Happy, Happy Birthday to Jesse, and Theo, and Rayne!

We had a very low key Christmas, the highlight of which was dinner at my cousin's, which was lovely. Filet roast, which is my fave and what I like to make for NYE, but I'm not doing this year, so yay for getting it in anyway!

Met the newest baby -- my first cousin, twice removed. She is an absolute cutie.

Today is light physical chores and medium light finance stuff. Also prepping for 2026... what do I want to do, etc. A good deal of the 2025 list will be transferred over! It's mostly fun stuff, so not stressful.

a little laundry, washing some dishes, breaking down Amazon boxes for recycling and getting them out of the house,

I need to do all three of these, though I have to give credit to Matilda for running the last several cycles through the dishwasher. But I still have pots and pans and champagne flutes and cutting boards to clean.

I just succumbed to a Boxing Day Sale and got a cool Osaka Tigers baseball jacket marked down to $150 from $600.

Woot!

Baseball xmas prezzies this year: Emmett got an autographed baseball by Buster Posey from the 2010 WS championship, and Matilda got an Osaka Tigers jersey. (She lived in Osaka while she was studying in Kyoto.)

Oh nice gifts!

I weighed at Mom's and I think I weighed myself over there sometime in Nov. I didn't record it but in July I was at 218. The last time I weighed I think I was 222. And now I'm at 216. I noticed my pants are a lot looser. I haven't had a big change in my eating since the fall so I'm not sure about the weight loss. I have an annual physical...sometime in Jan and I'll be interested to see my weight then and also if he does blood work what it shows.

Actually had stuff to do for work, which was kinda nice, I guess, but had enough downtime to take a long lunch and go poke around Barnes&Noble with mom (she was looking for a specific book; I only saw books so already owned/read it were way too expensive but I did pick up a blank book I don’t really need but was on sale and had a dragon on the cover) and read a couple more chapters of my current library book (I have 8 out I need to read in 3 weeks…). Staying on more night with my folks to wait out the flood watch and not have to drive through a dark and stormy night. Did not buy a TV - dad said we could but B&N didn’t have any

Happiest of birthday wishes to amyparker! I hope you are having a wonderful day and that the coming year is filled with happiness.

Happy birthday, amyparker!

Looks like we're getting a respite from the rain for a few days.

I fed Matilda dinner after she got off work and I made her watch the 70s screwball comedy "What's Up Doc?" starring Barbara Streisand and Ryan O'Neal, and debuting Madaline Kahn. It's a movie I discovered on TV as a kid and it's still incredibly funny. But now it's almost as fascinating to see as time capsule of early 70s San Francisco.

One of my main parasocial places is coming to an end as my two friends that work at the comic book store are leaving. I'm feeling bereft about it but I'll drop by today and distribute some fancy chocolate.

It's one off the linchpins of my city walks, though, and my routine will be fully disrupted. Boo.

I'm sorry that your friends are leaving and hope that hole will be filled with new friendships soon.

I'm sorry that your friends are leaving and hope that hole will be filled with new friendships soon.

One of my comic store friends will be available for lunch and cocktails, so I'm hoping that can be a friendship that deepens.

And I've successfully launched a new friendship with my Pilates teacher and we've been hanging out periodically out of the studio and that's been really fun.

I fucking love new friendships!

Happy Birthday amyparker!

New friendships themselves are great, it's the awkward process of getting out and finding people to have them with that I dislike.

I was making spinach dip for the family holiday dinner tonight and discovered that the fresh dill I bought for it was covered in wispy mold. There was none to be had at the grocery store nearest me, so I'm making do with dried dill weed flakes and an extra pouch of vegetable soup seasoning. It's not awful, but not up to my usual standard either.

I'm with you, Matt. (And the whole "What happened? Can they do anything?" thing with a new abled person doesn't make it easier, either.) Which would make abled people think "Well, focus on disabled people, then." Which sounds logical, but you do outnumber us, and you know how they say the hometown crowd is the hardest...double that.(also, pretty much that means I always pay. Which can get harder as we go along, because "Better off," doesn't mean "rich", right?) Mom was very generous so I just signed up for a zoom fiction workshop...I have to decide which thing to show by 1/11.