Pre-Christmas report

As the old saying goes, "Any holiday that doesn't require driving or flying anywhere is a good one!"

The second-best Christmas gift I have given so far this year was to a teenager I know. He's on the geeky side, so I gave him 3 boxes of fantasy and sci-fi paperbacks, along with 10 or 12 games I'd gotten at thrift stores and garage sales, and an older computer with a decent monitor and a Linux boot cd. Oh, yeah, and a TMBG CD and the original Knights of the Old Republic PC game. Plus all my Illuminati, Mythos, On The Edge, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. etc. collectible card game stuff. I'm totally the Nerdfather, patron to the younger generation of kids that are smart-maybe-a-little-too-smart.

My best Christmas gift this year was telling my wife that our house is now free of 3 boxes of fantasy and sci-fi paperbacks, along with 10 or 12 games I'd gotten at thrift stores and garage sales, and an older computer with a decent monitor and a Linux boot cd. Most importantly for our safety, my upstairs closet doesn't have a copy of Monopoly dangerously close to a copy of Anti-Monopoly. Now the two can't touch accidentally and cause a massive explosion. Not as massive an explosion as my wife was going to have if I kept the giant pile of junk around the house, though.