As i'd hoped, "Well, i'm back" were indeed the last words spoken in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I always thought those sentiments of Sam Gamghee were a perfect understated close to the epic War of the Rings, and the final film of the trilogy did well to bring them to life. But i've gotten up to a lot more in the last month than just seeing the latest theatrical blockbuster. Read on ...

Veronica and i decided that instead of buying each other presents, we would buy ourselves one big present. Our tv has seen better days ... it doesn't have any RCA audio/video inputs (let alone S video), and the picture is slightly rotated (1° or so) because of a previous trauma ... so we decided that a new big big big tv was the way to go. We settled on a 32" Sony WEGA from Best Buy, and decided that since we were $200 under our set budget, we'd pick up an 80 hour Tivo as well. We waited a week for delivery, but in the meanwhile i set up our Tivo. The newer Tivo models have USB ports to which you can connect a network adapter to speed up program downloads, and also connect to your home computer network. So i bought a Linksys WUSB12 USB wireless ethernet adapter from Amazon, and after a day of fiddling i got the Tivo to access my wireless G router with a connection strength of 50-60%. After shelling out another $100 for the Tivo "Home Media Option", we can now play mp3's and view photos from both Veronica's eMac and my PC on the tv. Sweeeeeeet. The mp3 player is not as flexible as say a Winamp or an iTunes, but hopefully future Tivo software upgrades will change that. I'm tickled anyway.

With the Tivo installed, we awaited the delivery of our pièce de résistance. I again returned to Best Buy to buy a few S video cables and an S video switch to handle our game systems and DVD player. I rearranged the entertainment center so that the Tivo and all 3 game systems (Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube ... yes, i really am a video game junkie) fed into the switch, which then connected to the tv through the S video input, while the DVD player connected directly to the tv via an RCA audio/video input. So the delivery men come, and all they have to do is plop the thing on the entertainment center, plug in the power cable and one S video cable, and turn it on. I made the mistake of leaving them alone for a few minutes, when i returned i found one of them trying to disconnect the coaxial cable from the digital cable box. I didn't want to question the divine judgement of a professional AV installer, but i also didn't want to rebuild my whole setup, so i brushed him aside and set it up myself. Best Buy fibbed a bit ... they said this unit had 2 S video inputs, whereas in reality it has only one. I'm happy though. Very happy.

Christmas eve was spent in Fremont with my parents and my sisters. We unwrapped our presents then. I got a whole bunch of good stuff ... clothes, books (a Douglas Adams collection from mom and dad and a nice big cell biology text for my office from Alan, Arlene, and Ana), dvds (The Big Lebowski from AAA and 3/4 of Robotech: Macross from mom and dad), and a couple of Gamecube games (I-Ninja and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) from Veronica, despite our agreement. Of course, i also broke the agreement and bought her a set of martini glasses. Veronica headed off to a club later that night, while i stayed home with Cobi and watched The Godfather, a film i finally managed to see thanks to the miracle of Tivo. On Christmas we made the shorter drive to Burlingame to see my aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was fun catching up, but their cat gave me allergies something awful. I'll remember the claritin next time. A belated Christmas gift exchange / awful Arsenal/Southampton match viewing was had the following Monday at our place with Manchester United devoté Jeremy Popscene. He brought with him my brand spanking new Chelsea kit, the swank new white one with blue stripes, emblazoned with new hero Damien Duff's name and number.

I only made it to work one day the next week, to take care of affairs. In the meantime, i was basking in our newfound video glory. I also have been snatching up albums at an alarming rate. Over the last two weeks i've picked up albums by Big Star (3), Archers of Loaf (3), The Jesus Lizard (5), June of 44 (5), Pale Fountains (2), Karate (4), The Make Up (3), Pussy Galore (2), Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (5), Galaxie 500 (3), Unwound (5), Rainer Maria (3) ... whew! I could go on, but i'll spare you.

My other commitment at home was our new housemate, Cobi. She was never walked while living in L.A., and not too much over the last two years in Iowa, so i've taken to walking her daily. She loves it ... plenty of scents to sniff and plenty of lawns to "decorate". For some reason, she always decides to poop on lawns when the owner is in plain view. Embarrassing for me, but she's thrilled. In fact, Cobi loves it so much that she's now expecting her daily walk. She knows exactly where we keep the leash, and will cast errant stares in the direction of said cupboard to remind me. Before going into work last week, she guilt tripped me into running her around the block! Clever pooch. Been with us for two months and she rules the roost.

We've felt a few more bumps on her body, but she doesn't seem to be showing any signs of health problems due to her recently diagnosed cancer. She seems to be having a ball with us back in California.

On New Year's Eve i crossed the bay to pick up Sean and Michelle at Oakland Airport. We then met up with Veronica, grabbed a bite at the Jeremy-endorsed East Window on 25th Avenue in San Mateo, then drove up to SF for the New Years festivities at New Wave City. I toyed with the idea of wearing my old school black leather motorcycle jacket, featuring self-painted renditions of the covers of New Order's Low Life and The Smiths' Hatful of Hollow as well as a small Siouxsie portrait. Veronica's giggles dissuaded me. At the club, Sean and i discussed a multitude of topics while Veronica and Michelle shook their groove thangs. They got me out onto the dance floor for the final song, a live version of New Order's "Temptation". We gave old friend Kevin a ride to his car afterward, only to find that there weren't any cars on the street where he parked. So we dropped him at the impound lot and headed home. The following day most of arose around noon, except for Sean who hibernated until 3pm or so. The day's script was similar to the previous day: dinner around 8pm, then to SF for a club. It was Thursday, so naturally that means Popscene. No two ways about it: this place is OVER. For a hater like myself, at any rate. A friggin terrible cover band played near-blasphemous versions of Madchester classics by Oasis, The Happy Mondays, and The Stone Roses. This was followed by Nako and DJ Axelcrap. Again, Sean and i amused ourselves. I was wearing my Chelsea kit, which prompted a couple of inquiries. Sean and i were also offered a round of drinks by a random hipster, either 1) because of the soccer paraphernelia on our persons, or 2) because he thought we were gay. Gary accompanied us home afterward for a round of SMFA friendlies. I passed out at 5:30am.

Waking up at 12:30pm the next day, i learned from Gary that him and Sean had been up until 10am playing FIFA 2004. Egad. Michelle and Veronica awoke around 2pm, and the three of us watched most of the criminally unwatchable Guy Ritchie / Madonna disaster Swept Away. Short synopsis: a rich bitch abuses an Italian fisherman on a pleasure cruise, but winds up marooned with him on a deserted island in the Mediterranean. They fall in love after he tries to rape her. Michelle and Veronica then absconded to try on wedding gowns, giving me orders to wake up Sean. I did, and we decided to attempt to fix a broken Xbox Veronica acquired through Auction Drop. It boots fine, but won't read any type of disc in the DVD-ROM drive. We tried to find a Torx wrench (needed to open the console) at Home Depot, but instead found only two unhelpful and rather bizarre employees. Thwarted in these efforts, we returned home, ordered some pizza, and whiled away the evening with more video games. Both FIFA 2004 as well as Mario Kart: Double Dash, which Veronica and i have gotten really into after not opening it for a month after buying it. Later that night we watched our DVD copy of My Life With Morrissey, a 2003 independent film about an L.A. girl obsessed with the Smiths icon. Incredibly enough, it gave Swept Away a run for the title of "Worst Movie Seen on January 2, 2004". Sex with a blow up doll with a Morrissey cutout pasted on its face, and a rape gang consisting of catholic school girls ... hrm.

Michelle and Sean headed back to L.A. on Saturday, after which i managed to find a Torx wrench at a Home Depot in San Leandro. None of the repair tips at Xbox Scene were successful however, so it seems for now the controller was the only gain from the broken Xbox. Unless i get ambitious and decide to try replacing the drive. Yesterday my folks came over to take us out to lunch and show us their new car, a 2000 Volkswagen Cabrio convertible. I'm ready to replace my beat up 1993 Honda Civic, and am thinking about a VW Jetta or Passat. Maybe next weekend, assuming my year end bonus comes through.

Other random tidbits: also saw The Last Samurai, which was quite good. Chelsea seem to be in their typical winter swoon, despite their £110 million roster. Of course, Damien Duff, Seba, and Hernan Crespo are all suffering through injuries, so we have an excuse. But excuses don't keep you top of the table. Hopefully the ship will get righted again quickly ... we're still only 4 points off the lead. Got several grants due soon, hopefully the research funds will start to come rolling in.

Happy New Year to all, and to all a good day.