If it’s the holiday season, then it must be holiday break time for me and Debbi, since both our companies shut down from Christmas Eve to New Year’s.
Work was jam-packed right up to the break. In addition to my own work, I’ve been getting several newer employees up to speed on area I work on, used to work on, or just have some general familiarity with. (“How does that work again? Oh yeah… no wait… hmm. Let me check the source code.”) It sure is nice to have more people contributing to my area, but coordinating with multiple people at once takes plenty of time on its own!
Friday we drove around picking up food for Christmas dinner, and then I did a draft on Magic Online. I’d set up a Windows machine a few months ago for just this purpose, and finally made time to play. It was a Scars of Mirrodin draft, and I didn’t do very well, ended up White/Black (not really a solid archetype) with some Metalcrafting, won my first game, lost my next two, and thus was out in the first round of the single-elimination tournament. Bummer. But, now I know how it works, so I can play again!
Then we tidied up the guest room and a little after 4 pm our friend Karen arrived. She’s visiting for the weekend and part of the week, as she did last year, having driven down from the Northwest.
Since it was Christmas Eve we didn’t make solid plans for dinner, and decided to go out to a Mexican restaurant in town. It was dark, so we headed out towards an Italian place. I commented that a nearby strip mall was darker than I’d ever seen it. And then the next block was dark, too. And we realized the street lights were out. Yes, there was a many-blocks-long blackout along El Camino Real in Mountain View, covering the Italian restaurant too. Not really an obstacle we’d expected to have to deal with on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, downtown still had power, so we had dinner at Cascal, even getting there in time for happy hour!
We spent a quiet Christmas at home, opening presents, talking to family, and listening to Christmas music. Oh, and listening to the occasional rain. I made dinner in the late afternoon: Bacon-wrapped meatloaf, potatoes gratin, and Debbi steamed some carrots. It all came out very yummy! I got to use the combination infrared/probe thermometer Debbi got me for Christmas on the meatloaf. In the evening we played Tetris on the Wii and had cheesecake for dessert.
Today we had reservations for dinner at the Moss Beach Distillery, which was yummy as always. And sunny and almost warm, too! After a short walk along the coast, we drove up to San Francisco where we went to the Contemporary Jewish Museum since Karen wanted to see their exhibit about Curious George. After a walk around Union Square, we then dropped in on Borderlands Books where, alas, we failed to see any kitties. And then we headed home, had dinner at Su Hong, and rounded out the day with more Tetris.
More planned for the first half of the week, before Karen heads out.
How was your Christmas weekend?