holiday rodeo
Arrived back in Singapore early this morning, after some loooooooooooooong flights. 14 hours Houston to Tokyo, 8 hours Tokyo to Singapore. On the plus side my boss let me come in late today, so I could sleep in a bit.
Did get to watch a bunch of movies on the various flights to/from US:
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (interesting that the apes were the sympathetic protagonists, not the humans)
Colombiana (terrible)
Crazy Stupid Love (decent but forgettable)
Larry Crowne (pretty good)
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (powerful and sad, I held it together until her father told her he was proud of her right before her execution. rough.)
Christmas was in Denver. It was nice, and my brother made it up this year, unlike last. I got some great presents (Patricia gave me this awesome leather duffle) and got to see friends and family.
My grandmother, now in her facility's memory care unit, is doing pretty well physically but not so hot mentally. She still recognizes everybody but was forgetting that my brother and I weren't in college, a fair amount of confusion over where she was living, things like that. And she no longer has a filter on what she says (lots of complaints about people not liking her, her not liking people, her roommate, whatever she thinks she says). She seems relatively content, though.
I also did two projects, with a lot of assistance from my dad: a walnut jewelry box for Patricia and a guitar amplifier to bring back here. The amp, pictured below, was completed in four days. That was a lot of work, but it sounds great. The wood is Colorado Aspen.
click image for more pics
The downside of the amp project was that it left no time to go shooting with my dad, one of our traditional activities, and left me with few opportunities to play cards with my mom. Patricia asked if I was doing anything special for my birthday. Working on the amp, I told her.
Went down to Texas for New Year's Eve, as a friend was having a party in College Station, where we went to school. The party was fun and I hadn't been to Texas since 2004. Got to meet my brother's (new?) girlfriend and see his house and eat BBQ and a burrito at Freebirds.
Now that I'm back in Singapore I'm looking forward to mango season, which should be starting pretty soon.
Hope everyone had good holidays, spent with families (or not, as the preference may be).
Did get to watch a bunch of movies on the various flights to/from US:
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (interesting that the apes were the sympathetic protagonists, not the humans)
Colombiana (terrible)
Crazy Stupid Love (decent but forgettable)
Larry Crowne (pretty good)
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (powerful and sad, I held it together until her father told her he was proud of her right before her execution. rough.)
Christmas was in Denver. It was nice, and my brother made it up this year, unlike last. I got some great presents (Patricia gave me this awesome leather duffle) and got to see friends and family.
My grandmother, now in her facility's memory care unit, is doing pretty well physically but not so hot mentally. She still recognizes everybody but was forgetting that my brother and I weren't in college, a fair amount of confusion over where she was living, things like that. And she no longer has a filter on what she says (lots of complaints about people not liking her, her not liking people, her roommate, whatever she thinks she says). She seems relatively content, though.
I also did two projects, with a lot of assistance from my dad: a walnut jewelry box for Patricia and a guitar amplifier to bring back here. The amp, pictured below, was completed in four days. That was a lot of work, but it sounds great. The wood is Colorado Aspen.
click image for more pics
The downside of the amp project was that it left no time to go shooting with my dad, one of our traditional activities, and left me with few opportunities to play cards with my mom. Patricia asked if I was doing anything special for my birthday. Working on the amp, I told her.
Went down to Texas for New Year's Eve, as a friend was having a party in College Station, where we went to school. The party was fun and I hadn't been to Texas since 2004. Got to meet my brother's (new?) girlfriend and see his house and eat BBQ and a burrito at Freebirds.
Now that I'm back in Singapore I'm looking forward to mango season, which should be starting pretty soon.
Hope everyone had good holidays, spent with families (or not, as the preference may be).