The past week has been quite bizarre. My internal clock is all messed up. I've basically had an inverted week: a 5-day weekend beginning last Thursday, and now 2 days of work, then another long weekend starting Thursday. My parents are in town because my mom had a surgical procedure on Thursday… the surgery went perfectly and she's well on the road to recovery, but after 12 hours in the hospital waiting room on Thursday followed by nearly day-long visits to their hotel room every day since, the days have completely melted into one another. It didn't help that the NFL had games on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, destroying my usual measure of weekend time. I did manage to find time for my annual Jewish Christmas, so I spent Friday night eating Chinese food and seeing movies: Phantom of the Opera (and the personal-record 9 trailers beforehand) and Closer. The Dolphins are on their first win "streak" of the season, and I'm $232 richer after winning the TRL fantasy football league (for the 2nd year in a row). Other than that, the days have been uneventful. I'm now back at work with very little to do, save brainstorming for a creative meeting this afternoon and helping Tommy write the New Year's special. Everyone who bothered to come in today would rather be anywhere else in the world. Tomorrow will be much of the same. It's such a depressing way to close out what has otherwise been an exciting year. Hopefully I'll be back to my usual snide self tomorrow.

I hope all my readers had a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hannukah, a Kwazy Kwanzaa, a Tip-Top Tet, and a solemn, dignified Ramadan (yes, I stole that from The Simpsons... sue me).