stoutfellow

The family get-together went well, I think. I met my nephew M's new bride for the first time, and she's a charmer. For the gift exchange, I gave my brother-in-law DS a copy of Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man, which was at the top of his wish-list; my niece J gave me Season 1 of "Joan of Arcadia", which was at the top of mine.

I'm trying to get in a little exercise every day. I tried jogging around the block for a couple of days, but found myself wheezing before finishing a single lap. Today I switched to fast walking, which left me breathing hard but not wheezing. I really need to get in better shape.

I also walked over to Barnes & Noble today, but not for books - I've got enough reading material for the time being. Instead, I went for music. Adding to my soul collection, I picked up albums by Bill Withers, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke. (The first two are new to my collection; the third I got for the sake of "Change Is Gonna Come".) For some reason, I group Joni Mitchell, Phoebe Snow, Janis Ian, and Laura Nyro close together in my mind, and I already had one of Joni's albums, so I got albums from the other three. Rounding the purchase out were an album of early Dylan (again, new to my collection), Billy Joel's Piano Man, and a live album by the Eurythmics.

Tomorrow, we'll go over to have Christmas Eve dinner with my sister E and her husband. That's always good; her husband's a pretty good cook.

(I've also received half a dozen messages from students, and one from the Registrar. The answer is almost always the same: I have no access to my records, and won't until after I return - the 6th, at the earliest.)