Holidazed and Confused

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

We spent a very nice evening with my family on Christmas Eve, then opened our presents for each other Christmas morning, then spent that evening with Ken’s mom. It’s been festive, but kind of tiring, too! We’re still getting plenty of R&R, though, watching lots of football, “Dexter,” and getting some things done around the place.

I got lots of books, so that should keep me busy and out of trouble in 2012! Also some good movies to watch, and some super cute I Love Lucy car mats. One of my favorite things of all was from Ken, and is an original work of art by a guy named Chris Piascik. You send him a picture of your pet, and he does a drawing of him or her as a superhero! How cute is that? I can hardly wait to get a frame for SuperSheeba. If you’re interested, go to Pets Are Superheroes to find out more. It really is a cute gift for anyone who loves their pet as much as we love Sheeba!

I’ve been keeping busy with my reading. I finished Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All by Dr. Paul Offit. Another excellent book about the utter and complete folly of the anti-vaccine movement. I seriously want to punch Jenny McCarthy in the face. “My son is my science.” No. No, he is not. A PERSON is not science. Science is science. The gloves are off when it comes to these idiots. Just a word of warning.

Anyway, then I moved on to The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson, and I’m about a quarter of the way through it. That will make book #55 for the year...I decided to go for the double nickel, good buddy. I’m familiar, of course, with the scifi movie from the ‘50s, but the book is a whole different ball of wax. It delves into the psychological impact of what is happening to Scott Carey, and it’s really quite sad. Fighting a black widow spider is one thing...trying to make love to your wife when you’re the size of a grade school boy is entirely another. It’s much more complex than I remember from the movie, and I’m liking it very much.

I’ve also been doing really well with my workouts, doing six days a week, for at least an hour, sometimes more. My endurance is already up and I’m feeling really good about what I’m doing. I hate that sluggish winter feeling, and this is helping to counteract it. I’ll take a little bit of soreness over sluggishness any day!

The Notre Dame-Florida State bowl game is tomorrow night, we’re planning on seeing “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” on Friday, we’ve got tickets for a Notre Dame hockey game coming up on Saturday, followed by a New Year’s celebration at my sister’s (so happy that our niece Jen is in town from San Diego!) and some further festivities the following weekend. A busy time, but lots of fun. Oh, and I’m still paying attention to politics and the upcoming Iowa caucuses, but I find that I don’t want to write about it a whole lot because it has just become laughable to me. These people are pandering to the religious right at the moment, and people like Donald Trump and Sarah Palin are hinting that they still might jump into the race. This liberal is having quite a laugh at the whole thing, but I will not take anything for granted. I’m looking forward to seeing who will be going up against the President when the Republicans finally finish sifting through this bizarre lineup of the certifiable and the ridiculous. Call me when you get it straightened out, okay?

In the meantime, I’ll keep on having happy holidays, and I hope you’ll do the same!