Well,I’m back in Seattle after an almost unheard-of two-week vacation. Atleast, my body is back – my mind is still sort of in the process ofreturning to work J. Taking two weeks off and notthinking about work did a lot of good for the ‘ol mental state.

I spent the Christmas week in Denver with my parents, which was quite nice. Nota whole lot going on there, which left a lot of time to relax and hang out withthe family. Even got some time to hack a bit on my ever-running side project (aScheme implementation in .NET) – more on that later, though.

On 12/27, I left Denver and went to Chicago for a week to hang out with myfriends there. Now that I live in Seattle, I don’t get to see them verymuch, so having a whole week with everybody was really special. It’s socool – even though we don’t spend much time together in the sameplace anymore, we get together and it’s just like old times. Much fun andplenty of tomfoolery all around.

Ihave to say that this was the best holiday break in recent memory. It wasfilled with family love and close friends, which is what the season is allabout.