merry christmas, happy new year, all that stuff

I'm actually getting far worse rather than getting better about posting, let along posting anything meaningful, but that's probably all right because the few friends and relatives who checked in here probably have given up a while back.

However, I'd like to do a better job, just for myself. So as always, I have the best of intentions to do this more often now that there's an "8" at the end of the year.

Starting with a short post on one reason I haven't had anything up here for about three weeks - I've been out of town for two of them. K and I went on a midwest road trip, of the type you just can't do in any other country (which is one good reason to travel to those other countries, after you've done a few massive road trips in this one). We rolled up nearly 3,000 miles on the odometer driving from D.C. to Missouri and back, with stops in Indianapolis on the way out and stops in St. Louis, Chicago and Cleveland on the way back. Each stop gave us friends to catch up with (which often meant late nights, and usually, a long drive starting early the next day) or family to see, or both. All were good, although most stops lasted a single evening and left us wishing we had more time.