Adios, Carl! Mr. Caputo will be leaving for the job of his dreams in NY at half-an-hour past midnight, during the first hour of 2005. I'm going to miss the lug, my writer buddy and genuinely one of the nicest men I've known. [Except toward birds. Go figure.]

Along with Kristian and Andrew, I helped Carl move his copious collection of books out of his abode and into his friend's basement this afternoon. Excited to learn that Kristian's book "Our Enemies in Blue" is actually on the shelves at Powell's, and he's working on another.

Picked up groceries at New Seasons, came home, made two batches of cookies and did laundry. Leave for New Year's at the coast tomorrow. G & I are being smartniks and doing our food prep for the first night en masse meal in advance.

Re day 3 post dead dad: Mostly fine, with a notable bout of angry. I'm sure that's stage 4 or something on someone's chart of the stages of grief. Singing along with the Dresden Dolls on the way to and back from New Seasons (to return the low-fat sour cream) did me a fair bit of good.

Home, and my control over it, is still in disarray from Xmas. Most of all, I'd like to get my calendar diary updated, which is a bit more than a week behind now. At least morning pages are getting written each day.

Tired. Hopefully the "to bring" list from our trip to Colorado will still be useful tomorrow morning. Don't think I can pack tonight.

Safe journeys to all... My mind is with the tsunami victims of the South Pacific.