Tying up 2008

[beetiger]

As is our tradition, I had the pleasure of having lediva here for the space-between-Christmas-and-New-Year's holiday break. It was the longest chunk of time that we have had for this "home vacation" together ever, because of the way the weekends fell --nine days. I'm pretty sure that's actually the longest chunk of consecutive time we've had together in general. It worked better than some of the away vacations we've had, just in terms of the pacing of it: she got to sleep and relax a bunch, and I still managed to get people out of the house to do interesting stuff.

Some highlights from my point of view:
-I got her an XO/OLPC computer for the winter holidays, which seemed to please her a lot, and which satified my urge for getting to take a quick look at one without actually ending up owning one personally.

-We went to see the newly reopened Air and Space Museum at the Interpid aircraft carrier. I'm really not much of a military buff, but they've done a very nice job laying everything out, and I'd recommend it. We got to walk through the Concorde while we were there as well, which when it's not moving and isn't running any fancy service, pretty much looks like a commercial plane with all first-class seats.

-We tried out some miracle berry tablets that lediva got me from ThinkGeek. (She gets many things from there.) They are taste modifiers, which mask bitter and sour flavors while significantly enhancing sweet flavors. We did the classic thing you are supposed to do when you try these, which is to chow down on whole lemons and chug Guinness. I was impressed at how well the fruit worked in tablet form. We also tried tea, which pretty much disappeared entirely, and horseradish, which was pretty insipid.

-We played a lot of Rock Band 2. I still pretty much slog through medium on guitar/bass, and do well singing songs I know and adequately singing ones I don't, or that I've forgotten everything but the chorus for, which frankly is the majority of the songs in the game.

-We did a shopping trip to Re/Dress, a plus size women's consignment store that recently opened in Brooklyn. I got a set of lingerie that would be perfect for a lounging-in-lingerie kind of party, if I ever get invited to one. :) It was just around the corner from Lunetta, a restaurant lediva had been intending to take me to for several years now. Attack of the awesome pork dishes, chestnut pannacotta, and Brussels sprouts that left lediva swooning.

-Cuddles! Can't argue with cuddles. And though we really didn't do a huge amount of relationship processing per se, I think we're in a better place than this time last year and have some good ideas on how to stay there.

I was rather sad that we didn't manage visits from any of the usual suspects that visit us when they come East at Christmas time. We missed you and hope we can get together some other way, sometime soon. (I know some of you will see bard_bloom at Further Confusion, but I won't be there.)

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I haven't made a formal set of resolutions this year, but I've decided that the theme of my personal work for the year is "connection". I'll be trying to be better about creating and maintaining friendships that work, trying to reduce my isolation in both my work and social situations, working on both the basic maintenance of and the deepening of my intimate relationships, and in general trying to be more present and engaged in the universe.

I'd love it if you could help me with this. Give me a call or an email. Point out things I might like to do if you hear about them. Go ahead and ask me to help you with something if I could be helpful to you. Invite me to things even if you are pretty sure I can't come. If we've been out of touch, let's get back in touch.

I love you all and wish you the very best of things as you settle into the new year.

Comments

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

So far the most impressive thing I've run across in toying around with miracle fruit is tonic water. Seriously. It ends up being like a vaguely floral sprite, even while your tongue still reacts like it is bitter.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I'll have to try that -- I still have some of the tablets. I normally like tonic water even with the quinine-bitter, so that could be interesting.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

So do I! Plain tonic waters tend to be my goto "I am sick" drink, too. Apparently there are now small batch, designer tonic water, even.

...

Actually I know several of our common friends that like just drinking tonic water. That's... kind of odd.

[orb2069.livejournal.com]

So... What's your take on the XO?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

It's utterly adorable, looks like it will be tough as nails, and really well built for what it is. Now, what it is is a machine designed to connect elementary school students from faraway places. :) It has fun little toys like an oscilliscope and a music creator. For my needs, my little eee was a better choice. But I'm very glad of the XO project.