I haven’t posted in ages, but luckily that’s because I’ve had a super-long Christmas-thru-New-Year vacation. I spent the first week – 20th to 27th – mostly relaxing and doing family stuff up at Mont Tremblant for Christmas, then back to Montreal where we hosted a party and then off to Quebec City for a splendid New Year’s Eve with friends at a dinner and another party later on.

Things I’ve learned over the holidays: our dog is a great tracker of large and small animals in the brush, and loves the snow though bred for the savannah; sparkling cider from the Eastern Townships of Quebec is really excellent with dessert; people from France have rarely had good California wines, and so it is easy to impress them with a half decent red; Hilton Hotels welcomes dogs, making travel quite a bit easier; and I finally learned that All-Season radial tires simply aren’t up to snuff in the Canadian winter.

Things to look forward to in 2003: following through on the plans of 2002. We’re closing the deal on the house we bought a couple weeks ago in March, getting married in April, and then moving into aforementioned house in May. I think that’s enough for a pretty complete year and that’s just the first five months!