We had the store's nine year anniversary sale this past week. It went well. Afterwards we had a small party. Andie & Mandy joined us. We had a very fun time. After the store closed, we put good music on the speakers, then danced, drank and talked the night away.

My mother called me today with good news about the neighbors. After 45 years of living in the neighborhood, the neighbors are finally warming up to my parents. The neighbors invited my parents over for coffee.

The neighborhood my parents live in is largely populated by a close family that has lived there for hundreds of years. One additional complication, the neighbors are Anglican and my family is Dutch Protestant.

So my neighbors now trust that my parents are not one of those 'tourist' families that live in the neighborhood for a decade or so and then leave.

Weird.  

A young male employee at the store has started wearing dresses publicly. To his college courses. RO is wondering if we should create a dress code for work to ensure that he doesn't show up in weird garb.

It's a uncomfortable debate. RO & I are gay and we support him as he explores his sexuality. But, we also run a business. Our customer opinions are important.

What does business-casual for transgender look like?

Back to work. The week has been busy. We had a reorg. Things worked out in my favor. I'm enjoying the changes at my job. I can focus more and am not stretched so thin.

I am on my way back from the cruise. The cruise went well, mostly. I was sick for a couple of days, and quarantined in my cabin. I got well quickly and enjoyed my remaining days.

I have the cruise ship virus. I'm quarantined in my cabin until later today. Sigh.

The staff is very nice. Complementary room service. If only I wanted to eat anything but tea and toast.  

My first cruise. I'm taking so many pictures. I want to send them to RO, but that would be teasing.

Am in Orlando. Weather is foggy.

14 families, old friends are here for the cruise.

I'm heading off for a week long Caribbean cruise with all my old University friends. Fourteen families total, plus kids. RO is not coming with me. He wanted to come, but work kept him away.

RO is in Vegas, by day for work. By night he's gambling and partying.

He forgot to call last night. I didn't think much of it. He called me this morning. At some point while we were talking, he asked me where I was.

"At work" I answered.

"Why are you at work at eight?"

"It's only eight."

"You usually go home by six."

"I just got to work. It's eight in the morning."

"What? Oh my God."

He didn't realize he'd been up all night. When he got to his hotel room, and saw the clock, he thought it was 8pm. He said. "Vegas has no time. I left work at four, gambled a little, talked to some people, then came back to the hotel."

The Simpsons

Tonight I watched my first episode of the Simpson's since I think, 1997. It hasn't changed in years. It was good, but the jokes felt the same. Some of it was laugh out loud. Most of it was could have been clipped from the 1990's.

25 seasons. Wow. Longer than my career.

Some times I'm fascinated by obscure trade publications and how deep their thinking is. Today I stumbled on "Parking Today" complete with articles like "Using nitrogen gas to prevent corrosion in parking structure fire suppression systems"

Its good to know I'm not the only one who thinks very deeply about a very narrow field.

For Jan 1, I jumped into an ice cold lake. The "Polar Bear Dip" is an annual tradition around here.

About a week ago, we had dinner with D&P. P asked us what our plans were for New Years. We had none. He said that for the past 16 years he's been doing the Polar Bear dip. He invited us along.

RO did not swim. I did.

Water was 40F.  The experience wasn't as bad as you'd think it could be. While the water is cold, you're in and out before you can get cold. Just run back to your towel and quickly dry off.

C was in town over the holidays. We hiked up rattlesnake ledge.

Both of us are thinking about our retirements. Retirement is years off, but you have to plan ahead.

The challenge we face is what to do during retirement. We know a few people who have retired. Those that had no purpose, who just went on endless vacation, started drinking too much, getting fat, and sometimes got a little bitter over getting old. But those who kept a job, who found a purpose stayed healthy and interesting.

So then, what do I want to do in my retirement?

My parents are in town for Christmas. Its great to be with them. They are older and tire more easily than they used to. Both are still healthy though.

Boone has had a couple dates with a food distributor. When Boone comes home from a date he is loaded up with snacks given to him as gifts-- chocolate bars, fruit and nut bars, flavored popcorns, special drinks, teas, candies.

It's only been two dates, and we now have too much junk food in the house.

Kon-Tiki

KonTiki is a movie about a team of people who sailed 5000 miles on a raft from Peru to a Polynesian island of Raroia. The leader, Thor Heyerdahl, wanted to prove that it was possible for Polynesia to have been settled by drifters from South America. So the raft was built with nothing more advanced than what South American's had 1500 years ago-- balsa wood logs roped together, plus a thatched hut.

I loved the movie. After we finished watching RO said "You're not allowed to do that."

I asked "Why not?"

He responded "You're not allowed to do that."

I would love to go on some kind of extreme expedition. I've thought about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, or the Appalachian trail. Maybe a long distance boat (or raft) trip instead.

It's cold out. At least for Seattle. Yesterday was the coldest day since 2010. When I told my parents this they laughed. Seattle's coldest day is about as warm as a typical day where they live in Eastern Ontario.

We have a humming bird feeder. The humming birds hang out by it. Spending as much time drinking from it, as resting. We bring the feeder in at night so it doesn't freeze. When we bring it out in the morning, they are waiting for us.

Cell phones

I just renewed my vehicle tabs online from my cellphone. I was waiting for lunch, so I thought I'd try it out. The state licensing website is very good, optimized for cell phones. I'm surprised how easy it was.

This makes me more worried about the future of the PC. Cell phones may not have nice big screens, or great keyboards, but they are there in your pocket when you need them. PCs can't beat that. Over time, app and website authors will update there sites to work well on phones.

Will pcs go the way of the full sized van, or three quarter ton truck? Useful, but not in every ones home.