Finished reading Polostan by Neal Stephenson. Even though I was warned that it was a surprisingly-normal-sized book, I was surprised by its very normal size. That turns out to be a bit deceptive though: The story is very clearly unfinished at the end of the book (though many parts are wrapped up nicely). Two more of these and it’ll feel like a more typical Stephenson opus.

Got an electric car.

On the plus side, I did fix the Cache-Control HTTP header for the site.

Over the past year or two, our 16-year-old car has been developing problems. Meghan and I have been begrudgingly keeping it afloat, but resenting it more each time we’ve taken it to the shop.

Several weeks ago, we took the dude’s laptop in to replace its battery, which has been in poor shape for quite some time. We were waiting for the right time to replace the bambina’s laptop’s battery, but early this week its display started acting up (partially blacking out, flickering, blank stripes). So we took that in, but they sent it back unrepaired, because they didn’t have the part necessary to “fix” (replace) the display. So she’ll need a new computer.

The car’s latest problem (finally diagnosed yesterday) is that the battery has started draining (technically the BCM), such that it won’t reliably hold a charge overnight. Meghan and I are officially done with it and are shopping for a replacement.

This evening, the gas oven stopped heating, for the third time in the past year or so.

Oh, and we just paid for the dude’s winter quarter tuition.

The dude was home for three weeks, and is now back at school. Meghan and I were also on vacation for those same three weeks, and the bambina was off for two. It was pretty great, and also kind of a rough reentry into school/work.

About to push the car off the end of a pier.

The annual reading report.

Finished reading (or rereading?) The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, one of his earlier Culture novels. I think I might have read this about 25 years ago, but I have even less memory of it than I would have expected, recalling story beats more than scenes or even plot points. Anyway, I quite enjoyed it.

Yesterday, walked down the Interurban to Greenwood, then old Ballard, then along the Burke-Gilman to visit Mom, then to the U District and home: about 28k steps, 14 miles, with assorted stops such that I don’t have a good estimate of time spent walking. Good to be back out stomping around.

Went to Meghan’s family Christmas gathering.

The dude came home Friday for winter break. Our house isn’t large!

Tonight’s kitchen victory: empanadas.

Yesterday’s walk through Llanover Wood and then to Greenwood: 16k steps, 8 miles, 2¾ hours.

Had family (Mom; Greg and Jocelyn and the kids) over for dinner.

Took the day off and baked a pumpkin pie and a mincemeat pie (modern-style, no actual meat).