Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday! By being born on New Year's Eve, she's always guaranteed plenty of parties on every birthday which is kind of cool—all those people out and living it up in her honor (even if they think it's to ring in another year on the calendar)!

I just spent a few days with Mom and the rest of our family for Christmas, and I was reminded once again how lucky I am to have her for my mom. We are fortunate enough to actually like being together, we have the same senses of humor, and just generally have fun with each other. In the post-holiday detox, I've been talking to some other people about their personal familial dysfunction, and it makes me appreciate anew how great my mom is. She doesn't always like what I do (and boy do I hear about it!) but she does always support me. I know she's always there for me, and that's invaluable.

Since it's her birthday, I'm taking this opportunity to give her a public shout out. Thanks for being awesome, Mom! I love you!

Another Resolution

It's a cliche, but another of my new year's resolutions is to lose weight. I read some advice recently that I thought was pretty good—that all resolutions should be fun, that way they are easier to keep. I don't think that giving up mac and cheese will be fun on its own, so I've brainstormed a way to at least make it more interesting and prey upon my competitive spirit. To that end I propose the Cash Prizes and Smaller Sizes 2009 Weight Loss Challenge.

Take a look and let me know if you're interested. It will officially begin on Monday, January 5, and all takers should be signed up by that date.

First Resolution for 2009

I've made this resolution before, but hopefully the second time is the charm. I continue to have an enormous—and I mean enormous—pile of to-be-read books. Christmas and trip to my favorite used bookstore near mom's just increased the backlog. So, just as I swore last year, I'm swearing again that I will not buy a book for a solid 12 months.

I only made it until March before I broke down this year. I am hoping to do much, much better in 2009. Right now I have approximately twice as many books awaiting me as I can read in a year. If I can just avoid used bookstores (a real weakness) I will have no excuses for failure.

Home with Camilla

I'm back home and stretched out on my couch with Camilla. My place is a hot mess, and I still don't feel up to snuff. Still, it's pretty good to have Camilla snuggled up beside me. I'd probably have stayed at Mom's for another day of R&R if it weren't for her, so I'm glad she's happy to see me. I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon reading The Tales of Beedle the Bard (a Christmas gift from Todd) and resting. I want to get over this sickness quickly!

Yuck

I'm sorry to say it, but I'm sick. I started feeling a tickle in my throat and a pressure in my sinuses late last night. I immediately sucked on a pretty gross-tasting zyrtec and took some vitamin C, but it didn't do anything noticeable. When I woke up this morning I felt a little worse, even. Since then I've napped twice and taken several doses of day-quil. I have another week of vacation to enjoy before going back to work, and I want to be well for it. I'm hoping that another day of laying low will nip it in the bud, but I'm disappointed that this cold sucked the fun out of my last day at home with my family. Tomorrow I'm on a bus back to NYC, where I'll continue to lay around.

Yearly Day After Christmas Outing

Every year we try hard not to duplicate gifts, but every year there are a couple of things that have to go back to the store. This year the only thing I had to exchange was a book that I put on my wish list, forgot I put on my wish list, and then bought for myself. Duh. Luckily the line at Borders was short and the employees were feeling nice and let me exchange it without a receipt. I'm hoping to put together a movie outing (on my list to see: Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, Frost/Nixon) but there is no evidence that we'll get our act together enough to actually make it happen tonight. Somewhat unbelievable to me, the rest of my family is lukewarm at best about all these amazing-sounding movies. I don't get it!

Feliz Navidad!

I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday!