BoldUlysses.com

Christmas has come and gone. I’m back to work tomorrow. It’s a quiet Sunday evening. Diane and I have resumed our Netflix subscription and are working our way through episodes of Cowboy Bebop—I’ve seen it; she hasn’t, but she’s enjoying it. Generally I’m a subtitle snob (foreign-language films must be viewed subtitled, not dubbed), but I tried the series dubbed and it’s not bad. Thinking about just watching it that way for the rest of the run. We’ll see.

I received a whole bunch of guitar-related stuff for Christmas: a “Beatles Fake Book,” a book of acoustic rock numbers, a songbook binder Diane made for me, a capo, some picks and a guitar cleaning kit. So I’m set there for a while. Making some progress, but not enough to keep it from being frequently frustrating. I bought a chord book with photographs of fingering, so I’m trying out some better ways to form “A” and “G” chords, and I think that’s part of what’s contributing to my lack of progress. I’m hopeful they’ll give me a good foundation going forward, though. No shortcuts.

Luke and Penelope like pretty much everything they got. Luke particularly loves the magnetic building set his Grandma got him (he likes to make pyramids and then step on them while we watch), a little motorized bug his Nana got him, Guess Who? and Frog and Toad’s Adventure Game (both board games), his McDuff books and of course his Little Einstein figurines. He really likes playing his Little Einstein piano, too. He turns a knob and it makes a funny noise and he looks at us to see if we’re smiling along with him. Penelope loves to sit on her Little Einstein car and press the buttons She got some stuffed animals, too, which she loves. They also got a bunch of stuff they need, clothes and whatnot, which they could care less about.

Last night my parents, Diane’s parents, my brother, his wife and daughter and our little family ate out at Arigato. It’s the third year in a row we’ve had a post-Christmas outing there, and it’s always fun. David and Rachel’s four-month-old daughter Catherine was along for the ride and a lot of fun. She’s beautiful and been a great sport over the course of the holidays and its hustle and bustle. I carried her around a good bit a week ago during a visit to my parents’ house, and it was the first time I felt like an uncle. Pretty special.

I can’t think of anything to post at length about that doesn’t bore me to tears, so we’ll just another session of notes:

1. Guitar playing is coming along pretty well. Like I told my brother David yesterday, I know 8-9 chords and can switch haltingly between them. It makes for some herky-jerky songs, but I’m getting there… The main thing now is that it’s actually fun. I’ve gotten to the point, six months in, where I can eke out something resembling a song, and that’s a big confidence booster. It makes me want to practice and play more, and I have, almost every day.
2. Diane’s anniversary present to me was Mario Kart Wii, and let me just say I’ve been greatly enjoying it. The gameplay is just brilliant, the tracks and characters are fun, and aside from a few niggles (no dedicated one-on-one battle mode, for instance), I can’t find a fault with it. Part of the reason why I enjoy that game in particular and the Wii in general is just the utter creativity of it—the ingenuity of the movements and interaction with the games leaves me satisfied creatively in addition to the quality of the games themselves. I think it was a good purchase.
3. This year we decided it’s my parents’ turn for a Thanksgiving visit. We’ll be packing up Wednesday night and leaving bright and early (read: 10 a.m.) Thursday morning. I’m really looking forward to it—I love my mom and dad, and of course the change of scenery for a few days is nice.
4. I’ve got to resume running. It’s been a good month and a half since I hit the pavement, and while the scale may not show it, I feel it—psychologically and physically. I miss the physical high, as well as the time to just clear my head and the knowledge that my need for exercise is fulfilled. Tomorrow evening I’ll get out there.

My guitar playing is slowly improving.  After a week or so without playing, my calluses dwindled, but I’ve played every day for the past 5-6 days, and they’ve come back.  I’m getting better at switching chords quickly and can hack my way, haltingly, through "Swing Low Sweet Chariot."  I was totally confused at first since the chords didn’t seem to match up with my memory of the melody, but Diane pointed out that the chords don’t always correspond 1:1 with the sung parts.  It didn’t help, of course, that I can’t sing for anything.  Diane, on the other hand, has a luminous voice, and she accompanied my very poor rendition of the song.  I guess you could say it was the first song we’ve "performed" together, which is kind of special.  Nowhere to go but up from here.

In other news, I’ve got the Even in Blackouts acoustic punk cover of Yazoo’s "Only You" (heard on Coverville) going through my head at the moment.  It’s actually quite a good version.