This has been a wonderful and merry Christmas so far. purpleglitter got me wonderful gifts, including a new birding camera — the same model as the broken one, so that it will work with my telephoto lens.

My parents gave me a brass clock once owned by my great-grandfather. It's an old electric clock and wasn't made with the ability to start up on its own. A knob in the back must be spun just right so that it "catches", then the electric power will take over. The neat thing about the clock is that it will run backwards if the knob is spun backwards. I used to always set it running backward when I was a kid, and it is running backwards in my livingroom now.

Yeti, my parent's dog, died today. She was 15 years old. I remember her as a playful and scrappy young dog, but she hasn't been that way in a long time. She had a good doggie life and was well loved.

Good journey, Yeti.

I love google news. I didn't know anything was going on with OJ Simpson until my mom asked me what I thought about it yesterday. You see, I have the entertainment section turned off and all I get is real news.

I'm back in Boston. I had a great deal of fun with My sister, niece, brother-in-law, and mom. Maddie is a little ball of energy. Well, not little, she's quite big for a 7 year old. Smart and creative, but I just can't keep up with her.

The day I arrived, Thursday, we pretty much stayed around the house and relaxed. My mom had already been there for several days and was already settled in.

Friday, Christian stayed home while Maddie, Bridgette, my mom, and I went down to Georgetown. We hit Lush and Godiva and went to Dean & Deluca for lunch. While I've seen central meter machines in parking lots, I'd never seen a central machine for street parking before. I guess it is more efficient than having a separate parking meter for each spot, I'm just not used to it. The biggest disadvantage I see with the central machine system is that if it breaks down it disrupts the use of a number of parking spots at once.

Saturday we drove into Virginia through wine country and went to Linden Vineyards (nothing to do with Second Live). That was my favorite part of the trip down. Relaxing doesn't even begin to describe the place. Surrounded by rows of grapes and vine watching the clouds shadow-dance on the Blue Ridge Mountains. The cigar Christian gave me to smoke at the vineyard not only went perfectly with the cheese and wine, but also with the surrounding tranquility.

Sunday, I got up later than I had planned, but not so late that it caused any hassle in catching my flight. Upon leaving, Christian gave me some cigars, along with a 15-pack of Rocky Patel vintage 1992s, one of my favorites. My mom gave me a wonderful dragon cane when I arrived at the house and I was a bit worried about getting on the flight with 2 canes, but I didn't have any hassle and the return trip from Reagan National to Logan went smoothly.

I had hoped to get some good bird pictures, but unfortunately my birding camera is not working. I noticed it my first day there. It seems to be a connection problem with the battery prongs, which should be repairable. But, I was glad to see that Maddie loved birds and birdwatching despite her father's hatred of them.

I'm leaving for Washington tomorrow (well, actually Arlington, Virginia) to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. My mom is already there and are visits have been planned to overlap. As some of you might know, I've been vegetarian for 14 years but have been considering eating seafood for some time. There is a good chance that on this trip I will actually take the plunge. The prospect of ending 14 years of vegetarianism is a bit daunting, and I would be limiting my meat intake to sea-fairing non-cephalopod exotherms. I've gone over it again and again for years in my head, working out the logistics of my personal moral code, and I think I'm okay with it.

Haven't given much of an update lately on what I've been up to.

The weekend before last my sister, Madeline, and Christian came up to visit. I met them downtown on Saturday and my sister took me to get my first ever professional manicure. I had a lot of fun and Maddie is a joy. She is so huge, though! I'd swear she was 10 or 11 if I didn't know she was 7.

Last weekend, invalid_userid came down for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release. purpleglitter, invalid_userid waited in the long line in Harvard Square. Usually waiting in lines is boring, but with the crowd I had a great time. There were a couple profiteers who got in the front of the line and walked down it trying to sell their books for $50. I didn't see anyone buying, but I'm sure they found someone when they got near the end (which rumor had it was somewhere in Watertown). I was very excited to get merryperseis's register when I finally got my books, I had thought the odds of that rather slim.

zarthon took purpleglitter, invalid_userid and me out to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the next day. Inevitably a lot of the book was left out, but I think enough critical stuff was missing that someone who hadn't read the books probably wouldn't be able to make much sense of it.

Sunday, we all went to the Museum of Science. The exhibits there have enough range to appeal to any level of scientific knowledge. We saw a demonstration of the still very functional original Van de Graaff generator built by Robert J. Van de Graaff in 1933, but my favorite part of the Museum of Science visit was the butterfly exhibit, where a large owl butterfly landed on my shoulder and sat there for a very long time just looking at me and occasionally stretching its wings. Looking into the butterfly's eyes made me regret all the nasty rhetoric I've spouted about exotherms.

Next weekend, our new landlord is coming to visit from California. She has not seen the building in over a year. I'm excited to meet her, she sounds awesome over the phone. She's trying to rent the unit next door, so if anyone is interested in a two-bedroom in Arlington, let me know.

At the end of next month, I will be heading down to see my sister in the Washington, D.C. area. My mom will be visiting there at the same time, so it should be a great trip.

I'm going to be landing in Saint Louis this Friday on a one-way airline ticket. It will be the first time my brother, my sister, my parents, and I will all be in the same place at the same time in over a decade. I'm looking very much forward to this.

Sunday, we will all be heading down for the day to Murphysboro, Illinois - where I was born - to see my family down there.

Sometime during my stay in Missouri I hope to see type_40.

I also want to find a way to get to Columbia, I haven't seen the town for a long while and I'd really like to meet up with ceruleanct11. However my tight budget and the infrequent bus schedule very well might thwart that endeavour.

I plan to go home via rail and/or bus, but that leg of the trip has not been fully set in place. I will definitely be stopping in Saint Thomas, Ontario on the way back to spend some time with goldmourn.

I'm also hoping to meet up with likeamermaid on my journey, but if that will occur is not certain as of yet.

While this isn't well planned out, I have a good feeling about it. I'm sure it will be an adventure at the very least.

I arrived back in Boston yesterday afternoon. The trip home was relatively uneventful. My flight left St. Louis at 7:05, and I have found that morning travelers tend to be far less eager to strike up a conversation than evening travelers.

I saw my Uncle Dizz for the first time in many years, Thursday. When he saw me he exclaimed "Haven't seen you in a long time. You've got breasts!". He's a very nice guy, who is apparently doing quite well these days. It was nice talking to him again, even if my visit to his house was brief.

That evening I stayed up until 2am talking with my mom on the back porch. We discussed many difficult issues and I still feel a bit not-here, but I'm glad we had the talk.

purpleglitter, zarthon and I were planning to go to a reading by Augusten Burroughs yesterday evening, but I was far too exhausted having only slept 2 hours the previous night. Maybe some other time.

My mom dragged me to Walmart, so of course I had to check out the bird supplies. They had several cages available. The smallest cage was 12"X8" for "small birds". No bird that should be put in that size cage. They had a "mid size" cylindrical cage that was 12" in diameter and 20" tall with a picture of three budgies in it. Their largest cage was 25"X20" and billed as a "cockatiel home". I'm beyond disgusted at the pitiful sizes they had there.

I guess that just added one more reason to believe that Walmart is a force for evil.

I went to the Casino St. Charles with my parents last night. Went with $20, left with none. I don't plan to do any more gambling, as that was my loss limit. I don't think I could head out here without hitting the boat though. Both my parents, however, left with more then they went with.

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This morning, my mom and I went yard saling, where I spent $2 at one of them and got 2 belts, some candles, and 4 bottles of Selson Blue. I don't know why a yard sale had Selson Blue, but they did and they were cheep. I've very excited about the belts as well, as they will go with some of my more edgy outfits.

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I've been spending a good amount of time with Jonas. He a little sponge for information, taking in and learning everything he can. It's amazing to watch him, as I haven't really spent this much time around kids his age since I was a kid myself. So far, I'm very glad I've taken this trip.

I wasn't doing well yesterday before I got to the airport, and when I realized I didn't have the correct information with me after purpleglitter dropped me off, I broke down. However, I called purpleglitter who connected me with my mom on a conference call via purpleglitter's cell phone and I got the information I needed.

From that point on, the trip went pretty smoothly. The people on the planes and at the airports were extremely nice to me. I was worried about going through security as a dissident tranny, but I passed without any problems. Perhaps that I was dressed conservatively and pass well these days helped in that regard.

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Jonas is extremely cute. He knows his states and can say the alphabet and count to 100 both in English and Spanish. He just turned 2 last month, and he's wikkid smaht. I'm going to introduce him to Indian food this afternoon, we will be having methi mutter malai for lunch.

I had a pretty good birthday yesterday. Mellow, laid back, and nice.

purpleglitter woke me up with coffee and breakfast. I heard frying and was very confused, as she usually doesn't cook. The faux sausage was very good, and it was a wonderful way to begin my birthday.

Later in the morning, I went with merryperseis to South Station, where she departed for kitsunekaboom's and spaglet's wedding (which is today, and I wish them a happy longtime together). On my way home, I ran into iamacliche in the pit talking to some guy named Bat. Me and iamacliche headed back to my place together where we listened to music and chatted. He left when my mom (myenergy) called.

zarthon took purpleglitter and me out to Grasshopper for my birthday dinner. I had never been there before. There are very few places where as a vegetarian I can order anything on the menu. The food was so impressive that even zarthon, a die-hard meat eater, left raving about it. The three of us headed back to purpleglitter's place and had Peachy Keens (peach juice & Southern Comfort).

The is a difference between knowing a thing and living through that knowledge. The difference is mindfulness. For instance, Sunday I was talking to my mom (myenergy) on the phone and didn't realize I should say "Happy birthday" until she said "Isn't there something you want to say to me.". It's not that I didn't know or had forgotten her birthday was February 5^th. I can recall that date from my mental database with ease. The problem was that I was not mindful that February 5^th was her birthday. The knowledge did not influence my thought and action when it should have.

Mindfulness is an important concept I'm become acquainted with. Much of my realizations have come by weaving together many things I have learned over my live so far. Many of these things were filed away in the dust recesses of my brain. But, through mindfulness, they can interact as they could not before, and have merged and grown . Through mindfulness they have changed me, they have given me hope and led me to a dawn I thought would never come. It never came, because I wasn't watching for it.

Learning is the eyes opening. Mindfulness is the eyes staying open. Learning without mindfulness has a place in business and scholastic pursuits. However it is ineffective as a spiritual tool and a tool of living.

My mom called an hour ago. My grandmother passed away.

It appears that while my grandma is physically okay, she isn't doing so well mentally. According her MRI this stroke didn't damage any part of her brain that the last one had damaged already. However, after this stroke her speech has become nonsensical. She says things like "There goes my legs out the window again" and is convinced that yesterday she got pregnant and today she gave birth to a son. I don't know if the stroke directly caused this or if she's had some sort of psychotic break brought on by the stress of it all.