Belated Christmas and New Years Post

Well, better late than never!

This year's annual family-visit holiday trip was pretty uneventful. No bizarre airline schedules; no car wrecks; no lost luggage. Went down to Dallas, up to Missouri, back to Dallas, down to Austin, back to Dallas. Got on airplane. The end.

Miscellaneous highlights:

* Due to a family feud too complicated to detail here, there were three "sides of the family" to visit in Missouri this year. Don't ask.

* Pablo recently purchased a very amusing game called Munchkin. It's great fun, except for those pesky "rule interpretations".

* Yam and S.'s new house in Austin is a glory to behold, with expansive views of downtown Austin and a wooded greenbelt area. The modifications they're making -- although undoubtedly expensive -- are decided improvements over the previous owners' wretched taste. (Before: blue shag carpet and salmon-pink walls in the bedrooms. Blue wallpaper and white tile in the kitchen, with one randomly-selected wall painted a deep blood-red. After: Hardwood floors, granite counters in the kitchen, much discussion of new paint colors....)

* Austin's network of greenbelts, which abuts the backyard (or, rather back-cliff) of said house, promise endless hours of exploration and discovery, as well as pretty views. Yam & I (plus the Dynamic Doggish Duo of clever Sebastian and the aptly-named but mentally-challenged Monster) spent a few hours hiking it from one end to another, past waterfalls and woods and tumbledown remnants of old stone walls. Our trails' end, at Barton Springs, was host to hundreds of enthusiastic Austinites happily splashing about in the balmy weather. No skinny-dippers, though. The Zilker Zephyr is cute.

* Austin has some excellent places for food, including one where a certain member of the family gets a very useful employee discount. Yam: "It's a theme park, not a grocery store." But an enjoyable one.

Traded in Christmas presents which duplicated other Christmas presents. Acquired spiffy new Disreputable Brown Hat. Spent too much on sorely-needed new clothes and new shoes. Spent New Year's Eve with Yam & S. over at the home of an old college buddy and his wife. Old College Buddy had his usual batch of entertaining and unusual home modifications to show off. S. looked like she was getting ideas which Yam may or may not enjoy implementing. Watched Sherlock Holmes deftly solve the mystery of the Blue Carbuncle.

New Year's Resolutions? I'm still thinking about those....