Today started out with me driving to Sacramento from Concord, leaving at 23:30 and arriving at 00:45. This is one of my favorite times to drive since it's dark and there isn't that much traffic. I'm still wide awake at this time, so driving then is easier than getting up early to drive. My parents are used to me driving in in the early AM, and this time, as usual, they left out some blankets so I could sleep on the sofa-bed. This time I did arrive early enough that Chris and my mom were still awake.

After a night's sleep, Dad, Steph, Chris and I went out to eat for lunch. Mom went to work. We ate a chinese buffet and it was quite good. I rarely eat chinese food so when I do I'm not bored with it and I like it. It's one of those contradictory aspects of my parents that they want me to get in shape and lose weight, and yet they keep encouraging me to eat as much as I can during meals. This was no exception, as my dad kept getting more food for me. Now, I don't eat lunch, so I was fine after the first half plate. After that I tried to eat as much as I could but it was far below what I can eat during dinner.

I grilled my family for what gifts I should buy them. Dad doesn't give me any help so I go with Steph's suggestion to get him a gift certificate. After lunch we go home, then Chris and I go to the mall to buy some presents. This is the day before Christmas, about 15:00 or so, and it's not surprisingly crowded. But not jam packed; it's more like a busy Saturday at the mall.

Before the mall we stop at Target and get some cheap presents. As I've stated before, I like getting expensive presents for people. It's the thought that counts, but I still like buying presents that I think are a bit beyond what is reasonably priced. Unfortunately, my family really hates that, which spoils some of my fun, but I try to bottle that up for the sake of harmony.

At the mall Chris and I walk to the video store to buy him some Anime tapes. That's pretty much it for that so we walk all the way back to the car since we still have to get my dad's gift. I'm really beat since my foot is still a bit off so my good leg is used too much and tires easily. But we get to the car, drive like mad to Gottschalks to buy the gift certificate, then drive to the movie theater to see Bicentennial Man.

It's a nice movie, although Chris was a bit surprised. He expected a comedy, what with Robin Williams and the previews being geared towards that. On the other hand, I thought the mood was appropriate to the story and to Isaac Asimov's style of storytelling. The movie also has a couple of nice shots of Oracle Headquarters, where I work. They closed down the parking lot in front of my building so that the camera work didn't have 20th century cars in the frame.

We got back just in time for dinner. Then set up the old scanner that I gave to my brother. He decided it was time to erase the hard drive and install OS 8.6, an upgrade from 8.1. The installation went smoothly but at the end the internal modem didn't work and the scanning anything froze the system. Old software. I had to log into the Internet to get the answers, which were in the form of updated drivers that aren't installed by OS 8.6. And that was my day before Christmas.