Terrible Analogies

The worst thing about the holidays is that, eventually, you have to return to work.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and for those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, here’s hoping that you had a relaxing three days at home.

Over the past ten days I’ve finished reading Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, and The Night Of The Triffids by Simon Clark.  In fact, I wrapped up The Night Of The Triffids on Christmas morning, so receiving the book 11/22/63 by Stephen King from my parents couldn’t have been better timed.  Can’t wait to dive into it this Tuesday!

And why do gift cards get such a bad rap?  These things are amazing!  I can go to my favorite store and stock up on whatever I like, and the sender doesn’t have to worry about picking out the wrong gift.  This year I got gift cards for Best Buy, the Apple store, and a very generous gift card for the Hope Depot.  Thanks, Mom/Dad -in-law!  You guys are awesome

Tyler, or course, made out like a bandit.  I don’t recall ever receiving as many presents when I was a kid as he did on Christmas morning!  Two days after receiving his presents and I’m still finding Lego cubes under the television, couch, and secreted away in several drawers in the kitchen.  Heh…

Anyway, it was great to break away for a bit, but I actually can’t wait to get back to work.  After five days away from the office I find myself actually looking forward to getting back into my cubicle and doing something productive.  Am I the only one who feels this way after an extended vacation?

Tyler deeply engrossed in his tractor video. Thanks, Grandpa!

"Can we go though the Thomas & Friends book again, mom? I'm finding many inconsistencies between the sum of the energy input and the final tally of produced product. My hypothesis is that the trains can work 20% more efficiently and produce 50% more output. Here, let me show you..."

Godfather Dain really hooked Tyler up with gifts. Tyler now refuses to go on car rides unless he can take along a Thomas toy. Thanks, Dain, for unleashing the beast

It’s that time of year again when I take a few days off from work to spend time with friends and family.

I wanted to take a quick moment to wish each and every one of you out there a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Crazy Kwanzaa, Ludicrous Las Posadas, Breathtaking Boxing Day, and a pleasant non-denominational observance day.  Many thanks for visiting my blog and taking the time to comment!

I’ll be away from the Terrible Analogies for several days, but will be returning on Tuesday the 27th.

In the meantime, here’s hoping for nothing but the best for you and yours!

Merry Christmas!

This past weekend Karin and I took Tyler to see Santa for the first time.

For the first ten seconds that he was sitting on Santa’s knee, Tyler didn’t know what to make of him.

But then a light blinked on in Tyler’s head, and for five seconds he smiled.  That’s when this picture was taken.

The next 15 seconds were filled with maniacal shrills and flowing tears.  Tyler was suddenly overcome with a terrible fear of Santa and wanted nothing more than mommy, who quickly came to his rescue.

But man, those five seconds of smiling were something special!

Oh, and for the record, Tyler wants “choos-choos” and “brmm-brmms” for Christmas.  He’s all about trains and cars…

So…how’d everyone enjoy their Christmas?

I have to say that the festivities over here exceeded our expectations.  The gifts were great, the food fantastic, and the company even better!  I think my greatest score was a 7×7 Rubik’s Cube and a Garmin GPS unit for the car.  And somebody was keeping careful notes throughout the year and picked me up a Dan Fouts Chargers jersey (*cough* thanks Karin! *cough*).

Then it was off to the parents to meet up with friends and family for an amazing dinner, where we were all on our best behavior:

I think we found Tyler’s niche in life…ripping the wrappings off of Christmas presents.  Man, that kid is talented!

As I gather my thoughts (and sobriety), I can’t help but give thanks for a wonderful year.  Here’s looking forward to an excellent 2011.  Hey, with 2012 coming up fast it might be our last good year before the comet/aliens/chupacabras wipes humanity off of the face of the Earth…

It’s that time of year again to hang the stockings on the mantle, ornaments on the tree, and mistletoe from the doorway.  The whiskey is warm, the beer is cold, the music is soft, and the cat is indifferent to it all.  All of this can only mean one thing..

…yes, I’m taking a small vacation.

Here’s wishing all of my blogging friends and visitors a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa and a Wonderful Yalda, Saturnalia, Karachun, Yule…and Festivus for the rest of us.

Many thanks for all of the visits, comments, suggestions, disagreements, encouragements, enjoyment and strife this year!

Special well-wishes go out to Ron (enjoy the reads!), Ed (our writing blog will be a priority!), Tatiana (wonderful pics!), Pearl (a writing genius), Deviki (stay famous, yo!), Dianne (sending positive vibes your way), Kathcom (yay for merging blogs!) and Jen (you’ve got the life!).  Thanks for sticking with this strange little blog.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it!

Here’s hoping that everyone has a wonderful holiday, and I’ll see you back here on the 28th!

Merry Christmas!