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!