Ex-Xmas Xperience

Another Christmas has come and gone. We throw a big birthday party for the guy, but does he help with the cleanup?

Yep, today it was time to take down the tree. So tonight -- after putting it off for a while with other chores and a game of Puerto Rico -- we built a fire and got around to it. Most of the ornaments originate with Kathy, so I had no idea which poxeds to put a lot of them into.

My favorite part of taking down a Christmas tree is to light the lights one last time and wind them around the hand-held light rack while they're still aglow. I feel like I'm holding brass knuckes from the set of Star Trek.

On its way out the door, our tree dropped more needles than you'd find in Keith Richards' dressing room. Luckily, the hardwood floors make them easy to sweep up.

Anything else to report this weekend? Just that I'm having a blast using Kathy's Christmas gift to me, a MuVo, a little digital audio player that'll let me carry the music of a few albums with me and still a significant hunk of whatever book I'm listening to. After istening to most of Peter Carey's My Life as a Fake (Think Mary Shelly's Frankenstein with poetry instead of science) in fits and starts on CD, I listened to the last two hours or so of it in practically an afternoon (of stripping paint, naturally). Now I'm onto Bob Dylan's autobiography, read by Sean Penn. Cool stuff, in a handy, lightweight package.

Rob