Robert Burns Day

Today is Robert Burns Day... a celebration of Scotland and Robert Burns, composer of Address to a Haggis, among other things.

Alas it falls on a Monday this year, which makes it difficult to celebrate in the style it should be and still get up on Tuesday morning ready to face the world.  Thus, some friends invited us over for Burns Supper last night, which was a bit better, though still not perfect.  (I guess there are lower expectations for Monday morning than Tuesday morning, which makes an odd sort of sense.)  We ate home made haggis, neeps, and tatties, among other things.  Most importantly we toasted Robert Burns, Scotland, each other, and absent friends with a couple of good single malt whiskeys.

As an aside, we decided that since it wasn't really Robert Burns' birthday we were probably celebrating something else, which we decided was Montgomery Burns Day, which is entirely different, but still (in your best and most appropriate Simpson's voice) excellent.

A couple of years ago I spent a few days in Scotland and met a bunch of wonderful people.  Islay was particularly amazing, and I think I could live there, though my wife needs a bit more in the way of civilization.  Still, we both dearly loved it and would happily go back.

In any case, wherever you are, take a moment to think about Robert Burns, Scotland, and your friends, both present and gone.  And make the time to thank those you have for being there for you.

Cheers!

Happy New Year!

It's January 1, and I'm feeling somewhat mellow. Well, sick actually, but as a description "mellow" will do.

Last night we didn't even manage to stay up until midnight. Instead we crashed at 11 and went right to sleep. I'm recovering from a cold and Anne's just coming down with it, so we're excused.

The one thing we did manage to do last night - that's as close to a NYE tradition as we have - is watch the Tim Burton film Mars Attacks. Anne says we started doing this many years ago when we were driving home after a holiday visit and wound up in Laramie on New Years Eve. We found Mars Attacks was on TV at the hotel and watched it. For some reason it's been what we do ever since.

Regardless of what your NYE traditions are, I wish you all the best in 2009. Thanks for reading and commenting here.

Oh, and as of yesterday I'm on Facebook too. You can find me there if you're a Facebook user. I can't promise my updates there will occur more often than they do here here, but we'll see.