First I stopped at the super market for Matzo since Passover starts at sunset tonight. All I could find were matzo crackers. Had there been some sort of mad Passover dash to stock up on unleavened bread? I am new to this sort of thing. Then I decided to stop at Best Buy to get a replacement copy of the downward spiral since mine is worn and starting to skip a lot in the last couple of tracks. I got over my obsession with nin and Trent years ago, but it is still one of my favourite driving CDs. There is a lot of pig imagery, especially in the first half of the disc, so I wonder if it is kosher. Lena would tell me that this is the sort of question that you can ask your rabbi, only I sort of like to figure things out on my own, and I am not Jewish anyway so the question is rather “academic” as annoying cube neighbour would say. Why am I getting Matzo for Passover?, you might ask. We'll I'm not Christian, but I celebrate the winter festival, even though sometimes for me it falls in the middle of the summer.

Wednesday I decided to come down to Canberra. I went to Dick Smith’s to get iPods for Tristan and Lara. I pointed at the merchandise and said “I will have a blue one and a green one” and the salesman responded “is that for different moods or different people?”

Thursday I did the rest of my Christmas shopping, including getting a gift for Secret Santa ritual at work. Usually stuff in Australia closes at 5 or 5:30pm, but Thursday before Christmas everything is open till midnight practically, if not in actuality. It was a mad rush! Friday we had Christmas lunch at work. The food was really nice and we had Christmas crackers and everything. Then everyone drew numbers and picked gifts and/or stole gifts from others. I never want to steal other people’s gifts because it seems rude somehow (I realize it is just a game meant for fun of course), but it is always entertaining to watch other people steal gifts. My gift was the last one to get unwrapped. Can I just mention here how awesome my new coworkers are and my new work environment is?

Friday I flew down to Canberra. The airport was surprisingly uncrowded for this time of year. The aeroplane was mostly empty. When I got to Canberra, Tristan had his earphones on listening to music, and I thoughts to myself, I definitely got him the right gift. Lara was excited about her iPod too, although I think she was more excited about the games and the possibility of putting music on it. Dad already has the DVD I got him, which was unfortunate.

Tyler sent me this awesomeness:

Hope everyone has some happy holidays, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, International Talk Like a Pirate Day or a little bit of everything :)

The Chrissy^[1] decorations are out already. In America don’t they usually wait until after Thanksgiving for that? Anyway, it’s not the timing that is unnerving for me, but the time of year. I know I will have to get over this, but this isn’t the time of year that you expect to see snowmen and fat guys in cold weather gear.

(weekend and food stuffs...)

On Saturday I had a tele-conference with Joe, Cicely and Brian about our summer vacation (summer vacation = this December/January). I was making fun of Joe for making a spreadsheet to plan our vacation, but I admitted that the tele-conference was my idea :) Anyway, it was really nice talking to them again. I know I am like el broken record, but I really miss those guys! Inexpensive calling cards are awesome.

It was all rainy and cruddy this weekend. We went down to Wollongong to meet Don at the finish line of his bike ride^[2] and to have a picnic. The picnic was cancelled on account of rain and wind and windy rain. Instead we went to this fabulous little mom-and-pop restaurant, where we ate well and had a wonderful passion fruit ice cream dessert. I totally want to go back there to try out the waffle cones.

The other day I had one of the best mangos that I have ever had. I can’t understand how it is that American’s can live without mangos or passion fruit^[3]. I mean, I do understand why they aren’t into Vegemite; I love that but I know it is an acquired taste. But mangos and passion fruit... they are just goodness.

In the elevator after a wet and windy day, mum and I were talking about what a miserable day it was, when the old lady who was also in the elevator told us that it was actually a wonderful day for all the people who were born today. She was a “philosopher” as my mum later described. Personally at that exact moment, I could do with a little less philosophising. It’s terrific that someone was born today, and it is super that you are thinking on the bright side of things, but think also of all the people who died today, but most importantly the fact that my shoes are soaking wet and it’s miserable outside god damn it.

Actually, I’m kidding. My shoes were actually pretty dry. My point is that whenever you start getting philosophical in your elevator small talk then lets face it: you’ve gone too far.

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1. Australian for Christmas
2. the “Gong Ride” or Sydney to Wollongong bike ride
3. Or for that matter, how I managed to get along without it when I was over there

What was 2004? It was a year of stolen and disputed elections in Georgia and the Ukraine, the rise and fall of Howard Dean and John Kerry, the first private space flight and the end of the "X-Prize," disaster in Darfur, prisoner abuse in Iraq, expansion of the European Union, the death of Ronald Regan and a month of flags at half mast, the return of Greek Olympics and a very smug presidential victory. In less political but tragic terms, the worst natural disaster in my memory has occurred in Asia as Tsunami death tolls top 135,000 according to CNN.com.

For me, the year started out as a bleak one in the coldest New York winter I have ever experienced. My mother came to visit me for her birthday. We stayed in Manhattan and it was bitterly cold.

Lowel and Johanna

I took a lighting class at Dutchess which was a blast. Some of my friends from Black and White II were taking the class and I met some other cool people. It was so much fun working with those people, including the teacher, Lowel Handler.

(Read more...)

In Short, 2004 was A Great Year and I have high hopes that 2005 will be even better.

Yesterday we went up to visit my mother's friend and mentor, Clare, at her rustic cabin home which looks over Bear Lake. Last July I took a photograph which now is on the welcome page of my web site up there. For "Christmas" dinner, we had fish. Although I am not a fan of fish and I did not have seconds, it did taste pretty good. We also drank lots of Australian wine; that probably helped.

(The Sublime)

In short, our range of topics was both wide and deep, and intellectually stimulating.

Then we drove back to Salt Lake City where we attended the annual Christmas Eve party for Don's (my step father) family. Gosh... where to begin. (The Ridiculous)