Despite all the illness floating around this holiday season, I hope y'all had a pleasant time. I had a very ill but very relaxing time in the Midwest, with LOTS of Swedish pancake mornings (not the cause of my illness) and a relatively quiet New Year's Eve (also no illness, thankfully).

Happy New Year. What's in store? A new dwelling, new jobs, maybe a new ride. Not right away, mind you, these are just the things that I'm pretty sure will occur this year.

Val is finishing up her Public History program this semester at NCSU and is starting one Library Science class at UNC. We plan on moving closer to UNC sometime this summer. There is a town RIGHT next to Chapel Hill called Carrboro where we'd like to live. Everything there is within walking distance of everything else, and there's an honest to goodness co-op grocery store there right next to one of the best breakfast places in the Triangle. About a block away from there is the Orange County Social Club, already one of our favorite area bars. If we can live anywhere in that area, we'd be all set. The rental properties around there seem to be the same price or less than what we're paying now, so we might have the added bonus of more space or less rent. Even if we end up living in Chapel Hill, it's only a 20 minute walk from "downtown" to "downtown", or maybe I should say main street to main street. It's not rural, but it has a small town feel. Nice.