The other night we went downtown for The
Sights and Sounds of Christmas, an annual Christmas festival here in San
Marcos that features food, music, a “snow” machine (which seemed to be
blowing dishwasher soap foam), a live manger scene, and an absolutely
retina-boggling number of lights. While we were waiting in the car for some
friends to show up, Abby pulled her favorite stuffed rabbit out from
wherever it had been traveling, and somehow managed to decapitate it in the
process.

“Waaaaaaaah!” she wailed. “What is it?” we asked, our concerned parent mode
activating at the sound of that heart-wrenching cry. “My bunny’s head came
off!” Abby wailed, holding her limp rabbit body up for display. And as
concerned, loving parents, there was really only one thing we could do:
laugh our heads off. “It’s not funny!” Abby insisted, barely able to make
herself heard over our guffaws.

Straining every nerve to master ourselves, we finally managed to stop
laughing and tell Abby “You’re right sweetie. I’m sorry we laughed at your
rabbit. We know that it’s your favorite animal, and wouldn’t have done
anything to hurt you on purpose. Please forgive us.” That seemed to mollify
her, and we continued our getting-ready process.

As Abby stepped out of the car, still clutching the rabbit’s body, an impish
grin dawned on her face, and she stuck the bunny in my face. “I’m headless
bunny! I’m headless bunny!” she shouted, waving it around in my face. And in
spite of its newly bifurcated status, she still carries it around with her,
thoroughly enjoying the company of her little headless friend.

This is a photo of a striking granite boulder in Enchanted Rock State Park here in Texas. I posted most of my photos from my recent visit there on the Enchanted Rock With Steve page, but this one, which I particularly liked, escaped the first time around.

The thing I like best about this photo is that the sun was striking across the face at just the right angle to bring out the dramatic texture of the beautiful pink granite, the same stuff of which the Texas Capitol Building is constructed.

I’d been eager to see Unbreakable ever since I started reading about it. The same director as The Sixth Sense, rooted in comic book lore — what’s not to like? I went in with pretty high expectations.

They were met. The film is paced deliberately, with lots of close-in shots and high-gain sound work to provide a sense of intimacy. All the actors do a fine job, though one has to give particular kudos to Samuel L. Jackson, who was wonderful in admittedly the most interesting role in the film. I can’t say much more, lest I ruin some of your enjoyment when you finally see it. So, go see it. Now. All of you. Maybe you can get a group rate. I want to be able to ramble on freely about the film without giving it away.

Lillian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who Robbed a Bank is nominally a mystery story, but flouts most of the conventions of the genre. There’s never any firsthand narrative with either the killer or the investigators, but instead we follow the murder from a distance through the eyes of a local newspaperman. We’re not given any clues as to the what actually happens at the crime scenes, but are limited to the oblique hints provided by a couple prescient felines. The narrative seems at least as much concerned with antiques and trinkets as with the events. And to top it all off, there wasn’t ever any intimation of a bank robbery, as the title would suggest. But in spite of all that, it’s a relatively interesting read, mainly because of its interesting characters. It just doesn’t sit particularly comfortably on the mystery shelf.

Thanks to Jim Roepcke’s excellent new WeblogView plugin and the good folks at AvantGo, you can now get Ruminations squirted right into your Palm Pilot or Windows CE machine whenever you sync it. If you’re an AvantGo user, click to subscribe. (If you’re a masochist, click to see the new version in your web browser.)

I thought it would be fun to start posting the occasional photo as part of this journal in addition to my usual inarticulate ramblings, so here’s the first of them.

This is a squirrel I encountered on Loop Street, one of my favorite streets in San Marcos. I especially like the texture of the tree in this photo. Unfortunately, it also shows why fixed-focus lenses can be a bad thing: the depth of the composition is totally flattened out, making it harder to distinguish the subject from the background.

But I do like the tree.

The other night I went shopping for jeans, as I was tired of wearing nice pants to work all the time and being mocked by my casual dress coworkers. As I spent a bit of quality time with a few pairs in the fitting room, it quickly became evident that the time in my life that I could fit comfortably into pants with a 36 inch waist had past. The shame!

So, my resolution: by hook, crook, or strategic use of shoehorns and a vacuum cleaner (don’t ask), I’m going to get back down a couple inches. I’ve been adjusting my sleep schedule so that I can get up early to take walks or to hit the company gym. I’m also trying hard to cut back on my usual gustatory enthusiasm, especially late at night.

Doggone it, if Jim can do it, so can I!

This Thanksgiving was a wonderful one for us. Uncle Ron and Aunt Marty came up from San Antonio along with Tanya, my cousin, and her husband Ken Sonnier. Ron’s turkey was as lip-smackingly tasty as I’d remembered from past holidays, and my cranberry salsa was well recieved, even by my recovering-yankee bride. That contingent was then followed by Dad McMains, Lana, and Meara, who had been visiting Lana’s folks earlier in the day. Lana treated us to one of her fantastic pecan pies, all credit for which she claims should go to her granny, whose recipe she uses, but I’m pretty sure that I’d get different results if I tried to make it. Finally, our next-door neighbors the Isaacs dropped by for some visiting, which was all the more valued since they’re in the process of moving up to Possom Kingdom Lake, where Jake will be running the fish hatchery there.

We decided that this year, instead of killing a tree for that authentic holiday smell, we’d plant a couple of little christmas trees out in the front yard and decorate them instead. Kathy had done most of the hole-digging — a signficant chore in our part of San Marcos, since you hit layers of limestone about 6 inches below the surface — earlier in the week, so it was a relatively simple matter to get them planted on Friday. They look great, and should grow pretty quickly to a more standard christmas tree size in a year or two. (They’re about three feet tall at the moment.)

During the day on Saturday, we popped down to San Antonio and helped Mom McMains and her housemate Julia decorate for Christmas. They really enjoy Christmas decorating, so we scrambled all over the house hanging lights, putting up ornaments, deploying nativity livestock, etc. We had a great time with them and with Gayle, who also dropped by for a bit. Gayle is putting together a website for her photography business, so I should be able to point you to some of her work soon.

Steve, Travis and I played our last weekly gig at the local coffee shop on Saturday night. We were pleased to have Travis back from Russia, where he’d been on a mission trip for the last three and a half weeks. I pulled out the hammered dulcimer for the first time in public for two tunes, one of which went pretty well. It honestly comes as a bit of a relief to be cutting back from weekly performances again. Though I enjoy the gigs a lot, every Saturday was starting to feel like just a bit too much.

Liam charged into the study yesterday as I was setting the synthesizer back up, obviously ready to play. I pulled out a couple of pencils and showed him how to use them to beat out rhythmic patterns on the countertop. That kept him entertained for about 4 seconds. Then he wanted to use the pencils to swordfight. We did that for a few minutes, after which I returned my pencil to him. He manipulated them, fiddling around until he had them crossed at their centers. He then started shouting “Airplane! Airplane!” and zooming his little makeshift aircraft around all over the place. It was the first time I’d seen him come up with something really new without prompting, and my chest swelled with pride at his ingeniousness. (Yes, I know. I’m easily impressed.)

David Brin’s Uplift series is among the best-known in Science Fiction, and with good reason. The series takes place in a universe where all sentient races are “uplifted” by other patron races, who breed and cultivate their client races for intelligence. Humans are a notable exception, as they somehow reached sentience without known help from outside. The Uplift War focuses on the invasion of a human-colonized world by a senior avian race, and combines the appeal of many war movies, where one roots for the ingenious underdogs, with a bit of political intrigue, some human drama, and a good dose of humor. Good reading; I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.