Happy New Year!

Happy Veterans' Day, Remembrance Day, and Armistice Day!
And to any veterans who may see this, thank you for your service.
I set this to post at the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day, though it will show a different hour outside Pacific Time.
Given that Livejournal is now owned by a Russian company, I'll even extend the Remembrance Day greetings ( Read more... )

Today is Martin Luther King Day. Other than reading quite a few articles about civil rights, we didn't do much to celebrate it. "T" was home from school, of course. Because the rain took a break today, "J" took him out for a bicycle ride. He was thrilled, and enjoyed riding through the mud left by the now-melted ice storm and days of rain.
( Read more... )

Because of the ice storm, we're all feeling a lot of cabin fever. "J" and I had a treat for "T": we opened up his Bluray set of Star Trek: the Animated Series and watched the first episode, "Beyond the Farthest Star". We all enjoyed it; I found it very much in the spirit of the original series, though it felt somewhat abbreviated because of the ( Read more... )

Today is Christmas Eve. One item of family tradition on the holiday menu is twice-baked potatoes. Thinking it was on the menu for tonight, I baked potatoes early today, so they'd have time to cool, be mixed up, and cooked again. Then I found out that they're our contribution to tomorrow's dinner. It wasn't all bad; that's one less thing we have to ( Read more... )

Today is Festivus. We didn't do much of the traditional activities, other than a little airing of grievances.
Late in the afternoon, "J" sent me out on a couple of errands. The first was to get large potatoes to be baked into twice-baked potatoes, and bread for garlic bread. The second was for stocking-stuffer gifts. Target was crowded, with ( Read more... )

Today "J" baked some of the gingerbread cookie dough that she had prepared a day or two ago (with some help from me). They're good, except for the one that blackened when some kind of distraction caused all of us to miss the chime of the baking timer.
In addition to the cookies, we decided to eat part of one of our gingerbread houses. One side of ( Read more... )

In addition to the usual trips to take "T" to and from school, I was there for a third visit, dropping off holiday greetings for his teachers. He asked to stick around late for more fun with his friends, so we indulged him. It was his last day of school before winter break.
I did some more work on the graphic design project, with moderate ( Read more... )

My memorial day thoughts are for:

• My paternal grandfather, who earned a Bronze Star in World War II in the Army Air Corps
• My eldest uncle (paternal), who served in the Navy, and died this year
• Several cousins, sons of that uncle, who served in the Navy
• Mother's side cousins, at least one who has debilitating PTSD
• My wife's paternal ( Read more... )

Last night "J" and I celebrated New Year's Eve at home together. It was nice.
We had a visit from "L". She showed us her home-country tradition of floating candles in a half of a walnut shell to ask whether good fortune awaits in the coming year. Normally that's a Christmas Eve tradition, but she wasn't here then.
I baked fresh bread and it was ( Read more... )