hello, happy 2006. sorry for the obligatory big giant break from posting over the holidays, that's how it usually ends up going.

well i can't really think of a real fancy way to say it other than that alayna and i are now engaged. it's been a long time coming and we're just excited to move into the next phase of our relationship. if everything goes to plan we'll be married by the end of the summer, so if we don't kill each other the first half of '06 should be a bit of a whirlwind.

christmas went fine, if not a little out of the ordinary since personally i've never had a christmas day without my family. it was 5 nights in san antonio and 4 in colorado, and we were pretty thrilled once we finally got back to our own apartment. i think next year we might try to take a bit of a shorter trip, kinda felt like our precious time away from work was less enjoyed with all the traveling. there's some updated photos on my yahoo photos page if you wanna check it out.

as per usual as part of christmas i got a wad of cash from combined sources that i'd like to blow on something completely frivolous, although i haven't decided what yet. i'm looking at maybe an iBook, although i'm waiting for the macworld conference next week (where big apple product announcements are frequently made) before i commit to anything. i had also thought about maybe a flat panel tv in the bedroom instead, but i realize it'd be a pretty giant waste of cash and we don't watch tv in there too often, even though we've got the tivo hooked up in there.

i looked into upgrading to directv's new MPEG-4 high def offering but it doesn't really look like it'll gain us much. see, right now we can pull in plenty of high def goodness, but not ABC. well the problem this year is that the super bowl will be on ABC and most likely we won't be able to see it in high-definition here at the house. if we upgraded to MPEG-4 we'd get NBC, CBS and fox locals in HD (as opposed to the new york national feeds we get now) but still not ABC. we'd have to have a new set-top box as well as an upgraded satellite dish to take advantage, which right now is not at all worth the trouble. looks like we'll just go hit my parents' house and watch the super bowl over there on their 34".

--j