenge. Still, now matter what end up doing they will come out better than the tiny little squares Yahoo lets you see online. They will be put up on flicker at some point. My goal is to get one or two albums done a day, which should get them done in a few months or so.

Meanwhile everyone in the house is getting slowly but surely excited about christmas. I have to run out and do a little bit of last minute shopping tomorrow or Thursday. Mostly Yummy treats for some folks to eat, but there are a couple of specific items and people that have to be dealt with as well. (wink wink LA[u]gh).

Well more dishes to get washed and dinner to get prepped.

Even though this picture is from Thanksgiving, I think it suits christmas just fine. This is Julie and her cousin (2cd) goofing around at Grandma's house. At any rate People are trying their very best to make this christmas a less than grumpy affair for me, and I appreciate that. We went to a strange little nativity play today, put on by the children of a church that Leah's friend goes too. The service was a little more joyful than I can handle. Sorry, I'm a little somber and yes I do like a little ritual. Still, Julie had a good time and I enjoyed that aspect of it. I'm still not down with the whole shaking hands and hugging everyone, or anyone that I really don't know. Still too vulnerable a thing for me to deal with in church.

The three matriarchs stopped by today. Gail's going in for hip replacement tomorrow. The date just sort of snuck up on me. I'm a little worried, but that's mostly because watch too much t.v.. Other than that not much is going on.

I mysteriously have 8 magical hours of PL time reported in this weeks paycheck. I have to use all of it before January 1 or I loose it. So that's one full day off and coming in late (leaving early?) some other day. Well Since I can't take christmas, the day before or after christmas off, it doesn't leave a lot of options. I have nearly a whole week up in Pelham where I'm "extra", meaning that I'm not part of the minimum count so my taking a day off wouldn't force any overtime. I will probably use a partial day during that week. I think I will use one day tomorrow. I'm working third tonight and second tomorrow, so it will be a chance to keep my sleep schedule from getting messed up.

Finally I had company for the first time in a while, and it was J-rad. It was great to have him over, even though we did just the usual thing. Plus we had Lily over too and everyone had some killer sandwiches. Allright, time to get some comfy clothes on.