Bloggin' in December

Well, it appears that December is a universally slow month for Bloggers, at least here in the States. Travel, holiday parties, shopping, and a variety of year-end deadlines conspire to keep us away from our computers (plus, in my case a whole lot of home improvement stuff). Although I still have a lot to do, the painting is almost done, holiday shopping is over, I'm done travelling for the immediate future, and no school for three weeks.

I still have to finish unpacking, and decide where all of my Christmas loot needs to go. Christmas as an adult is always a bit weird. Most of it seems to be an exercise in passing money around in a circle (except much more inefficient). I've always tried to get gifts that are more personal, or something that the other person doesn't know about - but that's not always easy. I got some running apparel from my brother and his wife and some anti-chaffing rub, a book (The Omnivore's Dilemma) and a DVD (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and the normal assortment of strange gifts and stocking stuffers.


My big score was a new bag, something some of you know I have been looking for for quite a while. Most bags are either cheap and crappy (i.e. like the pleather bag I have been using, which I got free from work which had two zippers snap in half within a couple of months), too expensive (e.g. anything from Tumi), too small (e.g. messenger bags), or too big (e.g. duffel bags). The bag in question is a 5" Zero Halliburton Deluxe Briefcase made of ballistic nylon. As this particular reviewer stated, this bag is pretty hot if I do say so myself. I'm not sure if it will help me pick up chicks but it can't hurt.

There is also the annual ritual where my grandad sends all of his grandsons a check for $250 for Christmas. I am not sure why I find this is to be so entertaining, probably because it makes me think about all of the good times I've had with my grandparents, and maybe about all the stuff that you used to be able to do with $250 as a kid.

Anyway, another one of my projects has been to get a large, framed world map to mark out what places in the world I have been to. I have to go pick it up, but otherwise all that is left to do is to chronicle where I have actually been. To this end, I reviewed where I have been with my parents when I was home for Christmas. Here is the list I have come up with so far, not counting states I just drove through or airports I switched over in (keep in mind that the United States is only about 8" to 10" across so a lot of stuff in Minneapolis and Wisconsin is going to get lumped together):

UNITED STATES:
Wisconsin: Madison (hometown), Milwaukee, Door County, Wisconsin Dells, Appleton, and a boatload of towns through various trips with my parents, the Boy Scouts, and athletic competitions.
Minnesota: Twin Cities metro (current home), Northfield (college for 4 years), St. Cloud, Duluth, Lutsen, Brainard, Red Wing, and a number of towns for college track meets.
New York: Buffalo/Lancaster (grandparents - mom's side), Rochester, the Finger Lakes, New York City
Illinois: LaMoille (grandparents - dad's side), Chicago
Florida: The Florida Keys, Orlando, Tampa
Colorado: Boulder (brother went to school there for a decade), Denver
Iowa: Grinnell (college visit)

CANADA:
Ontario: Made a dash for the border right near Niagara Falls

INDIA:
Karnataka: Bangalore (study abroad through grad school), Mysore
Kerala: Kumarakom (Golden Waters resort)

AUSTRALIA:
South Australia: Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Coober Pedy, some others I can't remember offhand
Northern Territory: Darwin, Kakadu National Park, Ayer's Rock
Queensland: Cairns, Great Barrier Reef
New South Wales: Sydney
Victoria: Melbourne
Tasmania: Cradle Mountain National Park, Hobart, Georgetown (I think)

NEW ZEALAND:
New Zealand: Auckland and some surrounding areas

There you have it, my travel history in a nutshell. My apologies to any cities I have left out.