merry christmas!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. mine was surprisingly pleasant and pain-free. which is good. I got a bunch of books (one Vonnegut and some others on physics), some music, some jewelry, an audio recording device (for the interviews and other stuff I will have to do for my dissertation research), and lots of gift cards. oh, and an iPod shuffle (which is awesome - thanks Jody!). I also had lots of good food and spent some quality time with the family. the one down-side was the weather: it was quite warm - like almost 80. another typical southern california christmas and kind of hilarious when I think of other parts of the country that are snowed in. while it is nice, it also makes it hard to believe that it's winter.