The End

You know, it's funny...earlier today I though to myself, "It's Friday and we don't have to go to a football game."  It was kind of a nice thought.  So now, at 10pm, what am I doing?  Watching the Division 1 (football) finals on TV.  Old habits die hard.

As we wrap up another NaBloPoMo season, I have a couple of random thoughts to share with you.

First, I learned something about myself this week:  when listening to Christmas music on my iPod, I can't set it to shuffle.  Normally, I do select shuffle for my playlists.  Granted, it can be a little weird going from Shipoopi to the Imperial March, but generally speaking it doesn't bother me.  Not so when it comes to Christmas music.  It really, really bugs me.  Apparently, I must listen to whole albums.

Secondly, I learned that if we had the money and the room, I could totally be a Prepper.  Have you watched Doomsday Preppers????  We had never watched it before, it's not the type of show that floats our boat.  However, Andy recorded it on a whim a week or two ago and we just got around to watching it this evening.  While most of the people are country hicks and generally ridiculous, there is something to be said for being prepared.  As Andy laughed at me, I started thinking about our water and food supply, acquiring some weapons and coming up with a bug-out plan.  Perhaps I'm a little bit of a nut after all.

Finally, I must admit that I'm a little bit freaked out about tomorrow.  It's my work Christmas party!  I don't know why I'm nervous about it.  Maybe I'm worried that people won't really talk to me; after all, I'm still the newbie and while I get along great with my office buddies, I don't often interact with the teachers.  Maybe I'm worried that Andy won't like my co-workers; not likely...Andy likes most people.  For some strange reason, I'm just a bundle of nerves.  Oh well.  The good news is that twenty-four hours from now, it'll be over. 

So, with that last bit of randomness, I thank you all for joining me for yet another year of blogging.  With all that I've got going on right now, it's been much more of a challenge this year.  It's been fun though, and I appreciate the time that you've taken to read my thoughts each day.

I wish you all a very, Merry Christmas! 

Technology

Technology...it is both a blessing and a curse.  Today, I'm feeling more curse-ish.

I'm having trouble with our cable boxes.  Yes, we have two.  The cable is not out completely, we still have about 200 (actually, probably more...I've never counted) channels that are working properly.  However, we have about 15 channels that won't work on either box.  One of them happens to the be the channel that it's set to come on to; that's how I noticed the problem in the first place.

It shouldn't annoy me that much.  Really, if the whole thing went out, it shouldn't annoy me; people lived for thousands of years without cable.  But it does.  Mind you, I hate it that it does, but it does nonetheless.  I don't like things that aren't doing what they're supposed to do, I don't like calls to service people, I don't like the hassle of dealing with service appointments.  It's all so very annoying.  I'm not a patient person in the first place (just ask my husband), but I have even less patience for things like this.

This blog really isn't going anywhere; I don't have a grand epiphany, nor can I do anything except wait for the service appointment this weekend.  I know that being grumpy about it isn't going to solve the problem.  I just needed to vent, really.  The last two days have been pretty rough and dealing with this, as trivial as it seems, isn't helping. 

Perhaps when I get home from my meeting tonight, I won't turn the TV on at all.  If I do, I'll be reminded of its failure.  Instead, maybe I'll curl up with a glass of wine and my book.  In fact, I was just thinking this morning about how I need to hurry and finish it (the book, not the wine) before it's due back to the library.

Yeah, that's what I'll do.  Maybe, just maybe, one can actually choose to have a good evening anyway, despite the technical difficulties.  

So Much For That

Well, I guess I should be thankful...it took me 28 whole days to fail.
Sorry.  No blog tonight.

Ten on Tuesday

To be honest, today has been a rough day.  Stress and discouragement have me in a seemingly continual loop right now.   In an effort to take my own advice, I decided to write a Ten on Tuesday list of things that made me smile today.  Because really, smiley things are there all the time, one just has to keep one's eyes open.  So, in no particular order....

1.  Pie.  Specifically, my homemade apple pie.  I ate the last piece for breakfast today; so delicious!

2.  Returns.  I'm thankful that we can return unused items if we think better of them/don't need them.  It's nice to get the money back.

3.  My sons.  It's a no-brainer; they make me smile every day.

4.  The Weather.  It was 60 degrees and very cloudy when I left work today.  It was wonderful.

5.  My job.  Speaking of work, my job is something to smile about.  Even on stressful days, I'm thankful that the Lord provided it for me (us).  And the people there always make me smile.

6.  Dessert Wines.  I'm about to crack one open; always a delight.

7.  Decorated Netflix Movies.  Seriously, they've decorated the sleeves with images of Christmas lights.  I love it!

8.  People Who Are Giving.  There's a sign near my work that says, "Meet Santa and Mrs. Claus, 6-8pm, December 10th - 23rd."  That's a lot of time that those people are volunteering to make some little kids happy.  Lovely to see.

9.  Jeopardy.  I do like it and tonight they have some categories that I'm actually doing well with!

10.  Sweet Little Girls.  Okay, best day at work so far!  I had to hike to one of our farthest classrooms today to take care of something, and on the way back, a sweet little girl named Isabella yelled, "Miss Michelle!" and she ran over to me and hugged me.  Made. My. Day.

Look At Me...All Grown Up

While cruising through BevMo yesterday, Andy was drawn to an Irish whiskey that he hadn't had before.  (He's really a Scotch man, but he likes to dabble in the Irish every now and again.)  Why did he notice this particular bottle?  Well, listen to the what the back label says - it sounds like something that he would write!

"By cracking this seal of The Knot you accept that drinking is never to be taken lightly and promise to act in a responsible fashion - not like some blithering idiot.  You promise to drink The Knot straight-up in a proper shot glass, rather than mixing it in some sort of novelty, tiny umbrella, fruit fiasco.  And finally, you vow that you will never drink to anything that you are not prepared to go through with.  If, in any way, you are not willing to abide by these conditions, by all means, please refrain from opening this bottle."

See?  How could he NOT try this one?

Late last night, after he'd opened it and poured himself some, he offered me a sip.  This is not unusual; he generally does offer me a sip, I say okay, I take a sip, and then I make a horrible face.  This is just how we roll.

But gasp!  Imagine my surprise when I didn't make a face, and in fact took a second sip!  After the third sip, I was amazed to report that I kind of like it!  They were baby sips, mind you, but still... progress!

It's taken well over a decade but it's entirely possible that this winter, we will be able to sit outside on a cold, cold night and sip whiskey together.  I'm seriously happy.

I Chose Poorly

Apparently, I didn't choose correctly.  I'm not speaking of the Grail, although we did watch The Last Crusade on Friday.  You know, it always surprises me how the bad guys got the choice so wrong; it was so, so obvious that it wasn't going to be a flashy gold chalice.  But I digress...

A few weeks ago, I found myself at Bath and Body Works purchasing hand sanitizer.  Working at an elementary school, I find that I go through buckets and buckets of the stuff.  I'm not exaggerating either; I'm in constant contact with the kids and I'm often helping out the sickos in the health office.  Seriously.  Buckets. 

While there, I noticed that they had some candles on sale.  I'm totally a candle junkie, especially this time of year.  There's just something so cozy about candles when it's cold outside.  Typically, I get them exclusively at Yankee, but the sale at Bath and Body Works was so good that I thought I'd try them. After sampling all of the yummy fall/winter scents, I settled on two Hot Buttered Rum candles and one Peppermint Mocha.  Last night, after we got the tree up and all of the Christmas decorations out, I decided to light the Peppermint Mocha.

I noticed immediately that it is very fragrant; the house smelled like peppermint and chocolate in a matter of minutes.  The peppermint was fine; the mocha (chocolate) smelled a little bit scratch-and-sniff for my tastes, but it wasn't awful.  I figured that I probably wouldn't buy it again, but I'd definitely use it up.  Then Andy came downstairs.

"What's that candle?"  "It's a new one.  Do you like it?"  No response.  Later, when Matthew came down, Andy asked him if he liked it.  He said that it was okay.  From a generally nonchalant fifteen year old, "okay" could go either way.  It wasn't a good sign when Andy opened the back door shortly thereafter.  About thirty minutes later, John came down and Andy asked him what he thought of the candle.  John gave the typical teenage shoulder shrug.  It didn't seem like Andy was getting the responses that he was looking for.  Finally, I asked him, "You don't like the candle, do you?"  At least he was honest, "No.  Not at all.  It's pretty bad.  It reminds me of..."  And he wouldn't say what.  I asked him over and over, even after I blew the candle out, and he wouldn't tell me.

As we were getting ready to walk out the door for church this morning, I tried again.  "Honey, what does the candle remind you of?  Just tell me!" 

"Well, to be honest, it has a pungent, lingering smell that reminds me of the stadium bathrooms."

Yeah.  I won't be lighting that one again.  I don't think "men's urinal trough" is quite the mood that I'm trying to create around here. 

I'm Driving My Parents Nuts

"I'll have our lists to you by the weekend!"

Unfortunately, I've said those words to my folks multiple times over the last three weeks or so.  I don't think they believe me anymore.

The lists that I'm referring to, obviously, are our Christmas lists.  Each year, the four of us come up with a Christmas list and we give it to my folks; mom and dad, in return, give us lists for each of them.  This year, while they have already provided us with fabulous lists, I've got nothing to give them.

I'm not trying to be difficult, really I'm not.  Nor is it a case of me not wanting any Christmas gifts; of course I do...receiving gifts is fun.  It's just that I can't really think of anything to put on my list this year.  There's nothing that I desperately need and several things that I want are too expensive.  I'm just out of practical ideas.  Andy and the boys aren't doing any better.  Andy's got one thing on his list, John has two, and Matthew wins with four items.

We're such a gift-giving family that this is hard!  We LOVE to give gifts to each other!  I miss the days when the boys were little and wanted a million little action figures or toy cars or something.  That was awesome!  You could spend $30 and have a ton of little things to wrap.

Sigh.  With the tree now up, I feel so much pressure!  Perhaps tonight, miracle of miracles, we'll all be struck with amazing ideas while we sleep!  It never hurts to hope.