Category: LiveJournal

Flowers And More!

As promised, photos from today. We started out in the Conservatory at the Windmill Island and there were quite a few exotic (well, to me at least!) flowers present.

amaryllis
Amaryllis

bad hair day
Bad Hair Day

succulent with water pool
Succulent with water pool in the center

orchid
Evil Orchid wants to eat your face!

bird of paradise
Bird of Paradise

The Windmill on Windmill Island is named De Zwaan (the swan) and is indeed graceful, if not really a bird.

dezwaan
De Zwaan

I took a photo from the observation deck. The day was still a bit dreary as the photo shows:

view
The view from De Zwaan

The tulips were reluctant to show themselves, but before we left Windmill Island, we had spotted a handful. Downtown Holland had quite a few more.

tulips1
Tulips on Windmill Island

tulips2
Tulips in downtown Holland

Tonight we went to Saugatuck Brewing Company for supper. I ordered a flight of beers, the cashews encrusted brie (appetizer) and fish & chips (with a side salad). Ate far too much, used up many of my weekly WW points, but it was worth it. Liked their cider, but the other five beers in the flight weren’t for me. So, if you total up all of the beers I’ve tried so far in my life (which is a fair number now), I’ve discovered, um, 0 that I like. However, have found several hard ciders that I like.

flight
My flight from Saugatuck Brewing Co.
From left to right: True Scot, ESB Amber, Bonfire Brown, Oatmeal Stout, Darker than Your Soul, and Hard Cider. The Amber and the Stout were more drinkable, but I wound up only drinking half of the beers and all of the cider.

It’s Tulip Time!

Lillian (my new car, if you recall) and I have had our first Road Trip! One month after I bought her, I drove her to Holland, Michigan for the Tulip Time Festival.

Yesterday, after school, I loaded her up and drove north and west to Douglas, MI, where our hotel, the AmericInn was awaiting me. By “our” I mean mine and judiang and elsaf‘s hotel. I got there around 10pm and they hadn’t been there long either. In fact, they were just about to head out for a late (late!) supper. Since I had the new car, they let me drive and we attempted the road house “next door” but they stopped serving food at 10pm. The waitress there described where to find a Burger King, which we figured would still be open.

They were, the girls got some food in ’em (I’d stopped at a McDonald’s on my way up) and we returned to the hotel for bed. Whereupon none of us could sleep. Ah well!

This morning, we ate at the hotel and eventually got on the road to Holland. By following the signs to the Windmill Island, we eventually reached the place (using the concept of Limits to guide us to our destination. Let’s hear it for calculus!) It was still fairly early and the temperature was a bit chilly. The tulip flowers didn’t get the memo re: Tulip Time and most were no-shows. However, the highlight of the island was the windmill.

In 1964, the city of Holland bought a windmill from the Netherlands and installed it on what became called Windmill Island. It is a working flour mill and the miller is one of the few females in the biz. (Elsa and I walked past her while on our tour of the joint.) Though they didn’t have the mill attached while we were there, they did have the sails turning, which was nifty.

I picked up a sack of flour, a postcard of the windmill WITH tulips in shot, and 3 tiny bars of chocolate from the Netherlands. It wasn’t till after we’d left the island that I even saw any bloomed tulips. But downtown Holland fared better – they had some early risers in places. I suspect in another week or two, the place will be gorgeous.

We decided to try the Alpen Rose restaurant for lunch, and we chose well. Judi and I got the buffet and Elsa had a soup, sandwich, and potato salad. The food was all yummy (brat with kraut & mashed taters – very yummy kraut indeed) and the desserts were heavenly. Cream puffs & fruit tart for the win! We headed on to Centennial Park where the arts & crafts part of the festival was housed and wandered there for a bit. Now we’re back at the hotel resting and recuperating.

Oh, while at the arts & crafts area, I so wanted to purchase a t-shirt that someone had made. It had a cute applique cat on it, was only $13, and had the caption “My outfits not complete unless covered in cat fur” or something. But I couldn’t spend money on a t-shirt that didn’t have proper grammar. “Outfit’s” as in “my outfit is” not as plural to “outfit.” I sadly walked away regretting their lack of proof-reader. (This paragraph probably has an ironically appropriate grammatical error in it, just ’cause.)

I’d add some photos to this post, but the wifi is slow here & my images & videos from today are taking their time getting onto my laptop. Guess I’ll have to make a SECOND post for the images. Wow!

Spring Break 2014

There’s something so refreshing about Spring Break. You have time to get some things done that you’ve been putting off till then. You can go off and do fun things during a week day. You can sit and read for hours without any guilt. I was quite looking forward to this break because of all of these reasons and more.

I had a number of things on my “to do” list for this break. Go to IKEA, go see a movie, buy a book and read it through, play World of Warcrack, etc. But one thing that was nowhere near my list was “go purchase a new car.”

Back in January of 1994, I was teaching in my first year of teaching and felt I could afford to buy my first car. I’d been driving mom and dad’s old 1984 (IIRC) Dodge Omni, but I wanted my own car. It had 3 criteria – had to be manual transmission, had to be green, had to have air conditioning. Everything else was extra. Well, I found a lovely green Dodge Shadow that was manual and had A/C (and not much else in the perks biz. They did put in an aftermarket tape player for me – it was cheaper than getting one already in).

So for the last 20 years, I’ve been driving the Shadow, which I named Miriam after Lovejoy’s car. (I’d called the Omni Bessie after the Doctor’s car). It’s been a wonderful car and despite a few issues (A/C crapped out at the end of last summer, trunk doesn’t stay open, rusting on top, starting to leak, more things shake than should, etc) I had intended to use it for several more years to come.

Spring Break begins and my parental units ask me what sort of plans I have for the break. I tell them stuff from above and some more ideas and they ask “and are you going to go looking for a new car?” Wait, what? It turns out they’ve been a little concerned about Miriam getting me to and from places, despite the fact that she’s a very reliable vehicle. Well, she’s a very OLD and reliable vehicle. That has survived my “benign neglect” style of management. So the seed was sewn… Would it grow?

Alas, it grew. So I gathered up the list of “non-negotiables” and “negotiables” and “don’t really care” for my “dream” car and we went out car shopping. Here were my non-negotiables: Great mileage, 4-door and mom and dad had to be able to get into and out of it easily, air conditioning, bluetooth audio system (or installation of aftermarket), ability to put a bike rack on it. My negotiables (if I *had* to change them): manual tranmission (though I knew automatic was more prevalent and might be easier to get), green or purple paint job (which I figured would be hard to get), and cruise control. I knew I’d buy the vehicle. After all, I bought my first car all those years ago.

We started out by going to Ron Irwin’s Crysler/Dodge/Jeep where I’d originally purchased my Shadow. Thankfully Ron wasn’t in himself (he’s a very good salesman). I tried out a manual transmission Dodge Dart and it was fine, but didn’t really have much in perks. So our next stop was Honda.

The salesman at Honda, Wally, was very nice and knew a lot about their product. The car with the best mileage (that was in my price range – so hybrids were out) was the Honda Civic. I test drove one and liked it. They didn’t have green, but the red was a very pretty maroon/burgundy. When we looked at purchasing options, Wally also suggested leasing. When he brought back the numbers, they were… impressive to say the least. For $187/mo for 35 months, I could lease the car (if I got the automatic). No money down. I returned home to research the Civic and the bluetooth sound system. I also checked through my budget to see if I could afford to buy (was pretty sure I could lease it with my budget).

The next day, the folks took me to Kia to check out their options. I was surprised to discover that the Rio actually had worse mileage than the Civic. They also didn’t have a green car and manuals were rare. And their prices were nowhere near what I was offered from Honda. So then we checked out the Toyota place. Finally, a green car. Not manual, but still, green. And a (slightly) better mileage than the Civic. However, it was more expensive. And when they brought the numbers to me, for purchase and for lease, neither were as good as Honda’s offerings (though the 0% finiancing was a perk). Basically if I’d wanted the Toyota, I’d be putting money down. And since car buying had been nowhere in my immediate plans, I had other plans for my current crop of savings.

Although the Toyota Corolla was very tempting (and would still be an automatic), I had made my decision before we left the dealership that we’d go to Honda to sign that lease. Sadly, Wally was off on vacation at that point (well, not sadly for HIM, heh) but he had left clear instructions for his supervisor and they took good care of me. No issues with credit (my score was over 800 – whee!) and we scheduled the pick up for the next day (today) at noon. I was unable to sleep last night.

This morning, I got up early and got Linus off to the vet for his first teeth cleaning. He wasn’t too happy with me since he didn’t even get any breakfast. Then I headed off to the folks. Mom and I shopped at Kohl’s (got a few shirts) and then off to the book store (bought Neil Gaiman’s Fortunately the Milk) and then we got dad and headed off to Honda for my car. Took about an hour with paperwork signing and the showing off of the car’s systems. They even helped me with syncing my phone to the car. Then I got to drive her home!

So now I have a Honda Civic LX that is a burgundy red, an automatic, and I’m leasing her. Soooooo not what I had pictured. But dang, is it all lovely. I think I’m still giddy. I named her Lillian. (See, I’ve decided my cars are female and should be named after famous cars. But there’s not a lot of female famous cars out there. I decided on “my mother the car” and rather than name her Linda after my mom, I named her Lillian, after the name on my mom’s birth certificate. (Short version: Grandpa apparently didn’t read the birth certificate for detail.))

May I present to you all, my new car, Lillian:
Lillian

March Madness

And by March Madness I don’t mean basketball… Instead, I mean our mad weather. Our county (and many others around us) is under a Winter Storm Warning starting tonight at 10pm and lasting until Monday morning. They’re currently predicting 5-7″ of snow for the storm (which is an improvement upon earlier predictions of 8+”). However, we’re in that odd transitional time between Winter and Spring when models have a hell of a time making good predictions as it is (and then compound them with the climate change we’ve been unleashing on our planet and I’m just shocked that they get anything remotely correct!) so I’m not holding my breath yet for (yet ANOTHER) day off on Monday.

So far we’ve missed 9 days this year. I’m rather pleased that I had gotten my chemistry classes a week ahead of last year’s because that extra time has helped me be only about a week behind after all of this weather. (I’m more worried about chemistry than physics because of the college curriculum and their college-supplied final exam.) In physics I’ve dumped a couple of projects/labs to keep close to my usual timeline. And Advanced Problems is always an evolving course as it is. (I’ve added in some forensics lessons this year and removed a couple of other projects because of that.)

I am one of the few people I know who isn’t actually sick and tired of snow. This next storm might finally put me over the edge (though I doubt it – unless the power goes out or something). However, I really miss taking long walks and riding my bike on the bike paths. So yeah, I’ll be just fine with winter making its departure felt. My weight-loss regimen has been affected by the weather too. Less exercise, more snacking because I’m at home instead of at work… I’ve yet to get as low as I was before Thanksgiving. (I was soooo close to being under 200lb back then too. Now I’m just happy to stay under 210.)

So Winter, I know you’re around for another 20 days or so, but I’m OK with you leaving early so that I can get some walks and rides in soon! But if you do decide to dump 5-7″ on us tomorrow, please leave the electricity alone, OK? 😉

Frack – It’s February????

This has been an interesting winter, to say the least. We wound up having two days off the week before last and even had a snow day last Wednesday. That now puts us at 9 days missed. Sounds like Ohio might be nice and give us 4 days beyond our normal 5 calamity days, so we shouldn’t have many to make up (hopefully!)

Anyhoo, I’m sitting on mom’s sofa and watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony. It’s always a damn shame when politics gets in the way of the spirit of the Olympics (Putin, I’m looking at you!), but that’s pretty much what happens anyhoo. I shall watch with the same optimism that I always do – here’s hundreds of people from around the world coming together to NOT kill each other, but instead show off how well they’ve been working on their particular skill or talent. And I just love that and have since I was wee.

The Rite of Spring part of the opening ceremony is currently showing on the telly and it’s quite beautiful. I do wish that NBC would allow people to watch the ceremony WITHOUT the stupid color commentary. This part of the show is NOT a sport, so needs no color commentary. (I also wish NBC would sell a “see it all online” package to those of us who’ve “cut the cable.” I’d pay good money to see the Olympics without having to subscribe to cable or satellite. (Still, this gives me an excuse to visit the folks. Not that I really need an excuse to visit.)

On Wednesday, our last day off due to snow, I made my first loaf (actually, first two loaves) of sourdough bread. I bought some sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour which arrived last Saturday and it was plenty ready to be used by Wednesday. I donated blood that afternoon (thankfully the roads were much improved by then) and brought a loaf along to share with the folks. Mom had invited me to supper afterward, so we had chilli soup and sourdough bread. Yum!

Tonight, I brought the second loaf with me and dad and mom made toasted cheese sandwiches (which we had with leftover soup) with the bread. Yummy! I intend to try another sourdough recipe on Sunday.

Anyway, I need to stop and just enjoy the rest of the opening ceremony. For those of you who watch the Olympics too, I hope you enjoy them!

2013 in Music

In 2013, I purchased 1840 individual MP3 files (17.3GB) which is over 161 hours of material. Of that, the majority (1437 files, 14.5GB, 134 hours) is what I classify as “Spoken Word” (AKA Big Finish and other audio adventures). What with Doctor Who turning 50 in 2013, I wound up purchasing quite a few Big Finish (and BBC Audio) stories. And enjoyed pritnear all of it. 🙂 (I was also fortunate in that the audiobooks for Ben Aaronovitch‘s first three novels were on sale this year, so I bought them and they’re all well done, too.)

But, on to the music, which is what I wanted to focus on in this post. I wound up adding a couple of new genres to my mix: Zydeco and R&B. This summer at one of the Downtown Troy concerts, the folks and I enjoyed the music of Creole Stomp, so pop and I bought a couple of their CDs after the concert. The R&B (which is a very loose description as the music covers a variety of genres) is for the Janelle Monáe albums I bought.

Janelle Monáe and Fleur Mainville are probably my two favorite additions to my music collection this year. It’s great adding females to my collection and these two ladies are both gifted singers/songwriters/performers. It was thanks to a tweet by Anita Sarkeesian (of Feminist Frequency fame) that I even heard of Janelle Monáe. Turns out Monáe has been working on a story about an android who falls in love with a human and all of the excitement & adventure (including bounty hunters, zombies, etc) that entails. There’s 3 albums thus far and I’ve enjoyed all three.

While doing Yet Another Pointless search for more MacKeel stuff, I found out about their fiddler, Fleur Mainville, doing some solo albums. It didn’t take much listening for me to realize I needed to add her to my collection. Indeed, her piece “Bedlam Boys” immediately found its way into my “Most Favorites of All” playlist (5 star songs). She even has a Christmas album that I had to buy too. Heh.

Oddly enough, I only bought 2 Christmas albums this year – the other one was the Cincinnati Pops album Christmas with The Pops. Just as well – I managed to NOT get all of my Christmas music listened to this year. Maybe I’ll do better next year!

Other new albums include Daft Punk‘s Random Access Memories, the soundtrack to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (along with the Neil Finn single “Song of the Lonely Mountain”), albums by Midas Fall and My First Tooth, the songs of Kaila Picard (and I backed a crowd-sourced music video of hers, too). Oh, and thanks to the tap dancing that Amy, Rachel, and I saw this summer, Train‘s “Hey Soul Sister” had to become part of my collection. (I even bought a copy for each of the girls, too. Hey, it was on sale for only $.69 at the time and the girls are worth it – LOL – and then some!)

I have quite a few “regulars” that I always buy new albums, no matter what. Well, maybe Lady Gaga isn’t there yet, but I did finally buy Born This Way. (Well, I did love “Americano” in Puss in Boots, so it was inevitable.) Pet Shop Boys had two new albums, Ricky Martin had one, Enter the Haggis had one as well. I also got the most recent Gaelic Storm album and Garbage album.

2013 started out very well, musically, when my folks gave me money to buy Neil Innes‘ complete Recollections set for my birthday. It’s pretty obvious from my last.fm statistics that Neil is my favorite solo artist (with Kirsty MacColl coming in second). But not only is it his solo work, but also his work in The Bonzo Dog Band, The Rutles, Monty Python and GRIMMS that I love. So yeah, I had to get that compilation (which also came with a little autographed note – whee!) I’ve come a long way from hunting down rare Innes/Python/GRIMM/Bonzo albums at record collectors conventions! The things you do when you’re 16!!!

Anyhoo, a great year in music with lots of new stuff from my old favorites AND some new favorites to watch out for. 2014 has started out very strong with regards to music since I spent some Amazon gift cards on new (old) music – Hank Williams, Roger Miller, The Beach Boys – gee thanks Sirius (which mom has for her new car – heh)! Hope that 2014 is a great year of music for all of you!

2013 in Books

I had wanted to write two posts this January covering the books I’d read this year and the music I’d bought. Well, the month is quickly moving, so I’d best get a move on if I want to do this!

(I also note that today is a holiday. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day to all of you! May there come a time when everyone will start out at the same level playing field as each other. The cynic in me thinks “yeah right” but the optimist in me has hope.)

2013 saw a record number of books read (70, beating 2008’s 65) since I started keeping records in 2001. Here’s hoping I’ll have as successful a summer as I had last year.

New (and notable) Authors that I discovered in 2013 include Jo Nesbo, Gillian Flynn, Tamora Pierce, Hugh Howey, Alex Grecian, and Scott Lynch.

My sister got the entire family into Stieg Larsson in 2010 and has now followed it up by getting us into Jo Nesbo. His detective, Harry Hole (pronounced closer to “holy” than “hole”) is an interesting character. His female characters are often proactive and kick ass, which is nice to see. But try not to get too attached to the secondary characters – Nesbo has no qualms about offing the people we love. (The George RR Martin school of character writing, perhaps?) I am caught up with all of the Nesbo books which have been published in the US. (So still need The Cockroaches, I guess.)

Although I might someday reread the Harry Hole books, I decided that once was enough for the Gillian Flynn books that I checked out this summer. I think it was Greg McElhaton who introduced me to Gillian’s books. I started with Gone Girl and then followed up with Sharp Objects and Dark Places (all three are stand-alone books – it’s not a trilogy). Those aren’t my usual style of books (psychological drama? Not sure how to describe them) but I wanted to continue reading to find out what happened next. I think I liked Dark Places best of the three, but I’d be hard pressed to say why that was.

I love The Devil’s Panties and Jennie Breeden, the cartoonist for the series, loves Tamora Pierce books. So I decided to see if my library had any of her books electronically. I wound up checking out her Beka Cooper trilogy: Terrier (read in 2011), Bloodhound, and Mastiff. Not sure why I didn’t follow up back in 2011 after reading Terrier, but I’m glad I tried her out again. I’ve now got Alanna on order from the library to expand upon my Tamora Pierce reading. I think lately I’m just in the mood for books which either star female protagonists or at least have strong females in lead roles in books.

In addition to Jo Nesbo, my sister introduced me to Hugh Howey and his Wool Omnibus. Her library had all 5 of the novellas/novellettes separately, but mine had the omnibus. So although she discovered the series first, I finished it first. (She can wait a LONG time for books since she’s sharing them with all of Minneapolis. My books come from a larger pool of libraries and with fewer patrons. Go figure!) The first Wool story is very much of the sort of science fiction story that I think of when I think of “anthology science fiction.” And that’s actually a compliment. That he was able to take his original premise and continue it to a much bigger world was impressive.

I really got into Jago and Litefoot from Big Finish Productions this year and so Victoriana was appealing to me. No surprise, then, that I picked up The Yard by Alex Grecian. It tells of the early days of Scotland Yard and the development of the Murder Squad. I liked the characters right away and think he does a nice job with the female characters as well (though there just aren’t enough of them IMO). The Black Country was a good follow up novel and I’m looking forward to more stories with these characters.

I first heard of Scott Lynch when someone on Twitter or Tumblr had pointed to his LJ post on why he had a black female single mother who was a pirate. Hell, anyone who writes a character like that has to be in my collection! This particular character doesn’t show up until his second novel, Red Seas Under Red Skies, so I started with The Lies of Locke Lamora. Unlike the other books I mentioned above, I decided this series is more than just a “read from the library series.” I’ve only purchased the first book, but I’ll get the other two books (including the recently released Republic of Thieves) when they come out on sale. (Yeah, I’m a cheap-wad.) In addition to fascinating characters and strong females, the stories often involve some really clever sting (or several stings) which I always love to see developed (and sometimes love to see them crash and burn).

So yeah, lots of books read this year, some new authors discovered and added to my “must read more by” list. Read both of JK Rowling’s non HP books and liked them (though I preferred the mystery). Read Lord of the Flies and Ethan Frome, The World of Poo (not Pooh), Dance for the Ivory Madonna (which not only had a male black lead but also a main character who was a fat female – the titular Ivory Madonna), and A Slight Trick of the Mind (soon to be a motion picture with Ian McKellan as an elderly Sherlock Holmes). Read two of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Novellas, Ripple Effect and Nothing O’Clock. And also got two new (for me) Lois McMaster Bujold books under my belt (Spirit Ring and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance). All-in-all, a great year for book reading!

2014 has started out very strong. Five books done thus far (though two were started before 2014 began). Have a new author for this year in my collection: Laura Lam, who’s written Pantomime and Shadowplay. Loved Pantomime so much I bought it and the sequel. Currently reading the sequel. I shall continue trolling for new authors and books via my Twitter feed and other sources, so I expect to find even more female protagonists who kick ass in 2014.

May you all enjoy reading some wonderful books this year!

Interesting Start to the Year

We were very fortunate to have a long Winter Break – two full weeks. And then Mother Nature decided that wasn’t enough. Heh. Today was our third calamity day for 2014 and the fifth for this school year. And I ain’t complaining! I love unexpected days off (and today was a particularly unexpected one).

January 2nd was a very snowy day and I got a number of photos from my folks’ veranda, one of which I’ll share below (once I pick it). So we spent the day inside and enjoyed each others’ company. (I’d originally planned to take the kitties to their annual appointment, but decided to change it to another day.) A friend of Amy’s and former student of dad’s came around despite the crappy weather (he and his family were on their way to Chicago, but decided after the drive to Troy to give it up and return to Pleasant Hill). We had a nice time visiting with them. And then mom and Amy went to the post office and dropped me off at the Chinese place so I could get us lunch. It was a lovely snowy day.

Sadly, the 3rd was Amy’s last day with us, so we spent the morning just watching her. Heh. We got her off to the airport and she arrived home safely. Her luggage took longer, but she was finally reunited with it in the late evening. I also made my way home and got to spend the weekend (and the past 3 days) with my kitties.

Well, actually, Saturday I spent the day with the parental units. Mom and I attended WeightWatchers (ouch – up 5lbs from before the holidays!) and then the three of us had breakfast at Bob Evans. Then we went to see Catching Fire (the second Hunger Games movie). Mom and I were impressed with how faithful it was to the book. Dad isn’t really a fan of this style of story. (Postapocalyptic just isn’t this thang, I guess.)

Sunday was supposed to be the next big snowstorm followed by ultra-cold temps. Well, the snowfall wasn’t all that big, then it turned to rain. Still, I spent the day making soup and baking bread. It was lovely. The ultracold temps did come and turned the wet into ice and the rain into snow. And thus school was closed Monday. And then Tuesday.

By Tuesday afternoon, I was getting cabin fever, so I put on double/triple/quadruple layers and walked to the post office. Amy’s birthday gift to me (the game Ticket to Ride) showed up. Yay! I returned home with all of my appendages doing just fine.

Last night the school called to say we would be on a 2-hour delay this morning. So this morning I was up an hour later than I normally would be, and getting ready for work. And then they called again to say that, due to poor roads, school would be closed again. Whee!

I figured the main roads wouldn’t be as bad as the country roads and by 11am, I headed off to Piqua to go watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for a second time. Turns out Piqua can show it in High Frame Rate. No more going down to Fairborn for HFR! Whee! I followed it up with a late lunch at Red Lobster. I also baked my first focaccia bread today (after making the dough yesterday and letting it proof today). Photo also included below.

So anyhoo, my Winter Break is now over (probably! Hopefully the salt could finally melt the ice on the streets!) and tomorrow I can be a responsible adult again. Heh. Till then, however, I’m gonna sit in my comfy chair with my kitty (Lucy right now) and veg out. Hope y’all have had an interesting start to 2014, too!

Here are the two photos I promised!

Snow on Jan 2
The patio doesn’t look as inviting when there’s several inches of snow on the furniture!

Focaccia!
My first attempt at focaccia! It looks (and smells) wonderful!

Goodbye to my Douglas Adams Year!

On Jan 1, 1971, at 12:16am, I came into the world. So for the past year, I was 42 years old. And I often wondered, in a solipsistic way, maybe Douglas Adams’ question is something along the lines of “What age will Trina be when she …?” “How old will Trina be when …” (put in your own humorous or not-so-humorous fill-ins for the blanks). With, of course, the answer being 42. But since the universe does NOT revolve around me (I was 99.9999% sure this was the case), I got through the year with nothing untoward happening.

So anyhoo, we’ve been having a fabulous time with Amy in town. Mom and I had Baking Day on Christmas and dad worked on his Christmas toy for family members (a gragger – nice and loud and fun). Thursday (Boxing Day) I wrapped presents. Friday was the busiest day of my time off.

I started Friday morning with a doctor’s appointment. (I’m quite healthy – whee! – and 19lbs lighter than my last appt.) Then I headed off to mom & dad’s for the family gatherings. We first went to Uncle Bob’s (mom’s side) at Indian Lake. It was good to see my cousin (currently living in Texas) and her girls again. Hadn’t seen her oldest in a couple of years. We had a lovely afternoon of food and fellowship.

We then headed back home to refill on cookies and then headed off to Aunt Becky’s (dad’s side). There was even more food and fellowship there (and I was surprised that I was hungry after the Anderson gathering). We left from there to go pick up Amy at the airport.

Amy’s flight got in early, but they had some tarmac wait time. Still, we were hugging her around the time of the original arrival time. Yay! Once home we chatted for awhile before finally getting to bed.

Saturday morning was our “Christmas.” We had Egg McMikey sammiches (dad’s specialty) and opened our stockings. Then present opening occurred. We know how to do present opening! It was after noon before we finished. Heh. Lunch was hamburgers and mac&cheese.

We took a walk that afternoon since it was going to be the warmest day Amy was in town. Since it wasn’t really Christmas, Mojo’s (a local bar) was our destination. We had drinks and snacks and then tottled back home.

Sunday included lunch at Harrison’s in Tipp City with friends (we wanted to show off Amy) and then some resting and relaxing. Monday included a shopping trip to Kohl’s where I got a new watch band and a WeightWatchers approved scale for under $5 (yay Kohl’s Bucks!)

Yesterday (New Years’ Eve) I popped home to check on the kitties and then mom, Amy, and I went to the Y for a Zumba Gold class and a line dancing class. We were the only folks who showed up, so we claim that we were the best students that day. 🙂

Our evening plan was to go to The Filling Station for NYE along with mom’s BFF Debbie and her hubby, Ben. When we got there around 6:30, they asked if we had reservations. Mom had TRIED to get reservations earlier in the week but they claimed then they weren’t taking reservations since they were having a live band. Thankfully, since we didn’t want to sit on the side of the bar where the band was, they had room for us. All but dad ordered the prime rib special (which wasn’t all that special) and dad had fried shrimp.

Mom, Deb, Amy and I played games (Pass the Pig, Zombie Dice, Euchre) while we waited for 2014 to show up. Part of the cover charge fee paid for party favors and champagne. They were running out of favors when they got to us, and the champagne may not have even had grapes, let alone alcohol. Still, we graggered the new year in once midnight hit.

We returned home around 1am and then mom and I prepared for breakfast: Eggnog French Toast.

Today was my birthday (no, duh!) so we started off with a great breakfast of eggnog french toast and bacon. Mmmm! Then I got to watch my parade. Love those folks in Pasadena – they always give me a parade. Lunch was pork and kraut and mashed potatoes and apple sauce. My cousin, Patty, joined us for lunch. We then had cookies and conversation. Uncle Doug and Aunt Charlene joined us after awhile and we continued eating and chatting.

Now I’m typing this up and looking over at my birthday presents. Whee! I think we’ll get to those soon enough!

Happy New Year to all of you! May 2014 be a great year for you!

Merry Christmas!

Seems to be I’ve only been posting to my journal on holidays. So I guess I’ll be posting on Jan 1 next. Heh.

We’ve been off school since Friday, which has been lovely. Sadly, I wasn’t caught up in grading yet, so Monday I went back to school and got some done, finished more that night, and did even more this morning. I’m nearly caught up – whew!

The folks and I decided to celebrate Christmas Eve tonight by going to a local restaurant’s Christmas Eve buffet. By the time mom got us reservations, most of the later evening slots were filled up, so we reserved for 4:30 at the Caroline. Dinner was fab. And we’re still full!

Once again, my sister is holding Christmas hostage (not that I mind the extra wait), so present opening will take place on Saturday at the earliest. Amy flies in on Friday night. *bounce bounce*

I’m mostly done with Christmas shopping (just something yet to get for one of my little cousins – I’ll get it on Boxing Day) and most of what I’ve ordered folks has arrived. So I’ll be wrapping presents on Boxing Day, along with making Chex Mix and baking bread. Should be a lovely day. 🙂

I’m spending the night with the folks tonight since tomorrow (Christmas) will be Baking Day. We’re watching The Hunger Games in anticipation of watching Catching Fire some time when Amy is with us.

I hope those of you who celebrate have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow (or whenever you’re able to celebrate). And those of you who don’t, have a wonderful Wednesday!