WInter Update 2009

It's a frosty and clear wintery Christmas morning here at the house.  I woke up before 6am which, this time of year, is a good two hours before sunrise.  How did this happen?  Yesterday was a full day of preparation for our Christmas Eve dinner where I played the role of Miho's sous chef in an environment not unlike the Kitchen Stadium from Iron Chef.  This year's secret ingredient...Artichoke!

Dinner turned out great, thanks to Miho who was the conductor of the day's feast and we were left in a proper holiday food coma.  What better than to then sit on the couch and watch the Michael McDonald Christmas concert - I've been looking forward to seeing this since I heard about it at Thanksgiving.  He really delivered despite the lack of his signature mustache which I had always assumed was responsible for his muffled, yet velvety and soothing, tone.  I'd highly recommend getting his "This Christmas" CD as it's fantastic as is Neil Diamond's "Cherry Cherry Christmas".  Not even joking and they've been on repeat this entire week.

I've been on a break from work for nearly two weeks which is approaching the record amount of time I've ever had off (which was three weeks) but this won't compare to the epic two months I plan to take off after our baby boy is born.  Not super interested in prioritizing work during that time as, well, I can't imagine eventually regretting not spending more time at work unless my job was to stay home, spend time with family, make music, drink coffee and wine, enjoy fine artisan meats, cheeses, exercise, travel, and generally do things not related to being in an office.  I'm guessing that's what Sting's life or maybe Peter Gabriel's life is like.  Gotta figure out how to get on that plan.

I love that I've now forgotten what day of the week it is.  I know it's Christmas but I have no regard for what day it is as I have no schedule at the moment and, now that my many home projects are mostly complete, I can truly enter full leisure mode.  That's not really an accurate statement as I really can't sit still for too long (which is why I don't update my blog very often) unless I'm spending good quality time with Miho, friends, or making music which is one of the few projects I can focus on for long stretches of time.

Today, we will be going to a friend's house for Christmas Day dinner.  This will be great as yesterday was a full day of preparation and clean-up as I can't really deal with having an un-washed sink of dishes and I hated the idea of waking up to more tasks today.  Maybe that's why I woke up and had to get up as I was just really excited to start relaxing and generally do nothing for a while as everyone else (cats included) slept.  In fact, the cats were in their various sleep locations downstairs and I totally got double-takes from all of them wondering what the heck I was doing up before 6.

Plenty of vacation left for me as I'm not back to work until the 4th and I intend to go back to the office as a completely blank slate.  Hopefully they won't mind that I start the first part of my work day in pajamas, sipping coffee, checking websites/updating my blog, and composing music!