This is a real quick one because Im not going to post any pictures till I get back to LA, but I survived, had a good time, and took a few pictures. I went skiing in the alps, wandered the underground corridors of Paris boneyards and sipped beverages in French cafes. And I walked. A lot. Like a holy-shit-i-wore-out-my-shoes amount.

Im going to Baltimore/DC to see Drew and Krol, the latter soon to be wed. Go Krol.

So in between working over the last few days, Ive been messing with Virtual Machines again. I have one on the Mac over there and a couple installed on my computer here – theyre my way to keep up with the latest Ubuntu Trends, and Ive managed to install Windows7 on the Mac. Woo. Not that theres any networking on there yet, but still.

Im relying on getting that right, though, because I sill need some Windows programs when I travel and am not willing to “make due” with the nonsense that Mac wants to stick me with. Open source OS & Open Source nonsense, fine. Mac-culture stuff? Not fine. Of course, Windows culture aint any better, except that Win7 is (thus far) free. Geh.

Does anyone want to fix my WHS box? kthxbye!

OMG – whoda thought it? I mean, they didnt even play, and somehow they won the most important game of the year. I want to congratulate them on beating everyone else in the NFL at not sucking.

Nothings the news.

The dealer couldnt replicate the electrical problems with my car (wtf?) and swears that I probably just got a bad bulb (well see), so I spent a couple hours there for nothing, and then I spent 2.5 hours at Crown fiddling around and didnt get everything done, although I did solve what I went there to solve. Thats good. If I wasnt sick, Id totally go to their lingerie event tonight.

Have I mentioned that I hate being sick? Boobs & Botox and Im missing it. Stupid sickness.

Friday

So that was last night. I didnt finish the thing because I wanted to help cook. Then I got nausea and sat on the couch till nine. Then, like a grandpa, I went upstairs and tried to sleep, but failed. Im SO SICK OF BEING SICK! Man.

More later. Car looking today.

Dunno if its the fluctuating temperatures, the rain or the burning of the candle at both ends, but Im sick, and thats all there is to it. Ive been working in slow motion today, which is dumb, because Ive managed to cram 2 hours of work into 6 hours of staring at the screen.

I hate me when I do this.

After a season suffering through wild swings of joy and rage, I somehow couldnt manage to care that the Eagles went to the balmy weather of Phoenix, AZ and halfheartedly lost to a ragtag band of also-rans. This is where the Eagles really excel – taking all their potential and squandering it, losing, ultimately, to a team that didnt deserve to make the playoffs and probably should have been disbanded along with their entire division.

Ah well. At least its a holiday. Tomorrow Obama gets sworn in and on Wednesday, the streets will be paved with gold. (“Oh there are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese….”) I imagine that good ol GWB will be hit by a falling house on his way back to Texas and his striped-sock-clad legs will shrivel.

Lastly, and on a non-cynical note, today is also Michaels Birthday – wish him a happy one, everyone!

Yeah, Im a loser. Sorry.

Go root for the Eagles. Go now. Then root for the Ravens.

Also, ponder:

A#1) Who, if anyone, has the right to the truth from you? Does a total stranger have the same “right” to the truth as a friend or family member? Are there situations?

B#2) What defines the term “hooking up”? Is it kissing? Sex? Somewhere in between? I have my definition, but Im interested in yours.

Ill be back later for discussion.

It was so nice outside yesterday that I bolted from the house as soon as the Eagles won, so I didnt get to my elated “We Win!” post at all. Shame, too, because the Eagles did, indeed, win.

Shockingly, the offense wasnt amazing but the defense did their part and we pulled it off. Andy Reid stuck with the run more in this game, which was nice, and McNabb was accurate, although I think he threw two picks, which is annoying. But Eli wins Eagles MVP for throwing interceptions at key times and key places on the field.

Now were off to Arizona to play the Cards in the almost-all-birds Conference Championships, so yay us. At this point, Im hoping for an Eagles-Ravens superbowl.

Driving.

I love it. I really love it. I love it enough to do it in LA and STILL love it. Thats a big, ol testament to love, if you ask me. Another big, ol testament to love? Paying the state absurd amounts of money to keep doing it, and doing it when I really shouldnt, whether I know it or not.

A New Years Resolution. And the New Year starts two days ago. Im going to be legal to drive (license, registration, insurance, all paid up in full) for the entire year. No suspensions, no driving without insurance, none of that. Im going to be on the up-and-up. If a tail light blows, Ill replace it. When its time to renew the insurance, Ill renew it.

New Topic.

Ive spent the past year not writing about things. Thats gotta stop. I mean, in this case, its gotta start. I miss writing, so its time to start again. Not just lists and charts, but actual, real narrative. Its fun. I like it. Id even like to plaster some of it up here. Oddly, I find that I write best when Im supposed to be doing something else, and these days, no one makes me do things, so Ill have to make myself do something.

New Topic.

Whats going on this weekend? Anything good? Im going out tonight and watching the Eagles on Sunday at 9am. No drinking on Saturday night, that much is for sure. Maybe I can play fighting games online with Drew. Or Michael. Well see.

If youre hardcore and want to see some pictures from Christmas 2008, youll either click this link, the picture above, or youll just refresh the page here so many times that you see every new picture on the rotator. If youre this last guy, stop – its creepy.

There arent a ton, considering all the places I went. I need to be better about that in the future. However, when Jeff hits me with his pix from various past Booties, Ill post some of those, whichll add significantly to the picture count round here.

So I got my insurance bill this month and its 13% higher for this 6-month period than for the LAST 6-month period. Weak! Its probably to pay for all those stupid animated commercials that they run during football. Theyre all “We got permission to raise our rates in California, so every policyholder is seeing an increase!” No tickets, no accidents… Im pretty sure I even had a ticket fall off due to the 3-year thing – my rate should have dropped, not upped. (Is upped the opposite of dropped?) Now I have to begin the arduous trek of calling insurance people and having them go “wait, THIS is your drivers record? You want WHAT from us? HAHAHAHAHA!” and then putting me on hold for 5 minutes only to come back with “Im sorry, weve stopped insuring automobiles as of six minutes ago. Good luck!”

All that aside, Ill probably fail to find anything cheaper than this, as I have my copious notes from last time Ill bet that everywhere has raised their rates in California (13%?!) due to the high cost of fuel making it more expensive to answer phones.

Grumble, grumble. Pix from Christmas, coming soon.

I just installed the Microsoft-leaked beta of Windows7, and its pretty much just like Vista so far. At least, as far as I can tell. Its pretty fast, but no bells and whistles are turned on because I havent even installed the proper display drivers yet.

Im installing hardware updates now, and then hopefully Ill have a better idea. The install is on whats left of my last machine, not a VirtualBox like my Ubuntu and XP installs. I mean, I may throw it on a VirtualBox later, but I figured itd be good to try the new OS on a distinct system.

update: lookin pretty good – Windows just found the proper drivers for the video card and autoconfigured the monitor properly. Good Job. And its still pretty speedy on this old system. Seems, at least as far as the Explorer goes, as fast as XP.

Im only a couple days late, right? Good.

New Years Eve was spent at MMs house – good times, even if I was the oldest person there by about a decade. Nice place, too.

Ive been thinking about New Years Resolutions, but havent come up with any specific ones, and specificity is next to Godliness, at least as far as resolutions go, right? Im definitely thinking more creative output. More things written and shot.

What else? Im ending Photo Albums. I want to finish out 2008 and then thats it. I mean, special occasion albums, fine, but no more general “this is my life” style albums. Travel. Motorcycle. Debt Management. Cooking. Building shit. Pretty damn general, right?

Happy 2009!

So for anyone that reads not logged in, isnt a friend on Facebook and/or doesnt Twitter, I am no longer locked out of my house. I mean, you probably didnt know that I was locked out of my house, but whatever. Im a poster of-the-moment these days.

Im home and have been hunkered down doing laundry, cleaning up paperwork, sorting mail and taking down Christmas lights.

Then I got distracted and had to go do a 4-hour airport double run, but now Im back, ate my 6″ sub (woot me!) and am now relaxing. I like relaxing. I also like that every bit of my clothing is either clean and folded and put away or on my body. Of course, Im about to go change that cause Im going to throw everything Im wearing off and find comfy pants in case my roommates come home. Gotta wear pants for the roommates.

Oh, and go Eagles. Way to not suck the one time Im on a plane for exactly the length of the game. Thats how I know you love me – you only hit me when I deserve it, and you always apologize so earnestly afterwards. I still love you. Please dont hit me anymore. Cause I do friggin hate the Cowboys.

After a late, but uneventful flight to LA, I returned to find myself locked out of the house. Exciting, right?

The rest of the vacation was excellent: full of family, fires (in the fireplace) and feasting. Man, did I eat. I forget what its like not to be full.

Now Im back in LA, chillin at Em & Mattys house, and trying to figure out how Ill be getting back into my place tomorrow. Everyone with a key is out of town for the first time in basically three years. Its absurd. Turns out that my trip is lasting much longer than Id intended it to, I guess. at least I have my laptop and some clothes, although I do need to be doing some laundry.

Welcome to the boringest update of all time. Im sorry – Im locked out of my house after a 2-week trip. All I want is to be in my house. *sigh*

Merry Christmas – I hope its an amazing time for everyone here.

I