I’m still considering my resolutions for the next year. There has to be something I can do to change things around a bit. I should have some goals for my career and some for my social life. But really, am I just setting myself up for disappointment?

Speaking of disappointment, my bathroom should be finished soon. The electrician was in on January 1st. The tile guy is supposed to be in early this week. The painters as well. The sink and fixtures have been delivered to the wrong location, but should be in the local warehouse this week, so the plumber might be able to finish his work later this week. The toilet and washlet are working well. However, everyone who has dealt with contractors knows about delays and the shower door is probably another week out as well.

OK, so my first resolution: don’t worry so much about disappointment and just deal with it. How’s that?

I don’t have a lot of sense to begin with, and even when I’m trying to do something that makes sense, I don’t always do it. It was a co-worker’s 40th birthday party yesterday, and I hung out with his hockey buddies afterwards which, of course, didn’t make any sense at all. We went to two bars and I was in no shape to do anything but walk the 2 miles home. Unfortunately, that took me past another bar where some friends regularly shut the place down. I ended up talking to some older gentlemen I know from the neighborhood as well as everyone else in the bar. I don’t feel so bad right now, but I think that’s because I’m not awake enough to be hung over.

I think I need a keeper or something.

P.S. The Kobe beef burger at Rogue Brewery is worth resetting my no-cheeseburger counter.

This is a real vacation day for me, not one that I just kind of took. Nobody was online when I turned on my work computer, and I didn’t receive any new emails. So I watched a bunch of movies. Let’s Go to Prison (meh), Ten Ten (cute Japanese road-trip movie), Dead Alive (gory and campy), Tokyo Eyes, and Eagle Eye (better than I expected). I think I also finished watching the first season of Futurama.

Turning off cable didn’t get me very far from the TV. I probably should do something that gets me out of the house, but it’s been frigging cold and rainy lately, when it hasn’t been snowing. I suppose I was out 3 of the last 4 nights, so I’m not a complete shut-in.

The first day of the year, I went to a friend’s New Years Day party and had some great food. Unfortunately, a couple of beers was a enough to make me fall asleep at 9PM. That never works out for the best, of course, and I woke up at midnight feeling like I couldn’t get back to sleep. It was oddly bright outside, and I looked outside to see a couple of inches of snow. There really wasn’t anything to do but try to go back to sleep and hope it would be gone by the time I got up.

So now here it is, 2009, and I have to think of some resolutions. Resolution 1: think of some resolutions. Give me a chance.

I just got home and I suppose if I was a good friend, I would have left the party much earlier so my friend could have had more time with his ex (who in fact was looking much better than the last time I saw her). But no, I was busy drinking and talking nonsense with my friends. Several of them were drinking uncharacteristically as well and it was a lot more fun when you’re not the only one talking nonsense. In fact, one of my friends was purported to speak in Japanese when she is drunk, and I finally got to see it. Her husband had no idea what she was saying to him, which made it all the funnier to me.

The only bad part is that I’m supposed to be at the gym at 11AM tomorrow. I was feeling puny today after having two beers and I had several more than that tonight. Well, maybe it was last year. In any case, Happy New Year and it’s now time to restart our arbitrary clocks.

So usually I’m getting ready for bed by 9:30PM but this year I have plans. I’m supposed to be out at a party. My buddy is in town from Hawaii and he was supposed to here an hour ago. Somehow he IM’ed his ex from 3 or 4 years ago and now he’s supposed to be on his way to get her and then come here.

The adventure continues. Another night of high drama, maybe.

One of the big advantages of the holidays is that people are back to visit their families, so I can see my old classmate and co-worker Deren who flew in from Maui. We ended up talking until pretty late and I found out that a lot of the bars in my neighborhood close ridiculously early. 9PM for the Laurelwood and 12AM for most McMenamins, as always.

Another place I wonder about is the restaurant Roux. It had empty tables when I went by on Sunday but we were told that it would be a 45 minute wait. Another friend told me that he went in and got the same treatment when the place was empty except for one other couple. The were finally seated right next to the other couple and waited another 45 minutes for someone to come take their drink order. I’m curious as to how they stay in business. Perhaps the place is really supposed to be called “Roux’d”.

I was planning on doing as little as possible this week at work, and doing most of it from home. I’d say there are only about a quarter of the people there the week between Xmas and New Year’s Day and so there’s little to be done. Unfortunately, I remembered that would mean that some of the expensive test equipment would be free as well, and asked my friend in the lab to tell me that the test equipment would be tied up all week. He told me the truth instead, so I had to go in to prep some things to use it. So much for not going in.

I went to the gym today and now THMFIC has this wild hare up his ass about having us write down fitness goals. I’ve NEVER had any fitness goals. Hell, I hardly have any goals in the rest of my life. I’m from the west, you see, where the cowboys wander aimlessly from adventure to adventure, so where in the hell are we supposed to come up with goals? That’s a corporate thing, goals. This is organic Oregon.

I suppose I should think more seriously about the goals, though sitting my narrow Asian ass on every piece of equipment on in the gym is one of my fitness goals. More rest, you see, and I don’t have to worry about running out of places to sit down. Some more pedestrian goals such as 20 dead-hang pull-ups or 45 pushups are probably in order, but Nurse Tiff said I should try going on a SECOND date next year. Twice with the same woman, that is. I can usually pull off two. Sex in the City imparted too much meaning to the third date, so I never get there. I’m thinking, though, instead of dating goals, I should think of something I might actually do. Like visiting Scotland or Cedar Rapids or something. Somewhere cool that doesn’t require a lot of work might be better. I wonder what the temperature in Drain, Oregon is.

When a guy like me starts talking about resolution, it’s usually about how many dots per inch he has on his monitor. But it’s nearing New Years and I should try to come up with some resolutions maybe. I usually fail at anything I resolve, so I’ll have to think on this for a bit to see if I can come up with something.

If the past few days are any guide, I should probably resolve to stop drinking cheap whiskey, or expensive whiskey if it comes from Japan. The stuff my dad had squirreled away isn’t as bad as I remember. Maybe my taste buds are going dead or maybe the wood alcohol all evaporated off. In any case, why drink the cheap stuff, unless it’s free?

I should probably also try to get more sleep. I’ve been averaging 8 hours during this snowstorm and it started out pretty nice. I’ve been dreaming, which I can’t remember doing much until now, though I can’t remember the dreams I’m having. The drawback is that I’m now not able to sleep. It’s either the weather or that I’m sleeping too much.

I should probably stop watching so many weird movies. Today I watched a Japanese sci-fi gangster movie, (Dead or Alive: Final), a Russian gangster movie (Eastern Promises), and Little Miss Sunshine. I guess I was underwhelmed by the last movie, and I shouldn’t sit around so much.

I did get out once today, and had lunch with my buddy Greg and his family. I also had Jay the Contractor come by to look around and find out what tools he left here. He had his truck with the rest of his tools stolen yesterday. And finally, I was outside sweeping up the shards of plastic left by the sledders (genius parents would bring plastic tubs that would freeze and break and they’d leave the shards) and also picking up the soggy cardboard that was thrown into the bushes. My next door neighbor has a huge drop box and he let me put the mess in with his construction waste. I guess I should resolve to do him more favors this next year.

And finally, I think I’m going to resolve to do something that I don’t like doing. I’m thinking of skiing or maybe even camping again. I may even get on a horse or go line dancing. Who knows?

I wonder why I had so much trouble sleeping last night, but at least it gave me some interesting dreams. I find most dreams to be like going to the movies for free. Unfortunately, those movies might be interesting but I rarely remember them. I guess it’s not all that bad.

Today was another UFC fight and a gathering at THMFIC’s house to watch them. The true measure of our cabin fever is that twice as many people attended as usual. It’s always fun watching the fights with that group, and ddly enough, the fights were pretty good as well.

I wish I could say I did more, but it’s still my pretend holiday and I’m still just mainly watching movies. Bruce the plumber came over to install my toilet but he didn’t have the whole Toto Aquia/Washlet installation thing down so it’s just sitting there, empty, taunting me.

The rain has finally begun to melt the snow, but now it’s just a slushy, slippery mess. I spent 45 minutes digging myself out of 2 spots today, and both were in the middle of the street. There’s a certain urgency when you’re trying get your car out of the middle of the street, especially when you’re stuck in the middle of the only tracks through the snow that anyone can travel in. Fortunately, no cars came by either time, though the UPS guy had to get out of his truck and run up two block to deliver a package. I felt pretty bad about that.

I only left the house to drive my mom to the store. The drive to the store wasn’t much trouble, because it was all downhill and headed towards areas with less snow. I’m on a lightly traveled hill, so it’s a huge mess here. I should have stayed home and watched more movies, but I left after watching a full season of Pushing Daisies. There’s only so much sitting around I can do.

I think my back is so tired it sometimes hurts. It wasn’t because of the workout, as hideousstrenuous as it was, but more likely because of the shoveling of the wet, soggy snow. As an Oregonian I know that the rain will melt the snow, but as a chemist and engineer I also know that the maximal heat transfer will occur when the rain is passing over the snow and not just pooled around it. It’s not so much that we’re running out of food and that I have to drive anywhere, but mainly that I’m going stir crazy and I thought it made more sense to be outside moving the snow around than watching yet more movies. I did, however, finish watching all the episodes of Firefly.

In any case, it’s Xmas Eve and I’m watching one of my three (unless there are more) seasonal movies. Love, Actually tonight and maybe Comfort and Joy. Tomorrow I have A Christmas Carol. I was asked when I open presents, and really the only presents I buy are for my sister, brother-in-law, and my mom. I went in with my mom and brother-in-law on my sister’s present and she got to open it after the arctic winds came in a couple of weeks ago. I still haven’t gotten my brother-in-law anything because he hasn’t told me what he wants. Actually my sister said she emailed me, and told me she’d email me again, but so far NOTHING. And, in return, I didn’t get the cossack outfit I need.

In any case Happy Holidays, and I can only hope for happiness and world peace. I’ll be watching movies. That is, if I can still see.