Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! The holidays have crept up on me and caught me unawares -- I've just realised that many folks here must be already busy preparing for the 25th. I've got a deadline tomorrow for a tedius article on sexual dimorphism in deepwater skates of the North Atlantic. So all the shopping and cooking fuss is yet a few days away. And we haven't put up the New Year fir-tree yet. I think we'll just have the small artificial one we've had for years. It's festive enough with fairy lights. About 100 meters in front of my windows, fir-trees are being sold by some guys (under the open sky, naturally). I don't know how their business is going on but I feel a bit sorry for them having to spend nights and days in the car guarding them trees. It's been -30 Celsius these last days. But I like it -- what New Year without snow and frost?


check out http://www.new-2009-year.ru/archives/31