Gratitude – 11/23/2008

Today, I am grateful for:

1. Vacation.  We just returned from a week at the Riu Palace in Cabo San Lucas, which was pretty much just what we needed after completing The Stressful Presentation From Hell.  The weather was great, the ocean was beautiful, and the Pina Coladas were both tasty and plentiful.

2. Reading.  Whilst we lazed in the sun by the pool in Cabo, my wife and I were able to catch up on a lot of the reading we haven’t had much time for as of late.  I was able to enjoy Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Gentlemen of the Road, the latter being a book I picked up at the airport on the way out, just in case I ran out of books.  Good thing, too, because in addition to these two I was able to get to Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News, and Water For Elephants, a book by Sara Gruen that I hadn’t been terribly interested in when I picked it up, but which I ended up enjoying quite a bit.  When I saw I ran the risk of running through the books I brought with me, I picked up The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo, by Stieg Larsson, which I’m partway through now and with which I am quite contented.  I wouldn’t likely have picked up that last one purely of my own volition, but the pickings at the hotel gift shop were a little slim.

3. Pina Coladas.  Yes, once again I am grateful for alcohol.  But if you’ve had a good Pina Colada lately, you know exactly what I’m talking about.