Innsbruck - here despite it never being on my to-see list

The Friday before Christmas. I almost feel complete. This has nothing to do with Christmas but instead the amount of getting caught up that I needed to do this week. As expected, the vacation week was the fastest of the entire year. While I'm still missing two of my major goals for the week, I did manage to buy both a TV and an office bookcase this week. I had inspiration (don't know where it came from) to make a Friday night stop at Pier 1. It turns out that a sale was on, the store was fairly empty and I found parking. The end result is I finally made a dent in the mess in my office. I'd take a picture but the mess has transported itself to the bookcase and I don't want to admit to everyone how bad it is!

What goals were left out? One, homework. I can work 50+ hours, travel, write 3 papers and post daily each week and somehow it always gets done. Give me a week off from both work and school, and nothing. I had the best intentions to get a week ahead but no.

The other missing goal was the two free tickets to Australia and New Zealand. I want to cash in some miles for a trip next year but the snowstorm kept the phone lines busy. When I finally got through to the airlines, Air New Zealand wasn't on my plan and no award tickets have been released yet. Bummer.

And Homer alerted us to the sad news that our San Diego (via Germany) brewmaster has died at the age of 94. It just goes to show that if you drink good beer, it can enhance your life. I raise my Stargazer Pale Ale to Karl!