Sleep evades me...

I woke up about an hour and a half ago and have been unable to get back to sleep since then, so I thought I might as well get up and do something useful, or at least interesting. So I ended up in front of my computer, naturally.

We ended up going to the Shanghai last night for dinner with the kids, and had a pretty good time. Matthew silently held court from his vantage point inside an infant carrier carefully arranged atop a high chair, while the rest of us dug into the eats. I ordered the moo goo gai pan and Galina ordered the moo shu pork, which was probably overkill, as we took most of it home after having satiated our appetites with the ample offerings on the so-called pu-pu platter that was ordered as an appetizer. In any event, we will have a hearty breakfast later today.

We placed our DishNetwork account into hibernation a little while back, when it became clear we'd be in Houston for a while, and didn't think it was worth reactivating it for just a week. So imagine my surprise when it turns out that the NASA channel and a Chinese English-language broadcast (via CCTV9) remained available via the receiver! Galina, who well and truly does dig television, has been watching those two channels plus an over-the-air broadcast from Albuquerque (KOAT, Channel 7) that displays with a healthy amount of electronic "snow." At any rate, the programming on the Chinese channel is very slick, and some of it is quite entertaining.

I managed to get a little more than 2000 source words translated yesterday afternoon before quitting to get ready for dinner. There are another approximately 2300 source words of bibliography at the end of the document, which tends to go faster than "normal" text, so I think I'm in pretty good shape for my deadline.

In departure news, here's a depiction of the severe weather situation as of 2:49 am local time (via KOAT and MyWeather, LLC):

We are at point "A"; our destination is point "B." While most of the information on the 'net right now is either old or reflects the fact that it's generally cold in the middle of the night, it's still fairly clear that there is a hunk of severe winter weather lingering between us and home.

I am thinking it may make sense to do the "southern route," though Clines Corners, Vaughan, Roswell, and Ft. Stockton, and then cut across Texas on I-10.

I need to try to get another couple of hours of shuteye. Then it'll be breakfast, packing the car (I have identified about 5-6 boxes of assorted stuff I want to take with me back to Texas), and getting the heck out of Dodge Pagosa.

Cheers...

Update: Immediately after posting this entry, the severe weather map showed an updated image (as of 3:22 am local time), the important part (for me) being:

By the time the sun rolls out, the question of which route to take may depend more on personal preference than weather.

Waving ourselves off...

Although the storm appears to have dissipated and LJ friend tsarina reports good weather in central Texas, the roads in New Mexico are still impassible. So...

...we're going to celebrate the New Year in Pagosa!

So, I better get going on another chunk of that translation!

Cheers...

Good call...

The news on the tube related tales of massive traffic jams and numerous accidents all thoughout New Mexico, so it's a good thing we decided not to leave today, else we might be among those poor souls who have been sitting in their cars for hours, waiting to move somewhere. Hopefully, the news from the traffic front will be brighter tomorrow morning, and we'll be able to leave for Texas.

I managed to translate a little more than 3200 source words today, and processed a hair more than 1000 source words in the document's bibliography, so there are about 1600 words left in the document, 1300 of which are in the rest of the bibliography. No worries there, methinks.

Feht called last night after I had gone to sleep, and Natalie took the call. He told her to tell me that Jerry had outlived Saddam by one day, and that was about it. I guess he was not in a very good mood (Natalie says he sounded drunk), though his dark brand of humor seemed intact. In any event, Jerry was Feht's 13-year-old German shepherd, freshly back from the animal hospital, where he had been treated for some kind of suspected kidney problem.

He came out to greet me (i.e., put his muzzle on my lap) as I was about to get up to go home the other night, an event Feht described to me today as "his last social function." Jerry's condition worsened overnight, and he went back to the hospital yesterday, where the doctors found an inoperable malignancy, resulting in a predictable and inevitable resolution.

Godspeed, Jerry. To hear Feht speak of you, you were a loyal companion. The local coyote population will doubtless breathe easier for a while.

In other news, I spent a little time earlier this afternoon outlining my goals for the new year. This is an exercise I've gone through in previous years, with indifferent results. (So indifferent, in fact, that I don't recall giving thought to any resolutions for 2006 last year).

In past years, I've successfully dealt with the stuff I'm good at, and have ended up way short on the stuff I'm not good at. This bothers me, as one of the cornerstones of my belief system is that I can change the way I react to my environment.

The key theme for 2007 is going to be organization, especially of stuff outside of my professional life (which seems to largely take care of itself), though it won't be the one and only theme.

Professionally, it's been a good year. On the personal side, I know things could have been both a lot better, and a lot worse.

There are about 45 minutes left in the old year. What can I say, now that I again find myself on the cusp of what is, in theory, a clean slate?

(Ouch! My "mixed metaphor meter" just pegged. Oh, well...)

I guess it's this: There are new victories to be had out there, small ones and big ones. And each is achievable, in both large steps and small. All I have to do is develop the ability to take them, down roads I might not have necessarily traveled before. Others have done it. I can do it.

Best wishes to all for a healthy and happy year ahead. And oh, yes... echoing the closing words of the anchor on the English-language Chinese channel we've been receiving on our dormant satellite receiver: may we all have a prosperous year as well.

Cheers...