20 questions - edited

1. tell me something obvious about yourself.
2. tell me something about yourself that i don't know.
3. what is your biggest fear?
4. do you normally take the safe route or the shortcut?
5. what is the one thing you want the most that you can't buy with money?
6. what is your most treasured possession?
7. what is the one thing you hate most about yourself that you do the most often?
8. tell me something about you that I don't know.
9. tell me something about you that everybody knows.
10. what is your favorite lie to tell?
11. name something you have done once that you can't wait to do again.
12. are you the jealous type?
13. what is the 1 person, place or thing that you can never say no to?
14. what is the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?
15. if you could do something crazy right now, what would it be?
16. when was the last time you cried?
17. when was the last time you felt so good that nothing else mattered?
18. do you feel comfortable in public with no shirt on?
19. tell me something embarrassing you did while drunk.
20. if you post this in your journal, do you want me to answer it?

(The edit was that questions 8 & 9 originally read, "tell me something about yourself sexually that I don't know/that everybody knows. Honestly, I don't WANT to know stuff sexually about you people. So, yeah, edited.)

Stolen from someone I don't know.

numbers

Miles on my car: 250,000
Year my car was made and purchased: 1999
Number of overtime hours I worked the first week of this month: 7.00
Percentage of time I have spent working today: 65%
Milligrams of ibuprofen I will be taking shortly: 1000
My average blood pressure reading: 100/80
Number of days in the canine heat cycle: 21-28
Time the EOS module was scheduled for: 2pm-4pm
Time the EOS module ACTUALLY happened: 3pm-7pm
EOS evening event schedule: 6pm-8pm
EOS ACTUAL evening event time: 7:30pm-11:30pm
Number of hours I slept on Sunday: 10
Pieces of entertainment equipment our new (free) remote controls: 9
Amount of time until I can leave today: 2:10

sore and tired

Went to EOS for the first time and had a great time! I had plot and backstory and everything, it was very cool actually. I will have to thank Angel for that.

Despite being damned tired and thinking I could not trudge another step through the deep powdery snow, I did okay and did not die. Heh. Kidding. Sort of. Anyway, not important. My character was interesting and neat to play, I got to meet most of the people in my throne and quite a few others. There was intrigue and cool stuff.

And a murder mystery to boot. I have to admit, when it happened it was a teensy bit cheesy. But then, it's larping, which is mucho geeky. So I think a little cheese is acceptable.

Anyway, I have some ideas for costume and accessories and I hope to be able to make some stuff for the game before I play again. Pants are a MUST, the skirt thing is not going to cut it. Not for adventuring and not for the concept either.

Anyway, today has been a day of napping and resting. Time to go to bed so I can deal with work tomorrow. Grumble.

Had fun! YAY!!

Thank you to my sweetie and my best friend for helping me go this weekend!

Score - Sleep: 1; Linda: 0

So trying to sleep off the mood has not worked. In fact, today I not only feel down and poopy, but irritated as well. I know I'm irritated when EVERY driver on the road is pissing me off. Not just the really stupid ones.

I get into work and an e-mail that was received at 7:30 last night is just now receiving attention from my oh-so-competent supervisor. Mind you, by his parking space, he was here EARLY today. So he has been here since probably about 8:00 am, but didn't bother taking this issue to follow up with the user until now. Isn't it nice how he leaves the work for when the "grunts" come in? Yeah, I like that too.

Today is gonna be AWESOME!

Bad day for my head

I am having a bad day mentally. Why? Who knows. I felt crappy when I woke up. I probably did not get enough sleep. I had therapy last night, but it was not terribly depressing. Some stuff to think about, but again, nothing that made me want to cry or anything. Who knows. I don't even care. I am just having a crappy day. I feel bad, I feel blah-ier than the regular blah. Today is a day I would have called in sick, if I had a sick day. At work today, I just wanted to put my head down on my desk. It's not really a talk about it and I will feel better thing either. I just don't know what is up.

My puppies made me smile, my sweetie gave me big hugs, I laughed at the weirdos on American Idol. But I am still feeling the same way.

The best thing for me to do is to go to bed!

That is where I am writing from and now that I am done, I will now roll over and pull the covers over my head.

Hee hee hee

	I received 85 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quiz Lose weight quickly

Yeah, I'm a geek.

How To Look Good Naked

Posted on my LJ on January 19th, 2008 at 11:54 PM

This show is a lot better than I thought it would be. I actually like it. I would never do it, because being in my underwear on national cable TV is something I just can't fathom. But it's a great concept and done in a sensitive way.

I also saw Don't Forget The Lyrics this week. I am like MADE for that show. You sing the beginning of a song and then have to fill in lyrics when the music stops. Usually about 5-7 words. I know the lyrics to SO MANY songs. I wonder if anyone has done a study to see how the pressure of being on a game show affects people. I mean, the armchair contestant can always think of the answers, right? But you are home, in your comfort zone, without cameras and lights and an audience and millions of viewers watching you and dramatic music and a host pressuring you about what you could lose if you don't get the answer. I have to imagine that affects how well you can answer questions and such.

Anyway, not like I am going to be on TV or anything. Just thinking about it.

Now I am watching Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Love him! This show is serious shit. I like it. Off to watch some more.

T-TPTB-IF

I am very happy it is the weekend finally. I get to sleep in with my puppies tomorrow - woot!

I have a ton of stuff on my mind. Everything is floating around, driving me a little nuts. I am feeling a little overwhelmed this week. More than a little. But I am working on it.

WELL! After thinking about what more to write for about 15 minutes, I got nothing.

So there it is.

back at sucktastic work

Yes, here I am. Back in the bowels of hell. Okay, I am exaggerating. However, my supervisor just decided to change names of active e-mail folders that I MANAGE, not him. AND he decided to add folders to assign things in, one for me, one for my co-worker and one for him. So since I am the person that manages the inbox, am I now supposed to police those folders as well and move stuff to them and from them to completed when stuff is done?! What the fuck?! I love how he decides to change my workflow WITHOUT TALKING TO ME ABOUT IT! And yes, I wrote an e-mail back asking why the change and why can't we discuss these things before making changes. I did not write, but will say if I am asked, that we are not functioning as a team working together. That this is turning into boss->underlings and I don't like that one bit.

*insert whiny frustrated tone here* Why does this keep happening to me?! Fucking fuck!

Snow and more snow

Posted to my LJ on January 15th, 2008 at 11:54 PM

Fortunately, it did not stick that well. But well enough in the morning that I stayed home and worked from here. We did get a lot, about 5-6 inches of heavy wet stuff. It stuck to everything and I have to say when it looks like this is when I love it the most. I love when there is snow all over everything, the trees, the bushes, the houses and roofs...everything. It looks so pretty.

I stayed in though. Did my work like a good girl and then saw 3:10 to Yuma which my sweetie rented. I liked it. A little depressing, but a good western and I liked the characters.

And today, I was home sick. My sinuses were doing something awful to my head and so I stayed in bed all day. Blah. I hope the week gets better.

The Sexy Pandas!!!!!!! \m/ Wooo!

Posted to my LJ on January 13th, 2008 at 11:27 PM

So in addition to our Saturday exploits, Louli brought up ROCK BAND!! We rocked out all weekend, unlocking over 35 of the 58 songs in the game, at least on EASY. I mostly sang and she played guitar and drums. We ROCKED!!! We got 5 stars on all but about 8 songs. I tried guitar on a few and then drums on a few. She tried singing on a few too. We had a rockin' time and spent many hours this weekend playing. She got it for Christmas from her brother and we had a ton of fun with it! WOO! My sweetie came up and watched for a while. The puppies barked at the drums. We had fun.

And The Sexy Pandas are on the road!!!!

Beads and corsets

Posted to my LJ on January 12th, 2008 at 9:33 PM

Louli came up this weekend and we had some stuff to do. 1) Go to Beadworks in Providence to get her some matching stuff so that she could use some of her beads; 2) See about finding a leather corset for her for EOS costuming. Mission #1 - sort of accomplished. She bought some beads, but all stuff that went with each other to make earrings. She didn't get more stuff to go with what she has since she has mostly red and black and has about 20 black and red pieces already. So, no more worrying about using up everything she has. :-) Mission #2 - Not accomplished, but leads were gathered. We went to a shop in Providence called Miko. An adult paraphernalia shop geared towards women. They had nothing in stock, but told us about a lovely little event at the convention center called the Fetish Flea Market. A nice lady named Kat told us that there would be several corset vendors there. We had a hell of a time while she was looking up that information. Some nice boys came into the shop and asked about a special order. There was a conversation about Spring Peepers and driving over them and how they eat each other for no apparent reason. There was discussion of furries and plushies and infant play fetishes. It was probably the most animated conversation I have ever had with a virtual stranger. And ironically, she is a former rennie, 17th and 18th Century re-enactor and knows a long time friend of mine. Heh.

Well, we got some website links and Lou is on the road to owning her very own corset and was able to get a line on replacement pvc pants as well. Woot!

I'm gonna cry and you can't stop me...

Posted to my LJ on January 11th, 2008 at 6:33 PM

So I am driving to work this morning and I had to put the milk for my cereal in a car coffee cup because I forgot my tupperware one at work. I am less than a mile from my home and the cup tips over, the top comes off and *SPLOOSH* there goes the milk all over the floor! yay. So I stop at the mini mart and get a roll of paper towels and some milk. Try to sop up the mess and continue on to work. This is not a good omen for a good day.

totally cheesing out today

Sorry, bone tired and worn out from my work week. More tomorrow, because it's TGIF!!! WOOT!

In need of sleep - still

Last night sleeping was a bitch and a half! I came home and crawled into bed around 6:30 because I was feeling lightheaded and weird. Fell asleep for 3 hours or so and then got up and logged into work for half an hour. then went back to bed around midnight. But I was up like every hour! It totally sucked. Right about now I am crazy tired. I think it will take into Saturday to make up this sleep craziness.

Oh, and my system administrator pissed me off today, big time. The Director guy left at 3pm because of his kid's sports. Well, everyone knows when the boss leaves early, everyone tries to leave early too. However, the system administrator is a boss too - MY boss. He was constantly hounding me and my co-worker today about the 8 people for which e-mail migration was not yet completed. Like every half hour, he was asking status and when we would get out to do those people. So I am migrating one of the last two people of my day, both of whom get in after 3pm. I get done with one and decide that it's close enough to quitting time that I will pack up my stuff and take it with me while I hit the remote site where my last person of the day is. Part of this process involves deleting the old e-mail account and changing the login name. These things are done by sysadmin guy. Well, I get back upstairs to my desk...and he's gone for the day. Almost half an hour early! I was so pissed off I just packed my shit and left early myself. Fuck it. If he can do it, I am leaving too. Oh, I was so pissed off because he was hounding us to get shit done and then when he is needed, he went home. Whatever.

Off I go to sleepy-sleep!

E-mail migration - Day 1: successful

Posted to my LJ on January 7th, 2008 at 10:26 PM

Due, in no small part, to weeks of intensive planning, our e-mail migration at work went very well today. I was as surprised as anyone.

Now I am going to bed so that I can get up at 5:00 AM to complete the off-hours shift guys.

Yay. Fun. Not!

no post today - too tired!!!

I got up at 5:00 am to go to work to complete the e-mail migration today. I am wiped out now and have to try and sleep more. I got home and went to bed around 6:30 pm and have to try and balance out the sleep now. Hate schedule fluctuations like this!

Barbershop music is cool!!

Posted to LJ on January 6th, 2008 at 11:47 PM

My parents came up to visit me this weekend and stayed over before going to an annual Wine, Cheese and singing party thrown by a Barbershopping friend who lives in Jamestown, RI. As usual, they had an award winning Quartet there to sing and they were really fantastic. They are called Showcase. They are part of a womens Barbershop organization called Harmony Incorporated. Barbershop music is how my parents met. I grew up with it in my house; both of my parents directed choruses for years. So I love it and have heard all the songs for years. I like going to events with them from time to time and letting them introduce me and show me off a little. Of course, all the ladies ask me if I sing. I tell them yes, in a game. I briefly explain larping and most of them get it. The bottom line is that it's like improvisational theatre, except we are our own audience. And I play(ed) a performer. So that fills my music niche very well. :-)

I had a nice time. It was good to see them and we had a nice time together.

More about Barbershop music another time.

CANDLES!!!

Posted to LJ on January 6th, 2008 at 12:02 AM

My real score this Christmas was candles! My sweetie got me a bunch of candles. A box of scented votives, red, green and white. Three exotic scented pillar candles - Autumn Leaves, Maple Butter Crunch and one that has three scents - the top is Gingerbread, middle is Vanilla Bean and the bottom is Autumn Pear.

If I didn't think that was enough, we went on a surprise trip to the Yankee Candle HQ Store in West Deerfield, MA! Wooo! We walked around the whole place. It is one of their two annual HUGE sales, where everything is like half off! I got a dozen scented votives - Patchouli, Vanilla Oak, Sandalwood, Frankinscence and Myrrh and Fresh Cut Herbs. Mmmmmm!! The store was SO cool! Tons of neat stuff to look at and buy. They had a big display of windchimes, one of which was a really neat oriental style gong. Pretty and pretty sounding. Candles galore! The jar candles were half off, which is a great price! I pretty much only got the votives, but love them and I had a great time! It was a nice day trip and we hit Ruby Tuesday's on the way home. Yay!

So, there will be no complaining that I am out of candles for some time. :-)

Short post today

Posted to LJ on January 5th, 2008 at 12:13 AM

Today...I had to tell my SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR supervisor why it was not appropriate for all users on the network to have local Administrator rights on ALL PC's.

Today...when my DIRECTOR OF IT was running a meeting reviewing the checklist on how we will migrate over to a different e-mail server, he said one of the steps was to check where the user's archive file is presently located (if it is not in the default location that Outlook uses) so we can open it again after we migrate their account. Then I followed up by saying that we will have to re-point the auto archive settings to that location, rather than the default. He didn't understand what I meant. I had to break it down to elementary terms for him. And even then, he still had that spacey look in his eyes like he only half understood.

All I can do is shake my head.

Catching up, continued...

Posted on LJ on January 3rd, 2008 at 11:01 PM

Christmas Eve/Day. My sweetie had to work Christmas Eve, but got out surprisingly early. Ironically, we could have had more time with the family in NJ, but had already gone and come back. Gas prices prevent even the thought of doing that twice in a week! He got home, I went out to get his final gift, and we had good old Macaroni & Cheese for dinner! We did our normal stuff and went to bed.

In the morning, he let me sleep in and was going to let me sleep in longer if I hadn't gotten up. I got up around 10:30 and came upstairs and had some cereal and we began the present opening. I felt a little inferior, as I do inescapably ever Christmas, thinking what I got him is not enough or not GOOD enough (his pile for me was bigger than my pile for him.) But I swallowed it best I could (I hope someday to overcome this evil curse...) and we exchanged and opened gifts. I had yummies in my stocking, "coal" popcorn (cocoa flavored), and the silicone case for my Sony MP3 player that I had ASKED for months ago. He had to remind me of this - for me, it was as if he got it for me unsolicited when I first opened it! Heh, my awful memory! I got a package of those yummy Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates. I got a super fantastic calendar of my puppies that he made for me. I got a large sized picture of Storm (similar to the one of Rogue he gave me last year.) He gave me a weather center!! Squee! It has sensors you put outside - a wind gauge and another one that measures temp, barometer and other stuff. And the main unit communicates with those sensors wirelessly and the readout has a TON of information - the temperature, the humidity, the time and date, the cycle of the moon and you can even use it as an alarm clock! It is extremely cool! He gave me a CD I wanted as well. Woot!! I had gotten him a PSP game he wanted - Dungeons & Dragons-Tactics, which he has been playing since he got it. I also gave him some chocolates in his stocking and a 4 pack of those special holiday mocha-peppermint Frappucinos they had out. The best gift I gave him was glass shelves for his display cases. Let me explain...

We have these display cases we got for great prices at IKEA (on of our favorite places) and we installed lights in them and everything. But they only come with two glass shelves. EVERY TIME we visit IKEA, we check the "AS IS..." section of floor model, used, broken and piecemeal stuff for sale, but we have not found any shelves of that size at all. One day I was at this hardware store near my work and I was looking for pipe insulation (some of you know why...) and while I was there at the back counter, I saw someone get glass cut to order. Immediately, I knew what I was getting him for Christmas. Added bonus - they have double thickness glass! So I didn't have to get the single thickness like you would have in a picture frame, with things stacked on it. The glass that comes with the cases is tempered. I KNEW I would not be able to find that. But the double thick is just as good since we are not placing seriously heavy objects on them.

Anyway, he was excited and surprised! Both very good things, because he is hard to put one over on. Just a couple of weeks ago 'Battlestar Galactica: Razor' came out on DVD. So the day it comes out, he gets home and says he wants to go buy it. I immediately rolled my eyes (to myself) because damn if I did not just hear about it that week and think it would be a great Christmas present! Argh!

Well, anyway, we had a nice time giving each other stuff. :-)

We had a movie we hadn't watched - Mystic River (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne.) It is not a happy movie. This is the movie for which Sean Penn (deservedly!) finally won an Oscar for in 2003. So, we watched it, ate mexican appetizers and laid around all day, napping with puppies and watching TV after the movie was done. I called both brothers and my parents to see how their day had gone. Got some nice stories of gift opening and dinners and stuff.

That was about it. I was very, very lucky to get the entire week off from work. Off meaning they closed down for the week. I mean, it's not like the kids are there right now. But they don't always do it. Under the present president (say that five times fast!) the decision has been made for three years running now to give that week off to the entire Staff and Faculty. So I took full advantage of the time off to laze around and do a lot of TV watching - Damn you, Discovery Channel, and your 'Mythbusters' and 'Dirty Jobs' marathons! I had lots of quality time with my pups and with my sweetie as I was HOME when he got home, rather than an hour or more later.

Nothing else really to tell. The week was quiet and TV filled, the weekend was quiet and not as TV filled. I had Monday and Tuesday off, and my sweetie did not. So we did not go partying anywhere, but spent a quiet New Years Eve at home watching the ball drop on TV. I can't watch Dick Clark anymore because it makes me so sad. After he had the stroke 3+ years ago, he can't speak as well and he LOOKS so much older than he did just a couple of years ago. I feel so sad for him. But then I feel so happy for him that he has recovered as much as he has! Two years ago he could barely speak when he made his appearance on New Years Rockin' Eve. Last year he was better, but still not as good as now. It's just sad to see him getting old, when for years there was the running joke about the deals he must have made with the devil to stay looking exactly the same age year after year after year.

So, ball dropped, I watched until the wee hours. Fergie is a pretty good host. And she has some PIPES, man! I may not like everything she does, but I think she has one of the best voices out there right now.

That pretty much brings me current. I will be getting to the reflections and wishes for the new year over the next couple of days.

Ciao!

Playing catch up - old posts unposted...

Because I want this blog to match my LJ for those who like one format over another....I wanted to make sure I am cross posting. I neglected to do so for my December posts, so here they are.
*****************
This is for Louli!
Dec. 20th, 2007 at 3:38 PM

This is like what we saw the other day, though the kid we saw was not NEARLY as perfect as the kid this guy saw. I thought you would appreciate it.

Article on 'Guitar Hero 3' impossible song!

And by the way, it is a REAL SONG by a real band, not just written for the game. :-)

Love you Louli, you're my Guitar Hero!
=====================================

I hate being a girl
Dec. 17th, 2007 at 9:26 AM

Really, there's nothing else to say about that. Even only every three months, it still SUCKS!!!!!!!!!
=====================================

Each Day Is Stupider Than The Last
Dec. 12th, 2007 at 3:12 PM

I didn't think it was possible. But it is. The lack of skill being displayed by a person hired as a System Administrator is just amazing to me. The guy is not even FAKING it. He just bumbles through one task, taking hours to troubleshoot the problems he creates by making some change on the Exchange, Domain or File Servers, and then moves on to the next fuck up.

And because his boss (my other boss) is not technically adept either, he DOESN'T KNOW THE GUY IS A BUMBLING IDIOT WHO IS SCREWING THINGS UP!!!!! The two of them know enough to take this network DOWN. And frankly, I hope they do. It would make my life SO much easier. But that won't happen. Bumbler will screw things up here and there, small enough that he can cover them or explain them away as a "necessary change", and things will continue status quo.

This job has become crappy really fast.
======================================

Parties!
Dec. 3rd, 2007 at 2:37 PM

Okay, I have taken two weeks for this one, but here is the link to my pics of Caleb's fun filled Wild West party!! Yeee-haw!!

My Flickr set of Caleb's party pics

More pics to come. Next it will be Marcy's birthday! Woo!

Sadly I have no pictures from the annual Boston outing because I broke the LCD screen on my camera and I don't know if it is actually taking pictures now. Grumble. *feels stupid*
====================================

Belated Friday Post
Dec. 3rd, 2007 at 2:13 PM

I was going to write about this Friday night, but I think I just needed to shut off the week and be done with it.

So my co-worker and I were asked to come in on a Saturday to "clean up" our area and the front room of the server rooms (sort of an ante-room, or could be a test station area if set up correctly.) We agreed and made arrangements between the two of us for a day and how long we would work, etc. So Friday, we go to our stupid "refresher" session on Outlook and how to archive (I learned exactly one thing) and at the end of the meeting, which ran long - past my co-worker's 4pm leave time - boss guy talks briefly about us coming in the next day. I joked that my co-worker said he would see me at 6:00 am, and that my response was, hope you like working alone! Then boss guy says, well, we'll see the progress Monday then. Just as I was about to agree and get out of there, he says, "I took pictures."

Me: "..."

I just stood there looking at him for a moment. I asked, "You took pictures?" with a look of disbelief, and a slight smile on my face. Smiling, he said, "Yeah! So we will be able to see the Before and After and how they look." He mentioned something about having to report to someone on it, blah blah. But at that point I just walked out, still with the dumb smile on my face. Because at this point in the week, I was just going to fall on the floor laughing hysterically. I just couldn't fathom his ridiculousness anymore.

I walked down the hall and spoke to my co-worker. "He took pictures?!" And he said yes. That he had seen boss guy come around with a camera and take pictures of the area next to our cubicles during the week. Also, that boss guy had come into the server room and started to tell my co-worker HOW to clean up in that room earlier in the week. Not what he wanted where, but how - in terms of method - to clean up. At that point I just had to stop talking about it.

He took pictures of the area we were cleaning up this weekend. This guy is unbelievable.

New England Weather

Just to prove the volatile nature of New England weather, I was POSITIVE when we got the snow on Dec 13th and 16th, about a foot between both storms, that it would stay around all winter. I told my family that, I expressed that opinion to my sweetie...all of it.

I drive to work today and there are only traces that there was even snow on the ground. Two weeks ago it was hard to drive or park on any local street here.

So goes the saying, "If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes."

New Year - New Post

(Posted to LiveJournal - 2008-01-01 22:11:00 forgot to cross post to blogger)
Happy blah blah!

I haven't been on in a while. A stark contrast from November when I was participating in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month.) I don't think I got burnt out, I just slacked off. work became more of a pain in the ass and so I slacked.

This is something I want to change. I am participating in Blog365, which is a group of folks that are trying to extend NaBloPoMo to a full year. Info here. In the meantime, I have some catchup to do.

So...past few weeks...

Friday Dec 14th - I had a date with my girlies in Boston that turned into my own personal hell. Having just come off the snowstorm the day before that caused monumental driving delays in RI, CT and MA (it took me THREE HOURS to drive home from work - a FIFTEEN mile drive) I hit traffic when I left work on the way to Boston. It was smooth sailing from Providence to the 93/95 split when it screeched to a crawl. I didn't get over about 30 miles an hour all the way into Boston. Then when I got there, there was no parking anywhere. So I parked in a $25 dollar lot just because I needed to goddamn park. I was extremely late (the ladies had gotten to the restaurant where we met around 5:00 pm) and extremely cranky by the time I got there. I knew I was late and was ready to forgo eating because of it. Thankfully, my fantastic, wonderful, tolerant, beautiful, merciful friends insisted that I eat (and tolerated my crankiness the whole night.) I did and that probably saved me from leaving before the first half. We went to see Mamma Mia. It was interesting. Fun - yes. Weird - DEFINITELY! For whatever reason, I thought it was a musical about Abba. I knew it had the Abba songs, so I just assumed it was ABOUT Abba. I never thought twice that the posters had a chick in a wedding dress on them. Duh. Well, it was a love story about a wedding and a mom and her past loves. It was clever and most of the performers were really good. The lead adult guy was kind of schmaltzy. But then again, he was singing Abba songs. And I have one last thing to say about this. TERRIFYING CODPIECE!!! (Sorry, Anya, that ain't a dance belt!)

December 15th - FINALLY got to attend the annual Christmas party thrown by Kara, Ben, Gene and Shell!! Woooooo! It was a LOT of fun! It was at Gene and Shell's house, which is the house he grew up in actually. Their house is nice and I liked it a lot! Lots of great food, my first sampling of Wassail (YUM!) and caroling around the neighborhood (so what if only one house had people awake?!?!) Had a significantly better time than the night before, not for want of good company either night, I might add!!

December 20th - My sweetie and I went to see A Christmas Carol at Trinity Repertory Company - something we have never done. It was nice. Some of the acting was somewhat amateurish (spoken by me, not a professional actor.) But that's just me being a theatre snob. :-) The singing was all very good, nice songs that I think they wrote for the play. Apparently they put a different spin on it every year, while keeping it period and traditional. Some of the accents were overdone which made them hard to understand. I would rather people with bad British accents just speak without one and enunciate well (case in point Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.) It's amazing how much precise enunciation can SOUND like a British accent sometimes. Anyway, it was fun and we were able to get a great parking spot, despite the fact that it was the same night as Hannah Montana! If you are not aware, this is the biggest phenomenon since Britney first came out. Tickets were going on eBay for several hundred dollars because they were sold out everywhere. This is the same show for which a little girl and her mother made up a fake story about her father dying in Iraq to win tickets. Anyway, we had a nice time.

December 22nd - After my bake-fest (a day and a half, solid, of baking) we began the Christmas trip to NJ by driving to Fishkill, NY, to attend, at least for a short time, the annual Christmas get together of some friends from Lione. We got there to some shocked faces, some not so shocked. We could only really stay an hour. We got there at 10:30 and left at 11:30. We still had almost a two hour drive to my brother's house. We had a nice time, got some grab bag gifts and some (WOOT!) Starbucks gift cards from Louli-rabbit (did I mention WOOT!), did some chatting and then had to leave. We finally got to see Greg's bar, which was cool. For whatever reason, we both thought it would be bigger. But it was pretty cool, nonetheless. It's pretty neat to know someone who owns a bar! If only it were closer...

Got to NJ and my sister-in-law was up with the baby, who was on a nursing strike and also refusing to sleep. She went off to bed pretty quick, as did we. Got up the next morning to my niece and nephew making happy noises downstairs as he chased her around. My parents got there a short time later and we hung out, I made some french toast when someone said something about breakfast, which it turned out everyone had already eaten. It got eaten anyway and then we exchanged gifts with my parents. In our annual grab bag (for the adults - kids all get gifts) my dad had picked me. He got me a fantastic bowl off of eBay. It is enameled metal and made by a company named Finel. The same company made a bowl that has been in my parents house since they got married (40 years ago this past year!) We used this red bowl just about every night for dinner. For Macaroni & Cheese, for pasta, for anything. I always liked the bowl and I am sure I mentioned something about it to my parents a while ago. So my dad found one like it online and got it for me. Very cool! My parents also gave me the messenger bag I had really wanted (but was sure I would not get, kind of pricey.) Rock! I also got A towel. One. I had put on my wish list that I wanted some Bath Sheet type towels. The REALLY BIG ones. I put down four (4) thinking that my sweetie and I would each have one and one for the laundry. Two would have been great, because we would each have one. But my mother got me...one. I shall say no more about that. I think it speaks for itself. My sis-in-law got me a funnel cake kit. Mmmmmm!!

We left our gifts for my niece and nephews and my sweetie left his for my sis-in-law, whom he had picked. My sweetie also got a gift card for my mother in a cool gift card presenter thingy. You slide the gift card inside, and when they press the button, it pops out the side and plays a little "da da da da daaaaahhh" music fanfare. Totally my mother. And, as if there were any doubt, she clicked the button like 10 times immediately after receiving it. Heh.

We headed home Sunday night because my sweetie had to work Christmas Eve.

Continued tomorrow...