Tag: new years eve

New Years Eve Bonus!

The plan was to have dinner with the whole family after Jen and I finished work for the day. Then my step daughter, Bellana, was going to head back to Vermont. After that we, meaning me, my wife Jen, and my step son Harry, would ring in the New Year together by probably watching a movie or something. Harry was planning to go back to Vermont on Sunday so we’d have him here for the rest of the week.

Now things have changed! Bellana’s Vermont plans have fallen through and she is staying with us until Sunday too! BONUS!

Our Happy New Years Eve plans just got happier! Both kids are here for the holiday! Awesome!

New Years Eve

Hello and welcome to New Years Eve! 2025, the year that will see the end of US democracy as we know it, is just hours away! I’m working from home today, which is nice. No commutes for me. Just a desk full of fidgety stocking stuffers that Santa Claus brought me this year.

Any plans for first night? Boston throws quite the shindig. Unfortunately for everyone, I am very old now. Well… I’m old but not that old. I could go… I just would rather stay home and veg with my family and then go to sleep at 12:01am.

Here’s to a nice quiet day at work. Fingers crossed.

Happy New Year.

Calendar

I don’t like what the calendar does to me at this time of year. We’re so close to the holidays that I just stop being able to deal with the days that still lay between me and the big dates.

We are currently seven days away from xmas and 14 days away from New Years. That means 13 days until New Years Eve, but NYE is a work day for me so that’s pretty screwy in general.

As an added bonus, we are 38 days away from the next vacation too. I sure hope it’s nice and warm in Florida in January. Last time we visited in January it was cold-ish in the morning and warm in the afternoons. I can live with that.

With the possible exception of anything that might be added to any one of the many piles of xmas gifts in the next few days, everything that isn’t for my wife or for a Secret Santa has been wrapped. I’ll have it all done by the weekend, with oodles of time to spare before the big day arrives.

I just want it to get here. I want Santa to arrive and unlawfully break into the house do his dirty work. I want the kids home with us, even if it is just for a short time, and I want to see the niece and nephews and the siblings and the in-laws on both sides of the family. I just want it to get here already. Is that too much to ask?

Xmas is Complete

We are home again. Another xmas gathering is in the books. We went to my in-laws and had dinner and swapped gifts. It was lovely and it brings the holiday to a close.

Tomorrow? Back to work. Not only that, but it’s an in the office day.

Crud.

The count down to New Years is on. We thought about New York (but not Times Square) but now we’re thinking of maybe taking a day next weekend and visiting Newport, RI. Newport is famous for gilded age, rich people houses but for me it’s more famous as the birthplace of Throwing Muses. 

Will we do either of these things? Who knows. There are three more days until the next long weekend. As Traffic said on their amazing second album, who knows what tomorrow may bring?

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, everyone. Hello and welcome to 2023. 2022 can go suck an egg. Here’s hoping 2023 improves things.

We did not make it to midnight last night. I think it might be the first time in my adult life that I didn’t make it. I tried. At about 11pm last night I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. Jen was already sound asleep. I said the hell with it, sent the kids a Happy New Year text and then packed it in.

I woke up around 4:30am. My alarm was set for 5:00. I hate when that happens. I didn’t get out of bed until almost 6:00, but I didn’t sleep much if any during that hour and a half or so. When I did get out of bed we decided to go see a doctor to get some reassurance that we’re good to go on a two day drive followed by a week+ Disney trip followed by a two day drive. The doctor gave us the go ahead and now we’re all set.

My immediate plan is to do the 30 minutes of exercise that I didn’t do when I didn’t get out of bed at 5:00am. I’m going to take care of that as soon as I post this. After that, breakfast. After that… no clue.

The Bruins lost to the lowly Sabers last night. Hopefully they were just getting it out of their system before the Winter Classic tomorrow. I’m going to make my beloved bride listen to the game in the car as we drive south. I hope she forgives me for being a prick like that. Love you, sweetie.

Okay, time to faux job (pronounced “yog” with a soft J). Wish me luck.

Resolutions

Anyone out there making New Years Resolutions this year? 2020-2022 will be remembered as a non stop avalanche of suck. Is that enough to make you not look toward the imminent new year as something to be endured rather than something to strive for?

I’m not making any New Years Resolutions. Mainly because the obligatory go to is to lose weight and if I lose as much in 2023 as I did in 2022 I’d end up weighing something like 40 pounds and that, dear readers, would not look very good on me.

I could resolve to get the band back together or to write more songs or to practice guitar more. None of those things really meet the spirit of the thing though, you know?

So yeah, no 2023 resolutions for this guy here. I think it’s more appropriate to just duck and cover and ride out the coming shit storm.

Happy New Year. Two hours and 24 minutes to go.

New Years Eve Visit

The kids just left. They got here about 1:00 and stayed for four hours. That’s more than I expected. I’m very pleased. I got to visit my mother and my father today too. That was tough, but I’m glad I was able to do it.

A nice big chunk of the packing has already happened. Well… our packing. The kids… not so much. That’s okay. They are coming over around 1:00ish on Monday with their bags. I’ll load them into the car and then load all of our bags, including all of the stuff that’s only there for the car trips.

As for the rest of New Years Eve? I had a less than good nights sleep last night and I was crashing hard around 3:00 this afternoon. I made our late lunch/early dinner a little after that and it fueled me up a bit. I’d say that staying up until midnight is a 50/50 call right now, but I’d still like to do it. Over the last month or two I’ve been setting an alarm for 5:00am so that I can get my exercise for the day done before anyone else wakes up. I might push that to 6:00 tomorrow… or maybe 7:00… we’ll see.

On an unrelated note, Jen and I have started watching the new Quantum Leap. It’s not a reboot. It’s more like a sequel with a redesign. We’re only three episodes in (or is it four?) but so far we’re liking it. The time traveling dude has yet to say, “oh boy” though, so it doesn’t feel quite the same.

Five hours and 21 minutes until 2023.

Oh boy.

Happy New Years Eve

So it is New Years Eve again. 2022 was a kick in the balls but it was probably better than 2021 and 2020. Not by a lot, but what can you do? Will 2023 be better than 2022? Who knows. Current annual trends imply that 2023 will be better than 2022 but it will still suck badly. It’s sort of the way things are in the 2020’s, you know?

So we’re all going to Times Square to watch the ball drop on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, right? Yeah… no. I am going to do some errands this morning and then visit my parents. The kids are coming over in the afternoon. I think we’re going to have a late lunch/early dinner while they are here (gnocchi again?) and then… who knows? Staying up until midnight is even up in the air right now. We might just ignore all of the festivities and go to bed. It’s too early to say.

What are we doing for New Years Day tomorrow? I haven’t a clue. Nothing? Packing? Yeah, packing. Then on Monday, the kids will come over with their luggage for the trip, we’ll load everything in the car, and then Jen and I will hit the road. The kids will fly on Wednesday and if all goes as planned we’ll meet them at the airport when they land.

Will I play guitar this weekend? Maybe. Will I play with my new camera? Definitely. Will I spend quality time with the love of my life? Of course!

The Last Work Day Before Vacation

It’s Friday. Tomorrow is New Years Eve. Monday is New Years Day (celebrated). Tuesday is the first day of my two week vacation. That means that I am officially on vacation at 5:30pm today. Nine hours and 13 minutes from now.

I haven’t started packing yet, but I have done some pre-pack preparations. We have a dining room table full of toiletries that are ready to pack. Last night I went to a department store and bought three pairs of jeans. I’ve been buying new clothes every 5-6 weeks or so, and it was about time anyway. The new jeans are, shockingly, TWO sizes smaller than last month’s jeans. I’m not sure, but I think my waist size is 16 inches smaller than it was a year ago? something like that. I really cannot believe it.

This morning I wrote up a packing list that (hopefully) is ridiculously thorough so that I don’t forget anything. It was so over the top that Jen actually suggested I drop a few items because they were overkill. That’s okay with me.

Plans for the weekend are mostly up in the air. The kids are with Dad for New Years Eve, but they said they would come over for a visit in the afternoon. I am so happy about that. I was thinking maybe we could sneak out to the city after they leave and pretend we are not afraid of Covid and stuff like that. The temperature is supposed to be super warm, but it’s also supposed to rain all day and night. So much for that plan. I want to visit both of my parents before we leave. I need to do a little more travel supply shopping, but mostly just for protein supplement stuff. The kids are coming to our house on Monday before we leave. Actually, when we leave sort of depends on when they get here. We want to spend a little time with them at home before the chaos commences. There’s also a little NHL Winter Classic game happening at 2:00pm that includes the Boston Bruins and Fenway Park. If we’re home, I’m watching. If we’re on the road, I’m listening on the radio.

Jen and I just added our Disney passes to our Apple Wallets so that we can use our phones and watches in place of the Magic Bands we used on the last couple of Disney trips. That’s pretty cool. We’re both hoping we can leave all of our various cards behind and do anything we need to do through Apple Wallet via Apple Pay and what not. It’s time to embrace the future!

I punched into work a smidge early today, just to get a jump on stuff on my last day. At this point I am eight hours and 35 minutes away from my two week, epic vacation. May today be a quiet day at work while still managing to not drag. Fingers crossed on that. Happy Last Work Day Before Vacation, everyone!

Testing as a Family

Earlier today the four of us had the first ever (please don’t make it the first annual) Family Covid-19 Rapid Test.

Jen lined up four test kits on a table and we all got together and festively* swabbed our noses (and possibly our brains, ouch) together. Fifteen minutes later we all checked the results and wouldn’t ya know it, we were all negative!

Let the New Year commence!

I didn’t get a picture of any of it so you’ll have to settle for this picture of Patches sitting on my desk.

Enjoy!

*I say festively, but the truth is Jen had to drag the kids out of bed to do this, so it might not have been all that festive for them. College kids, ya know?