Happy Winter Solstice!

I don't know what the exact date is for this year's winter solstice, but it is winter so I'm going to say that any day in the winter season is winter solstice. I'd also like to wish joy and peace to everyone for whatever reason they celebrate this time of year.

Wow, it's been over two weeks since I've posted on my blog! I've been incredibly busy getting ready for the season (I'm sure just about everyone shares that feeling) and prepping the store for my leaving for nine days. As many of you who read my blog know, Kate and I are up in Washington DC for our 10th anniversary. Anyway, I've missed posting here and I just wanted to chime in today and give a special thanks to everyone who has read my blog these past six months.

I've missed posting here (I've been posting at least two or three times since late June) as I find that blogging is a great way to process things I've experienced and share them with others. Besides finishing up the shopping thang that fuels our democratic way of living (and yes of course it can be argued that consumerism is a bad way to run the engine of a country, but I haven't been shown evidence of better ones), I've found pockets of time to still do some comic reading and anime viewing (the latter mostly while working out on my stationary bicycle) with Tezuka's epic manga MW and the anime Beck being standouts. My friends, Cristina and Frankie joined me for an excellent Bjork concert Dec. 15th and we even managed to get right up front at the rails so we were about 6 to 8 feet away from Bjork for most of the show. Bjork, besides being her incredible elfish self, had a ten piece female horn section that added to the awesomeness (and I'm usually not that big of a fan of wind instruments). Bjork closed with an excellent new song called Declare Your Independance, which I'd recommend listening to on Youtube or wherever. My friends the Alvarez family, had their dad go in for heart surgery on Dec. 20th, and Cristina told me that the surgery went well so hopefully Florencio will be up and around soon (he gets stir crazy pretty easily). My fellow manga and anime and all around great friend Rachelle, also got her BA at UNLV in geology degree in a ceremony (that I was sadly unable to attend) last Friday, but her college adventure isn't over. And my friends in Miami, the Tuckers, Rick, Zena, Nicole, and Lorraine are spending the holidays together as Nicole and Lorraine are on their college breaks (some of you may rember me talking about the Tucker family back in July as they hosted me and Kate on our fantastic trip to Germany in May when they were still living there).

Kate and myself have been here in Washington DC since last Wednesday and we're having a great time. We love this city with its rich history, the dramatic architecture, and the wealth of things to do that are all relatively close to one another. I can't imagine visiting the many memorials and museums in Washington DC and not feeling history wash over you. My favorite museum on this visit was the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which as anyone who is even vaguely aware of the horrors that happened during World War II, is a very powerfully sad, but well done museum / memorial to the Jewish people.

Today we're taking an off day from visiting museums, partly because just about all of them are closed, but also to recharge for the next couple of days. Kate also thinks she may be coming down with a little cold so she's trying to nip that in the bud. If she's feeling better later this afternoon, we hope to get out and see No Country For Old Men (which I understand is a great uplifting holiday movie, ha-ha).

Well I'm going to do a little reading of the Comics Buyers Guide magazine before seeing about getting something for lunch (having already read the comics I brought with and having finished the newest volumes of the excellent mangas Emma, Drifting Classroom, Monster, and the previously mentioned 600 page Tezuka crime-horror manga MW). Thanks again for those of you reading my blog and for all of you who have shopped at my store where I've made many of my best friends that are living both in Vegas and around the country.. I hope to have at least one more post before the year closes (probably Sunday) with some more comic centric reviews and impressions.