Our server got a case of the uglies and had to go down briefly for a full exorcism. We are back now, but my theme was old and no longer supported by the creator, so for the moment things are going to be a bit on the simple side.
Please have patience with the look for awhile as I’m not sure when my web guru James and I will have time to mess with it. In the meantime, I will still keep up the (questionable) quality output and will continue to be grateful for your input, as always.
It is 2015!
My resolution is to avoid seeking guidance from the mystic seer.
New Year’s Day, for me, is something akin to an annual calendar-induced time machine. I inevitably find myself thinking back to the previous year and those thoughts bring with them the feeling that I’ve been magically transported to the future, as it cannot be possible that another 365 days have passed.
Some of you are resolution setters, others are not. Over the past (nearly) decade of blogging I have had years where I outlined very detailed resolutions (which rarely turn out to be successful) and other years I have set more loose expectations of things I would like to do/change. The most fun I had was in 2012 when I actually did make some healthy lifestyle changes, which have, for the most part, lasted and in 2013 when I set “The crazily optimistic, if I had all the time in the world, “Come on, you will never get half of this done you starry-eyed dreamer” list of Resolutions, Challenges, Hopes and Pipe Dreams for 2013”
In the spirit of 2013, and because Mark Twain is inevitably correct, I am going to proclaim a few goals for 2015.
“New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual,”
– Mark Twain
(Image found here)
There’s only one more sleep ’til Christmas!
On the eve of Christmas Day I wish each and every one of you a very, merry Christmas. I hope the next few days are filled with wonderful remembrances of Christmases past and with the creation of new memories in Christmas present.
We will spend the morning cleaning and decorating Christmas cookies (including some Dalek shaped ones for our Doctor Who loving friends) as we get ready to host Christmas Eve at our house. Stockings will be opened and Mary and I will celebrate our Christmas together later in the evening.
Tomorrow we will get together with my siblings and their families at my parents’ house to celebrate Christmas and tomorrow night we get to have our niece spend the night! 🙂
Here’s wishing you all a special Christmas week…
and hope that this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special will make up for the disappointing end to Season 8.
What are your plans for the week?
(Neil Gaiman as “Charles Dickens”. Image property of New York Public Library)
There is a great line in Father of the Bride II, where Steve Martin, the “father” of the title, exclaims, “What are we, the Schmaltz family?”
I always chuckle a little self-deprecatingly at that line because the Anderson family, at least the part that Mary, Tori and I comprise, is unequivocally the Schmaltz family. And one of our favorite Schmaltz holiday activities is to partake of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, most often in the form of A Muppet Christmas Carol. That version plucks our emotional cords with consummate skill.
My first day of Christmas Vacation 2014 found me home alone, wrapping presents and readying the house for company. I had come across a link of Neil Gaiman performing A Christmas Carol the previous evening and decided it would be a lovely way to spend the morning. At a little over an hour, Neil’s channeling of Charles Dickens was a wonderful accompaniment to the wrapping of gifts.
The match-making hi-jinks in Date Night on Union Station introduced readers to the Universes’ ancient care-taking race, the Stryx, and to EarthCent Ambassador Kelly Frank and junk dealer Joe McAllister. This screwball science fiction comedy was a fun introduction into the alien-filled future from the imagination of author E.M. Foner.
Because of its positive reception, Foner met reader demands by revisiting Kelly and Joe five years after the conclusion of Date Night with Alien Night on Union Station. He then followed this up with High Priest on Union Station, which takes place two years after the events in Alien Night.
I was pleasantly surprised with Date Night on Union Station, and left that experience with a great fondness for Foner’s characters and a strong desire to continue to get to know them.
Books two and three of the EarthCent Ambassador series do not disappoint. They are every bit as fun as the first, introducing interesting new characters and situations while expanding on established characters.
My admiration for this series continues to grow.
Because of the nature of these books, some spoilers for Date Night on Union Station are necessary as part of the following review.
