Three of the best things about our house in La Crosse are location, location, location. When we first got here, one of the first things we heard about was the New Year's Eve fireworks from Granddad Bluff. Because of some horrible tree blight about 30 years ago, there are few mature trees in La Crosse, and as a result, we have a great, unencumbered view of Granddad Bluff. Juniorette and I were able to sit on our sun porch/family room) and watch a 30 minute fireworks display on New Year's Day night. Juniorina, whose room is directly above the sun porch, watched from upstairs.
Traditionally, there are two shows--a children's show at 6 pm on New Year's Eve and one at midnight. Owing to warm temps and a full day of rain, the Skyrockers postponed the show til New Year's Day at 6 pm. As I was sleepy from too much turducken, spiced nuts and wine on New Year's Eve, I was quite happy with the schedule change.
I had my first multi-day vacation in years from Dec. 20 to the end of the year. I've traditionally taken a couple days here and there, but have generally not taken long vacations. This year, I didn't get any vacation until Dec 1, and had to take it all by the end of the year. I was more than ready. It's also the first time I've truly stayed away from work. I didn't check work email, I didn't call in to see how things were going, I didn't go near my Bloglines account, and I didn't log in to Tinfoil+Raccoon. I'm pretty sure there were a couple days in which I didn't even write any email. It was a library-free, relatively off-line vacation, and I can't tell you how nice it was to stay away.
Not that I was a lay-about for two weeks. It was still pretty jam-packed.
- I started on a kitchen painting project that I hope I can finish before next Christmas
- Made a trip to Bloomington to deliver the girls to their dad and to visit with my mom. Also got to see Big Dad, who is just fabulous, even after a year that included a stroke, triple bypass surgery and colorectal surgery. Timex has nothing on him.
- Made bunches of fudge and cookies
- Spent lots of time with friends and neighbors
- Celebrated Juniorina's 13th birthday
- The Mr. returned to public radio. Although it's been 18 years since his last regular gig as a jazz announcer on public radio, he sounded really great on his inaugural gig as an occassional host for the Saturday afternoon jazz program on WLSU.
I've been giving a lot of thought to Tinfoil+Raccoon in the three weeks that I've stayed away. I'll be doing a follow-up post about the direction of this blog and about my general thoughts on the state of the biblioblogosphere.






