Bearshorty's musings

Netflix came to its senses. Still don’t know if I’m going to keep the DVD part of it.

I finally finished Frederik Pohl’s “Gateway.” I did like it. The book is older than me but it didn’t really feel like it nor was it dated. Now only Hardy left to read, at least before I pick up my library book. I did read the intro to “Origin of the Species” during “House” commercials – I like the free classics I can get on my Kindle.

( Dexter S6E2 )

Baseball playoffs annoy me when they preempt my TV and I have to guess when the show will start. And I can’t watch “House” online until next week. So that meant sitting in front of TV with it on mute.

( House S8E2 )

My head finally cleared around 1 or so but I pretty much took it easy today. Next three days will be hectic.

What I like about New Year’s Day is that it usually a very relaxed day where we open presents, enjoy them and eat left over holiday food and I get to spend the whole day with my parents and with Bear.

When I was little I would wake up very, very early and then Sasha and I would go open our presents when all the adults were still asleep. (Sasha - short for Alexander - is my first cousin. He is only six month older than me so we grew up together until I moved to America. I call him my brother because in Russian language we don’t say ‘cousin’ we say something like ‘second-level brother’ and I always thought of him as my brother and his sister Katya as my sister.) I would stay over my Aunt’s house for most of the day, and we would open presents and then go to kitchen and eat left over olivie salad and cake.

Now as an adult I don’t rush to open presents, I like to sit there and look at the tree with presents under it for a bit. Still in pajamas.

My New Year Loot:

1. Not the Messiah (Monty Python CD) – from Bear
2. The Complete Sherlock Holmes (books) – From Bear
3. “Sherlock: Season One” DVD – from Papa
4. Adam Lambert CD – from Papa
5. $25 iTunes gift card –from Papa
6. “Gateway” by Frederik Pohl (book) – from Papa
7. purple pajamas – from Mama
8. socks – some from Mama, some from Bear’s brother and his girlfriend
9. $25 Barnes and Noble gift card – from Bear’s brother and his girlfriend (rest of Riverworld books, here I come)
10. Castle Keep: The Game of Medieval Strategy and Siege - toy from Bear

We spent the morning talking to relatives all over the world from Belarus to Russia to California on Skype. I love having cameras in the computer and seeing everyone. The technology is awesome. I found out that Sasha might actually come visit in May. He’s never been to America before. Now he just needs to get a visa to leave Belarus which is not 100% certainty. Fingers crossed. I don’t want to get too excited until he actually gets a visa but the idea of it is making me very happy.

Bear and I went for a walk in the afternoon before lunch and I had to find three different types of stain removal pencils/sticks – the drawback of a real tablecloth and lots of food. It got warmer today but we still had to negotiate walking in the snow.

After lunch, all of us watched “A Study in Pink” the first “Sherlock” episode. My parents really liked it. Bear did too. I was glad to see all the scenes deleted from PBS broadcast.

Then I ordered my Riverworld books and Bear and I played on the Wii. We tried some Winter Sports games and then mostly played on Wii Fit.

Today was a nice day.

Exercise: a walk and some Wii.
Cross-stitch: I started with purple color on the ball. I’m trying some parts in two-ply and some in three to see which I want to do. Two-ply is neater but three might look better.

I want to wish everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year!