Yeah so blog fell by the wayside yet again. I'd say I have hopes of resurrecting the writing in '07 but that would pretty much jinx the whole thing. If I blog even close to what I got out this past year, I'll be doing good.

And so we start a new year, with the same tenor as the majority of last year - whining about my lack of time and inability to find the inspiration for decent writing, so much as pithy, pitiful journaling.

Well, on that note…

Worked the week before the long Christmas weekend in Chicago, and flew back to Cali the Thursday evening of that week. Sis and the grandparents met me at the airport, and I had my Weinerschnitzel rendezvous on the way home, and it was glorious. Friday I worked from Panera, and after my calls I remember deciding to pack it in and start the holiday a little early, thinking "hey I'll find time to get this done during next week at some point." Which never happened, which will make tomorrow a bear - seeing as I do not have the energy or motivation for it this evening.

Back to the weekend. I think we had people over for dinner on Friday night. Joey's piano teacher and his family. This guy is a virtuoso of sorts and Joey's been growing by leaps and bounds - I wish I could have gotten that kind of training instead of my classical one, I could be that classy wine-bar / event pianist I so often wish I was instead of flying to Chicago every week to get more technical.

Saturday we definitely did something. I don't remember what, but probably multiple things. I think maybe I took my shirts to the dry-cleaner and went to Ikea to get frames for my as-yet-unfinished Christmas presents. I think all of this may have been on Friday afternoon, but I'm pretty sure it was Saturday. Who knows.

Sunday was church with the fam, morning and evening. Margy and Jonny got in from their cross-country drive early in the AM and woke up in the afternoon to go to the evening service with us.

Monday was Christmas. I wore an army helmet all day long. This pretty much took care of my annual ruining-of-the-serious-Christmas-pictures tradition. And it felt in-character for the amount of Wolfenstein I was playing with Peter and Joey throughout the day.

Tuesday. Tuesday was Tuesday. That's about all I think I will ever write about that day, for the rest of my life.

Wednesday Jonny and Joey and I headed up into the snowy Sierras and they boarded while I picked up telemark and fell in love with skiing all over again for the very first time, which was pretty much exactly what I needed. Not that I don't love alpine and twin tips and dropping huge sketchy lines and massive cat-tracks and the like, but I distinctly remember sitting on the lift and having a kind of morose "is this as good as it gets?" moment. Granted, it was kind of colored by my getting older and dealing with life situations and a lot of stuff I've had to deal with lately, but the feeling was distinctly related to skiing at that moment, which was a complete first in my life.

And then my heels were set free, and life on snow was new again. I'm really looking forward to getting back on tele's and getting better at it. It’s the hardest discipline on the mountain and I'm excited about the challenge.

We did dinner with the fam at the Mac Grill that night, which although I was really tired and mentally exhausted, was still a good time.

Thursday I was just plain dead, body burning from the new skiing regimen. We all headed up to the grandparents' to meet up with mom's sister and her kids there, my two wonderful cousins that I haven't seen in way too long, who I hope get out to visit me in NYC sometime soon. We older sibs/cousins all took off for a couple beers and smokes (sans cancer for me, thanks) at a bar on the strip in Nevada City after dinner, and stayed there until mom called to tell us we were being rude. Back for more presents and games and then back home, where it was packing for my departure for Dallas on Friday morning.

Which is a whooole nother story…