Watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture then headed over to H & O for special New Years' dinner, was nice until I started feeling shitty again.

Wrapped in blanket, feeling shitty.

Home sick, watching the snow from my bedroom window.

Maybe I'll have a snack.

Got home, let the dogs out & in, collapsed for a few minutes, then went out for some so so Chinese, better than no Chinese at all, but not a patch on the high test stuff on offer to the south.

L. got some spicy maki she wasn't too keen on, dogs gave it five stars.

Collapsing again now.

Coming down with a cold, I think, ugh. Scratchy throat earlier, now sniffles.

Went & got a meatball sub & a Vitamin Water.

Back at work, ugh.

Technical, schmechnical.

Last night, we gave Pete a ride up to Hanover, stopping by the Norwich Inn for delightful beers & tasty food. Was kind of overtired by the time we got home, still not over it.

Finally did some laundry, have been taking Peter around to old haunts, will take him home in a few hours.

Chillier today.

Car repair's underway, center pipe, etc. Also, a mouse apparently chewed through my air filter. Not going to be too expensive, should be done around lunchtime, hurray!

Also got local donuts on way home from shop, double hurray!

Just back from walk with Peter & dogs, been being shown photos of Vanuatu.

Nice having Peter visit, tried to take him to the local hot spots.

Sleepy.

Up early to try to get work out of the way before pal arrives from out of town.

Lovely snow fog.

Dogs started barking violently in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.

Finally got around to festive holiday dinner with latkes & pork tenderloin, yum.

Karen came by, presents were exchanged. Peter's coming to visit tomorrow.

Watching Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

Rainy, foggy, noisy drive home. Pretty exhausted, leaving exhaust system repair until Monday.

Great to see the pups.

Just boarded ferryboat back from the Vineyard after breakfast with kid.

His gig last night was very enjoyable.

The restaurants here are overpriced & mediocre.

Arriving in Falmouth yesterday, my muffler came detached from my car, removed it & put it in the back. Will get it repaired once back in Greenfield.

Feeling creaky.

One of these days should get a job that doesn't require things like working every day of xmas week.

Happy birthday, Henry, and welcome. 37 is pretty fun.

Guess xmas fun is tiring, extremely tired.

Chinese food was so delightfully filling that we ended up scrapping planned dinner, had some snacks & a bowl of grape nuts.

Watched some Planet of the Apes movies, L.'s still watching one.

Work tomorrow, ugh.

Just tuned the uke I got for L.

We've been watching Planet of the Apes.

I received Dr. Who paraphernalia.

Geeking it out big time, pretty much. Hurray!

Going to go swap backup tapes & get some nice Chinese.

Would've just been woken by the loud thunk of Pickles falling off my bed had I not already been woken by roaring winds.

Need a drink of water.

Happy xmas.

This morning, warmer than the past several, for some reason, both dogs peed copiously on our snowy back porch, ignoring all efforts to dissuade them.

Last night, had a very strong drink at the H & O where we went to visit with a friend of mine who was attending a birthday function.

Xmas plans slowly coming together.

Feet still cold from helping dig L.'s car out this morning, pressing on.

Listening to eponymous Neil Young album that arrived here this morning.

Way too cold out for Peretz, just had trouble relieving himself because one of his hind legs didn't support his weight on the cold, cold snow. Poor Peretz.

In other Hanukkah news, we've ordered a pizza with bacon & hot peppers.

Dreadfully dull day.

Icicles the perfect size for skewering humans dangle with delightful menace from the addition housing the new press.

Snacking on pretzels & candied nuts.

Hit the ground running at work, just taking a little breather.

Accounting Dept., argh.

Argh, argh, argh.

Brunch, Hanukkah ceremonial accomplished.

Brunch was even more delightful than usual,close knit local bunch braving the elements & all that.

Happy solstice.

It's snowing again, seems like it's always snowing. I sit down to write and suddenly, it's so cold.

It's very tempting to write, "From now on in, everything I write will be strictly fictional." Of course, there is no strictly fictional, fiction being a subset of nonfiction & vice versa.

Had some unsettling dreams.

Wonder if the H & O is open for brunch.

Trip to work & back a bit grueling, did manage to find a menorah that'll do until my grandma's arrives.

Back hurts crazily badly, more snow to shovel tomorrow, pretty gleeful about that despite the back thing.

L. made tortilla chips, crunchy, crunchy.

Wonder when I'm going to feel like I've caught up on sleep.

Just did a few household chores, workplace chores on in a bit.

Make a wish.

Happy about the coming snowy solstice.

Cake & ice cream, cake & ice cream.

Before that, cheeseburgers with fried onions.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Whee, snow!

Didn't manage to work from home as hoped, network emergency required attention at Greenfield office. Met wife for hearty lunch at favorite place after, had hot rum drinks, well, I did, anyway.

Went & got some snacks from store, am now going to settle in & let it happen. Hurray!

Working from home to avoid driving about in snowstorm, hurray!

Should probably pick up a few things from the grocery.

Rather than lunch, went for a walk through the old neighborhood, got a coffee & a bear claw, very bright out.

Still feeling a bit off, stiff, rough, cough.

Feeling a bit less fucked up.

Remembered to get kibble & filters, got stuff to make garlic spaghetti, sausages with peppers & onions, came home & made that, helped scrape the ice off the sidewalk, trim the xmas tree, etc., etc.

Some chums came by to visit. Good times.

Keep saying to myself, "Must remember to buy dog food & coffee filters."

Also doing work, hurray!

Good bit of snow this morning, lots more on tap for Friday apparently.

Spent day at work feeling ever more sketchy. Also was told that I'm now working all day in Northampton, bleh.

Got home, walked dogs, then we went for nice dinner at H & O with Karen, began to feel overwhelmingly hungry on arrival there. After eating, started feeling sketchy again. Lying down.

Just made myself dizzy standing up, whee!

Not quite back in Eastern Time, I guess.

Having some difficulty waking up, surprise, surprise.

Dogs are behaving a little strangely. Peretz didn't want breakfast, Pickles didn't want to be outside, etc.

Feel like I spent yesterday folded up in a box.

Overtired & sore, worried that I'll have trouble falling asleep.

Finishing art projects always leaves me at a bit of a loss, nothing's ever really finished of course.

All sorts of odd activity at the back of my mind, lots of stuff back there.

Went & bought xmas tree for what I'm pretty sure was the first time ever, then went & had celebratory return early dinner at Wagon Wheel.

L. seems pretty revved up to do things with tree, I'm having a little lie down, hands are sticky with tar despite aggressive cleansing.

Hippity hop, jiggity jig, as you like.

Remarkable that the planes American uses for long flights apparently have less leg room than the ones for short hops. Knees hurt.

In bed with dogs, should shower, still a bit sandy.

Sunnier this morning, going for a swim.

We both sort of collapsed for a while, let the rain happen, etc. Eventually food was needed, we wanted to go for late night sushi/karaoke at this place in the Marriott after 10, wanted to get a snack before. Wandered aimlessly for a while looking for snack, L. looking a little the worse for wear. Didn't find anything interesting, L. suggested we just go to sushi place now, did that, though it was challenging to find, the Marriott doesn't believe in having too many informational maps in their giant complex, apparently.

Finally did find the place & it was damn good. We all felt better & took a cab home. L.'s passed out next to me, looks to be an early night, probably best, get us closer to being back on Eastern Time & all that. Curses!

Went on a little walk across town to check out antique aloha shirts. I took a wrong turn & we got caught in a torrential downpour, really pretty extreme.

As it died down, we reached the aloha shirt place, L. found a pretty cool Hawaiian print dress for $10 to replace her wet things. No cheap dresses in my size.

Went for shave ice next door after. The wife had mango, I, root beer with condensed milk on top.

Happily, we almost made it home without getting soaked again.

Before all that had an extended swim off the beach out back. Pretty glorious.

Been watching preparations for the Honolulu marathon. The finish line is right up the street.

The last time I arrived at this hotel, it was the Sunday of the marathon, odd.

Got coffees from the musubi shop downstairs. Young lady with plush reindeer antlers was working.

Back at the New Otani after a long time away, seems exactly the same. Had fancy multicourse dinner at Japanese restaurant on the 2nd floor, seemed exactly the same. Our room is directly above the little shop that sells musubi.

Flight over was pretty intense. Arrived in pouring lane, waited a long time in line to check bags, big group of Samoans tying up one of the bag checkers. Got moved to an earlier flight as all planes were late. Arrived at gate to surprise additional TSA inspection, surprised they didn't have puppets. Woman at gate counter moved us to a still earlier flight, which we promptly boarded & away we went.

Our luggage, not so much. While L. awaited its arrival on the slightly later flight, I went to get the rental car through more pouring rain, got back to the baggage claim pretty much just as our bags arrived, as we hit the highway, it stopped raining.

Smooth sailing since then, Japanese dinner as I said, walk into Waikiki, cab back, etc., etc.

Have to pay extra for Internet here, but at least it works.

Forgot to mention that I woke this morning to find that my camera's focal mechanism had failed, bought another at Radio Shack so I could get some great shots of Waimea Canyon, ha.

Kauai leg of trip proving to be a bit of a washout, turns out rain night before last was the most they've had in a night in over 4 years, beaches were mostly closed due to either bacteria or stormy conditions, spent most of day driving back & forth looking for some place to take a dip. Finally managed that in Hanalei Bay, left me feeling pretty tired & grouchy, fell asleep early.

Today, we managed a quick dip close to home early, looked at pretty fishes, then had a delightfully hearty breakfast at the Kountry Kitchen. Tried to go look at Waimea Canyon, but it was totally fogged in & pouring. At the bottom of that in Waimea town now, using pay for Internet at slightly questionable Gallery/Cafe, sipping an Americano because they don't have regular coffee.

Apparently poured pretty seriously on Oahu as well, hope the nice folks at Papa Ole's weathered the storm OK.

Arrived on Kauai to beautiful cottage, sketchy Internet service. Stopped by farmer's market for papayas & rambutan then took a drive out west under setting sun, saw remarkable rainbow rising from red cliff face, luckily avoided crashing car while distracted by it.

Watched the cloud-occluded sunset on a beach with kids ATVing back & forth.

Drove back to Kapaa through wet darkness, went out for fancy drinks & dinner, not as good as what we have back home, but tasty enough & L. got her caesar salad, as did I.

Stormed during the night, slept like log through most of that, woke around 9 to flooded yard, wet sneakers.

Going to go to some beach or other shortly. Love to all.

We ended up collapsing in heaps late afternoon yesterday, missed the Mormon/Polynesian spectacular, can't say I'm too disappointed, even without giving them money, the thought of being in close proximity to that loopy hate cult makes my skin crawl.

Got some late night saimin & came home & crashed again.

I got up early & watched the low key sunrise, then took a walk down the street to the market for cigarettes, snapping photos along the way. Just got back & told L. it was about time for her to get up, we've got a car to return & a flight to catch.

This first leave taking is making me feel like the honeymoon's already over. I want more life.

Turning out to be a close to home kind of day, L. managed to actually sleep until a reasonable hour, spent much of the morning lazing about. Went to my new favorite plate lunch place for an early lunch/late breakfast, L. got another breakfast sandwich, without cheese this time, I got more garlic chicken, but the extremely friendly cashier hooked me up with a complimentary side of beef teriyaki. Also offered us free tickets to nightly Polynesian spectacular at the Mormon run cultural center down the road, a sister works there apparently. We were told to return after one for the tickets. Also gave us some buns drenched in coconut sauce which I quite liked, L. not so much.

Went up to Laie point, pretty spectacular, on the way there, noticed the Leonard Jr.'s truck in shopping center. Stopped there on the way back from point for more hot malasadas. Going to hell for sure.

Burned a few of the excess calories frolicking at nearby beach, mostly just floated around.

Stopped back by plate lunch place for tickets around two. Tickets had not yet arrived, waited around checking out the scene, lots of dogs, flamboyant gays & hardy worker types, a lively scene. Just as we were giving up, sister arrived with tickets.

Went back to Laie looking for a soap case & q-tips, while the wife was fetching those, went & got refreshing frozen drinks.

Back at the place, sitting on the lanai, sipping frozen drinks.

Having a very pleasant vacation, loco moco at quality place down the street, snorkling at Hanauma Bay, Leonard's malasadas, both cinnamon sugar & strawberry custard filled (preferred the non-filled), more swimming at delightfully wavy beach being used mostly by boogie boarders, nice Japanese dinner, etc., etc.

Having a guava nectar with vodka, should really shower off some of this salt & grit.

Hope you're feeling better, Mom, tried to call, didn't work.

Woke ridiculously early again today, but not quite as ridiculously early. Watched another beautiful sunrise.

Ended up eating twice yesterday at Papa Ole's, the plate lunch place down the street I was interested in via various Internet review sites, pretty fantastic, garlic chicken was mind blowing. Wish I knew how juicy sauciness within crispy exterior was achieved. Super friendly dinner server promised to hook us up if we returned today for breakfast, hurray!

Raining a little, out on the lanai under an overhang as the wireless works better.

Enjoying typical vacation Internet access, blech.

Otherwise things are lovely, soaked in hot tub, ate garlicky shrimp, got a hat, had shave ice with ice cream, splashed in waves, macadamia pancakes, etc., etc.

L. keeps sending me cows on Facebook. She's pretty awesome.

Woke a little while ago, listened to call of distant tropical chicken for a bit, then walked down to water, constant rolling surf, strong steady breeze, sat there for a little while, came back to room & had a little water.

Finally got to Honolulu, learned that Hawaii has recently enacted bizarre overreaching antismoking ordinance, dealt with surly car rental people, rush hour traffic, etc.

Very tired, finally got to rental, weird hassle with key, L.'s mad there are no screen doors, otherwise seems pretty OK to me.

Took a walk up the busy, busy street for liquor & Korean BBQ.

The party's started, hurrah!

Sitting in weirdly lit terminal, thinking about research into treating PTSD by interfering with the formation of long term memories. I expect if that's ever successful we'll end up being loaded naked into cargo planes & given a little shot at the other end. Might be preferable.

Me & the wife just back from the security theater, waiting at our gate.

Morning wasn't as much of a mad rush as I expected, thanks, Ian.

Woken a little while ago by call from work, not anything I could really help with, thankfully.

Need to get up an hour & a half from now to go to airport, how odd.

Just back from dropping the dogs at Meadowrock Kennel in Suffield, made us both feel a little melancholy, dogs seemed fine.

Stopped for some White Hut on the way home, yum yum.

L.'s work xmas party in a bit. Will try to sleep after that, I guess.

Wikipedia says: "Attention please: The Titan Cronus/Kronos (Κρόνος in Greek) is sometimes mythologically confused with Chronos (Χρόνος in Greek), the personification of time." But you already knew that.

Too many pictures in my head.

Im Dom, da steht ein Bildniss
Auf goldenem Leder gemalt.
In meines Lebens Wildniss
Hat's freundlich hineingestrahlt.

Getting ready for last little bit of work before vacation. Sitting on back porch with dogs, started writing a poem in my head, then lost track of it. Pickles barked at squirrels as I watched them run along the roofline of the neighboring barn.

After work, need to take the dogs to kennel, hopefully it'll be fun for them, wish they could see Hawaii. Afraid of flying.

In my mind's eye, watching a kappa turn into a chi and back again.

Went for final meal at H & O, before trip anyway, cosmos, clam chowder, brisket plates with waffles. Pretty fucking idyllic.

Been reading about plate lunch & shave ice places on yelp & the like.

Plate lunch, shave ice. We're going to go swimming, hurrah!

Just back from walking the dogs, one by one, through the grim, wet darkness of early evening.

Waiting to hear about dinner plans.

Finally did laundry for trip.

Idiotic morning at work, working from home this afternoon, have a very stiff neck, just took a very hot shower, maybe it'll help.

Yogurt & rice seem to be working their magic.

Stiff & sore, warmer this morning.

Lazily lying about, reading about ambiguity. Just read some joker claiming people don't generally employ it on purpose. Lot he knows.

Fed Peretz some rice & yogurt, L. made tacos, everybody's happy.

Peretz seems a good deal better this morning, kept me up late, shivering wrapped in a towel, poor little guy.

Should make him some rice & yogurt later.

Hopefully they'll stay out of the oil today.

Sitting up with sick pup, watching Dr. Who.

Make a wish.

Poor sick pup.

Came home to a vomiting Peretz. After extensive bile cleanup, found the culprit, a bottle of Wesson canola oil, 3/4 full as of yesterday evening, now topless & empty. Pickles seems fine.

We just took them both for a walk, bit more gagging from Peretz. We're cuddled up in a blanket now, he's shivering.

Make a wish, doesn't work, couldn't hurt, etc., etc.

Want some tasty lunch.

It's funny to feel simultaneously exploited & insufficiently taken advantage of, welcome to the American workplace, I suppose.

Wishing I had some ibuprofen.

Sometimes I enjoy the feeling that I am concealing whole universes.

This is, of course, a lot of nonsense-just drips & drabs, mostly not so much hidden as not worth mentioning.

Still, alone with idiosyncratically connoting signs, building little networks, a nice enough hobby horse.

One of these days, I'll finally reread Tristram Shandy.

Back from another soup & game night, black bean soup makes it all better, got the wife so revved up she's back at work working on work, the little piston.

Strangely warm for the day after snow & ice.

Pickles is lazily chewing on something.

Chair at work is making my back hurt.

Bored, stressed, tired, anxious, want to get out of here & off to Hawaii already.

This year is shaping up as the stupidest at this job yet.