C'est moi, the late one

Dear Santa,

Sorry for the later letter this year. I've had a guilty, nagging feeling about putting this off, but don't worry--I also haven't been following my Facebook friends all that well, either (or my Hotmail account; I didn't reply to the Disney Featured Title mailing this month, and now I'm in charge of returning the Hannah Montana movie they sent us).

But, anyway, here are a few thoughts. A lot of what I posted last year still applies, so you can't go wrong going off of that list. This year, I might add/reiterate the following:

I spend many of my waking hours thinking about math (and it's because I like it), so I would certainly appreciate math-related things. I'd like to collect brainteasers or logical puzzles (like Set or the Rubik's cube, though I have both of those already), and I always enjoy a good general interest math book, especially those that have to do with math history. I'll be doing a fair amount of traveling this year for math conferences, so travel aids of any kind would also be cool.

I'm rediscovering an interest in the piano and in singing, since I'm doing a lot more with our ward. I'd love to have some more piano pieces or songbooks, whether it's popular music, musicals, classical pieces (especially vocal scores to Handel's Messiah or Mozart's Requiem, but anything would be great), Gershwin (last year I got an excellent book on piano solo pieces--now I'm interested in getting songs to sing along with), etc.

I'm still interested in family history, history, and historical fiction. One of my projects for the future is to read Jeff Shaara's World War I and World War II novels--I've loved his books on the Civil War and Mexican-American War, and his first book on the Revolutionary War, but I haven't read any of his others yet. I also like reading well-written LDS fiction, though I haven't had the chance to read much of that in the last several years. All of my interests in books and music apply as well to movies; love those, too (though, Santa, if you're thinking of movies, you might want to talk to Michelle--she and I have been making some plans for our family gifts, and you know what they say about great minds).

I guess I'll need a new electric razor at some point soon here, too. And sweet things to supplement my lunch (and constant reminders to floss).

Anyway, those are my present ramblings. Have a great holiday season, Santa, and, whoever you are (and all the rest of you, too), let us know how you're doing!

Mike