View From the Bushes

Today is the IT Christmas party here at work. There's a potluck lunch and a gift exchange. In the past the gift exchange was one of those things where you could either take a new present off the table or steal one from someone else (a gift could be stolen at most twice), but I guess the executives decided that was taking too long, so today it's just going to be a random assignment. Generally I get stuck with something pretty lame. I imagine this year will be no exception, but one can always hope.

Last night was the kids' Christmas piano recital. It was just the two older kids, and they both did really well. I'm very hopeful that they will continue with piano lessons and get really good. Certainly I regret not spending more time on my lessons and eventually giving up. One of my goals is to eventually take piano lessons again, but I fear I'm too old to really get to where I'd like to be, and I can't at the moment foresee when I might have the time for it. If nothing else, I'm hoping that I can keep my kids at it by highlighting my own negative example; of course, it could just as easily backfire and give them the license they need to quit.

I'm taking Monday off -- I get to actually use comp-time rather than PTO. I convinced my boss that all the traveling I had to do on Sunday and Saturday for my trip to Boston should be equal to a day off. Actually it's probably more than that, but you don't want to press your luck. Maybe I'll just leave early today.

Three-day weekend!!
Ross