Thanksgiving was held at the Graves abode in Fremont. Veronica and i had picked up some salami and cheese the night before, and arrived with these hors d'oeuvres just before 3pm. We had also brought the overjoyed and overstimulated Tara, who spent her holiday fervently exploring the house and having several standoffs with my parents' cats Milenko and Petri. My pregnant sis Emily was in town for the holiday, and welcomed us along with my aunt Cathy and sister Hilary and boyfriend Jeff. I'd taken a claritin to prevent kitty-induced allergies, but unlike previous medicated visits this time the pill merely slowed the onset of symptoms. However, it allowed me to get through dinner, dessert, and coffee before descending into a sneezing, wheezing mess. We returned home at about 9, and i relaxed on the couch in my post-gorging glory while V worked on her Viva Piñata garden. She's seized upon this spiritual successor to Animal Crossing (at least until the Wii version comes out next year), and lately has been spending her free time mating squazzils, shooing sour sherbats, and keeping her plot of soil well groomed and condusive to her piñata friends. Yee ha.

Following Thanksgiving, i had a free Friday while Veronica went to work. I arose after she left at 9:30am, and got in an hour or so with Gears of War. As i predicted, more time with this acclaimed 360 title has improved my opinion of it. By 11am i had developed an appreciation for the dash, cover, strafe, and flank gameplay mechanics. Despite my increasing affection, i must admit that i still stink something awful, a state of affairs that has delayed my exploration of online multiplayer. By late morning the niggling thoughts that i should clean the house took hold, and i spent the rest of my day performing a variety of domestic chores: tidying the living room, cleaning out the drawers under the sinks in the kitchen and bathroom, reordering the cabinets in the laundry room, and on and on. Veronica got home at 4:30pm and assisted for a bit, before absconding with my sisters and mom for a spa treatment. I called my dad for dinner, but he was pooped from turkey day and opted to stay at home. I had visions of a big pastrami sub from Togo's for dinner, but was thwarted by their holiday hours, and had to settle for Carl's Jr. I got in some further cleaning in the early evening, washing all the towels, linens, and blankets and a load of clothes for my impending trip, then took a long overdue shower and put on some pj's and settled into a cup of tropical green tea and the History Channel. V returned to myself and a supremely bored Tara around 9:30pm, and we whiled away the rest of the night watching Ugly Betty (a very worthwhile drama amidst the usual network TV dreck), the Soup (a pop culture wrap-up show that's head and shoulders above the awful one-liners of the touted Best Week Ever). I headed to bed at 12:30am while V returned to Viva Piñata land until 2am.

I'm watching a repeat of the Hugh Laurie/Beck SNL at the moment, and must say i quite like Beck's recent single "Nausea". I'm by no means a Beck fan, but this number has a nice groove. But i have to ask ... did Beck install a Bez-esque dancer in his posse?

V and i got a relatively early start on our Saturday, leaving the house at 10am for breakfast at the Palo Alto Creamery followed by a bit of post-Thanksgiving shopping at Bloomie's and Macy's in the Stanford Shopping Center. We'd toyed with the idea of buying ourselves an advance Christmas present, a 42" Samsung DLP TV, at Circuit City on Friday morning (it was going on sale for $799), but were dissuaded after inspecting the product on Wednesday night. Thank god ... that spared me from getting up at 4am to wait in line with all the other bargain hunters. After our brief consumer foray, V got me to SFO at 12:30pm, plenty of time before my 1:55 flight to Chicago and the RSNA meeting.

My flight to Chicago was one of the more unpleasant in recent memory. For some reason American wouldn't assign me a seat until i got to the gate, and once there (45 minutes before departure) i got an aisle seat in the last row of the plane. Apart from removing me from my preferred spot at the window (so i don't have to get up whenever one of my rowmates wants to get up), in this plane the last row window looked out on the lovely sight of the rear engine. A bit noisy, to say the least. In addition i was across from the main cabin lavatories, one of which broke during the flight. This created a huge line for the bathroom, and moreover generated enough amusement for the passengers that it seemed everyone in the last six rows was looking over their headrest at the crowd. And i just wanted to listen to my iPod and sleep. It seemed one of the lavatory doors also malfunctioned, which i surmised by the occasional banging and the appearance of a stewardess bearing several crowbar-looking tools. In the meantime, i did manage to finish reading the most recent, Halo 3-centric issue of EGM, catch a few z's, and read an interesting paper on stochastic modeling and simulation techniques for radiation oncology.

V asked me what i was thankful for this Thanksgiving, and i had a hard time formulating a response. I've been in a bit of a funk for the last month or two, culminating from both personal and professional malaise. I suppose 'tis the season to take personal stock and reflect on how my life really measures up this holiday season. And i must say i'm in a good place. Got Veronica and Tara, an ever-improving house that is steadily appreciating (we looked at an absolute dump down the street last week that's on the market for $100k more than we paid for our house), and i'm living in my favorite place in the world, the beautiful San Francisco bay area. I've got some things i need to improve ... i'm horrible about keeping in touch with the people i care about, and i need to be more proactive about speaking out for myself. But i lead a charmed life, and should be ashamed to moan and groan.

Was i supposed to wait until New Year's to have my personal moment? Aw, f@$# it.