Basic_B

It’s Christmas Eve, and Marcella and I have been watching It’s a Wonderful Life on DVD. We’ve had a fairly quiet day. We each ran a few very quick errands, but for the most part we stayed at home, listened to Christmas music all morning, took a nice walk around the neighborhood, grabbed a couple lattes at Starbucks, and stayed relaxed and just enjoyed the time away from the office and the frenzy.

I think a little later tonight we will likely watch Little Women (1994), which is our own little Christmas tradition. I know it isn’t strictly a Christmas movie, but it somehow seems to capture the same sort of spirit of the season that makes it a favorite for me at this time of year.

I hope all of our friends and family out there are having a wonderful evening and are preparing for a great Christmas tomorrow.

It snowed for much of the afternoon yesterday; not heavily, but steadily. Last night there was a pleasant white coating on the grass and shrubs. The roads simply became wet.

Chuck came over and we watched the movie Sin City on DVD. That was fun. I hadn’t watched it since I saw it at the theater, even though I’d bought the DVD ages ago. I still say it might be Mickey Rourke’s greatest performance. And the film itself is just visually amazing. It really is just like a comic book.

I didn’t get up and ride this morning. Between sitting up late watching the movie, and having a few beers, and knowing that the roads were wet, it just was too hard to climb out from under the warm blankets. So I’ve been hanging out on the couch and trying to learn some about digital photo editing.

I may have mentioned previously that I got a digital camera for Christmas. I’m trying to take lots of pictures with it, but I also want to learn about editing them for the best effect. Adjusting the levels and balances and cropping and all that sort of thing.

Here’s an example I was playing with:

R.E.M. – I Remember California

It’s the start of a new year, and given some of the recent changes in my life I thought I’d take a moment and make note of a few key things that I want to express thanks for from the past year, as well as a few things I want to try to be better about in the new year. Not resolutions precisely, but just a game plan.

        •        I’m thankful for Iris, a wonderful roommate for the past year, and a good friend.
        •        I’m thankful for my family – my Dad in Maine, and my mom in NC.
        •        I’m thankful for Gary and Tracy, friends in Florida, and their two sons. They treated me like family.
        •        I’m thankful for Chris: coworker, friend, and co-beer-drinker.
        •        I’m thankful for Joe and Donald, friends in two places.
        •        I’m thankful for Mary B, and Mary S, and Karen B, and Theresa H, and Heather W, and Gustavo M, and John C, and Tony S, and the whole category management team at Source. There are others at Source I’m thankful for too, but I can’t list them all.
        •        I’m thankful for a few old friends who renewed contact with me shortly before the year end – Finley, Gustavo P, Tony S(the other Tony S!), and Cali.
        •        I’m thankful that I was able to return to NC, and to be with Marcella again, and I’m thankful she talked to me on the phone every day for the last year.
        •        I’m thankful for a new job.

Those are some of the things and people that were important to me last year. Now, these are some of my goals for the upcoming year…

        •        To keep better contact with my friends from all over. That means maintaining those friendships of the present, but also renewing those from the past – like Scott P and Kevin R, and how about Don and Stacie? And now I’ve moved back to NC and I haven’t even seen Chuck or Sue yet, what’s up with that? (on this note, let me point out my facebook profile – the link can be found under “My Networks” on this page. If you like, setup a profile and be-friend me)
        •        To continue to make new friends.
        •        To keep my family relations strong.
        •        To kiss Marcella daily.
        •        To pet the cats as often as I can.
        •        To try to live healthier—continue to ride the bike, but I think I might join a gym too. I’d also like to do more outdoor activities generally – hiking, camping…those sorts of things, and NC is a great place for this.
        •        To read more and watch TV less.
        •        To write more, and generally be more creative. I’m thinking about taking some continuing education type courses. I’ve seen one listed recently on learning to draw. That sounds like it would be fun.
        •        To take more pictures. (I think you can expect to be seeing more pictures on the blog in the future. Also, don’t forget to check-out my flickr page. You can find a link under “My Networks.”
        •        To listen to more music. (Currently listening to: Spoon – Don’t You Evah)
        •        To do well in my new job.
        •        To laugh more.

I’m sure there are things or people from the past year that I should have mentioned, and I’m equally sure I should probably have more ambition for the upcoming year, but this is what I’ve got.

Thoughts, comments, opinions?

—”Ooo ooo ooo!”

Dinner on Friday was good. I think we gave Joe and Donald a new favorite place to add to their list. They seemed to really enjoy it, and said as much.

After dinner we went over to their place to have some dessert. They had all kinds of sweets ranging from chocolate to walnut to key lime, and all of it was yummy. We basically nibbled out of assorted tins for the next couple of hours and talked. Of course Joe and I gossiped about my previous job (he still works for the company), but we also talked a lot about computers. He got a Macbook for Christmas – very cool.

Joe showed us the two stuffed animals he made at Build a Bear. It’s one of those places you stuff your own stuffed animal. He made a kitty (named Anna Maria) and a monkey (named Pedro Mario), and they’ve got buttons you push on them and they make noises. The monkey was dressed like a police officer. I asked Joe if he sang YMCA? He said, “No!” But I don’t know if I believe him.

I had great fun imagining Joe stuffing these things surrounded by a gaggle of children and mothers.

On Saturday the day went essentially as I predicted. It was rainy and a lot of time was spent on the couch and in bed with books and magazines.

I did go to get my car inspected, with mixed results. They said they were able to perform all of the physical inspection, but when they hooked the car up to the computer they weren’t getting any information from the “ports”. I don’t know, sounds strange to me. They asked that I just drive it for a couple more days and bring it back, and they would try again. They kept my paperwork on file for the work they did complete so they won’t have to do it again, but supposedly this just happens sometimes and when you bring the car back it’ll just work the next time – fingers crossed. I haven’t paid anything yet, so I’m not too worried about it, and the place is close and on the way for many of our daily outings, so it’s not especially inconvenient, but still—it’s a little bit of a pain.

You think maybe I’m the monkey?

Marcella and I don’t have too many plans for the last weekend of 2007.

We are going to have dinner tonight with our friends Joe and Donald. I found out Joe hasn’t really experienced much Thai food, so I hope he likes it because that is where we are meeting – Taste of Thai. It used to be one of my favorite places to eat in Greensboro. He sounded like he was game to give it a try.

I’m thinking at least one movie might be on the agenda for the weekend. No Country for Old Men seems the most promising, and I’ve heard some fantastic things about it. Sounds like the Coen brothers are back in form.

I had my fingers crossed that the latest film by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will be Blood, might be playing this weekend, but it doesn’t appear that it is, at least not here. It is generating some phenomenal reviews. Oh well, not this weekend, but perhaps soon. I hope I don’t have to wait until after awards season to see it.

For Christmas, Marcella gave me a subscription to Tin House. (Awesome gift, by the way!) It’s a quarterly literary magazine—fiction, poetry, and essays. In my stocking she gave me a copy of the currently available issue, which was focused on women writers, but now the newest issue just showed up in the mailbox today, so I’ve got tons of stories to read.

I’m excited about that, and maybe I’ll post my thoughts about a story or two if I feel like I’ve got something to say. But I might just read. I haven’t been very much in the frame of mind to critique anything recently. I think my mind is too wrapped up in absorbing new knowledge at the new job to properly focus my critical faculties outside of that milieu. Not that I’ve proven especially gifted at critical appraisal, but practice makes perfect (sorry for the lame cliché), so maybe I’ll make myself post at least a brief review about something, if not the stories then a movie.

I’ve also been downloading a little bit of music into my iTunes/iPod combo. Recently I’ve acquired the latest by Spoon, and also the latest by The New Pornographers, so I’ve got those to give a spin.

Other than that I think the weekend will be dedicated to some household chores, hopefully a bike ride on Sunday, and some general laziness. Anybody got anything more interesting going on?