well, once again it's been a while since i posted. the good thing though, is that during the interim time, i've been having some enjoyable times with friends and family.

the christmas vacation was spent primarily in Virginia with my grandmother and other assorted extended family members. as usual, that was a pretty crazy time with 30+ people at the house on christmas morning. if any more cousins get married and/or have babies, i don't think we'll be able to fit them all into grandma's living room. amazingly enough, i didn't do as much hiding out in the basement as i did over the thanksgiving holiday despite the fact that i did manage to read 3 books between christmas day and the day after…

well, it's 2:30 in the morning, and i've been half-heartedly trying to write this post for about… oh… 4 hours now. i think i'll just let this one go and try to come up with something better tomorrow.

suffice it to say, i had an enjoyable little vacation, and i'm hoping everyone else did as well.

well, this past weekend was actually pretty fun altogether. friday was the usual getting off work and chilling out, then heading up to the backdoor for drinks and hanging out. nothing really crazy happened, but that's just as well as far as i'm concerned.

on saturday, me, the boys, and our friends pat, nicole, and neil, and brax's gf amanda all met up at ZA's for dinner. we hung out, chatted, laughed, and generally had a good time… and, of course, a good meal (except paul, who'd spoiled his appetite by eating about three hours prior… he just had a salad). after that, we all headed up to the rud to see quasi-local (ok, Richmond, KY) band South 75 and non-local band Gaza Strippers. Local band the Glasspack closed the show, but we didn't bother hanging around. all in all, it was a good show, with South 75 pumping out some good classic-rock sounding tunes and pointing at the ceiling a lot. Gaza Strippers came out and put on an exceptional show as usual, their frontman as dynamic and expressive as any you could ever wish for. the Gaza Strippers play unapologetic full-on rock-n-roll, with no fruity twists or hypnotically repetitious stoner-rock "grooves." if you were to ask for the Gaza Strippers at a bar, all you'd have to say is "rock-n-roll, neat." and there ya go.

sunday found me being rudely (… well, ok… politely… ) awakened by my car-less roommate two or three hours before i had any intention of getting up (i.e. around 11:30am) to give him a ride to work all the way across town. since i was already up and about, i figured i'd take the time to get some christmas shopping done, and y'know what i came back with… ? zilch, nothing, nada. at least as far as real presents are concerned… i ended up spending a veritable ass-load of money on silly little stocking stuffers and other little "token" gifts for various people. but… not a damn thing of real value gift-giving wise. am i just unimaginative, am i just looking in the wrong places, or has our culture become so… insubstantial… that no one is making things that i can look at and say… "now that! that would make a great gift!" unfortunately, even i'm leaning toward the "i'm unimaginative" side of that one.

well, hopefully, i'll get a brilliant flash of inspiration in about 5 days and will make a mad dash to all the stores that have just what i'm looking for. i hate, HATE living in the midst of this consumer culture of ours. giving i've got no problem with, it's the damned shopping i can't stand. shopping malls? havens of vanity and vapidity. strip malls? same thing, only with no shoes and more of a backwoodsman's gleam in the eye. mom & pop shops? … right.

damn them all and their little green strips of paper. i want my replicator and i want it now!

yep. it's winter.

on the bright side, we've got a christmas tree up, we finally went out and bought some lights for it along with some other assorted lights–chintzy things that hang in the windows–as well as some stockings… three big ones for paul, brax, and i, and some little ones (two for the kitties, some others for "family" members). so, the house is feeling a little bit more festive now, with blinking lights that aren't necessarily attached to a clock, pieces of entertainment equipment, or computers.

the one thing i do miss at this time of year is a fireplace. there's something about coming in from the cold (spring-like, to be more accurate) winter weather, and sitting by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate and a book. item number one on the list of things whatever house i might eventually buy must have…

sounds like brian and scott are getting settled into the ol' homestead. i really need to get over there and visit them… call me a bastard (… alright, that's enough…) but i just can't seem to find the time or motivation to get out of this house to go visit friends. just another manifestation of that inadequacy i've always had in the "maintaining friendships" department. luckily, most of my friends are very forgiving or just more active.

the last several days i've been doing little piddly things behind the scenes of ye olde bipolar here, most of which aren't apparent, but hopefully i'll make enough progress to let you know about at least one of them here soon.

apparently, i'm entering hibernation mode… i slept way way way too much this weekend. i've gotta start doing stuff, or i'm just gonna sleep my life away.