Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate that, and Happy Kwanzaa to the followers of that more recent tradition. Oh, and Merry The-Stores-Are-All-Closed Day to those who aren't celebrating anything. May you have an easy capitalist fast.

I spent the day with my father and brother in nearby Plantation. While I always enjoy seeing them, this Christmas was particularly fun as I got to pull off a minor scam as regards our gifts. I asked my father if he wanted to split the cost of a basic computer for my brother, who essentially didn't have a computer any more. (Technically he had a Pentium 1 or something like that.) My dad thought that was a good idea, so I told him I would handle it. I then called my brother, and asked him if he wanted to split the cost of buying my recently retired father a laptop. That way he could sit on his screened porch to play on the web, instead of being cooped up in his tiny home office. Scott agreed, so I went to Best Buy, found a nice (and discounted) Toshiba laptop, and said "I'll take two."

So I got to win three ways. First, I get American Express points and Best Buy points for two laptops: not too shabby. Second, I don't have to wrestle with my father's old clunker PC choking on updates, or worry about my brother getting fired for web surfing at work. Third, I got to experience that marvelous expression of utter confusion on my brother's face when he opened his gift and saw it was the manual for a new laptop, and my father trying to puzzle out why he would need a wireless router when my brother was the one getting a laptop, not him. Evil, perhaps, but it's the little things which make life worthwhile.

Now I'm home, and I think I'm going to take a little time for myself. I have a lovely bottle of Gosling's Black Seal here, and a new DVD of Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. I think I'll pretend I'm a sophisticated mastermind and enjoy a little culture.