Yay! Blog!
Category: Holidays

• I worked myself into a frenzy over the UT/Nebraska game. I've been feeling beat up on with home/car repairs, vet bills and office politics. I had it in my head that if UT didn't answer Nebraska's go-ahead field goal at the end, then fate or the gods or whatever really did have it against me. It came down to the very last second. I'm glad they won (duh). Games like that are very hard to watch, and I'm not sure I'm glad I watched it even with the win at the end.
• I went to Lowes twice today to return plumbing supplies I bought a couple days ago. I also bought some leaf bags. My front yard and driveway are covered.
• I got some Christmas shopping done. Still more to go, and I hope I get it done early. The hard part is figuring out what to get for people.

• I put up Christmas decorations tonight while listening to Christmas music. I'm in the spirit.
• I discovered a massive leak under my kitchen sink yesterday morning. I called Clarke Kent plumbing, and they were able to send someone out the same day. I was very impressed with Roger, the plumber. I hope I don't have a need to call them again, but if I spring another leak, I will definitely call them.
• It snowed today a teeny, tiny, itty, bitty bit.
• The kitchen leak was the result of shoddy plumbing work by the previous owners of the house. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. The pipes were ill-fitted after the sink was replaced with a deeper sink. Roger had to rearrange and replace everything under there.
• I put Christmas lights on one of my fake ficus trees. I might leave them up year-round.
• I've had a lot of repair/fix-it stuff done lately. I've had to replace a tire on my car, replace a wheel on my hvac unit, have a tree removed and other trees pruned, and plumbing work. I hope things settle down in that department.
• Big XII Championship game tomorrow evening. Hook 'em Horns!!

1. Today is Halloween. Happy Halloween!
2. Today is the first day of my week-long staycation (meaning I'm staying home from work for a whole week).
3. Today is NaSoAlMo eve (meaning the day before National Solo Album Month starts). That's why I'm taking a staycation.
4. Today is UT vs. Okla State. Hook 'em 'horns!

I started the day by getting out of bed relatively early for a weekend (10:00 a.m.) and going to Chick-Fil-A for a chicken biscuit. To prepare for the rest of my staycation and NaSoAlMo, I'm going to spend today doing errands and chores. I need to buy toilet paper because no one wants to run out of toilet paper on staycation. I need to buy pet supplies, too.

I cleaned the shower while I was taking a shower. I plan to clear the old food out the refrigerator and attend to the paper clutter that's lying about. Attending to the paper clutter probably means I'll diligently file papers away for about 20 minutes and then put the rest in a box out of sight for later. I'll be doing this because I want a clean and uncluttered environment to be creative in.

What is today to you?

On this, the last day of 2009, I made two trips to the vet and two trips to the pet store. My pets have become high maintenance.

I took Orion to the vet because his stomatitis is back. That's really, really bad mouth sores. Poor little guy... his mouth bleeds, and he never complains. Internet research told me that I might have to get all his teeth pulled behind his fangs, but the vet said we can try to manage it with antibiotics and steroids.

I took Ripley back for a followup after his urinary blockage last week. I just wanted some peace of mind before the holiday tomorrow by having the vet do a look and feel. I've been hypersensitive about him. All he has to do is make a small noise, and I freak out that he's having more problems.

I decided to put them both in boarding this coming weekend while I go celebrate a late Christmas with my family. Orion can only eat soft food and is on meds. Ripley just needs someone to make sure he's going to the bathroom and take care of him quickly if he's not.

The pet store visits were for Mini Jumbones for Lily and another cat carrier. Kennels and carriers are 20% off at Petsmart right now. I already knew the Petsmart I usually go to didn't have the Jumbones, so I went to a different one. The different one had the Jumbones, but not the carrier I wanted. So I bought the Jumbones there and went back to the other one for the carrier.

Now I'm settling in and watching some football. Tonight I'm rooting for Pittsburgh, Vandy, Kansas and LSU. Or as my friend, Crabapple Lane Rob would say, "Geaux Tigers!"

Happy New Year, y'all!

This will be the first Christmas I've spent away from family since I was born. I won't miss out on Christmas dinner, though. My friends Spike and Cliff have invited friends over tomorrow evening to share in their Christmas.

Here's a picture of me with my Mom when I was a kid. I remember most of those ornaments on the tree. Especially the gingerbread houses.

• First day of winter. That means the days start getting longer, right? So in six months, I can get up when it's light and leave work when it's still light? I can't wait.
• I'm eating bread and butter pickles and drinking spiced tea for supper. Buckeyes and white-chocolate peppermint snowmen for dessert. Maybe some dobosh torte later, too. Ah, Christmastime.
• I watched some movies this weekend and aborted some, too. I aborted Just Friends which I had forgotten I'd aborted before. I also aborted Dream Girls. As much as I love Jennifer Hudson, I can't stand people bursting into song in lieu of a spoken conversation. The movies I got through were The Human Stain and Knocked Up. The former was one of those indie movies I'm glad I watched but don't care to see again. The latter was one I probably could have lived without, but seeing three freaks from "Freaks and Geeks" in the same movie was fun. I sure like Seth Rogan.
• The spiced tea I'm drinking was concocted by a coworker. I think I know which coworker, but I'm not totally sure. We put stockings up on our cubicles Dec. 1, and the coworkers have been sneaking things into them. The spiced tea was a small tupperware-like container containing sugar and spice and lotsa of stuff nice that dissolves in water to make a tasty warm beverage.
• I only have a day and a half left of work before Christmas. I hope it's quiet, and I can catch up on some things. Like organizing my e-mail. It's a disaster. I need to write some procedures, too. Normally, that would be a yucky job, but finding some quiet time to sit and think and write procedures sounds like a dream.

On my way to work Tuesday, I saw a big pickup truck knock a girl on a bicycle over. It was the girl's fault... she ran a red light because the sun was in her eyes. The guy in the truck that hit her didn't even get out to check her condition. I was taken aback by that. Once she got up off the pavement and rolled her bike out of his way, he drove off. She did wave to him that she was okay, but still... I think I would have gotten out of my car before she even got up off the pavement. I took down his license plate number just in case it was needed. Then I drove around the block so I could stop my car and ask her if she was okay. She said she was.

I've had a headache off and on for three days straight. I hope tonight's the night it goes away while I sleep. I have an album to finish tomorrow. I really have until Sunday night to finish, but I'd like to be done tomorrow. Then Sunday, I can put up Christmas decorations and stuff.

There's just one house on my street with lights up, and a house on a cross street has lights up. I'd do lights, but I'm too lazy. I'll put a lighted star in the front window again this year, though. That always makes me happy when I come home from work and see that.

Today would be LBJ's 100th Birthday. I'm going to celebrate by:

• getting my car inspected
• going out for lunch
• decluttering my desk
• backing up my hard drive
• defragging my hard drive
• upgrading to Windows SP3

I'm feeling down about work. New supervisor transition. I was the supervisor, but that kind of work made me want to claw my eyes out, so I stepped down. I like my new supervisor fine, but our culture is changing dramatically to one where we have to do mandatory team-building activities like building catapults out of tinker toys... while the huge stack of work on my desk gets bigger. Some people like that stuff, so it will be good for them. It brings me down so much that I'm still depressed about it a day later. A day off to clear my head and focus on the work that needs to be done at home is probably a really good thing.

I stepped out on my back patio at midnight and heard a constant stream of fireworks as a backdrop to my wind chimes. The sky is so clear tonight. The neighbors are shooting off beautiful, high flying fireworks. Beyond those, I saw the Big Dipper, Mars, Gemini, Orion, Cassiopeia and more.

I think this is the best New Year's I've had since I can remember. I did what I enjoy the most. I stayed home by myself, played on my computer, watched football, ate a steak and some buckeye candies, and looked up at the stars. I drank some champagne (a mimosa, really), but I could have done without that... it was just the pressure of tradition talking me into doing it. I saw fireworks without dealing with a crowd. And I didn't have to witness any couples kissing.

I hope you enjoyed yours, too. Happy New Year!

Let's celebrate the fools. Bless our hearts.