Christmas loot.
My wife and I decided not to exchange gifts this year. I had been
warned by other males that this type of arrangement would not work, but
I have the (apparently) rare and wonderful sort of wife that does not like to shop,
does not like jewelry, and really truly did not want me to buy her
anything for Christmas this year. So I didn't. Instead I
bought myself a couple of "work" books: Learning the bash Shell (so I can ween myself from csh) and Essential XML (so I can fill in the giant gaps in my XML knowledge base).
For Christmas, I recieved a Borders gift certificate. I used it to order Java Development with Ant and Struts in Action.
I also recieved a nice little stack of CDs from my brother
including: The Clash/This is Live Clash, Big Star/What's Goin' Ahn,
Elvis Costello/Cruel Smile, The Cure/Greatest Hits, and Bill
Hicks/Dangerous. I've ripped and listened to them all. All are excellent, although 'This is Live Clash' is a bit rough (to be expected, of course).