The prior-art-o-matic one-ups googleisms, any day.

meriko is a headband that sticks to the ceiling like a gecko, quacks like a duck and connects to the Internet.

shock is an ornately-engraved sphere that revolves and uses the Amazon API.

borogove is a TV remote control that kills all known germs dead! It swears.

un bon vin blanc is a featureless cube! It may cause drowsiness!
(With the frequency of my postings here these days, this one seems true!)

Some mornings, i don't notice that i live in a major urban center, a big city. Walking to find my car doesn't do it for me anymore, nor does the griminess of the city buildings. It's just my 'hood, these days. But some mornings, i'm struck by the fact that i live in a big city, and am in a decidedly urban neighborhood.

This morning, i walked to my car (parked on Valencia) to feed the meter some dimes and give myself a little more time before going to work. Meandered on to the mail box, and dropped in my rent check for next month. Smiled at my Italian deli folks, opening up shop. Returned home to continue getting ready for work. All with my morning cuppa in hand. (Not a travel mug, mind you, a regular ol' coffee cup.)

I'm not sure what it was this morning, but i felt strangely like a young, urban, professional. When did that happen?

... in so many ways. Training to get up too damned early. Training to be a manager for two days. Training by Ely on how to run around and be HAPPY.

I'll let you know how trainable i turn out to be...

What doesn't kill me will only make me stronger.

(really, i'll be ok. Don't take my melodrama overseriously. It was just one hell of a day.)

So many comic book milestones for us! This weekend we completed our transfer of our subscription from Lee's to our new (closer to our) neighborhood comics shop - Isotope. James is a nut, but he's a lot of fun. His store is cozy, he throws a great party, and as an added bonus he runs his store on Macintoshes - allowing me to feel warm & fuzzy about exchanging support of one-another's livelihoods! We took Courtney with us; she stated emphatically that there weren't any hip & cool comic book stores like that in Las Vegas - we had to explain that there weren't really any other stores like Isotope here - it's unique. (To be fair, Courtney quite likes her comic book purveyor; but it's apparently no Isotope!)

In other news, on Saturday we also took Courtney on her inaugural visit to the Exploratorium. Fantastic. Don't miss the exhibit on seeing & sight - make sure you try the game where you have to count the bounces of the basketballs. Oh, how i love the Exploratorium....

Pigface doesn't need any stinkin' gothy firespinners when they come to SF for their next show - they need the SF cast of STOMP to come take over the center of the dance floor for a good jam.

Last night was my aforementioned Christmas Date - we had dinner at Paul K., and then cruised up to see the SF troupe of STOMP in one of their last performances of the season. I think they're about to go on tour. We have seen several other casts of STOMP tour; many of the acts are the same, but they are just as powerful on second and third viewing. I was talking to Russell on our walk home about it - there's something about live music, and especially about live percussion that is so seductive and persuasive - i was tapping my feet and hands the whole time, and wished we were in a place where i could dance. I wonder if that's why i like live jazz so much - the give and take and fluidity of percussive elements is astonishing and compelling. During our walk home, everything seemed like a musical element - i kept expecting the streetcleaners and passers-by to start jamming.

Dinner at Paul K. was great, as usual. We ate at the bar - started with a mezze platter, and i followed with a crab cake app and Russell had the sumac chicken. I really need to try and replicate that dish sometime - i think it would be a good rub for a hearty white fish, too. It turns out that our bartender Kevin knows one of the performers in the SF cast - Carlos. We stopped by on the way home to hand Kevin one of the programs.

STOMP is industrial tap. If only i could find a musical that was full of industrial tap, i bet i could get Russell to go see musicals!

We had such a whirlwind holiday this year - 6 days to see two families - with three of those days primarily on the road. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day proper with the Bornschlegel clan at Casa Krist, and had a wonderful time. On the Christmas eve, we spent our day at the Getty museum, and in the evening, conducted a thorough wine-tasting of many under $15 bottles of red wine. I startled myself by guessing the grapes correctly outloud for 3/5 bottles, and correctly in my head on a fourth. Wacky - i had no idea i was able to call my varietals that well. I wonder if it would be harder with higher-calibre wine....

On Christmas day, we spent much of the day making John's family recipe for ravioli. It's different from my family's (the Del Papas) recipe; it's a chicken, pork and chard ravioli. Dinner was fantastic, and we finished off the evening with a reading of my Christmas story from Russell, and a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit (that weird current edition with recent history and contemporized categories) which my team won on an embarrassing mind-meld between Jean and my brainmeats.

You know the rest of the game - clicky to see photos of Clan Bornschlegel!

Just as i reserve the right to bah-humbug New Year's Resolutions and change things any old time i want to, i reserve the right to make some NYR when the mood suits me. This year, it seems that the mood suits me. I'm finally embarking full-time in my new role at work; things are moving and shaking for those around me, and i feel new-leafy (in the turning-of sense, not the Santa-Cruz-Hippy-Grocery-Market sense). What i've been resolving for 2002:

--To walk the Avon Breast Cancer walk with the bombshells this year.
--To get in shape appropriate to attempting a two-day, marathon-and-a-half walk in June. To maintain that fitness afterwards.
--To not let work rule my life. It will take over upon occasion (that's the nature of software engineering, after all), but it shall not rule me for the majority of the year.
--To cook for friends, at Chez Borogove, at least once a month. Slow Food is this year's mantra.
--To sucessfully build my new team and department into a group that's known for excellence. (Yeah, i know it sounds hokey and like i've been in manager training. But i'm pretty excited about the challenge. Bear with me. It's problem-solving on a scale i've not attempted before, and i love problem-solving.)
--To spend more time with Mom Bornschlegel. She lives too darned close for me not to see her at least once a month.
--To start 2004 with as lovely a NYE as i started 2003, with my friends and family, good food and good wine, camaraderie and love. (Hush. I don't mean to sound like a Hallmark card. It was a really good NYF, and i love these people dearly. Sometimes goopy words are sincere, really.)