Belated yule greetings

Well, Yule has sprung upon us and we were scarcely ready. The kids got a few meager gifts since the car situation still hasn't been fully resolved, and that was the extent of our celebration. On the bright side, we returned that horrid Kia that we rented and the dealership was gracious enough to give us a free loaner until something can be worked out. It's really strange because the car is also a Hyundai Elantra, just like our now-dead vehicle, only this is a tiny sedan version whereas ours was the spacious wagon style. The controls were instantly familiar and made sense, unlike the Kia Optima which made me hate Kias even more with each drive.

I'm seriously considering using the bonus money I received from my last paycheck (back pay for my recent raise) to just buy a dirt-cheap vehicle from the side of the road just so that I can have a running car and to use as a trade-in after 30 days. (Most dealers won't take a trade-in unless you've physically owned it for at least 30 days.) Hopefully our current car dealership can work something nice out, especially considering it's the last weeks of the year and this would be one more guaranteed sale on this year's reports.

The only thing really keeping me sane is all of the new software I've been playing with recently... Visual Basic 2005 (ran into some nasty bugs last night using layout panels), Office 12 (beta testing--w00t!), X-Men Legends 2 (Wolverine, Rogue, Magneto, and Bishop rock together!), and Legacy of Kain: Defiance (damn you for not naming it Soul Reaver 3--I missed this game two years ago when it was released because it was renamed). Add in the slick Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2 and an S-Video out to my 27" flatscreen TV and you're talking some slick gaming action. My box has seen so much more action than the PS2 recently. And compliments to Microsoft with the new build of Vista finally being stable enough to recognize and install all of my hardware and support TV-out (I think kudos go to nVidia on that one).

Okay, enough geeky rambling... I haven't had much sleep lately with all that's been going on, but that can't be helped. Here's hoping that things settle back down again soon. Hopefully the rest of you have a better Christmas than my Yule. Happy holidays, regardless of your celebrated holiday.