Downtime

After working so hard to release a new software product before Christmas, I took advantage of the holiday and the weekend to just stay away from my computer for four days. I will admit I took a few looks at e-mail on my iPhone, but I wanted a break from the laptop that seems to be permanently affixed to my hands.

We released the software on Tuesday. By Wednesday, things seemed pretty stable, and I left work for the four day weekend in a good mood. Wednesday night, I went to a holiday party with some friends. On Thursday, I did a little bit of final shopping for Christmas. And, I practiced guitar for 90 minutes. Then, we went out for a nice Christmas Eve dinner - just my wife and the kids. It was very enjoyable.

Christmas Day was somewhat low key. My daughter had gotten most of her presents early, primarily a fancy new cell phone, and my son either got clothes (T-shirts and hoodies advertising his favorite bands) or video game stuff. I got a big gift certificate to buy some new cookware and another gift certificate for a local gourmet shop. My wife got a book, a new winter coat, some amethyst earrings, and some other clothes. We visited family for the day, but I needed to get home and to bed at a reasonable time because I was teaching skiing all weekend.

Saturday, the mountain wasn't very crowded, but six of the girls in my group showed up and we had a good skiing day. But, the weather turned on us and it poured rain most of Saturday night. Sunday's skiing was pretty marginal - only groomed terrain was really any fun and it rained all morning. By lunchtime, everybody was soaked, so I took the girls to the mountain's health club, where they split time between the pool and the climbing wall.

Today, it's back to work to me, but the lack of e-mails and low volume of posts on Facebook makes me think that I'm the only person at work today. If the system is still looking stable over the next day or so, I'll probably take Wednesday-Friday off from my "real" job to teach skiing for a few extra days. It's snowing today and we are expecting a big storm later in the week. By Friday, skiing conditions may be very nice.