My pictures from our end-of-the-year trip to Diane's family in Crozet, Virginia are up on Flickr. Why not view them as a beautiful self-advancing slideshow?

Christie, Garrett, Max and Abby are visiting for New Year's -- I'll have those pix up soon enough. Alas, today I have a yucky head cold and I already have to go back to school tomorrow.

The Vacation

The holiday itself was nice -- I read five books while we were away:

• Love My Rifle More Than You: Young & Female in the US Army by Kayla Williams. The latest in a series of military memoirs I've been devouring lately.
  
  
• War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges. Powerful, personal. He's been in the midst of wars around the globe; this man knows whereof he speaks.
  
  
• The Truth by Terry Pratchett. I've never read a Discworld book I didn't like (Interesting Times was kinda phoned in); this is as good as anything he's written. Diane's reading it as I type.
  
  
• The Truth (With Jokes) by Al Franken. Funny and thorough, but not nearly as much fun as Lies. I like all the different adjectives he uses for Tim Russert.
  
  
• After the Dance by Edwidge Danticat. A walk through carnival in Jacmel, Haiti. As always, she mixes the poetic and the painful with plenty of pathos.

Okay, I need to lie down and watch some Simpsons or something.

TimeWaster™

Man, I dunno. Watch the H*R Decemberween Shorts.

Today I'm listening to: dDamage!