I don't want a lot for Christmas...

[Seasons] Greetings from San Antonio, and Merry Christmas.

Christmas Day, while being spent with the family, does provide me with some downtime: post-present unwrapping, and talking to my dad and sister in California (after they'd patiently waited for us to open presents after them--my sister tends to rise very early on Christmas morn; so our 10:00 a.m. or so start time here to open things threw her off). But just a brief bit o' time away from things to post here.

As an update to the gift-finding fiasco that this year turned out to be: I managed to find/buy a few presents, though a few of them will be delivered in January. My lack of present finding continued through my departure from Florida, which while helpful in that I didn't need to truck them on the plane here to SA, my one day here prior today didn't leave much time to really find much. But it did go better than previously: I at least found things, though I still need to track down some things, particularly for my Dad....

But I do get to see my family, and a few friends, which is good. Happy Holidays.


I don't need to hang my stocking
There upon the fireplace
Santa Claus won't make me happy
With a toy on Christmas day

Tengo una mañana constante

Spurred by a surge of reading during my trip to Ohio last week (killing time on flights, and staying out of the cold), I have finished Don Quixote: woo-hoo!

The problem now is what to start now? I don't want it to be anything too heavy, to have a change-of-pace as well as allow for the likelihood of being done in time for Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas, my present searching goes terribly. Earlier this week I looking for some gifts. I spent about 2 hours at the mall, and found nothing to give. Not even a belated gift for my stepdad's birthday which was last week.

Pesky pre-Thanksgiving switch-over of radio stations to Christmas music still has me bummed. It even almost stopped me from buying a plane ticket home for the holiday. But I do have that; leaving a week from today. Leaving me a week to get presents....


Tengo una mañana constante
y una acuerla esperando
verte pintado de azul

Up on an airplane

Greetings from Columbus, Ohio, where I am at for work through the weekend.

The weather I heard earlier reported that the low here tonight would be 11 °F. Shortly after this, it was also mentioned that Miami had a record high of 91°, making me all the more glad I am here for the high in the mid-20s. (I miss cold weather, actually; and it's strange to me to have to have my air condition on in December.)

It reminded me of what happened yesterday book-ending my flight up here:

• At 8 a.m. in Fort Lauderdale, I sweated as I walked in pants and a polo shirt to catch the bus. (I did get "glove" service from an elementary school crossing guard: she held her gloved hands up in the air, holding off the early morning traffic as they stopped to let me cross)
• My flight into Columbus was on a smaller plane, so when we landed we were too low to warrant a jetway to our door. As we disembarked from the plane, it was to the outside and a brief walk into the terminal. It was probably around 27° out (I could see my breathe), and I willed myself to be warm ("I am warm, I am warm" being the mantra) as I thought about my jacket being packed in my checked bag....

There was also a pair of Navajo code-talkers on my flight out of Florida, just a few rows ahead of me (which was also cool).


I never should have read my horoscope
Or that fortune on the bubble gum strip
Saying, "What you think won't happen, will."
Great thing to read before a trip

Things that make you go hmmm

Sometime last month, I received a rather strange catalog in the mail: the Holiday catalog from Heifer International.

I had never heard of the company before, but like most pieces of junk mail, I brought it inside and left it to sit on the floor for a bit. A few days later, in glancing around, I recognized that there was a picture of a sheep on the cover. Given my liking of throwing sheep on Facebook, I decided to flip through the catalog.

To my surprise, the catalog was to buy animals to give to other parts of the world. Sheeps, goats, pigs, chicks, and even heifers, were available for purchase--among other things.

This just perplexed me. Not only because I wonder how/where they got my mailing address, but that there's even an organization that exists to do such a thing.


It's those things that make you go hmmm
Things that make you go hmmm, yeah

There can be no, hat like thee

I continue to make my way through Don Quixote. As such, a quote from the Second Part....

"Be quiet Señor," replied Sancho, "for by my faith, if I start asking and answering, I won't finish until tomorrow. As for asking fool questions and giving nonsensical answers, I don't need to go around asking my neighbors for help."

"You have said more, Sancho, than you realize," said Don Quixote, "for there are some who exhaust themselves learning and investigating things that once learned and investigated, do not matter in the slightest to the understanding or the memory."

-Don Quixote, Second Part, Chapter XXII (p.601)

Golden helmet of Mambrino
There can be no hat like thee

(and a rather interesting find: the song in Korean)