Here’s a look at what I’ve been up to while I was gone! Click to enlarge and view more details.

Happy holidays!  I’m busy traveling around so I won’t be posting much.  Took a 25-hour trip from LA to Portland to Tokyo to Beijing and then the next day, a 5-hour train ride brought me to Shenyang.  My poor feet have been sitting around too much and I’ve napped so much I don’t know when to be tired.  It’s all good though, I get to see quite a bit of family in the next couple of days and hopefully get some relaxation too. 

I woke this morning to find this wonderful scene outside my window. The night before it was too dark to tell what was out there, so this was completely unexpected. Click to see the full size!

I woke up to a beautiful clear morning and discovered we could see the Golden Gate Bridge from our room!

Here are things more to the south.

There's a closeup of the famous bridge.

Check out some of the previous videos too.

These were pretty cool rings at a store in the Keys, but were way too big for actual wear (at least on my fingers).

Flying into DC for Halloween weekend and I realized it was raining when I looked out at the wing. With each flash, a bunch of drops were illuminated as if frozen in time. At first I thought it was really dusty out but then I realized it was actually raining. Pretty cool!

I’m not sure why, but I have had an aversion to following seasonal trends in the past couple of years.  I guess it’s because after reading so many articles about Christmas, New Year’s, or the like, I don’t want to be contributing to all that.  After all, how original could you get with that stuff?  Instead I prefer to enjoy the season, where people are hopefully making positive changes in their life as they look to family and re-evaluate their priorities.

This year I’ll be vacationing in China with my parents, which is a great way to spend the holidays.  It’s too bad Panda couldn’t be with me too, but we can do plenty of trips in future years.  I’m really looking forward to going back to China; it’s been 3 1/2 years and it will be nice to visit again.  You can be sure that around that time I won’t be writing about a tree and presents!  I’m sure I’ll have plenty of other wonderful things to write about and thank goodness for that!  If you want the same old holiday stuff, go watch some TV.  :-P

I went out to the east coast for the weekend and on Saturday, it was raining or sleeting all day.  At times, it almost got cold enough for us to get some snow down in the DC/VA area.  Almost.  I hear that more northern parts did get snow, and quite a bit, and I’ve got to say I’m a bit jealous.  I was hoping for some snow to enjoy here as well.  While I’d all but forgotten the experience of getting into a cold car and trying to defrost the windows while warming up, I do miss snow.  Nobody said I had to miss all the unpleasant experiences that come with it, right?

My selective memory allowed me to remember a brisk walk with snow crunching under my feet.  Pretty positive memory.  It allowed me to remember building snowthings and catching snowflakes with my tongue.  Very positive memory.  It did not, however, allow me to remember the bitterness of a freezing cold car.  Not so positive memory.  Well, that’s how it goes I guess.  After so many years removed from this kind of life, I chose to focus on the things I did like about it rather than that which was less desirable.  Nevertheless, with all the pros and cons trying to weigh each other out, I still wouldn’t mind moving back to more volatile climates for awhile.  It’d make me appreciate LA even more when I returned, right?

Our shuttle to the satellite terminals at LAX had a little head-to-head with the planes on the runway.