News and Updates

1. So the Eagles will not repeat as champions, which is a bummer really.  They squeaked into the playoffs when nobody (including me) thought they could do it, won a playoff game that I watched happen and still don’t actually believe what I saw (“double doink!”), and very nearly beat a better team in a game they had no right to be playing in the first place, and if that isn’t the ideal way to end a season it’s not all that bad really.  They put up a good fight and left it all out there on the field and fulfilled all those sports cliches that actually matter when you see them done right.  Fly, Eagles, fly.

2. We’re back down to three people in the household now that Tabitha has returned to college.  It was really nice having her back for the semester break.  You get used to having everyone home again, and then they’re not.  I’m not going to like this whole empty nest thing once they both move away for real, I can tell you that.

3. I’m trying to stay more on top of the blog these days.  The last six or eight weeks have been kind of iffy that way, with a few comments left unresponded to for too long.  It’s been that kind of time.

4. It’s hard to keep reading a book when you know what’s going on better than the characters do and it’s really obvious that they should just stop whinging and get on with things.

5. Lauren has decided that the kneewall behind her closet would make an ideal movie-watching space, and I can’t really see it but if she wants to put in the work and make it happen then you go girl.

6. Part of me wants to rant and rave about the current depravity in Washington but the rest of me values my sanity a bit too much to give in to that wholeheartedly.  We have a foreign agent in the Oval Office who has done a masterful job of destabilizing both the United States and the entire post-WWII international order and 40% of Americans are just fine with this.  Poor Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – born 70 years too soon.

7. It’s been a really uninspiring winter here in Baja Canada.  No real snow, not even any real cold temperatures.  Now that everyone is where they need to be in my family and nobody needs to be traveling anytime soon, I think I’m ready for a good blizzard followed by some bitter cold weather where all the Manly Men can burst through the snowbanks in their V8 Hemi all-wheel-drive Compensators to put in a full day’s work at the office while the rest of us sip whiskey by the fire at home.

8. We’ve taken down the Christmas tree, and the living room looks empty and sad now. 

9. Tabitha and I spent some time sorting through the foreign coins in our collection – a large and motley assortment of things that are not particularly valuable but are still rather cool, we thought.  The United States has the world’s most boring money.  Also, I have no idea how we ended up with so many French francs and centimes, since I have spent a grand total of 16 glorious hours in that country and that was after they switched over to the euro.  Also, what is it with countries and their triple-thick coins? 

10. Have you ever seen a pre-euro Dutch dime?  They’re about half the size of an American dime.  You have to be careful not to inhale sharply around them.