I'm back from Hawaii. It was a blast. I got to go snorkeling, visit a coffee plantation, tromp around on a live volcano, and enjoy the company of some of my favorite relatives. Really fun. I should describe it in more detail later.

Our flight back was enlivened by some small excitement: some moron decided to smoke in the airplane lavatory (they must have disabled the smoke detector, or it wasn't working.) The flight attendants nearly broke the door down, and then informed this poor dingbat that she would be under observation for the rest of the flight, and then would be met by police at the flight's end. (I did not see her get off the plane, nor did I see any cops waiting outside our gate, so I don't know what really happened after the flight. But the flight attendants seemed pretty serious. Moral of the story, kids: don't smoke in an airplane bathroom.)

Anyway, my vacation was so relaxing that I sort of forgot that today was a company holiday, and I got up and went to work. There's nothing quite like pulling into a totally empty parking lot on Monday morning, and thinking, "Whoops." Since I was there, I caught up on my e-mail (in my darkened office - they'd turned the lights off), then went grocery shopping, and came home in time to have lunch with a very surprised but pleased Daniel.

I'm such a chucklehead. I've asked Daniel to remind me that I have the 2nd of January off as well.

Lazed around all afternoon, and then prepared a kind of low-key Chanukah celebratory meal: zucchini latkes and lentil soup. OMG the zucchini latkes were good. Wow. I'm making those again.

So, I think now I'm going to try to finish unpacking from my trip. Hope everyone had a happy holiday of their choice.