It's looking like this is going to be the week of short, content-free posts: I'm being just about as lazy as it's possible to be, so I haven't got a lot of news to report. Today was perhaps a little less restful than yesterday or the day before; I went to both the dentist and the optometrist, so I spent most of my day being poked and prodded and at least half of it numb and drooling, but I'm now minus the first cavity I've had in years and plus a brand-new prescription for my glasses. (I'm hoping that one day I'll actually reach a point where my eyes just won't be able to get any worse, so I won't have to keep getting new lenses.)

We made more cookies, wrapped more presents, drank more wine: and it's only the 23rd. My wrapping is, however, completely done, so I'll probably spend tomorrow doing freelance wrapping for others. And making more cookies (as there are always, always more cookies to be made).

The least Monday-ish Monday I've had in a long time: made wrapping paper and Christmas cookies with my mother, got my hair cut, had fish and chips with the neighbors, and read on the couch for hours on end. More weekdays should be like this. While I dig the school thing to no end (and will be sad to leave in six months, assuming all goes well), there's definitely something to be said for not having a single paper to write or journal to read at all this week.

It's a pretty definitive sign that the semester's over and I'm visiting at my parents' when what wakes me up is not my 6am get-up-and-study alarm, but instead a pack of coyotes howling in the middle of the night. Apart from them, it's amazingly quiet here. I guess I don't notice the fact that you can hear the subway go by my building every seven minutes until I'm somewhere where you can't even hear cars (and there's no such thing as public transportation less than two towns away). I expect to sleep a lot this week, and I'm looking forward to it.

Chris and I finally got around to seeing The Return of the King yesterday. While I did the midnight showing thing when Fellowship came out, that wasn't really an option this year, as both Tuesday and Wednesday night fell smack dab in the middle of finals. The movie was great, of course. Chris and I are big dweeby LOTR fans, but not the kind who sit in the theatre whispering angrily about every alteration from the books. Sure, we would have been pissed off if Shelob had turned out to be a fluffy teddy bear, but we don't sweat the small stuff. I liked it more than I liked Towers, but then I liked the third book more than I liked the second book so that's not all that surprising. The film was three and a half hours, but it didn't feel like more than two (unlike Towers), and of course I cried like a baby at the end, as I always do when I finish the books.

I'm heading to my parents' today, and I'll be there until next Saturday, so updates may be a little sparse. Rest assured that I'll be up to my eyebrows in Christmas cheer, even if you don't hear about it.

For those of you with Slashdot accounts: there's a brand-new Caoine.org Slashbox you can add to your homepage if you so desire. Get on over to your user preferences and soon you'll be basking in the RSS glory.

Just a quick update before I go collapse into a state of blissful vegetation, now that the semester is officially over and I don't have to wake up at six tomorrow morning to study. Chris and I hit up the new Mandoo Bar on University Place tonight for some dumplings and drinks after my very last final of the term. I definitely needed some of each after over two hours of paper-and-pencil programming, but a little Korean lager goes a long way.

The food at Mandoo was great, and we liked the place itself - tastefully decorated, un-snotty waitstaff, good music. We split an order of goon mandoo, which were excellent - slightly crispy on the outside, perfectly tender on the inside. I also tried the joll noodles, which weren't at all what I was expecting but which were equally tasty. We couldn't finish our main courses, though, because the dumplings we started with were tiny but filling. That's okay, there's nothing like leftovers.

More thanks are in order: Chris and I had our Christmas this evening as I'm going to be in Massachusetts on the day itself, but Simon also sent along a couple of books off my wishlist that I've been positively lusting after. I can tell that this is going to be a very bookish winter break (which is of course the best kind).

Number of final exams taken today: 2
Number of final exams remaining: 1
Christmas presents wrapped today: 3.5
Christmas presents waiting to be wrapped: 5.2 million
Christmas presents waiting to be bought: 0
Days left remaining until I leave for Massachusetts: 2ish
Milligrams of caffeine consumed this week: all of them