As I look at my calendar, it’s eight point something business days and counting until my work year is ended. I’m going to try to not do a daily countdown; that would get tedious. That said, as mentioned on Friday, I have a handful of basic tasks to supervise the accomplishment of, and I’ve already managed to avoid the half-assed holiday parties this directorate throws, so you could say I’m mostly good. I have a plan. If I stick to it, and deflect any other additional tasks, I’m gold, Ponyboy.

This weekend I got out a bit; the spouse and I actually got some of the Christmas shopping done; I’ve still got a bit to go (and I gotta come up with a couple of good nerdy gifts for the exchange this weekend at the holiday party/band gig I so look forward to), but it’s more than just that one thing I grabbed a while back in a fit of inspiration now, so I’m showing progress. I never made it to Secret Sandwich Society, but that’ll come – we just couldn’t handle getting into the city. Our date seemed to go better than a certain teenager whose name I won’t mention though.

Saturday I got the scheduled service done on my car; my bit was trivial (with synthetic lubricant, I didn’t even have an oil change this time), though I got to watch a couple of people mourn the loss of their timing belts (thank the maker I have a chain). After that, I built a stage for the Celtic Christmas extravaganza, watched the family do their thing (actually all of them!), then I tore it down again. I wasn’t alone in this , but it scratched some muscles I haven’t used in a while, both literal (ow my back) and figurative (yay stage crew!).

Sunday…groceries, a complete failure of an expedition to find adequate women’s shoes, cleaning a fish tank, and sitting down and watching three hours of David Lynch’s Dune, which is probably an objectively terrible movie, but I love it for the overacting, the fact that half the dialogue is internal monologue, and the sheer baffling scale of the thing. It’s so overblown, it’s amazing in it’s audacity.

Oh yeah, in there I kind of learned how to play one of the band’s new songs. It’ll be fun. I’ve never played a tango on stage before.