Tag: holiday

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Hope all of you Irish-Wannabes have had a great day. And the rest of you as well!

Since I work in a public school, I wore green today. (For those of you not in the know, on St. Patrick’s Day if one doesn’t wear green, one can get pinched! Of course, this isn’t a tradition everywhere, but it’s very popular with young schoolchildren. And some high school kids too, heh heh.) I wore the nice hooded jacket that’s Kermit the Frog green – Amy & Rachel gave it to me for Christmas and today was my first day to actually wear it. It’s cute, green & fuzzy, just like Kermit. And warm, too.

In all the excitement of St. Patrick’s Day, I almost forgot that Doctor Who debuts on Sci Fi Channel tonight. Yay! I’m going to go next door & watch it with the parental units. They never liked the original series, but they did like the TV Movie. I’m hoping they like the new series. It would be fun to watch it with them as the season unfolds. (If not, there’s always Leo. Heh heh.)

Taking it Easy

I decided to return home last night rather than stay over another night with elsaf and judiang. I missed my kitty, wanted to see Granny, and had papers to grade. I’m glad I did this (though I do miss the girls, terribly) because I had a nice relaxing day today. And I got to see Leo and Granny and best of all, got the papers graded. Yay! The folks took me out to lunch, too. To Arang, the local Japanese restaurant. I had shrimp teriyaki & California rolls. Very yummy! They gave me $50, which I think I might use to buy The Flash, the Complete Series on DVD. (Yay! It comes out Jan 10!) I also opened Amy & Rachel’s gift – they gave me a log cabin toy set (like Lincoln Logs, only squarer). Fun to play with.

I had a lovely holiday this year. For my birthday, Elsa got me some Fox River Socks! (I’m wearing a pair right now. I love new socks, especially Fox Sox.) Judi got me Dangermouse seasons 1-4 – yay! We headed off to Tom & Ardath’s to meet up with them and Elsa’s parents. Lunch was dim sum at a restaurant near there. Very tasty food and very fresh. Elsa’s father even bought us lunch – yay! (I love parents who buy their daughter’s meals. Witness my parental units above.) After lunch, it was back to Tom’s for a short concert of Tom on recorder and Elsa’s mom on piano. Very nicely done.

We headed off to see Memoirs of a Geisha at a theater near Elsa’s place. The movie was very good. My neck was wet when it finished, cuz I’d been crying and the tears ran down my neck. I haven’t read the book, but Judi has and she said it was a pretty faithful rendition. She really liked the book.

Once we returned to the car, my ankle started vibrating. I had my purse between my feet & someone had called me on my cell phone. It was Amy! She & Rachel sang “Happy Birthday” to me. 🙂 We chatted for a little bit as Elsa drove us home. And once we were home, we had ice cream & geeked on our computers. During the geeking, my cell rang again, and this time it was mom & dad singing me “Happy Birthday.” Heh – I love my family.

As it neared suppertime (and, alas, time for Trina to leave the girls), we decided to go out one last time for dinner. Most places were closed for New Years, but we found the Shore Inn open. I had a fish sammich and fries, which was yummy & filling. Elsa paid the bill – yay Elsa! I love friends who buy their friend’s dinner. 🙂

We returned to Elsa’s for my last bit of packing up the car & hugs. Then I headed on home. The drive was fine & I got in around 11:30pm. Leo was happy to see me (and had eaten all his food already). We stayed up for an hour or so, then headed off to bed.

This morning was my parade. I hate when they air it on the second – it’s for my birthday, you know! Alas, there was much rain, but the floats were still beautiful to see. I graded catapult reports while watching. And Leo decided he wanted to sit on the board I was grading on. No surprise. But it was as I had hoped – good kitty time and good grading time. I headed next door after the parade for lunch with the parentals.

When we visited Granny at her new room in a nearby nursing home, she complained that people weren’t visiting. Well, dad’s been going every day – and yesterday she was so sound asleep he couldn’t wake her. But today, she didn’t have to worry about lack of visitors. While we were there, Aunt Becky & Deanna arrived with a couple of Xmas presents & a new wheelchair. Then Mick (Becky’s oldest son), his fiancée, and two daughters (9 and 6) arrived. We couldn’t all squeeze into the room, so we sat in the lobby (looking at the live birds they have there) chatting. Granny was lucid the entire time and was looking better than she had when I saw her last. She’s still weak, but here’s hoping they can strengthen her up at the home. She’s eating (not a lot, but at least some!) and will be going to physical therapy. So I have high hopes for her.

I have tomorrow off as well, so I’ll have some relaxation times tomorrow as well. I hope to visit Granny again, as well as exchange some slacks I got at Xmas for a longer style. And who knows what else I’ll do. (Hopefully read some of the cool books I got this holiday!)

Merry New Year! Beef Jerky Time!

Happy New Year to all of you playing at home! Can’t believe it’s 2006 already. Can’t believe I’m 35 already! Sheesh, I’m old enough to be president now! (elsaf assures me that I’m too honest for the role, thankfully. Just as well – I certainly wouldn’t vote for me!)

I’ve been thinking about doing a post looking back at 2005 and perhaps I’ll do it later in the day. And I might even try a looking forward post as well. I’m not a resolution kind of person, but a few goals wouldn’t hurt. (I don’t do resolutions mostly because I hate breaking promises – even if they’re to myself. But a goal isn’t a promise, it’s just something you hope to accomplish.)

Our method of ringing in the new year was heading off to Elsa’s parents, watching movies, and eating foodstuffs. It was a lot of fun and there were plenty of snacks. Elsa made seasame balls, pork pearl balls, and sticky rice in lotus leaves. (She enlisted me to help but I was having an off night and did more to hinder her than help. Whoops! She should have gotten judiang to help instead. Thankfully, I only permanently ruined one dish (and that wasn’t my fault! The bowl just broke on me!)

The movies that we watched were Quigley, March of the Penguins, and The Polar Express. Quigley was a silly little movie about a mean SOB who dies & is sent back to Earth as a pomeranian. We had a ball MST3King it and watching the cute pom. Judi will probably be adding it to her collection. (Everyone should have a Three Kinds of Heat in their video collection, I feel.) I’d seen Penguins on Christmas day with the family and enjoyed it then and tonight as well. (I was more awake on tonight’s showing.) Polar was interesting, but I don’t think it’ll join my collection of Holiday Must Sees.

We toasted the new year with champagne and fizzy cider (I went with the apples rather than the grapes), then packed up (dogs & all) and returned to Elsa’s. And here we all sit, writing and reading our journals. Yup, even in 2006 we’re still geeks.

So, once again, Happy New Year to you all! And Happy Birthday to those of you who, like me, are New Years Babies! 🙂