I took a few vacation days which, added to holidays, give me a nice little mini-vacation at home with the family. I get up just to fix new drinks or put wood on the fire or eat something, pluck a chocolate ornament from the tree, say. Although Alpha did force me to go running with her this afternoon. On ice, it turned out. So, running, eh, pretty exciting. also, busy reading “From Hell”. I have no energy to post here, not often. Most online time is spent conquering the world. Although the .nl domains are fairly kicking my ass right now. Them and the .be. Go click down and click on the map a couple times, unless you like mayonaise on your fries.

Alpha naked at Raising Hell.

Help Feral Living dominate the world by clicking on the map.
Repeatedly.
But not faster than once a second.
You will be richly rewarded.

[Via Uren.Dagen.Nachten, from whom I am in the process of retaking Austria.]

We had lunch at the in-laws, who are wonderful people. Then my wife and daughters went to her cousin’s for her cousin’s daughter’s birthday party. She is one of the unfortunate ones with a birthday on or about Christmas. I don’t feel sorry for her, though, because she is, at three, a towering monster child, a blonde Frankenstein with feet nearly the size of my wife’s (who is an adult) (Gamma, who is more than two years older, wears her hand-me-downs); size doesn’t matter, of course, except she has what I think is a mean streak. And their family is outrageously dysfunctional, which can be entertaining provided one can maintain ironic distance; around the holidays, though, it is hard for me to be ironic, so I worked out instead. The tattooed shaved-headed guy from the tanning salon was there. Woet for Christmas.

I missed the first wave of postings dismayed at the recent tragic loss of Joe Strummer, and would like to make up for that by pointing out to whatever powers are in charge of selecting which rock stars die next that the following are, to the best of my knowledge, still available:

• Leo Sayer

• Barry Manilow
• Mick Jagger
• Keith Richards [maybe]
• The guy from Nickelback

Who did I forget?

Happy Holidays to all of you, and may the New Year be a good one for all of us. Or at least a learning experience.