2007, Penultimately

Unless I'm very much mistaken (which happens all the time, but probably not this time), this will be my next-to-last post of 2007. Don't worry: I have no intention of boring you with any sort of year-in-review nonsense. I think about that sort of shit occasionally, but I mostly keep it to myself. And if I don't keep it to myself, it'll likely be the first post of next year: why look back when you can look forward? (This bit of advice applies to life more than to men. In generally, I'd rather look at a guy's backside, though it's hard to choose: men are really an embarrassment of riches, aren't they?) I just have a few pieces of miscellany to put out there now so that my last post of the year can be about some recent play that was particularly satisfying. Seeing the year out with a bang, as it were.

The kids and I are off to Florida tomorrow afternoon. We'll be staying with my folks, and my sister and her family will be there, too. Absolute bedlam, but lots of fun. I have gifts for my parents, but I haven't gotten anything for my sister and her husband or for the nephews yet. I only hope that I can find a Target or something on the three-hour drive from Melbourne to Bradenton (It was the only way I could get tix for all three of us for under a grand, and the young'uns -- mine anyway -- travel well.) so that I can pick up something en route. The ex informed me, when she was dropping off her present for my folks, that the airlines don't appreciate wrapped presents, anyway, so no one need know that I waited until the last minute. My whole family will have assumed that I'd wait until the last minute, anyway. I'm putting a fruitcake I made in the checked baggage so that they can see that I at least did something ahead. By the way, my fruitcake is fabulous. Even people who hate fruitcake love my fruitcake.


B&c and I didn't get around to opening our presents to each other until tonight. We were lying in bed enjoying the afterglow this evening, and when he mentioned making dinner, I said that we should probably open our presents first, "in case mine is something that I want to take with me." He laughed: it was no secret that he was getting me luggage. It's very nice luggage, too. It has wheels and a handle that's long enough for a six-foot tall man to pull without stooping. I'm mostly packed now. I renewed b&c's subscription to Wine Spectator, and I bought him a bunch of books and a gray, cotton CK sweater. It's pretty much the same every year: Wine Spectator, books from NPR's annual recommendations, and something soft and snug that he'll look irresistible in.

B&c looks his most irresistible right after a haircut. You would think that he'd figure that out from the way I jump him whenever he comes back from the barber, but he's a little clueless. Remind me to tell you a story about just how clueless he can be next Tuesday, which will be our fourth anniversary. Anyway, I'm not going to tell him about the haircut thing. Too much knowledge is a dangerous thing.

In case I forget tomorrow, enjoy what's left of 2007, and I wish either a fabulous or an even more fabulous 2008 for all.