Ah. I thought this evening would never get here. I do not have to return to work until Wednesday next week, the day after Christmas. Not a long break, but still much needed. Tomorrow my husband and I will be celebrating Solstice and I will finally learn the titles of the book-shaped presents that have been taunting me for the last couple of weeks.

I also plan on reading of course. I will attempt to read only books I have already in progress. There are plenty to choose from. I’d like to finish The Odyssey and we’ll see what else I can manage in five days.

I also have plans on getting my email under control. I used to laugh at people who complained about all the email they got. I kept my inbox at less than 20 emails, no problem. But then something happened and now I have over 150 emails in my inbox and it stresses me out. I have been reading some good tips from Macworld and at 43 Folders (via Lifehacker) and have already begun creating folders and rules in my email application. By the end of the year my email should be tidy and organized.

I had been planning to give you an interesting quote from Pinker’s Language Instinct, but have you ever marked a page and then not gotten back to it for a week or so, kept reading on and then when you did get back to the marked page find you have no idea why you marked it in the first place? Yup. I had just stuck a bookmark in the page with no indication of what on the page I was interested in. I have read the left page and the right page and while it’s interesting–about language origins and whether or not there is a universal First Language–there is nothing particularly quotable on either page. I just finished a chapter last night on how babies acquire language. Pinker was also kind enough to explain why it is so darn hard for adults to learn a new language. Fascinating stuff. But no quote for you. Oh well.

Back tomorrow to chirp about my new books. And I hope the to-die-for dessert I will be making for Solstice dinner tomorrow night turns out well enough that I can take a drool-worthy photo of it.