Holy. Crow.

I'll be picking the set up when I get home. Netflixers, add this to your queue, like, yesterday. You'll thank me later. Or, you'll thank my little sister later.

Now it's my turn, sis: believe what I say about Veronica Mars.

Back home on the west coast, I don't have any allergy symptoms at all. I grew up on the east coast without any real problems aside from the odd spring-summer hay fever. I don't get it. Oh well.

Not much to write about, as I've been sitting around, taking a lot of naps. We're picking up my sister and bro-in-law this afternoon, and usually once in their company, activities begin. I'm glad I've already gotten my sleep-time in ahead of time.

I've seen a few Christmas flicks: Narnia: so-so. I give it a solid B-/C+. I saw Kong again, loved it again. Went with the family to see Fun With Dick & Jane: eh. C-. Some funny bits, but the script doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. Have yet to see Munich and The New World, probably have to wait until I get home for those.

I got nothing else for ya. We're gonna be in Boston for the New Year, maybe there will be some interesting stuff to write about for that.

So, Merry Christmas to all of you crazy kids! I spent the morning in Concord, NH with the aforementioned Berubes - my aunt and uncle, their two sons and their wives, three kids ranging from 10 months to 12 years, and three big happy dogs - and my other aunts Lyn and Donna, and my Mom. We're back at Aunt Donna's now, where we'll have Christmas dinner once little sis and my bro-in-law show up, and I suppose we'll have a round of presents to open and all that, too. Sheesh.

Anyway, it's a good day. I hope you're able to be with the people you're craziest about today.

Then I'm remaining in New England for another week, and right now the plan is to be in downtown Boston for the New Years celebration. After that, a day's drive back to my Mom's in the DC area, to be followed 24 hours after THAT with a flight back to Seattle.

I love vacation.

I loaded the iPod before I left with just about all the new albums I bought in 2005, as it's time to compile my yearly mix - I'm doing some hardcore listening to some of the more recent titles to settle on which songs are my favorite. It should be, as always, a pretty eclectic collection of stuff.

Thanks also for all of the orders of half-pint demigod! I brought a stash with me on this trip and I've been mailing out orders as I get them - though I must say that (happily) my stash is getting low (Hodgy - sorry, buddy I gotta wait until I get back to mail your order to you). I wasn't really sure how people would react to hpdg, as it's a pretty challenging listen, and you know - the album it came from came out nearly five years ago now. But the response has been gratifying thus far. I'm actually taking some concrete steps towards trying to promote the thing this time, a strategy that will continue on into 2006 (and beyond, I hope) as I make a concerted effort to raise the Wonky profile a tad. You know, beyond just uploading some files to a Web site and hoping someone somewhere finds them, my typical strategy. I'm learning, OK?

Anyway. Family are starting to arrive, and I need to go spend time with them. I'll try and write more this week. Have a great holiday (neener-neener O'Reilly!).

And there is SNOW upon the ground here! What a concept - when winter comes, SNOW falls from the sky, and REMAINS BEHIND, so that east coast children everywhere may STAY HOME FROM SCHOOL and build snowpeople, ride sleds over ice at breakneck speeds, and totally paste the ones they love in the face with an iceball.

The east coast knows how to do winter right. Although - is it officially winter yet? I think it's still Autumn for a few more days. Technically.

Today is Official Shiftless Layabout Day around here for me, I've got nothing to do and nowhere to be, and am I allowed to say that's OK with me? Because if I'm not allowed, I suppose The No Fun Police are already on their way.

Man, I do love the vacation. I need a job where I can be on vacation all the time. It's the only way to live.

Alright, enough gloating, I'm going to go and see if I can figure out what's wrong with my Dad's DVD player. Part of my yearly visit entails Looking At The Broken Technology, and attempting to ascertain the problem - we'll also be having Loading The iPod Shuffle Lessons sometime this week. I don't mind - even a Shiftless Layabout likes to feel useful at times.