Checking in

I don't do that enough. Should make it a New Year's resolution, I suppose.

Saw Verdi's Un ballo in maschera tonight. For a Verdi tragic opera, it had a remarkably low body count. (One.)

Merry Christmas, gang. Or whatever you celebrate. (Yak Shaving Day? Someone wished me that, and had me scratching my head...)

And to all a good night.

Odd Christmas present

When I came back to New York, I got a 500-gigabyte hard disk on sale for backing up stuff and storing data. Mostly for Athens, for when I go back. About three weeks later, I tried to access it and found that it had crashed. Hard. Nothing I did could revive it, and I couldn't even reformat it.

Sent it back to Seagate under a warranty repair.

Yesterday (Christmas Eve), I got a box back from them. Not the 500-gigabyte Maxtor hard disk I'd sent them, or an equivalent, but a 750-gig drive. "Certified repaired", okay, but the thing would have cost me a hundred bucks more easily.

So, I suppose Merry Christmas to me.

Winding down on Christmas

Party guests are vastly amused by the mechanical doodlebug my brother got me for Christmas.

Night, all.