And the last week or so.

The clock is ticking. It's mere hours before I go back to working. Another year another dollar. I'm not exactly looking forward to going back to work, but I'm okay with it.

The break has actually been very nice. We had a chance to hang with a lot of family and friends. Little J has been having a blast because she's had different friends to play with every day for the last couple of days. We've seen lots of people and had lots of laughs and good times. Though we're still old and lame enough that we didn't actually make it to midnight on New Year's Eve. We ended up going home around 10:30.

We actually managed a date day too. I dragged Wifey out to Avatar and she didn't fall asleep or pull out her phone to start texting people in the middle of the movie. We then had tapas for dinner. Not the best, but it was just to have something different without the kids.

I didn't really get a whole lot of writing done. I think that's just the new life with kids. Oh well.

One thing I want to rant about. Maybe every family has one. A flashpoint. A topic no one wants to bring up because it's never been resolved and guarantees a fight. With my family, it happens whenever I am returning from visiting my parents. My grandma and mom are loving well meaning souls who tend to overpack their love. Every time I leave, they offer up anything lying around the house that they aren't using, and any food item that I or anyone in my extended bay area family (brother, cousin, uncle, aunt) have at any point said that they liked. When I fly, I can legitimately claim limited space, but when I drive the van, they aren't satisfied unless there isn't an inch of space left in that vehicle when I leave.

Some of the stuff is useful, but sometimes, it's really overdone. Last week, they insisted that take a bag of bean sprouts because even if they have bean sprouts in the Bay Area, they must cost a lot more. It's not really Wifey's position to say, No-that's enough. It's mine. And I try with rare success. But it's my dad who sees everything being packed who sort of loses it. He keeps trying to tell them that most of the stuff they're packing we can buy up here for a lot less effort.

And this same argument has been happening every time I leave the house since college. I think the same happens for my brother. It doesn't make me want to go home any more but it would be nice if it didn't happen every time.