And a happy 2005 to all. I spent the past week (actually, from 12/24 to 01/02) off from work. I had lots of good intentions and plenty of things to do, and didn't get to do all of them (which makes me no different than anyone else, really). Which is not to say I didn't get anything done, because I did.

First, entertainment. I finally got off my lazy ass and hooked up the DVD/VCR player I inherited from my mother after only eleven months. Which means that now I have to go thru my VHS collection and see what I want to keep and which titles I want to replace with DVDs. Anything purchased from here out will be on DVD, mainly because the picture looks so much better (dammit, the rest of the world was right). Also, DVDs take up less space and contain so many more special features than tapes do. I got a two-DVD set of the original Fleischer Studio "Superman" cartoons as a Christmas gift, and I bought (used) three more: My Big Fat Greek Wedding; Tokyo Godfathers; and A Mighty Wind. At 3 for $25 at the local Hollywood Videos it's not a bad deal.

Then, the theatre and the cinema. Bill-the-Honeybear treated me to a repeat viewing of The Incredibles (at the top of my buy-it-as-soon-as-it-comes-out list) at the local mall movies. (I can't believe the mall management is so short-sighted as to plan to replace the movies with a furniture store. Are they nuts? And how loud will the food court owners scream when what is no doubt a huge source of income dries up?). We also made the trip to The City to see four Broadway shows: Pacific Overtures (which I reviewed in an earlier post); Gem of the Ocean, the latest in the African-American history cycle by August Wilson; the revival of La Cage aux Folles (thanks to Neal and Kathe for the TKTS gift certificate!); and the New Year's Eve performance of Sheridan's The Rivals at Lincoln Center. I'll do more complete reviews later, but I will say that Gem and La Cage are must-sees, while Rivals is more interesting in the second act than the first, but Dana Ivey's Mrs. Malaprop should be arrested for grand show theft and sentenced to a Tony award.

We even did stuff for the house. Maybe not a major project, but one we've put off for far too long. We weather-proofed the three front living room windows, using that plastic sheeting that you tape around the windowsills and use a blow dryer on to make it shrink taut. I'm usually oblivious to such things, but Bill-the-Honeybear could notice an immediate draft reduction. If it can cut our heating bills down, then it's good. We only have to do it for this year; by this time next year those windows will be replaced. And as a bonus, I finally got the measurements for living room curtains! Now, of course, all we have to do is choose colors and fabrics and hardware.

Now it can be told: I've been offered the position of editor of Challenge, the newsletter of my Monday night gay group (Gay Activists Alliance in Morris County, or GAAMC for short). I had a working dinner last Tuesday with the new group president, Sherri, and went over my ideas for changes as well as answers to questions she posed for me about how Challenge is produced. I even researched, prior to the dinner, comparative printing costs at Kinko's and Staples. (Afterwards, I checked on the costs of some of the more popular desktop printing software packages. There's a reason you don't see them out on the shelves at most stores!) We seem to be on the same wavelength as far as what Challenge can become, so I hope these changes can go from vision to reality.

I did have some real-world work to do. The company who signs my paychecks -- Dynamic Technology Group, in Roseland -- managed to screw up their contract with me for 2005, so I took part of Monday morning and drove up to their offices. The account rep, Matt, was very apologetic -- he said the contract had been copied from their standard boilerplate contract, not from my prior year contract -- and made all the changes I pointed out. (For the record, they were: the addition of an end date, changing a contract in perpetuity into a one-year contract; the mention that I could purchase my health insurance thru DTG's group plan; and saying that, if I quit DTG, I had to wait a year before working for Ethicon -- not every client company of DTG.) With the changes in place -- and with a $1.50/hour raise in my rate! -- I signed the contract.

Like all vacations, this one was too short (which vacations aren't?) and I didn't get everything done I thought I'd do during this week (who does?). But I did get quite a bit done, so all in all I'm pleased. All this, and Bill-the-Honeybear didn't fuss (too much) about eating his New Year's Eve herring for luck!