Ho ho ho and suchlike.

I feel kinda yucky. I have for a few days, on and off--nothing major, just a nagging headache, occasionally all-over achiness, stuffiness in the head, maybe a touch of fever. It comes and goes. I think I'm fighting whatever bug Amy is still getting over, which she probably caught on our trip. She was really feverish and logy for a couple days--luckily most illnesses in our family seem to run their course in 48 hours or so--and is still pretty snotty. Eww, I know.

So anyway, here I am at work on Christmas Eve, feeling yucky. But there's hardly anyone else around, so it's a pretty quiet day. Can't say I'd be doing anything more productive at home, so why not hang out here where it's quiet, you know? But I'll probably knock off early (as we typically do on the day before company holidays) and go home to lie down later.

In the meantime, I'm researching upgrade speakers for my car and it's making my head hurt even more. There are so many, and audio quality is so subjective that reviews don't mean much. The stock speakers aren't BAD by any means--I think it's a pretty good-sounding system overall--but I also think I could get more clarity and punchiness with a new set of speakers. But I'm not about to drop many hundreds of bucks to add an amp and crossovers or anything like that, you know? Though I'm damn near sold on something like Dynamat for sound and vibration deadening. It's also not helping that Crutchfield tells me certain speakers will fit, and Amazon says they won't. But I trust Crutchfield a lot more in that arena, so that's not too big a deal. I think I need to pop off a door panel or two this weekend and see exactly what's in there to put my mind at ease, and go from there. Maybe go see what Best Buy has sitting around--I'm not averse to clearance and open-box items if the price is right!

What else.. jeez, I really haven't posted much this month, have I? I dunno if I'll get around to a proper recap of our Virginia trip. It was okay--the weather kinda put a damper on it, as the first few days were cold and windy and rainy and then the rain stopped and it was just cold and windy instead. So we didn't feel like doing a whole lot outdoors, and I didn't get as many good photos as I might have liked. But we still had a good time, did some fun stuff, and it was nice as always to see the in-laws. Though I think next time I will insist that we get a hotel for at least part of the visit. It's wonderful of them to put us up, and much appreciated, but if there's such a thing as a comfortable sofabed, I have yet to encounter it.

Christmas is upon us! I think we're all set. Last night was our neighborhood's traditional event, where we put out luminaries along the sidewalks and roam the neighborhood to chat with neighbors. Usually 2 or 3 people host open houses, but this time we had a handful of people do things in their driveways instead. Fire pits, hot chocolate and cookies, s'mores stations, that sort of thing. It was fun, but I thought not as good as the open houses. But maybe that's just because the 80F temperatures lately made it feel not very seasonal. We're expecting a cool front today that should make tomorrow nicer, though.

Our Christmas routine these days is to open presents in the morning and then stay home most of the day. Maybe a pancake breakfast. Friday we're going to head over to my Mom's, and I should call my Dad to see when we can go visit him too. Maybe this weekend, or next week I'm off Tue-Thu (and maybe Friday too, if I decide to tack it on).

So I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, however you choose to observe it. And if you choose not to observe it, have a fantastic Thursday. :)