Yargh. Must work out soon. Cavalcade of Christmas goodies quickly accumulating on waistline. Haven't done anything the last two days, mainly because I've had to get my newsletter done. The good news is I got it done today, so tomorrow I'm running, dammit.

Christmas was fun. It was good to have my mom around, and even better that Hannah was able to spend some time with her. Got some cool presents, although Hannah got most of the loot, as she should. She was cracking me up when she was opening presents, tossing aside clothes in her constant search for toys. Didn't take her long to figure that out.

I've seen some good movies that I missed in the theaters in the last few days. "Adaptation" was on HBO over the weekend...it was so meta it made your head spin. Nice touch to have the scenes on the "Being John Malkovich" set with Cusack, Keener, and of course, Malkovich. It was amazingly self-indulgent, and yet, really, really good. Then last night, we rented a couple of DVDs. I enjoyed the surreal "Punch-Drunk Love," and surprisingly, Adam Sandler proved he can actually act. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a great actor...that guy makes every movie he's in. We also rented "Old School", which I plan to watch after the Leafs game tonight. It's the second intermission right now and the Leafs are losing 4-2 to the friggin' Panthers. They're not looking good. I'm planning on going to see them play the Bruins on New Year's Day, but I sure hope they get their act in gear again.

So "Finding Nemo" has replaced "Dumbo" as Hannah's go-to movie, meaning she wants to watch it over and over again. I think I've seen it at least 12 times. Funny things, it's a great movie. Some great performances from Albert Brooks and Ellen Degeneres, as well as good bit parts by Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Barry Humphries (the guy who plays Dame Edna--he's a Great White shark in this), and a bunch of others. Excellent animation, too.

Aiight, I'm outta here.

Blog humbug! Actually, I'm in a pretty good mood. Working a half day tomorrow, then picking my mother up from NH so she can spend the next few days with us before heading back to O Canada. Although I have a bunch to do at work because my deadline is Monday, so Friday will be a busy day. At least there won't be many distractions. The last week, my group has been bringing in so much food, I feel like I'm going to explode. Good stuff, though.

The Patriots-Jets game was a lot of fun. In the parking lot before the game, we didn't think we'd last into the second half because it was so damn cold. About 30 degrees with a brisk wind. But our seats were so close to the field--9th row in the Jets season ticket holder section--that we didn't have to worry about the wind. It was still really cold, but we lasted the whole game. We were a few rows behind Fireman Ed, this guy's who a fixture at Jets game, starting the "J-E-T-S" chant and getting on the big screen. This guy's such a legend, that during the halftime presentation of the all-time Jets team, one of the players came over and gave Ed a souvenir ball. Anyway, we were right in the middle of all these obnoxious Jets fans. Eight-year-old kids were giving us crap, although the Pats were leading the whole game and had a much better record. Jets QB Chad Pennington threw five interceptions and the Pats won 21-16. Unlike Foxboro, it took us longer to walk to our car than it did to drive out of the place.

It was cool to meet Timmy, my three-week-old nephew. I had forgotten how small newborns were. Of course, I'll be able to remember it all over again in a couple of months.

We got an EZ-Pass transponder just before we went down there. Those things rule. I love not having to scramble for correct change, or any change, for that matter.

Got all my Christmas shopping done early this year for a change, although Deb did most of it for both of us. More later. Me go now.

Domo arigoto, Mr. Blogoto. Yeah, I know, it's been over a week. I've been busy. I'm actually home today hanging out with Hannah--my mom's coming down from NH to visit with us for a while before we head to NJ for the weekend. Then she'll stay with us next week for Christmas. Should be a good weekend. My brother-in-law Matt scored tickets to the Pats-Jets game Saturday night, so we're there. It'll be cold, but fun. Plus we get to meet little Timmy for the first time.

Man, I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away. This year flew by. It was a good year, for the most part.

My favorite music of 2003, in no particular order:

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists--Hearts of Oak
Sloan--Action Pact
Consonant--Love and Affliction
Radiohead--Hail to the Thief
White Stripes--Elephant
New Pornographers--Electric Version
Gordon Downie--Battle of the Nudes
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks--Pig Lib
!!!-!!!
Hot Hot Heat--Make Up the Breakdown
Metallica--St. Anger

Okay, so technically it wasn't a blizzard, but we got a crapload of snow. The final tally was just short of three feet. That's right. THREE FEET. Biggest snowstorm I've ever seen. My back is still sore from the shoveling. Deb got two days off from school because the streets were so bad. We had a delayed opening Monday at HCPro, which was just as well because I was getting a little stir crazy.

The day off was good for Deb because she was able to get the Maxima's brakes fixed, and I finally got my Civic back tonight, so I won't have to bum any more rides. Three weeks without a car is pretty rough. I missed having control of the radio and the route and, well, the car. Let's hope the thing holds together for a good long time now.

So the Leafs beat Detroit Saturday night to extend their winning streak to eight. I only got to see the first two periods because our power went out for about 90 minutes. Unfortunately, they lost in OT to St. Louis last night, but you've gotta tip your toque to a hell of a run.

Looks like the Red Sox are actually going to pull this A-Rod deal off, and then wheel Nomar to the Dodgers or Angels. They could actually go into next season with a better team than the Yankees. Meanwhile, the Jays got Ted Lilly in a trade, which was good, and signed Pat Hentgen and Kerry Ligtenberg from the Orioles, which is okay, but it's hard to see them competing with the Yanks and Sox. So it's hellooo, third place once again.

Okay, that's enough blogmastification for now. Werd.

Welcome to Kumar's Blizzardnog. We're getting slammed by a huge blizzard that's supposed to drop about two feet of snow on us when all is said and done. I've already been out shoveling once, this morning when about five inches had fallen, and I'm about to go out again in a few minutes. We've basically been housebound all day, not that we could have gone anywhere even if the weather was nice. My car's still being worked on and Deb's car is having brake problems, so it's just as well that the weather's horrendous. It doesn't help matters that our mechanic's real job involves plowing, so he's pretty busy right now.

So I spent the week bumming rides to work. Thursday night, Deb and I saw a great hockey game. The Leafs absolutely smoked the Bruins, 6-0. Total domination. Usually, when I see the Leafs in Boston, they lose, so it was nice for me. Our section was full of Toronto fans, too, so that made it even more fun. We took the train in, and to catch the 9:30 train we had to leave with four minutes left, but it was already 6-0 by then. It was Toronto's seventh win in a row, their longest win streak in 10 years.

Last night, I got together with the Webnoize doods--Ric, OJ, Lee and Christian. Briggy was just back from Beth's company trip to Sanibel, so they had to spend time with their kid. Took the train in again, doing my old commute to Central Square. We met at the Miracle of Science this time. Hung out, mostly talked with Doobs and OJ, and then I was going to catch the 10:45 train back to Beverly, but Ric offered to drive me instead, so I took him up on it. The snow was just starting to fall. Originally, Deb was planning to drive down to NJ to see baby Timothy, but the Maxima's brakes and the weather put the kibosh on that.

Tuesday morning was a traffic nightmare, as we had some snow squalls that immediately froze and caused major traffic jams all over the Boston area. It took over an hour to get from Beverly to Marblehead, but poor Deb had the worst of it. It took her almost FIVE freakin' hours to get to Malden, a trip that usually takes less than 30 minutes. Route 1 was just a parking lot, I guess. My buddy Convey at the Boston Herald ended up quoting Deb for a story he did on the storm, so she got some ribbing for that.

Well, time to go out and shovel some more. Then it's time to crack open a few beers and watch the Leafs play Detroit. Nice.

Thanksgiving's over. Let the X-mas season officially begin. Back to work after a four-day weekend. The drive down to NJ wasn't too bad, considering it was the day before Thanksgiving. The real slow spot was on I-84 near Waterbury, CT, just as it was in the summer when we went down there, and just as it was when we drove home on Saturday. Tricia didn't have her baby while we were there, but she ended up going to the hospital early Sunday morning and having a baby boy, Timothy Jude, on Sunday at 5 a.m. Big kid, too, 8 lb 6 oz. Congrats to the happy parents.

We had a good time down there. Hannah had a blast playing with her cousin Danny, and Deb and I got a taste of what things will be like in a year or two when we took the kids to McDonalds while Matt and Tricia were at the hospital. Trying to keep them both sitting in their seats while Deb ordered the food was a huge challenge; then Danny started asking for his mommy. Somehow we got through it--mainly by eating quickly--but it gave me an interesting glimpse into the future.

Didn't OD on tryptophan this year. I ate my share, but managed to keep it to a light gorging.

Meanwhile, the Leafs are on fiyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, as the great VH used to say. They've won five in a row over pretty decent teams--Vancouver twice, Atlanta, Ottawa and the Rangers. Deb and I are going to see them playing in Boston at the Fleet/Bank of America/Some Other Bank in 2005 Center on Thursday.

Looks like fixing the Honda won't be quite as expensive as we thought, so we're going to do that and hopefully keep it going for a few more years. Our mechanic, who we trust, feels it's the best option, instead of going the Escort route. I hope he's right.