Josh

As of 5 February 2009, this journal will be f-locked. I will try to send updates to long-time readers from my family; everyone else who wants to be able to see this should add a comment below.

Longer version of last night will be forthcoming. Suffice to say for the moment that it was full of win. This morning, unfortunately, has been characterized by sleep deprivation and by excessive (if understandable) bureaucracy on the part of Harvard.

Oh, and the Boston Express bus schedule sucks.

I don't know if I've ever walked across a frozen lake before.

(OK, "lake" is stretching it. but still.)

Christmas somehow went well. The carol service, despite lack of rehearsals, went fine, and we got home at 1 and collapsed into bed. G's family made it up, despite the fact that Catilinarian and M' had come down with some British version of this winter's bug immediately after arriving in the States, and so nearly had to wait to come up until their fevers had come down. Both, alas, are still somewhat under the weather.

And I managed to put Roast Beef, Plum Pudding, Strong Ale and Mince Pies on the table for nine people (plus babby) at 5. True, the meat pie was far from the best I've made (and could have been re-heated better), and I think I was the only one who had any beer--G's godfather had brought wine. But roast beef was eagerly devoured, and the pudding, despite multiple substitutions and screw-ups, was reckoned pretty good...by those who had any room left at that point, especially since we'd also had brussels sprouts, beans, yorkshire pudding, and potatoes.

Weather is awful. Oh well.

Time for bed. More later, maybe.

PS: P doesn't actually have pinkeye.

In less positive holiday news, I went out in attempt to go sledding last night; completely failed to get any good sliding in, but contrived to dislocate my shoulder (for the third time). gr.

Oh, and the weather seems to be throwing a spanner into family christmas plans as well. Details as they emerge...

ETA: And Peter has pinkeye.

Influenced by minyan, I'm doing that meme where you post the first line of the first public post for every month of the year. I cheated a bit: to avoid having too many months where the first line is simply a reference to some OTHER meme, I've chosen the first public post in some months, and the first friends-only one in others; some months the "line" spills over into line three, sometimes I stopped at the end of a sentence but before the end of a line.
Oh, and I did them in reverse order.

I think it looks better this way.

Year in review:
Yesterday was not a terribly productive day. It was G's birthday, so once I finally got Peter to daycare, went back to bring him the pacifier he'd dropped en route, gone running, and failed to rendezvous with G, I [was] really beginning to wonder whether some of John Sununu's campaign signs have been put up by Democrats as a sabotage campaign. Peter is very bemused by my headbanging to TMBG. OK, I'm still trying to fix the footnotes on this f'ing paper, AND we don't have reliable home internet yet. Last night I dreamt that I was at the family cabin on Lake Ossipee. The storm the previous day had utterly removed all landmarks on the shores of the lake. Project for Monday: Clean house, persuade landlady to return security deposit. This has been the weekend of entertaining people. I've added a lot more interests since I did this last, haven't I... It must have been near the beginning of the year, for I was still eating in Baxter, the default dining hall for Frosh. It is a tribute both to my lame sense of humor and to the extent that all of you freaks have infected my brain with MemeSpeak that I thought of this. Peter Richard Burson ist am Vigil Christi Lichtmeß anno mmviii um 6h42 geboren. Festivity and time-wasting: is there a difference?

Need I say more? :)

* G. is down with the 'flu! Or something similar. She is, in any case, feeling extremely yucky, so "get-well" wishes and prayers may be dispatched on the heels of the Birthday and Ember Day ones.

* Don't you hate it when you're planning to refer to something in academic writing, but then go back for the reference and find it isn't there?? Yeah, I hate that.

Update, 11 December:...of course, having noted that G. had come down with the Plague, I promptly came down with it myself. We are now on the mend, but still feeling woozy--esp. G.
Meantime, we're getting freezing rain--my least favorite type of weather evah, I think...

Yesterday was not a terribly productive day. It was gaudynight78's birthday,* so once I finally got Peter to daycare, went back to bring him the pacifier he'd dropped en route, gone running, failed to rendezvous with G to pick up his stroller (long story...), and gotten myself out the door, I had only a limited amount of time to get actual work done before I had to go home to bake her some Delicious Cake for the tea party we were organizing for the event.
Also, I got distracted by my back-burner project to create an alternative game board for Risk, that would a) eliminate the wrap-around connection between Kamchatka and Alaska, and b) re-style the whole affair as a medieval civil war. I spent most of the evening (after the guests had gone home and I'd made a dent in the dishes, that is) drawing, erasing, swearing at, and re-drawing maps.

Today is shaping up to be much the same, but hopefully the next few hours will be better.

Meantime, we now have vast quantities of cake, since not only did I bake one, but both coffee hours on Sunday presented her with others, and a guest yesterday brought still another. At this rate, we're going to be eating cake up until the Christmas plum pudding.**

* A fact that I meant to post on here yesterday. Yet another thing I failed to get done.

** Still a very theoretical pudding at this point, but potential. Depends on number of guests, their opinions on plum pudding, and whether I can get my ass in gear in time.

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/12/01/funny-pictures-oldest-ever-lolcat-found/