And we’re back. Boy howdy, that was a month, wasn’t it? Folks are engaged, folks are pregnant, folks are changing jobs (none of the above applies to present company, mind, but my friends have been a font of change over the last thirty days or so…) Holidays come and gone with the whitest Christmas on record (and a twelve-hour power outage, to boot) only to yield the wettest New Year in recent memory — it’s raining as I type this, cold and gloomy and miserable. Where’d my snow go? I mean, if it’s gonna be cold in January, it could at least have the decency to give me something fun to play in outside with Carl.

Sarah’s been keeping the home fires burning here, as I see, but expect otherwise regular updates from Columbus to recommence soonish. I think we’ve got a nice backlog of about four months’ worth of pictures to sort through and post up, for all of you who can’t quite get enough of my mad shutterbug skillz. And I may finally tackle that whole digital video for public consumption thing — who knows?

Be excellent to one another, and Happy New Year to ya.

I just read a “Best Of” column that I thought I should share with you all: David Edelstein of slate.com’s review of the 13 best movies of 2004. Why 13? I’m not really sure, but he includes some great flicks on there.

Most notably, he lists Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as his number one pick of the year. I couldn’t agree more. I didn’t get to see this movie until a few weeks ago, when my friends rented it for a girls’ night in. Even though I’m prone to bouts of napping at movies in (particularly ones started after 10 p.m.), I stayed awake throughout the entire movie. At one point, my friend Jaymie even suspiciously asked, “Sarah, are you asleep?” when she hadn’t seen me stir for about 20 minutes. The truth was, I was mesmerized by the film.

And I really love Edelstein’s analysis of the movie:

In the greatest remarriage comedies, enduring romantic happiness is only possible by falling in and out of love with the same person—your true love often being difficult to live with yet impossible to forget. But by forcing yourself to forget—sometimes just to go on living—you lose a part of your soul. Kaufman made the memory purge literal and the process by which the memories leak back into the psyche literal, too…. Michel Gondry brings all his delirious visual imagination to bear on this precarious lover’s mindscape, and the performances are heartbreaking—Jim Carrey the straightjacketed clown, Kate Winslet the rash, unstable, desperately unhappy romantic. If you didn’t get it, see it again. If you didn’t like it, I am so, so sorry—for us both.

If you haven’t seen it yet, rent it. It’s SO worth it.

Other movies I liked in 2004?

Maria Full of Grace. I’ve never been one for subtitled movies, but this film was stunning and incredibly moving.

Napoleon Dynamite. Anyone who has ever felt “outside of the mainstream” or been accused of being, well, a dork, MUST see this movie.

21 Grams. Although the sequence of events in the movie can be disconcerting, all of the actors deliver powerful performances.

Garden State. Zach Braff’s directorial (and writing) debut was heartfelt and genuine. (But then I heart Braff anyway.)

Anchorman. I haven’t laughed that heartily at a movie in ages. Ron Burgundy is priceless.

Anyone else?

So I walked into the living room to check on Carl – who was supposed to be watching Sesame Street – and this is what I saw. In his defense, he was being very quiet.

Continuing with dahlbercentral holiday greetings, enjoy these hilarious photos from a Chicago Tribune photo contest. I especially love photos number 2 (shown), 7, and 11.

Link thanks to planet dan.

Each year, one of my neighbors completely covers their house in Christmas spirit. Trust me, the photo does not do justice to the amount of work/thought that goes into their decorations–there is so much more here you can’t see (like a Pooh Santa or the Grinch on a sleigh).

Happy holidays, all!

In a revolting story from Mexico, a man killed his lover and then spent the next three days making meals out of his body before authorities discovered the grisly scene.

Seriously, how crazy/high do you have to be to do something like that??