New Year's Day

Such an arbitrarily chosen day - even more so than Christmas, which was tacked onto Yule to paper over a pagan celebration. I did a little surfing and learned that Julius Caesar settled New Year's Day as January 1 to get back in sync with the sun after years of tampering with the calendar threw it off. 2050 years later we're still using it. I guess if you rule the Western world, you can start some pretty strong habits.


Zirpu and I went to Park Place and ate good luck food like ham and black eyed peas. Seems like the house was crammed with former Southerners, who were having a great time cooking, eating, and playing Rock Band. The only thing I can imagine harder to deal with than a small child with a noise-making toy is a whole family and their friends with a noise-making toy. On the other hand, spending ten minutes between songs deciding who's going to play what instrument or sing, where you're going to play, and what song you're all going to play probably counts as quality family time.




JR and I hung out in the hot tub. He got an old-school wooden tub with a wood stove to heat the water. Eco-geek that he is, he was burning Java Logs, which are made of coffee grounds. Unfortunately, they do not smell like coffee, but this is a blessedly quiet hot tub.