Well, I took Judi to the airport this afternoon (the plane before her arrived on time, so I’m assuming she got off OK). And now it’s just me & Leo. I played a little City of Heroes and briefly checked out my new game Battle for Middle-Earth, but I’m just too tired to do a lot. So it’s off to bed I go!

Happy New Year! I had a wonderful day today on my 34th birthday! Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday – the wishes worked!

I’ll get more details later – I’m off to bed! 🙂

Breakfast
Open presents (lots & lots)
Lunch
Go to post office (for Judi to mail back all her swag)
Go to West Milton to buy yarn (Rachel taught mom & Amy how to knit)
Snooze while family knits
Make long-ass grocery list
Go to grocery (alone – sniff!)
Return from grocery then eat supper
Watch a little Bond and some of The Bird Cage and the end of the Karate Kid
Drag Judi back home
Type all this up on LJ

More details later, maybe.

What elsaf said! 🙂

Elsa did a fab job on the rib roast, Yorkshire pudding, taters, carrots, soup & salad! If you’re lucky, maybe she’ll cook for you someday!

judiang told me that I had to save some snow for her to shovel, and today, after our day out shopping, she shoveled a path to my trash (tomorrow morning is trash pickup) and then went out and shoveled a path in the sidewalk. At least, from my place to the folks’ place. 🙂 No more trudging through the street! Elsa wants to know when Judi’s ready to move to Michigan. Finding someone who WANTS to shovel snow is a rarity.

Tomorrow, Elsa heads back north (wah!) but Amy & Rachel will be coming (yay!) And tomorrow night is the gathering at the Short’s. We’ve had our gathering with the Andersons, and that was most pleasant. And we’ll get to see some of them again on New Year’s Day, probably. Tomorrow, however, Judi gets to experience the Short Family Christmas (extended). I think she’ll have a ball. Granny’s gonna love her since Judi’s already said she’s ready to clean the kitchen when we’re done eating. 🙂

Well, the CD that was playing on my computer is done, so now I can play around with City of Heroes – woot!

elsaf and judiang arrived today, safe und sound! Yay! We headed off to the Evil Puppy Mall since it was the only place showing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. The movie’s impressive to look at and the music is brill. And that’s really all I went for, so I rather enjoyed it. 🙂

After the movie, we actually went into the Evil Puppy Mall (the Mall at Fairfield Commons) and went to the pet store. And once again, they tried to steal Judi’s soul with a cute little baby Pomeranian. Judi even picked out a name for her. Thankfully, Elsa and I were strong enough to pull her out of the store and distract her with Xbox accessories at the game store in the mall.

With a bit of pulling and prodding, we got Judi out to the car and headed off to Jeet India, the Indian restaurant I wrote about earlier this month. We had a delicious supper with an assortment of things. Then onto Meijer in Troy to get a few groceries and essentials. (Elsa is making us supper tomorrow night – woohoo!) I bought a set of Christmas Crackers since we’re all Anglophiles and I’d never actually used one before. We finally got back home and it was after 10pm! Grand day out, indeed!

Once we’d rested up a little, we had our gift exchange. First we played with the crackers. We were rather disappointed in their explosive ability, but the cute little novelties, bad jokes, and paper hats were a hit. Then we opened presents. Judi got me City of Heroes – woohoo! Elsa got me a nice measuring cup and a KNIFE. A really nice 8″ Calphalon knife – sweet! I also got to open my birthday presents. Judi complemented my game with a subscription card for City of Heroes – yay! And Elsa got me the DVD set “Lost in Time” collection for Doctor Who. Quite a good haul, IMO.

Now Judi’s reading over my shoulder, Elsa’s in the living room typing (her story? could be!) and I’m just finishing this entry up. Oh, and Leo’s trying to figure out why there’s still two extra people in his house. (Wait until Wednesday when he’s got 3 folks staying over.)

Now, I thought Leo was helpful in putting up my Christmas tree, but my Aunt Becky just sent me a link for pictures of two cats who were even MORE helpful in the decorating of their tree. Click here for the cute cats as they help decorate.

In other news: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, mindwarp!

As is customary for my fellow Sylv fans, I have for you, wallpaper! It’s most appropriate for the holiday season. 🙂

The Doctor and Ace celebrate Boxing Day!

I sympathize with you, mindwarp, having a birthday so close to Christmas! Hope it was a great one!

Hooray for Christmas Day!

Today was the first Christmas we had without Amy! *Sniff* She and Rachel are off with the “In-Laws” until, I believe, tomorrow. Then they have two days to work, and THEN they fly to see US! Yay! So we’ve “postponed” Christmas until Thursday morning.

Despite not having the huge Present Opening Fest that normally occurs on Christmas Day, I *still* couldn’t fall asleep on Christmas Eve! Went to bed around 2am, but my mind was still buzzing about the cookbook. So after a bit, I turned on the TV and watched Ralphie try to get his Red Rider BB gun for Christmas. (TBS shows A Christmas Story for 24 hours starting 8pm on Christmas Eve. I usually catch it at least once.)

I woke up around 8am, and Leo and just sort of lay there, not really wanting to get up. But we did and I finished up the Table of Contents and Indices for the family cookbook. (If you want more details about this project of mine, I answered drox‘s question about it here.) The folks called, just as I was finishing the last index, so I tried to burn a CD of the cookbook, and Nero crashed my computer. Restarting got the same result. So I transfered the file to my little USB memory card thingy and went next door.

We had sourdough pancakes and Canadian bacon and sausage. Yummy! We watched The Muppet Family Christmas while we ate. Afterwards, we had our last Advent service of the year and I read Berkley Breathed’s A Wish for Wings that Work. (It’s one of my favorite Christmas stories. Amy read it a few years ago for Advent. I figure it had been long enough and I could read it again.) Then, to tide us over until Thursday, we each unwrapped a single present.

I gave dad George Carlin’s When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?. I gave mom two WeightWatcher’s cookbooks full of what looked like yummy recipes. They gave me a book called Dr. Ernest Drake’s Dragonology. I put it on my wishlist when I discovered it while helping capriuni look for a gift for her secret Santa recipient. It’s a boo-tee-ful book! Lots of cool paintings, plenty of information, and even scale samples so you can feel what a dragon’s skin is like! I’m going to have a lot of fun reading it.

The rest of the day was spent with us either relaxing or me working on the print outs of the cookbook. Mom gave the new entries the once over and found a few things that I corrected. I’ve got the originals printed off and tomorrow, mom and I will get ’em copied at Staples (if they’re open). Tomorrow afternoon, I get to give some of them out to family members when we head to Uncle Bob’s for the Anderson gathering (mom’s side of the family). Looking forward to seeing everyone!

I’m currently taking a break from cleaning. I still have to sweep and dust, but everything’s pretty much picked up. Tomorrow night, I do laundry. And then I’m ready for GUESTS! 🙂

Merry Christmas!

Yes, I’m still up – have been working on the cookbook. But I finished the work necessary for a proper Table of Contents and an Index – woohoo! Tomorrow, or rather later today, I can put the finishing touches on it and print the new pages off.

YAY! It’s Christmas! *dances around joyfully*

Gakked from gallowglass.

You are ‘Jingle Bells’! Full of enthusiasm and
good cheer, you are excited by the first
appearances of Christmas decorations in shops
and have been heard singing along to the piped
music. Your attitude to Christmas is one of
childlike delight – with a slightly mercenary
streak. You definitely believe in Santa (you
get more presents that way) and will put up
your Christmas tree as early as possible. You
really like carolling, and presents, and mince
pies, and pudding, and will insist on getting
everyone up at dawn to open presents
immediately. So long as the food and presents
are good, you will have a great Christmas.

What Christmas Carol are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Yes! Finally a Quiz that has me pegged! Betcha judiang would get the same or similar. Go on, take the quiz, Judi. You know you want to!