Or, There And Back Again.

We’ve just gotten back from our annual Christmas pilgrimage to the wilds of Northern California. We had planned to be back by 5; we didn’t get on the road until 1, which meant we couldn’t get back until 6:30 at the earliest; and due to circumstances such as a 10 mile backup on Highway 5 (“Say…isn’t this supposed to be the fast way?”) and Simon screaming at the top of his lungs (which required a long comforting session in the parking lot of a Carl’s Jr. that had the filthiest bathroom I’ve ever had the, uh, pleasure of using), we didn’t get back until 9.

And due to extended car napping, no one of the child persuasion wants to go to sleep, and it’s 10. People of the parent persuasion desperately want to go to sleep.

Because I’m so fuzzy-brained at the moment, all the posts I want to make–such as introducing you to Simon or telling you what’s going on with Darin or what not–will just have to wait one more day.

(The 999 Miles, by the way, refers to the trip odometer. Just as we pulled into the garage it ticked from 999.9 to 0.0, which we thought was mightily cool. And Darin added, “Or, There And Back Again,” just because he has Tolkien on the brain.)

Jason saying that my journal’s return is a cool Christmas present for the entire world has just completely fucking made my week.

In case you were still under the impression that the Brits are way, way more staid than are we, check out The Guardian’s end of the year quiz. Mind you, The Guardian ain’t The Sun, you know what I’m saying? They’re not the kind of paper that sets everything in 36-point type and has a Page Three Girl. But boy — you sure can get racier things into a serious British paper than you can into any paper over here (right on down to The Enquirer).

Check out, say, Question 9. It’s about Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears and an aspect of their relationship I didn’t need to know about. Learning the term “bumjob” was interesting though.

Or Question 10. You can say that in the papers? (Over here you can say “fuck” in Vanity Fair, but not in the “family” newspapers.

The Guardian quiz is difficult but a great deal more fun than the King William’s General Knowledge Paper, which is also an end of the year tradition. The KWGKP is just difficult.

Another quiz you might enjoy is Jon Carroll’s Christmas quiz. The answers can be found in the next day’s column, so you won’t go crazy looking for them.