Scribblings

Happy New Year

Billy threw up all over the house and I am feeling pretty sick again so the family party's moving to Gram's house. I guess I gummed up the works because I figured that family members would appreciate knowing there was sickness in the house. Oh well, happy new year.

1. Resolution :: promise
2. Happy :: New Year
3. Bubbly :: sparkling cider
4. Kiss :: hug
5. Leather :: lace
6. Fancy :: plain
7. Pages :: book
8. Stupid :: Someone
9. Apologize :: sorry
10. Secrets :: something someone has a lot of

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What's Your Celtic Horoscope?

You Are A Fig Tree

You are very independent and strong minded. A hard worker when you want to be, you play hard too. You are honest and loyal. You hate contradiction or arguments. You love life, and you live for your friends, children, and animals. A great sense of humor, artistic talent, and intelligence are all gifts you possess.

Saturday 8

Whew, taking some time out from a busy day of cleaning to do a fun meme! We are having a large Christmas/New Year family party tomorrow here at the house and we wanted it in tip-top shape for the revelers. TB tacked some white plastic to cover that ugly hole in our ceiling. Roofer Giordano came and totally fixed the outside; now we just have to do the inside...when we have money. It's all gone, mostly drained away for various reasons and never to be seen again. Let's not get into all that, eh? Anyway, almost everyone in TB's family is coming except for his brother Jon & family (in Florida), our daughter Michele & family (in TN) and nephew Tim Jr. and his new wife (prior commitment as a youth pastor to an event at their church). We're not sure about Linda, she's on some weekend date or something, haven't seen her since late yesterday.

Saturday 8

1. new year's plans?

Just this family party

2. i don't do new year's resolutions, but i think that we all look forward to doing something differently in the new year. what will you do in 2007 that you didn't do in 2006?

Check my blood sugars every day at least once.

3. in the past 24 hours, i have reconnected with 3 old friends that i've not spoken to in years. if you could reconnect with someone from your past who would it be, and why?

Daina, my friend in junior high and high school. I really enjoyed her friendship a lot and am sorry we lost touch with each other. I think that happened after I moved from the Baltimore area.

4. i live my life not regretting anything ... or at least try not to regret anything that i've done, and look at life as a learning experience. do you have anything that you would have not done/done differently in 2006 as you look back?

Well, things can't be undone so I'd rather just see everything as a learning experience too.

5. going back to my ex-friends that i reconnected with, one of them REALLY let me down as she chose a guy over our friendship. she wrote to me that she would think back over these past 14 years and kick herself, and wonder what had happened to me? do you have someone that you wronged/wronged you and wonder where they are? what happened to that friendship?

Yes, there was someone who started out as a good friend. Then I fell in love or in a crush or whatever with him but he didn't reciprocate and I was pretty bitter about it. So yes, I've wondered once in a while whatever happened to him.

6. one of the other ex-friends is an ex-boyfriend that i had when i was 16. he cheated on me when i was 17, and then i 'got over it' and we had a cordial non-friendship. i'm married and he's married, so i don't have any problem talking with him as there is NO chance at stirring up any old flames. if you had a chance to reconnect with an ex, who would it be, and why? or would you let sleeping "dogs" lie?

Let them lie.

7. i'm eating to join a weight-loss study. that's right ... i'm about 10 lbs. shy of the weight goal and am actually porking out this coming week as i get free vitamins/supplements, a free registered dietician for two years, and i also get $600/mo. to participate for two years. i'm VERY tall (over 5'9"), so this is going to be difficult! i'm gaining 10 lbs. to lose my original goal of 20 lbs., which will now be 30 lbs. (hey, i want to get back into a size 6 after being a size 10 for a few years!). to gain those 10 lbs., what do you suggest that i eat? any "fun" fattening foods that i should try?

Definitely have at least one Jim Dandy from Friendly's

8. i'm heading to disney today with the family and friends. what is your favourite theme park, and why?

It's hard to choose between them but I'd go with Sea World in a pinch. I love sea creatures, think they are totally fascinating and water has always been soothing to me.

Will You Keep Your New Year's Resolution?

You Will Keep Your New Year's Resolution

You planning on making a resolution that's smart, attainable, and perfect for where your life is.

Feline Friday: Two Headed Cat-Girl

Here's a great cat sack masquerading as a teenager's hoodie!

Want more cat blogging? Check out Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats. The next carnival will be hosted by Watermark.

Thursday Memes

This one is totally appropriate, considering my last entry!

Booking Through Thursday:

Any New Year's Reading Resolutions? A certain number of books you want to read in 2007? Certain genres? Something from your TBR pile? Classics to read? Authors to try? Anything at all??

I try very hard not to make New Year's resolutions because they are so easily broken...especially if I resolved not to buy any more books until I read the ones I have first. Ha ha. Still, I do resolve to set aside more reading time so that I can make some kind of dent in the roomful of unread books. I also resolve to circulate the books once I've read them, either through Book Crossing or Paper Back Swap. I have several classics so I plan to read one for every three regular books I read. So let's see how I do with those resolutions!

Right now I am reading Every Man by Philip Roth. After that I'm tentatively planning to read Forever Odd by Dean Koontz and then Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.

Thursday Threesome

::Happy New Year!::
Onesome: Happy--New Year to you and yours! ...any plans for this weekend? Dick Clark? Guy Lombardo? Early to bed?

I'm not sure how this happened but we're hosting a great big family holiday party on New Year's Eve afternoon. After that, I'll probably collapse!

Twosome: New--year, old year. Is this the year you take up skiing? ...or knitting? ...or vacuuming every other day ? Do you have any major project you'd like to tackle? (Sure, 'resolutions' count...)

Well, I don't know yet...let's see what happens!

Threesome: Year--end chores? Do the lights and decorations come down this weekend? ...or are you already "done with Christmas"?

No, the lights and decorations don't come down this weekend, maybe next! I'm never "done with Christmas" although now that it's over, I'm fed up with winter. Not that we've had winter...

The Autobiography of Santa Claus

This was a fun book to read although it did drag a little. That's not why it took me a month to read it. The reason is that I don't read as much as I used to, something I'm hoping to change in the new year.

Anyway, I was totally enchanted with the idea of The Autobiography of Santa Claus "as told to" Jeff Guinn. Santa's always been a magical figure in my life and I think I even sort of half-way believe in him.

One of the things I liked about this book was that Santa--who started out life as Nicholas of Lycia in the Middle East in an area later claimed by Turkey--gives credit for the idea of helping and gift giving to Jesus and his birth. That eases the sting of commercialism a little, doesn't it? Nicholas's early attempts at giving presents is totally hilarious. I figured I was going to be in love with the book.

Now I get to what I did not like about the book: too much history and meeting famous people. I would have loved the story if it stayed focused on Nicholas, Layla (who became his wife) and loyal friend/partner in crime Felix. I feel like I didn't get to know them well enough. Nicholas meets and inducts into his merry band of gift givers Attila the Hun (!!!???), King Arthur, Leonardo da Vinci...get it? There's just too much history and too many characters for one book. After awhile I began to wonder what famous person is not an elf?

Still, it was fun. Try it!

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Merry Christmas!

What Is Your Holiday Stress Level?

Your Holiday Stress Level is Moderate

The holidays sometimes stress you out, but mostly because they wear you down. Take it easy! You can have a fun holiday without running yourself ragged.

Christmas Eve and the tree is dressed!

Even though the weather outside is balmy and I wish we had some good snow like the Genuine family, we still managed to get into the Christmas spirit. Kristin decorated our tree and Billy and I watched A Miracle on 34th Street.

It's never too late to start making Christmas cookies either.

To see all the pictures in our Christmas 2006 album so far, click here.

If Cats Wrote Christmas Cards...

If Cats Wrote Christmas Cards

Meowy Christmas from your loving cat.

Aren't I cute?

Now leave me the hell alone.

We, your cats, at Christmas say,

Thanks for caring for us each day.

We love this season, all green and red,

And by the way, the hamster's dead.

As watchman-cat, I've done my job,

The house is safe once more.

That shiny stuff that stormed the tree

Is dead now on the floor.

Wrapping paper! Ribbon! Bows!

Tree! Tree! Tree! Tree!

Shiny! Shiny! Christmas balls!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeee!

{CRASH!!}

Hee hee! I wish I could take credit for these but they're actually from a joke newsletter written by Moni.

Oh, the weather outside is stupid...

For crying out loud, here it is December 23 and I am wearing a summer tee-shirt, sweating bullets, and all the windows in my house are open! No, I don't live in Florida or in a part of the country where the temperature is supposed to be in the 60s. It's supposed to be winter here! It's supposed to be cold! It's supposed to snow!

The very last time it snowed was on Christmas day, 2002. I remember that it was the first Christmas TB and I and the blending family spent together and it was so magical having the snow come down the way it did...like good fortune and good tidings being sprinkled over us. Before that, there wasn't a white Christmas since 1998.

Are TB and I the only ones who remember when White Christmas weren't as rare as blue moons? It seems to me that when I was a little kid, we had snow on Christmas every single year. Things have changed in the last 20-30 years. What is it? Global warming? Has pollution caused Mother Nature to become totally wacko?

I know how the poor General felt in the movie White Christmas. I sure would love some snow but all we'll probably get is rain.

But the tree is now decorated!!!!

Why is the tree naked?

Our tree went up as always over Thanksgiving weekend while Billy was here. We meant to put on all the holiday trimmings but then this happened:

Isn't that gross? It's part of the ceiling--it caved in from around the fan.

How did such a thing happen? Well, over a year ago we had trouble with a leaky roof and so we called a local contractor, John Sorrentino Roofing...worst mistake we ever made. The roof has never been right since. At first the contractor said it was because we needed new skylights and so we had him replace them. The next time it rained, the roof leaked worse than ever.

Since October, we've tried and tried to get the man out to fix the roof. We have a year warranty on it and although I had really bad feelings about trusting the guy, TB wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Well, this guy doesn't call you back and he says he'll come such and such a day at such and such time and he never does show up. This has been ongoing since we first hired the guy.

When the ceiling came down, I called the township because I was worried about the mold I saw. An inspector came out and told me it would be okay, it's not the bad mold. I hope he's right, we've all been sick all month. Anyway, he also laughed when we told him who the contractor was. Apparently the DA is investigating the man--oh great!

We hired a new contractor and are going to have to sue the first one to get our money back and the cost of redoing the roof.

But that's not the only reason the tree didn't get done. Kristin wanted to wait until Billy got home from school after the fall semester and so that's what we did.

Feline Friday: Ho Ho Ho Edition

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a kitty cat hiding in our yet-undecorated tree!

Want more Feline Friday? Check out Carnival of the Cats and Friday Ark. The next Carnival of the Cats will be hosted on Christmas Eve at IMAO. Merry merry Christmas!

We Have Lights!

Oh boy! For the first time in years, we have lights on our house and in our yard!!!!!

I have always been a little kid about decorating the house for Christmas. The year before Rich died was the first time I think we didn't string lights all over and that was because it was just too difficult for him. I couldn't do it either with my physical limitations ... so we did just the inside of the house. After he passed, I just didn't want to that first Christmas. When TB and I got married, I thought to do up the house then but we had a shortage of outlets, were involved in blending our families (no easy matter), and it just seemed easier to just do the inside. Then TB got hurt and I just put outside lights out of my head until this year and ...

Voila! Click the picture to see the other shots in our Christmas lights album.

Also check out TB's entry.

Today is also special in that it's Oma's birthday. She is 96 years old today, God bless her!

One very special little boy...

...who is very much loved by his mommy, daddy, both sets of grandparents and both sets of extended family: aunts, uncles, cousins and so on!

Feline Friday on Saturday: Kosmo's New Bed

Yikes! I just realized there was a bad link in last week's carnival! Sorry, Mags, I think it's fixed now!

Kosmo says, my new bed is very comfortable but it makes me look like a cream puff!

For more pictures of Kos in his new bed, just click the pic!

Want more cat blogging entries? Check out Carnival of the Cats. This week's carnival will be hosted at Catymology tomorrow!