Baked Good-ness among other things

I finally took time to visit the bakery this week to buy bread. It's heavenly. There is simply no comparison between grocery store bread and the bakery loaf (the loaf in question is a loaf of Half and Half Rye bread). The best part is that I got a large loaf of bread, dozen "hard" rolls aka buns, and an apple coffee cake for $6. I will admit that it is out of the way, but that's survivable.

So other than baked goods, I just (literally) finished reading an excellent book Imperial Grunts by Robert Kaplan. The book is apparently the first in a series and is his stories of visiting American troops all over the world and impressions from that. The title implies the presence of an American Empire and he spends some time on comparisons between modern American missions and those of the British Empire and of the American interventions of the 30's. It really is well-written and while it contains critiques of the system they are well-explained and supported by the experiences he describes and the conversations he relates from the troops. I can't say that it's light reading, but certainly worth it if you want to get a soldier's and ground level viewpoint of American foreign policy today.

On a much less serious note, I am having trouble connecting that it's the Christmas season. I just took the time to decorate the ficus tree with ornaments and lights as per my annual tradition and am listening to Trans-Siberian Orchestra while I sit here, but it still seems a bit surreal. One good thing is that my shopping is done, now I just have to wrap the stuff and prep it to take home.

I have gone to two Christmas parties thus far, both Scouting related. The first was at a Cubmaster's home and was way out of my class. I should have guessed that when I pulled into the driveway and parked behind two Jag's. It was a bit higher class crowd than I am comfortable especially in jeans, but they were all really friendly and his family made me feel right at home. It still was not exactly the most enjoyable affair. The OA chapter party last night was much better even though I spend part of the time discussing work related things. The rest was spend playing pool. The chapter adviser has an awesome basement with a ping-pong table, pool table, air hockey and fooz ball. There was also a lot of food. That was a lot more fun. The staff party is this Friday which should be interesting.

Anyways, I have to do some work now. So long.