Merry Christmas / Frohe Weihnachten!

Another year nearly gone. Funny how it doesn't seem so long ago that we were having a similar Christmas here. We didn't stick to the Chinese food tradition this year. We bought some Trader Joe's pizzas and had those for dinner. (We also had smoothies and some Einstein bagels for breakfast - yum).

Food. Yeah, it's always about the food. I now have two years worth of nearly-daily weights recorded on here, and the general trend is up. There were a couple of times my weight went up and didn't recover, though it's hard to tell on the graph exactly when those times were. Oh well. As I look in near-horror at the unpleasant Christmas morning pics (worsened by the greasy bedhead and baggy PJs), I can only attempt to accept what currently is, and move on. There is no point in getting emotional about it. It hasn't helped much in the past. In five days, we will be flying into warmer locales, and as much as I hate my swimsuit and the fact that I have not lost weight for this vacation, I refuse to let it spoil what may be a once-in-a-lifetime trip (though who knows - if we really like it, perhaps we'll go back someday).

Shortly before Christmas, I finally bought a camera. (I've been obsessing over this for quite some time, and I'm not done yet). I first bought a Canon Powershot A720 from a guy on eBay, and it had a couple of problems - very scratched bottom surface, and defective video. So I went back to the drawing board, wondering (again) which camera was the best choice - and I finally succumbed to buying a waterproof Pentax W60. It should be fun for the trip. Now I'm debating if I want to buy an SLR or not. It's tempting...but I'm not sure how often I'd use it, since it's so much larger, heavier, and more delicate. There are also a couple of medium-sized/bridge cameras with big zoom lenses that are tempting. If money were no object, I think I'd have several cameras. LOL Anyway, the W60 was sort of a present for both Chris and me. This is because (I thought) we were going to keep our gift spending for each other down this year. But no...

Chris bought me a netbook (a mini-laptop). It's an Asus Eee 901, which has to have one of the smallest keyboards I've ever used (but they actually have smaller ones). I guess this size is a compromise between an even tinier keyboard (or just a touch keyboard, like the iPhone/iPod Touch) - and a larger netbook. The 10" one with a bigger keyboard is really appealing, but I suppose it wouldn't fit in my bag as well. I don't know. It's a cute little machine though, and I'd been very recently thinking about something like this...so I guess the man figured it out before I got loud about it. ;) If you don't understand the point of a geek toy like this...well, it's so I can get online in places that have free wireless Internet (which are becoming more and more plentiful). The netbook fits in my bag, so I can take it wherever and whenever I want. It also has some other software installed - I haven't had the chance to look at everything yet. Woot!

Thanks to everyone for the Christmas loot! :)