The highlight of today’s post-holiday experience involved being blinded, briefly, several times. Yes, we went and had family pictures taken: the kids and I, Rob and Bryant, and of course Wendi with all of her kids.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t such an amazing knack for having my eyes closed when the shutter clicks. Five tries, it took us. I can’t really complain, though, ‘cause the kids all had more pictures to get taken than I did. The really amusing bit, though, was Bryant’s solo shoot. Here’s this six-month-old baby who’s already been alternately cajoled and blinded for several minutes, and now he’s not even being held and people want him to look up into the camera and smile? So unfair, when all he wants to do is explore the prop sled he was plunked down upon. Mind you, it didn’t help that all six other people in the studio were trying to get his attention and a smile; no wonder he didn’t know what to do in all of that racket. Luckily, he’s the most cheerful baby I’ve ever seen.

So, at some point in the not-too-distant future I’ll have a print of me and my kids looking only somewhat dorky. I’m pitching in for one other print as well, since I’m quite certain that Sis will want a copy…

There are two good things about this particular holiday. The other one is the opportunity to consume large quantities of delicious foodstuffs, such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Mmmm, pie. And rolls. And turkey. And stuffing. And… well, you get the idea.

The first one, of course, is spending an evening with one’s closest family, for whom I am intensely thankful. I’m also thankful for my life, my health, my job, and the handful of truly wonderful people I’ve managed to surround myself with.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

I scheduled myself a three-day weekend, figuring I’d catch up on sleep among other things.

Friday morning I slept in a bit, and I assure you I reveled in the luxury. The rest of the day was busy yet fun, including meals at the Hot Cake House and NoHo’s.

Saturday morning I woke up, bright eyed and bushy tailed, at 8am. You know how it goes, sometimes, when you wake up and you know that you are absolutely up-and-at-‘em, not to sleep again until siesta time at the earliest? Yeah, that’s how Saturday felt. I cleaned house, then met up with Wendi & the kids for the previously-journaled dinner and movie fun.

Yesterday morning I woke up, bolt upright in bed no chance of going back to sleep time to get cracking… at 7am. I repeat: I woke up, fully, at seven o’clock in the morning, on a Sunday for which I had no concrete plans until evening. This could count as an injustice, but it gets worse.

Last night I went to bed at a fairly decent hour, knowing that my first day back at work after a three-day weekend is always “entertaining.” I tossed and turned for an hour. I got up again and watched an episode of anime to see if that would help. I went back to bed. At about 1:30am some jerkface down the street decided to honk his horn for two solid minutes. After that, I stopped looking at the clock. I was in full-on, stare-at-the-ceiling insomnia mode.

So today, I was an hour late to work, and I’m running on maybe two whole hours of sleep. Mondays suck enough without throwing sleep deprivation into the mix, dammit…

Wendi and the kids and I got together this evening for dinner and a movie. Mind you, it was later than I originally though it’d be, but that’s understandable considering they all went to the airport (with all of the delays that entails) to see the kids’ maternal grandmother off homeward. We all went out to Applebee’s, then decided to rent a DVD instead of brave the crowds and costs at the cinema. (Besides, we couldn’t all agree on a movie; I’m wholly uninterested in the Potter flick, let alone Chicken Little. Bleah. And the less said about the new Zorro flick the better, apparently.) We picked out two movies, both animated: Steamboy, and Robots.

Tonight we watched Steamboy, and because I have kids with discerning tastes we unanimously agreed on subtitles and the original language rather than suffer the dub. While the voices fit somewhat better, I’m afraid that the movie is only barely improved on account of that fact. It’s still a big, loud, beautiful mess of a film, as I’ve said before (at considerable length).

Maybe I’ll watch Robots when I go visit the kids in a few days. Then again, maybe not.

As the weather gets colder, I’ve run into a bit of a problem. Last year, and for several years before that, I had my wonderful Columbia Sportswear jacket to keep me warm in winter. The problem is that I lost the (awesomely warm-keeping) liner portion early this year. (I forgot it at a restaurant. By the time I called, it was gone. Argh.) The shell portion of the jacket by itself makes a good rain guard and a mediocre windbreaker, but even combined with the best sweater I have doesn’t make a very warm coat.

So, finally, this evening I went to Burlington Coat Factory to see if I could scrounge a decent winter coat that I could afford. All of the wool-type coats I tried didn’t fit in one fashion or another. It was a case of too much shoulder, too much sleeve, not enough room inside, or some combination thereof. In the next aisle over, however, I found a selection of trenchcoats. The very first one I tried on fits perfectly, looks pretty good on me, sports a detachable liner, is comfy as all get-out… and only cost $50. Score!

In related news, I was a very very good boy when we (Lil’ & Geoffrey & Angst) were at Best Buy (picking up a cheap little digital camera for Angst’s birthday). I looked at, but did not buy, a boxed set of anime that I’ve been considering picking up. I resisted temptation even though the sticker price was only about 3/4 the list price I’ve seen online! Go, me!

I’ll get the hang of this fiscal responsibility nonsense yet, dammit.

I’m posting this as something of a reminder to a later Me who peruses the journal archives at random, possibly searching for entries on the topic of food.

Hey, Me: When you think about what a neat idea meatloaf is in principle, try to keep in mind the old axiom that “In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.” The theory behind meatloaf sounds appealing, but in practice it’s almost always underwhelming.

Keep this in mind when shopping in the future, won’t you? Your taste buds and digestive tract thank you in advance.