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?

Seventy-Nine Minutes

I have seventy-nine minutes to go until the long weekend. New Years is so close I can practically smell Times Square.

Two unrelated things come together in this post. First, I am curious how many of my loyal readers and only friends are planning on going out for New Years Eve. By going out I mean going someplace where more than 10 people will be present. Doesn’t matter if it’s inside or outside, I just want to know if you are going to an actual party. Second, WordPress.com has just given us access to a third party plug in/embed thing that lets us add polls and surveys and stuff like that to our posts. I add ’em and no one response to ’em, but I keep adding ’em!

I posted one of these polls the other day before I knew how to see the results without actually adding a response. Once I figured it out I found there were seven responses. Six of them were me. Wheeeee!

73 minutes to go.

What percentage of the work day is left? It’s 4:18pm. I work from 9:00am to 5:30pm. I have worked (7 * 60) + 18 = 438 minutes. There are (8 * 60) + 30 = 510 minutes in the day. I have worked ((7*60)+18)/((8*60)+30) * 100 = 85.88% of the work day. Fuck yeah, math.

Answer the poll! Polls are fun! Specifically, polls are fun when you’re a lame blog poster like me so let me have fun!

Today is Not Friday

Today is the first time since Bellana finished her Fall semester at school (apart from a few hours of miracle on Christmas Day) that both kids are home. They will both be here until Monday morning and I am as happy as a middle aged red head gets.

We were supposed to have a fancy dinner on Christmas Day but we didn’t due to all of the various circumstances. We are having the dinner that we had planned for Christmas tonight. Jen is in the kitchen right now while I watch the clock inch through the last 36 minutes of the work day.

New Years Day is this weekend.

All of these things together have combined to convince my tiny, teeny, tiny little brain that today is Friday. No. Today is not Friday. Today is Wednesday. Wednesday, not Friday. I still have a full day of work tomorrow that I have to get through before the holiday weekend starts.

My brain is broken. My brain cannot process the fact that today is not Friday. I feel like I’m losing my mind!

Monday Lunch Break

No spoilers here, but I think the one thing Marvel’s Hawkeye has taught us is that the universe needs a Kate/Yelena buddy cop show. There is supposed to be an Echo show coming and that could be a sort of Hawkeye spin off and if we don’t get a Kate/Yelena team up then we’re going to absolutely need a show of their own. Come on, Marvel/Disney+, let’s make that happen.

While we’re on the Marvel TV subject, let’s get going on Daredevil season 4, m’kay? Bring the whole gang back. They’ll have to tone down the blood for Disney+ viewers, but they can totally do it. Get it done.

While we’re on the Disney+ subject, The Book of Boba Fett launches in two days. I need this show to be amazing. I need it. I am not one of those Star Wars fans who think Boba Fett is the balls or anything. In three movies (from the point of view of the special editions) he’s on screen for a grand total of, what? 10 minutes? How many lines did he have? Was it more than two? There’s the “he’s worth a lot to me” line and the “put captain Solo in the cargo hold” and that’s all I can think of off the top of my head. He gets more in Attack of the Clones and in the The Clone Wars TV show (and Rebels too? I can’t remember, was he in Rebels? I don’t think so), but that’s him as a kid and not the ass kicking bounty hunter he’s supposed to be. He had a good showing in season two of The Mandalorian, but I need the new show to live up to the character’s hype and I don’t know if that is actually possible without bending the laws of physics.

What else is going on?

NASA gave us a gigantic Christmas Present with the launch of the James Webb telescope. I haven’t read up on any of the details yet, but I hear everything went well. I remember the launch of the Hubble though, and I remember those blurry photos. I won’t relax about Webb until we start seeing results. Hubble was in Earth orbit and we could send folks up to fix it. Webb will not be reachable by humans. It has to work on the first try. I’ll read up on the news when I get a chance, but I’m hoping we’ll keep getting good news.

The kids are still at their dad’s. They will come back here on Wednesday and then be here through the weekend, including New Years Eve and New Years Day. I cannot understate how happy that makes me.

Right then, it’s 2:00pm and I have to get back to work. Have a good afternoon, my readers and only friends.