Another busy period
St. Nicholas day was enjoyable. I celebrated it both on the evening of December 5th with my parents, and during the weekend at my brother's. Among other things I got a calendar for the new year, a nice scarf and a "Galileo" thermometer (i.e., one with bulbs with colored fluids which start sinking at different temperatures).
The next weekend, of course, was the time of my birthday. I actually managed to get the enlarged photos up on the walls. :) I only entertained the family, I didn't feel like throwing a party for my friends and acquaintances much; partly because I didn't care for the previous edition too much. A British friend I correspond with a lot now gave me the Concise Oxford English dictionary, but also wrote a very nice story for me. :)
At work we had a Christmas lunch the 23rd and we also got some presents. Look here for the idea behind the mathematical plank puzzles and the URL where you can see the "River Crossing" game itself. It made me wonder, since I had written a reply in the general company discussion database giving that reference the week before or so.. :)
I spend Christmas mostly with my parents, and I went there on New Year's Eve as well. I declined an invitation to come to Amsterdam and celebrate it there.
For the new year, I made no specific resolutions. But perhaps this is the time to mark that the monthly role playing event seems to be really dead now. For a large part, because I decided not to invest time in keeping it alive any more, I am sure. I had been doing that for quite a while now.
As for reading, I finished a book on gnosticism, which I found quite interesting. I am going to be reading some books on Buddhism soon now. The one I want to start with has been ordered but will probably arrive in a week's time or so. Another has already arrived.
Also, I made some changes to my web comic reading. At this time I am mostly interested in Megatokyo and Queen of Wands. (Every now and then I scrap some that have gone stale and add a new one or two.)
I will probably make an entry or two in my LJ to link to other journals. I write far more in communities and threads in other journals than in my own. Some of those entries are actually kind-of memorable to me.
Last weekend I went to a friend's birthday party. I tried to get hold of a particular CD I had in mind about two weeks before, but failed. It turned out it was not distributed here. I had actually figured out I liked it over the Christmas vacation, when I finally got around to playing a few CD-Rs I had gotten about a year earlier, and found I liked them. I will still try to get hold of a copy for myself.. Meanwhile, I settled for Flowing Tears' "Serpentine", after wrecking my brains whatever I had given last year (since it is from 2002). I think that was the fourth CD she got from me.. (and I am quite sure that her husband got four from me as well..). Oh well. :)
On Sunday, I went to Amsterdam to see how a new kind of gathering would go (superseding other monthly Amsterdam engagements). That turned out pretty well, too.
This week we had a salary round. The company seems to be doing quite okay, fortunately. Also, I got some recognition for my 'new' function. :-)
This weekend I am mostly cleaning etc., and tomorrow I am going to my brother's for the birthday of one of my nephews. Next weekend is probably going to be occupied with the birthday of another nephew plus the wedding anniversary of my parents. The week after that I will have a British visitor. I am looking forward to that. :-)