Holidays

Well December is running its course yet again.

The cold has set in and it's dipped into the 30s a couple of times over the last month. And it froze once.

I had a quiet birthday here just watching movies. I stopped at HEB after work on Tuesday and picked up a bottle of champagne for the evening. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were my birthday date. I watched the original trilogy while it rained :)

The week itself was busy up at work. New employees, new clients and new tools made for a six day work week.

This morning I slept in and made up for a generally fast-paced week. I've been too wimpy to get out and ride my bike in the cold weather so I've been doing what I can when I can to keep the blood moving.

Last night, my sister and mother and I went out to dinner at Tres Amigos. We went pretty early so it was filled with what my mother referred to as "blue-hairs." But that didn't make the food any less enjoyable. It still is, in my opinion, the best Mexican food in Austin. The margaritas weren't bad, either :D

My sister filled us in on the growth her company has seen this year and what they're expecting next year. Her feet really haven't touched the ground over the last couple years just due to the demands of the job.

My mother found a new place to live and I'll be helping her move over the course of the next few weeks. She'll be up on the North side of town, about 20m away, living very close to her aunt and uncle. It'll be good for her.

Christmas is coming up and I'm working through it. I have the week after Christmas off and I don't have anything to do, yet. I think I'll stick around here and sort some things out. I wonder if putting more planning into a number of New Year's resolutions will have any bearing on my level of commitment through the year. I'm optimistic, but we'll have to see.

So far on the list:

meditate regularly
comfortable pancake
press to handstand
muscle-up on the rings
comfortable in L-sit
eat better
write songs
French and Italian
grow trading account
continue to blog
get back into CAD
continue to cycle

That's the short list. I'm going to brainstorm on my week off and try to devise a full-fledged schedule. I might have to remove myself from JTV and just watch movies the weekends. But that's not particularly something I want to do. I'll have a look into the misty future and see what seems reasonable.

Things are quiet here. Movies and guitar are keeping me busy. And I'm just sorta counting the days until my week off. I've thought some about trading but it's been good just keeping the charts closed for an extended period of time. I have no idea what's happening in the news and I'm really, really okay with it.

Earlier in the week, I sent my sister a couple out-of-print books from books.google.com. I told her I didn't NEED anything for my birthday but if she felt so inclined, I'd love to have a hard copy of them. Coming in at just under 1,300 pages, I told her not to stress if she couldn't do it... but she totally said she would! :D If you haven't met her, Audrey is awesome.

At the moment, chestnuts are in the oven and the whole house smells amazing. The lights are on in the oak trees across the street and the cold air is tryin to get through the cracks of the door frame :)

>>"Miserere" by Gergorio Allegri, performed by King's College choir