Well, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Years. December was pretty much a write-off for me in terms of "spare time" for blogging. I swear (and it's now down in writing) that next Christmas I'm going to set up a Christmas project (with timelines, task lists, milestones etc.) so that I can get to mid-December and be done with the madness. Maybe even have a bit of time to kick back for a bit and enjoy the holidays. It such a stressful time for me that pretty much as soon as Christmas was over I ended up getting a nasty cold that came on full force on New Year's Day (just lovely) so just when I had time to do some extra work around the house I ended up completely devoid of any energy. Ah well - it's not all bad. I actually got some rest on my extended holidays.

I can't complain however, even though it was a whirlwind of activity (and over much too soon) I am humbled by the yummy tech gifts that came my way. A lovely widescreen lcd monitor to replace my aging 17" flat panel BenQ; and an iPod shuffle clip-on for when I'm out running. Both very useful and very much appreciated.

Of course, the new monitor didn't fit on my old crappy computer desk so I ended up buying a new desk too.

Yes that's me (with D's handy dandy power driver)! Only 6 hours of putting the new desk together later and now there's more room in my office at home plus I got the chance to go through all the junk that had been accumulating and toss a bunch of stuff out. I've got seriously a bankers box load of 3.5" floppys with the most archaic stuff on them - heh - I don't even have a floppy drive on my computer anymore. (ok well I'm not quite done going through all my junk but we're getting there). Getting organized - what a great way to start the new year.