Gnome? Why he's my grandpa!

OOOH! OOOOH! OOOH!

I've longed for my very own garden gnome for ages! At last a gnome finally has shown up in my yard (well on my front porch, to be precise)! When I saw this little guy, and the lovely plant sheltering him (which I'll try not to kill), I was so thrilled!



No idea who gave this little guy my address, but I certainly am grateful. I just love it.

A/C is WORKING!

I'm so thrilled. Finally, after 8 days of misery, the a/c is working again!

RIP Bryant Park Project

Oh no! My favorite NPR show, The Bryant Park Project, is no more!

RIP Cap'n Pete

I was away on vacation, and came home to a non-functioning A/C (it's still not working, eight days later), so I didn't hear the news until recently. How sad that Cap'n Pete appears to have been murdered. Of all the shows on WEVL, Cap'n Pete's Blues Cruise was one of my very favorites. I know he'll be missed by many.

From Rev. Keith A. Gordon

Henderson was born in the Mississippi Delta as a sharecropper's son, working the fields on a plantation in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He fell in love with blues music through artists like Sonny Boy Williamson II and Pinetop Perkins, sneaking away from his work in the cotton fields as a boy to listen to them on the radio out of Helena, Arkansas. When Pinetop came to the station in 2005, Dee told him, "I got many whippins as a boy because of you, Mr. Perkins!" remembers station manager Judy Dorsey.

When Henderson heard that WEVL-FM was playing blues music, Henderson bought a rooftop antenna so that he could hear the station better, says Dorsey, quoted by the Commercial Appeal. One day he called up the deejay to talk about seeing Muddy Waters perform live, which subsequently led to an invitation to the station and, later, his own program. According to friends, Henderson was proud to have won a "Keeping the Blues Alive" award from The Blues Foundation in 1992 for his commitment to blues music.

As big a part of Memphis as Beale Street and blues music, Dee Henderson's voice will be missed by blues fans and WEVL listeners. However, Dorsey says that WEVL has an archive of Blues Cruise shows going back several years, and the station plans on airing "The Best of Cap'n Pete's Blues Cruise" in his time slot, Friday 9 pm-midnight, on most Friday nights starting on Friday, July 26th. Check with the WEVL-FM website for more photos and memories of Cap'n Pete, and be sure to sign the guestbook!

Trip to DC

Pics and details coming soon eventually.

Craigslist Novelty Lamp Watch

Success!
Martini Lamp


It could be yours for $20!

Maritni Lamp - $20 (Midtown)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: sale-740761183@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-07-02, 5:18PM CDT



Have this adorable lamp for sale. Purchased at a trendy boutique 2 years ago for $55. Works perfectly, just no longer goes with my decor. The bulb is included.

Most Hated Foods - WHAT?

I heard about this on the Frank Decaro Show this morning, and I was kind of shocked. I love most of the foods on this list, which is the top twenty most hated foods in America.

#1 Liver - Yeah, I agree, gross.
#2 Lima Beans - I can take them or leave them.
#3 Mayo - Yum.
#4 Mushrooms - Yum.
#5 Eggs - I hate egg yolks. Scrambled eggs with cheese is good.
#6 Okra - Love okra - particularly fried.
#7 Beets - Nothing wrong with beets.
#8 Brussel Sprouts - I love brussel sprouts.
#9 Tuna - Yum.
#10 Gelatin/Jello - Delicious!
#11 Sour Cream - Love it!
#12 Pea Soup - I can take it or leave it!
#13 Oysters - Never tried it.
#14 Peas - Yeah, they are yucky.
#15 Raisins - Delicious.
#16 Cooked Carrots - I can take it or leave it.
#17 Onions - Yum!
#18 Cilantro - Double yum!
#19 Maple Syrup - Are you kidding me? It's delicious!
#20 Blueberries - One of my very favorites!

My personal most hated:
#1 Pork Brains
#2 Liver
#3 Liverwurst
#4 Pork Chitterlings (affectionately known as Chitluns)
#5 Green Peas
#6 Sardines
#7 Egg Yolks
#8 BBQ Pork (I don't like meat in general, but BBQ Pork is particularly gross to me.)
#9 ... Well, I might as well stop here, because other than various meats, I really have nothing left to list.

I sure do like Electric Six:


I particularly like the video for their cover of Queen's Radio Ga-Ga, but I can't get it to embed here. I highly recommend you watch it here on YouTube.

from my beloved Ananova Quirkies

The happiest day of the year

An academic has worked out a mathematical formula which he says proves June 20 is the happiest day of the year.

It is down to a combination of lighter evenings, the prospect of holidays and memories of childhood summers, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Cliff Arnall, a psychologist and former tutor at Cardiff University, worked out the equation: "O + (N xS) + Cpm/T + He".

O stands for being outdoors, N is nature, S is socialising with neighbours and friends, Cpm stands for childhood positive memories, T is the mean temperature, and He is holiday expectation.

I hope your day is happy!

Poor neglected blog!

Weekend Review

Bill & I had a busy, but rewarding weekend.

Friday evening, we stayed home and watched DVDs in order to conserve our energy for the busy weekend ahead of us. We watched Battlestar Galactica & Jekyll (British modern-day Jekyll & Hyde series).

Saturday morning, we worked on our flowerbeds in the front yard. We basically removed some dead azaleas and tried to get rid of all the bulbs for some golden tropicannas that had been planted on top of some lovely white irises that were already there. Basically we took out everything except some irises that are on the south side of our porch. We then defined the beds by placing new edging stones around them. It looks very tidy now! Here are some before and after pics!

We're trying to decide what to plant in our new beds, with the intention of planting in early June (due to our schedules). We're curious about knockout roses, which my mother-in-law loves. We'll see. We still have some more beds in the front yard to work on, but we'll get there eventually.

We went out for dinner at Los Compadres with the Criders. It was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, so we sat on the patio and enjoyed each other's company. Zoe was extra cute, and she made friends with the one year old at the table next to us. She charmed that baby's mom into letting her feed him his little baby treats. It was just too adorable.

Sunday, we devoted ourselves to cleaning the house, which looked a bit like a tornado had been through it. We had been working on reorganizing closets, and their contents had been on our bedroom floor for over a week. It was driving me absolutely BATSHIT!!! The house is sooo nice and neat now - also at least one closet in the house (mine) is very organized. And the other two closets in the house are getting there. Also, winter clothes went into the cedar closet in the attic and summer clothes (well, for Bill anyway) came downstairs. Also I sent most of my pre-pregnancy clothes up to the attic, too, leaving only a few "transistional" items in my dresser and closet. Why should I be digging through tons of clothes I can't wear now and probably won't be able to wear for a while just to find the few things that currently fit?

We went to see the Criders at their house for a cookout. It was a lot of fun. I played with Zoe a bit outside. We put sticks in my hair and played on her swing set. We also terrorized some ants with sticks. Poor ants!

I also had a nice time with the adults present. We ate dinner with Cheryl, Powell, and Kim. Later Shelby came by with Baby Miles in tow. What a cutie he is! We stayed out way past my bedtime, but I still woke up feeling very perky for a Monday. I really think it's because I had such a great weekend. Let's hope this week goes well.

Jackpot!

Nice novelty lamp on Craiglist today:



This lamp could be yours for only $25!

Another Day, Another Gadget

I'm not sure if it's because I'm carrying his child or what, but lately Bill has been surprising me with electronics! NICE!

I came home from a fun Mary Kay party my friend hosted for her step-mom, a burgeoning MK rep, to find a brand spanking new iPhone waiting for me. I was shocked! Dang, I just got a laptop the week before. And a few weeks earlier, he gave me a Nuvi (super cute portable GPS system) - he doesn't want me getting lost with the baby on board hahaha!



I'm loving my early Mother's Day gift. I have played with Bill's Blackberry a bit, and I have to say there's just no comparison! The iPhone is so much more user-friendly. I've got the hang of using it, but I'm still discovering nifty little features. I'm super lucky!

Craigslist Finds - UPDATE

Elvis' loveseat was reposted this morning, with the following embellishment:

Hello this is a posting for a great loveseat-small couch. And as the posting says if you look really really hard at the couch and then close your eyes I swear you can see Elvis' butt cheeks imprinted on the cushion. If they aren't his then who's are they ?
I really like the couch it came from my Aunt's estate but i found a different one I like better.
Free delievery inside the parkways

No good lamps today. Nothing else worthy of mention, actually. Some guy wants a "massage" whether you're a licensed massage therapist or "just really good at giving massages" - which I found somewhat amusing.

Craigslist Finds

I have a confession to make. I look at Craigslist daily. And I'm not looking for bargains, I'm looking for laughs.

My favorite "finds" are novelty lamps. I don't know why, but it seems like at least once a week there is a new weird lamp on Craigslist: purse lamps, monkey lamps, patriotic eagle lamps. Sometimes I get a chuckle out of what people are selling (once I found what I thought was a kinky bondage harness in the Household section, but Bill thinks it was just a dog harness).



Anyway, today's strange lamp find (ballerina slipper lamp) pales in comparison to a few gems I found in the furniture section...

You could be the proud owner of Elvis' ottoman and loveseat for the low low price of only $55!

Elvis' Ottoman - $20
Elvis' Favorite Loveseat =- $35

Nice Weekend

I had a really nice weekend. I got off work early on Friday. When I got home, Bill was already there cleaning the house. Now that's a great way to start the weekend in itself. But wait there's more!

There was a gift wrapped up for me on the dining room table. It was large, rectangular, and kinda HEAVY! I said, "It's heavy." Bill said, "No. It's light!" His response didn't make sense until I opened it up and saw that it was a NEW MAC!!! I was so thrilled. My old PowerBook was so old and slow that just clicking the mouse would make the little rainbow swirlie (Mac equivalent of the hour glass) spin! Let's see I think I got the PowerBook in 2000 or 2001, so it was getting pretty old. The new computer is a white 13" MacBook 2.4 ghz.



Also, some maternity clothes I had ordered arrived (three days earlier than I expected), so I was able to wear a pretty new outfit when I went out that night for hibachi! Oh, and the shrimp was delicious! Also, I didn't puke at all the entire day!

It was a thoroughly perfect Friday.

Saturday was nice, too. We had lots of people over to play poker with Bill. I don't really enjoy gambling, so I just hung out and socialized with people as they were eliminated from the poker tournaments. It was quite a long day, but a lot of fun to see everyone. This time Bill didn't win, but he had a great time.

Sunday was mostly about relaxing. I did go to see Baby Mama, which was very cute and funny. I also tried to do some maternity shopping, but I couldn't find anything I liked. It seems like the only maternity clothes I like either cost about three times more than I feel they should OR are only available online. I'm getting closer to getting a decent maternity wardrobe together, though.

Ah, we also watched a really great DVD last night called Rocket Science. It was a really good movie about a boy with a stutter who joins the debate team (because of a girl, naturally). It's directed by the director of Spellbound (the documentary about spelling bees), Jeffrey Blitz (if I'm remembering the name correctly).

Bill and I both liked the movie a lot. It came to us from Netflix via Bill's queue, but I had been wanting to see the movie since hearing some interviews with the director on NPR and Sirius radio.

Trivia Tidbit: The director is also a stutterer

The soundtrack featured a lot of Violent Femmes songs played on cello, so I ask you, what's not to like?

Photos from Camp Hazelton

Look at the treehouse! Now with a finished roof, porch rails, and windows! Uncle Bill was a busy guy!


The beach area usually extends beyond the far pine tree in the picture above. The water is really high!


Bill showing off my belly. :)

TV Relocated to Above the Fireplace

We had our TV mounted above the fireplace yesterday by a professional (so it won't fall on the cats or the baby and squish them). I'm super excited about it. The plan is to turn our formal dining room back into a dining room instead of a den. The living room will then be the spot where we watch DVDs and TV shows online. I think our house is going to look a lot better once we get all the furniture moved around.

I'll post pics here soon!

Weekend at the Lake

Treehouse pics! Woo!!


Bill and I rode up to Camp Hazelton with his parents on Friday morning for a long weekend at camp. The weather wasn't ideal; it was cold and cloudy. We didn't mind, because it's nice to just be at the cabin.

It was really heartbreaking to see the flooded homes on the drive over to camp. Luckily, the cabin at Camp Hazelton is high on the hillside, so there's no danger of it being flooded (until the ice caps melt). But the lake is higher than it's ever been, surpassing the Flood of '73 levels. The treehouse can be considered "lakeside" now. The water comes all the way up to the "do not build line" designated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Bill and his dad were going to use a fishing guide on Saturday morning, but the trip was canceled due to the weather, the flooding, etc. There were wind gusts of up to 30 mph! They will reschedule for another time. We went to the marina where the boat is stored, and the parking lot for the marina is now part of the lake! Astonishing.

Bill attempted a bit of fishing at the lake at Camp Hazelton, but since the water is up in the trees now, it just wasn't working out. Instead, he put a lot of effort into working on the tree house with his new tools. The treehouse now has railing on the porch and windows have been cut out! Also, a cool pulley system has been installed, and the roof is complete at last! There are a few finishing touches left: flower boxes on the porch, screen for the windows, etc. It's a really adorable little tree house. I look forward to worrying that my child will fall out and break his or her arm. :)

We watched a few movies, read a lot (I read baby books and Guy de Maupassant stories) cooked meals, and enjoyed each others' company for the weekend. It was a very relaxing weekend. The highlight of the weekend for me was the way breakfast tasted on Sunday morning. I had no nausea at all and the flavors of everything I ate took on a new dimension. I can't even begin to explain how delicious my scrambled eggs with sharp cheddar cheese tasted. It was divine.

Pregnancy brain is to blame for the sad fact that I left my camera at home. My mother-in-law brought hers, luckily, and took lots of photos of the treehouse and the flooding. As soon as I get copies of the pics, I'll post some here on the blog.

Bill Rocks - He Did the Taxes!

How awesome is Bill? Very awesome. He finished our taxes up! YAY! Now we're waiting for that refund check, which will go into home improvement projects most likely!

We watched Black Sheep over the weekend, and it was really a lot of fun to watch. Something about evil zombie sheep is hilarious! Since it's from New Zealand and combines comedy and horror, you can't help but think of Peter Jackson. There are similarities, but it's definitely its own movie, I wouldn't call it a wannabe or derivative.

We also watched Stranger Than Fiction, which reminded me of one of my favorite stories, Niebla (Mist) by Miguel de Unamuno. Like Niebla we see a fictional character confront the author who created him. It was a bit strange to see Will Ferrel in a role like this, and I think he did all right, but I might have liked to have seen this movie done with different leads and perhaps a different director, too. I think Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman both did a good job, however. Queen Latifah was good, too. That's not to say it was terrible movie, I just really think it could have been better.

Bill Returns Today

I haven't posted here in a while because I'm all about the baby, which I suppose is understandable. So all my posts wind up on the Baby Blog.

Nothing else interesting is going on with me really, anyway.

Bill has been in Florida this week; he comes home this afternoon. I always miss him when he goes away. If the weather is nice this weekend we'll be working on the yard a bit. We also may make a belly casting of my lil baby bump. We were planning to do a casting near the end of each trimester.

Tomorrow I have a prenatal appointment, to do first trimester screening. Hmmm. See! Everything going on in my life right now is BABY RELATED!

In other baby-related news, my morning sickness is definitely improving and I intend to announce my pregnancy at work next week. And if you're wondering what else I've been up to, trust me, it's baby-related and on the baby blog!

Eddie Izzard!

My sweetie purchased two tickets to see Eddie Izzard in June at the Orpheum! He promises that they are for seats I'll actually be able to squeeze into! Can't wait!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Bill and I celebrated St. Patrick's Day with our friends. Cheryl and Powell hosted a potluck at their house. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the mashed potatoes with cabbage and the soda bread. I couldn't sample much because of pregnancy nausea, but I had a great time nonetheless.

Bill made an Irish Stew with Dumplings that was very well-received, of course. I enjoyed seeing everyone and watching the kids play. It was a great event. I'm so glad Cheryl put it together.


Bill, the leprechaun.

Latest House Project: Small Patio

We had gorgeous weather over the weekend. Bill was inspired to build a little patio (5x5) for our grill. I helped - if snoozing on a picnic blanket while he toiled and accompanying him on most of his trips to Lowe's count as helping.

I'm so proud of his work. He did a great job! Later he'll do a larger patio for our lawn furniture, and some raised beds, and maybe some benches, too.

I can take credit for coming up with the idea for the placement and selecting the pavers (and staying out of the way). Bill's dad was a lot of help because he helped us load, transport, and unload all the supplies.

Check it out:

Did You Notice My Other Blog?

You'd have to be pretty observant to notice, so let me just take a moment to point out that I have a link from this blog to my other blog, which I've been maintaining since around the end of November. The blog is called Cat's Baby Blog, because it details my decision to conceive, the informal announcement of my pregnancy (that's right, I'm pregnant (six weeks as I write this)), and all things baby!

I kept it separate because I didn't want a lot of fuss about it. Now that I'm pregnant it's affecting everything, really, so while I'm not going around just telling everyone the news, I'm not keeping it a secret either. If you read this blog, you're probably a friend or relative, in which case I'm happy for you to know that Bill and I are expecting our first child on October 13, and we're really thrilled about it.

You can read all the details in the baby blog: http://catbabyblog.blogspot.com/

Happy Chinese New Year!

I'm happy to report that our electricity is working again!
Bill's going to do a Dragon Dance for me later tonight.
Hubba Hubba.

Stormy Weather

I was feeling a bit like Dorothy when I woke up (an hour late) this morning with no electricity after tornados terrorized Memphis yesterday. Of course, I'm very lucky and all is well, except I'm one of twenty-three thousand without electricity right now. I'm sure they'll have it restored eventually. The storms were relatively mild in my neighborhood, and I slept through the worst of it.

As far as I know, all my friends and relatives are all right.

Coincidentally, there was a really cute Oz reference on http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/this morning:

moar funny pictures

Happy Across the Universe Day!

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/across_universe.html

Fireplace + Bill's Birthday

I haven't posted in a while because things have been strange and sort of busy, yet also slow, at work. Also, it's been busy at home in the evenings, too.

The most notable things that have happened lately: Fireplace Upgrade + Bill's Birthday Party (Wacky Movie Night).

Fireplace

Here's a photo of the fireplace with the new logs AND some chairs Bill and I re-upholstered all by ourselves!

The gas logs were actually our Xmas gift to each other, but it took a while to get them installed. I was happy they were ready in time for Bill's birthday party.



36th Annual Bill Day - Wacky Movie Night

Our featured presentation was The Thing with Two Heads.

I felt a bit sorry for my pooky this year because, due to some unfortunate co-incidences, it seemed like a third of the people invited were either grieving or ill or couldn't get a sitter. Those who couldn't attend were certainly missed, wacky movie night just wasn't the same without them.

That's not to say that it wasn't fun. It was. I was impressed by how much our friends really adore Bill. I shouldn't be surprised, and I'm not, but it was just very gratifying for me to see everyone come out and celebrate Bill's special day. I know he really appreciated it, too. And he deserved it!

Some photos:

Bill with the cupcakes we baked for the occasion (Grammy's Chocolate Cake and Carrot Cake, both with homemade Cream Cheese Frosting).


Delicious Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls made by our friend Melanie P.
The South Main contingent and Bill have a running (tasteless) joke involving a certain aspect of the male anatomy, so the party featured lots of... balls.

I had a nice time. Most importantly, the birthday boy had a really great time. I know he really felt special.

I hope we can do another Wacky Movie Night soon, too!

Why Is Everyone So Surprised...

That Huckabee beat the other Republicans in Iowa?


Watch out for Chuckabee!!!

Couldn't resist...

My Holidays Were Happy

Good news! My holidays were happy.



And that's right I do say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas when addressing a group of people, because I'm a friendly person and friendly people tend to be inclusive with their well wishes instead of being exclusive. I'm hoping Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Pagans, Communists, Anarchists, even Wiccans and Conservatives all had happy holidays or were happy during the various holidays that were celebrated as we neared the end of the Gregorian calendar in 2007.

I think it should be among my New Year's Resolutions to be just as "in your face" with my friendly Happy Holidays greeting as many were being obnoxious about saying "Merry Christmas" recently. I even saw a poster on a bus stop of a stern Uncle Sam with a Santa hat perched atop his head, and the phrase Merry Christmas across the top instead of "Uncle Sam Wants You" - I guess Uncle Sam wants you to say Merry Christmas, or something, is the point of that. But I digress...

Luckily, one perk of my job is a long much needed paid vacation at the end of the year. I was off work from December 24 through January 2.
Unluckily, I became ill with a cold on Saturday, December 22. Yes, that's right, the day after my last day of work for 2007. Oh well! I'm sure it could have been a lot worse. I felt well enough to attend my in-laws' Christmas party on December 24, so obviously it wasn't a very bad cold.

Well, is anyone sick of seeing lists yet? I just can't get enough! You know how it is, each year, starting around November, we all get inundated with lists of all sorts of things. For example...

List of Lists
1. Top 10 People Who Died This Year
2. Top 10 Secretly Homosexual Politicians
3. Top 10 Secretly Homosexual TV Preachers
4. Top 10 Mall Shootings
5. Top 10 Celebrity Scandals
Those sorts of things...


You know why they do that, right? They don't want to take the time to generate content. I don't have much time to cover how I spent my holidays, so I'm going to employ lists!

What I Watched on DVD:
Because I was ill, I spent a lot of time on the sofa watching DVDs.
1. Finished The Wire Seasons 3 & 4. I do enjoy that show. I'm looking forward to the new season, which will focus on the media and journalism.

2. Finished Rome through Season 2. This season ended tidily enough. I assume there won't be any further seasons, because it didn't seem that they were doing very much with the younger characters.

3. Totally Awesome. This was a forgettable parody of 80s movies. There's really no excuse for this movie not being better. Making fun of the 80s? Come on!

4. Balls of Destiny. This was a forgettable parody of kung-fu movies, replacing martial arts with ping pong, for comedic effect, I suppose.

5. Inland Empire. A David Lynch movie. Much as I love David Lynch movies, it felt a bit long to me.

6. Abominable Dr. Phibes. OMG! This was great fun! Wacky Movie Night worthy.


7. The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Wow! Jerry Falwell really screwed the Bakers over... BIGTIME!

8. Crank. This movie had its moments. It had its funny moments. It had its clever moments. It had its innovative moments. It had its disturbingly sexist moments. It had its racist moments. It had its formulaic & predictable moments. But it's fun to describe it as being like Speed with speed about Speed! Whee!
9. Who the @#%$ is Jackson Pollack? Documentary about a plucky senior citizen truck drivin' lady who bought what may be a geniune Jackson Pollack painting (those go for up to hundreds of millions of dollars, btw) for five bucks. Mayhem ensues.
10.Eastern Promises I just love those Cronenberg movies. This one was no exception.

I forget what else we watched on DVD, but there were probably a few more.

We went to the movies, as well.


Movies I Watched:

1. Juno. Excellent! Very funny and sweet. Ellen Page is awesome and Michael Cera is adorable. I couldn't have picked out a cuter movie couple. Also, as a Classics minor, you know I loved the mythology connections.

2. I Am Legend. Not as bad as I expected it to be, but that doesn't make it good. My main disappointment was the way they chose to present the infected. The effects left something to be desired, but that's not the only thing. They just weren't as sinister as in the Omega Man.

3. Sweeney Todd. Really well done. My only complaint, and it's a very small one, would be a bit of a spoiler, so I think I'll keep it to myself. Definitely worth seeing. This is somewhat high praise coming from me, because I generally find musicals annoying at best.

Alan Rickman is always such a great bad guy, right
Parties I Attended:
1. Paffords' Xmas Party. These are former Parallax customers who live downtown in an eclectically appointed loft. They are a really sweet, thoughtful, fun couple whose parties never disappoint. We had a great time there. We took along another couple, who recently moved downtown, hoping they'd meet some of their new neighbors.

2. Celtic Xmas Celebration. My in-laws opted for a Celtic theme this year, and it really made our annual holiday party a lot of fun. We continued with our existing traditions of gift giving and stuffing ourselves silly with yummy munchies and cookies, and the very fun beer swap tradition (Each year, the beer drinkers bring an import or micro for everyone to try - so we all get a chance to try beers we probably haven't tried before). But Bill's folks also added some new traditions inspired by how Bill's Irish ancestors most likely celebrated the holiday.We all learned our Gaelic names. We also put a candle in the window, lit by the youngest (my niece Sara), and only to be blown out by a woman named Mary. I liked that one, because I (Mary-Catherine) got to blow out the candle!

Also, we watched a DVD presentation Bill's father had put together about their trip to Ireland, where they met some cousins, and about a few of their noteworthy relatives including a priest who came to America and an aunt, Peig Sayers, who was famous in Ireland as a storyteller. Peig is sort of like the Laura Ingalls Wilder of Ireland, I suppose, but her stories about her life and all the hardships she endured were written down in Irish. The books, printed in Irish, were required reading for Irish school children for many years. Wikipedia points out that among Irish people of a certain age, the mere mention of Peig Sayers name will cause them to roll their eyes because Gaelic is a pretty tough language, after all.

After concluding his presentation, Bill's dad gave everyone a copy of Peig (in translation, thank goodness), which was no small feat, I think, because it's out of print now! I've only read a few of the stories, so far, but I'm enjoying it so far.

3. Festivus Dinner. Another Paffords' event. A group of about 15 of us met at Harry's Detour downtown for a nice meal next to the cozy fireplace in the back room. I don't know if it really counts as Festivus; there was no airing of greivances and no feats of strength. Probably for the best.


Festivus for the Rest of Us!

4. New Year's Eve. The Crider's hosted New Year's Eve again this year. It was a low-key, relaxed party with just a few friends. A nice way to see the year out. As far as I know, nothing was broken. The highlight of the evening was when our friend Kim confirmed the rumors that she's pregnant. Congrats to Kim! Bill and I have catching up to do!!!

Gifts I Received:

1. Gas Logs for the Fireplace. Sadly the installation didn't go too well. We hope to have them installed sometime before the winter is over. They'll be lovely once they're in there. They even came with a remote control!

2. Amazon.com Gift Certificate. Smart thinking, Mom! Excellent choice.

3. Catherine's Clock. A unique clock made especially for me! My sister-in-law is a talented woodworker who made the clock, which my in-laws gave to me. It's gracing my mantle now. I was really thrilled to get one.




These images give an idea of what my clock looks like.
4. Peig - Mentioned above.

5. Barnes & Noble Gift Certificate. Yes! More books!

6. Cash Money. Always nice!



Gifts I Gave:

1. Compound Miter Saw. A selfish gift, because I'm going to put Bill to work using it on all manner of household improvements.

2. ATT Bluetooth Phone Set. This we gave to my in-laws so they can answer cell phone calls on these "normal" phones. We had their cabin on the lake in mind when we picked it out, because the cell signal is weak there and can only be picked up in one room of the cabin. Using these phones, they'll be able to receive cell calls on more than one handset in any room of the house there. We liked it so much, we got one for ourselves, too. Especially handy since we don't use a land line at all.

3. 8" Digital Photo Frame. My stepbrother recently had his first child, so I thought my mom and stepdad should have plenty of photos to display on one of these.

4. Goodies from Harry & David's. We usually send Bill's Grammy some sweets from H & D. We'll also be sending her a DVD after we finish editing the footage I shot during the Celtic Xmas party.

5. Homemade Tutus. I made two simple tutus for my little buddy Zoe to wear. I have photos that I'll post eventually. I also gave her a copy of 'Rella III (Cinderella III. I didn't even know there was a Cinderella II!).

6. Gift Certificates. For Dad and both sets of my grandparents I ran out of time, so I had to opt for the gift certificate option (otherwise the gifts would have arrived late!).

7. Booze. Champagne makes a nice Christmas gift. The recipient can toast in the New Year with it, and if you're lucky, you may be invited have a glass.

New Year's Resolutions

1. Become Wiser. I'm getting older, so I had better work on getting wiser, too. I feel like at this point in my life, I want to work on developing knowledge in some area. Learning is such a rewarding experience to me. As a result, I feel like I know a little bit about a lot of different (mainly trivial) things. I need to learn a lot about something for a change. I don't know what, though. So my real resolution would be figuring out what that should be.

2. Correspond. I'm awful about not staying in touch. I'm going to make more of an effort to stay in touch with family and friends.

3. Be More "Goal-Oriented" in General. Projects, plans, goals, ideas, etc tend to "get away from me" oftentimes. I want to work on improving my approach towards getting things done. I love the feeling I get when I actually finish a project. And when projects go unfinished, or get abandoned, I feel terrible... ashamed, really. So if I can make this improvement, I'm sure I'll be happier.

First goal: Make it through my first day back at work. Yawn!