Category: Daily Life

I know I’m in for a looong winter because it’s only December 20th and I’m already heartily tired of the cold weather.  Call me a whiner if you will, but I face each morning’s two-block walk from the parking lot to my building with ever-increasing grimness.  I think the walks back may be even colder and uglier.

Our house is old and drafty, so we’ve had to move our betta fish into a small bowl on top of the cabinet above our toilet, just to keep him warm enough to survive.  If we have an ice storm and the power goes out, I don’t know where we’ll take him.

On Sunday during my cookie exchange party, my niece was watching kids’ Christmas videos in our bedroom and complaining about how chilly it was in there.  That evening, I moved the window blind aside and discovered that – d’oh! – the storm window was still open.  Ditto for the storm window in the kitchen.  Way to keep those gas bills down.  Sigh.

It’s one thing to be cold at home – I’m used to that.  The bad thing is that my office is cold now, too.  I had a meeting yesterday in a corner conference room that might as well have taken place outdoors.  The area around my desk is uncomfortably cool as well.  I’m considering bringing in a throw to wrap around my legs like a sleigh blanket.

The only good thing about the cold weather is that it spurs me to make a lot of soups and stews.  Just in the last few days I’ve made pots of chili and potato soup and I have all the ingredients for minestrone lined up and ready.

There’s nothing to do now but bundle up until spring.  As much as I’d like to jet off to a tropical island to finish out the winter, that’s not in the cards.  I suppose I should be glad I don’t still live on acreage with livestock that has to be fed and watered all winter long.  Yes, just remembering that makes me feel a lot better!

It’s the last week before Christmas, and things are pretty calm at my house.  Frankly, I have nothing of interest to report.  Instead, I’ll pass along a few interesting online holiday diversions:

• If you’re apt to indulge your Griswoldian decorating tendencies during the holidays, you’ll enjoy this educational guide to "Fancy" Outdoor Lighting Schemes for Christmas.
• In The Incident Before Christmas game, you’re an elf trying to keep a drunken Santa from randomly leaving gifts all over the place.  It’s a little difficult at first, but more fun as you get the hang of it.
• Remember folded paper snowflakes?  Make-A-Flake lets you create as many as you like without all that unwanted confetti.
• If your kids are too sophisticated for the "Santa report" on the TV news, maybe they’ll be more impressed to watch how NORAD tracks his progress by satellite.

That’s all for today.  Enjoy!

All budgetary issues aside, as overscheduled as my life always is, it certainly has been a boon to limit my Christmas shopping to just the kids this year.  I still need to pick up something for my cousin and my sister-in-law and her son, but after that I’ll be completely finished shopping.  Hooray!

That leaves me free to actually enjoy myself and get other things done.  Today I’m getting a haircut and a touchup on my haircolor to hide all the silver that’s been popping up in the field of dark brown.  I’m also going to try to pick up a couple new pairs of jeans for myself, since that’s pretty much all I wear these days.

After that, my band is coming over to record in our home studio.  I’ll only be responsible for guide vocals today, so while they’re here I’m planning to make a pot of soup or chili and start baking cookies for a cookie exchange party I’m hosting tomorrow.

I still need to decide what kinds of cookies to make.  I’m considering snickerdoodles and then maybe sugar cookies, just because I have an enormous collection of cookie cutters.  I’ll definitely make rum balls and probably a pan of fudge.  I have a cheese ball already made from a party I threw last weekend for which nobody showed up, so I’ll probably serve that.  I’ll heat up and spice some cider (with a handy bottle of Captain Morgan’s nearby, just in case), and I’ll have hot chocolate and soft drinks available.  I’ve been hosting these almost every year since we moved in and they’re always a lot of fun.

My sister and I have already decided that our Christmas Day celebrations will be pretty casual.  I’m getting a honey-baked ham delivered to me at work and I’ll also stuff and roast a turkey my husband received at Thanksgiving.  We’ll all get together in the late morning, snack throughout the day while the kids open their gifts, and have our big meal around one or two in the afternoon.

Well, I’m sure that’s all the stream-of-consciousness holiday party planning you can probably take.  It boils down to this:  I’m looking forward to a calm, relaxed and fun holiday and I wish the same for you!

You’d think at my age I would have more sense than this, but I woke up this morning with the most ferocious hangover I’ve experienced in years.  I won’t enumerate my evening foolishness except to say that it began
with dirty martinis before dinner and ended with a beer drinking game.

When I first woke up around 7:00 a.m., my head felt as though someone had dropped an anvil on it.  My stomach was so touchy that my first thought was, "How on earth am I going to be able to ride 250 miles in a car today?"

I took two Tylenols and my daily dose of Nexium, praying that the medicine would stay in my stomach long enough to take effect.  I started packing my duffel bag for the return trip, but it was more effort that I was up for, so I crawled back into bed and slept until 9:00.  I’d probably have slept longer, but the person with whom I had been meaning to ride home called to say he was leaving but that someone else had agreed to take me home. 

By then, my headache had subsided so I got dressed, packed up my laptop and luggage, and headed down to the lobby.  Almost everyone I encountered said, "Hey, how are you doing this morning?" with an emphasis implying that a verbal answer was probably not necessary.

There way no way I was going to try to eat breakfast, but I sipped some ice water and ate a few dry cornflakes while I waited for my travel companions to finish their food.

The first 30 minutes or so of the ride back were pretty unpleasant.  I got a McDonald’s Coke to sip on, and the caffeine, sugar and carbonation settled my stomach amazingly well.  In fact, I eventually perked up and managed to participate in conversations most of the way home.

I’d thought about meeting my husband for lunch when I got back, but I didn’t have the will to shower, fix my hair and drive somewhere.  Instead, I went to bed and slept all afternoon with cats snuggled with me on all sides.

Tomorrow:  back to work.  But first, I think I’d better jump in the shower and wash the beer out of my hair.  Ugh, never again…

I had meant to spend the afternoon napping, but apparently the residual effects of the three cans of Red Bull I had between noon yesterday and 1:30 a.m. today refuse to disperse.

I’m at a lakeside resort with about 40 other employees of my company.  They divided us into six teams of five people yesterday and gave us all the same assignment.  My team worked on our presentation until about 4:30 this morning, then slept about three hours, added some final touches and presented it to a judging panel at around 10:00.  We learned after lunch that our team had come in second place, although we found it heartening that the first place team won with an idea that we had thought of ourselves but discarded as too far outside the client’s stated comfort zone.

My team consisted of two men and two women I’d never met before.  We worked together quite well, despite the fact that everyone got kind of crabby last night (this morning) as the project wore on.  I actually was considerably less crabby than I might ordinarily have been; I credit the Red Bull for that.

It was quite interesting to be teamed with people of varying ages and backgrounds.  I was a little shocked this morning at breakfast when we had gotten on the subject of "how old is your dad" and I learned that the father of one of guys on my team is two years younger than my husband.  Wow, way to make me feel old (even though my husband is ten years older than I am).

Since it’s obvious that the nap ship has sailed, I think I’ll get dressed and walk around outside a little bit before it gets dark.  It’s kind of nice to have a stretch of free time after the flurry of work yesterday.  I’ll be back home tomorrow with tales from the road…

I suppose I should have mentioned this earlier, but I’m spending most of this week on an out of town retreat for work.  Tonight’s the night we’re all staying up until we have a coherent presentation for tomorrow morning, and I’ve already been working with my team for almost 12 hours.

I’ll probably post again sometime tomorrow afternoon if I manage to get any sleep at all.  Wish me luck!

On Saturday morning, I took my five-year-old niece with me to a holiday party that my community service organization was throwing at a nursing home.  She did a lovely job passing out cards, gifts, cake and drinks to the residents.  She wasn’t as on board with singing Christmas carols, but that was a minor quibble.

After we were finished with the party, we went to lunch and then went shopping.  My sister had given me some money with which my niece could shop for her parents and baby brother.  I made no attempt to influence my niece’s gift selections in any way (while keeping a running total in my head).  She ended up choosing a nice baby gift, a silly gift for her dad and a present for her mom that I would venture to say is something a little more kid-oriented that mom-oriented, but still pretty good.  I made sure to tuck the gift receipt into my sister’s gift, but I doubt they’ll end up returning anything.

My favorite thing about the whole operation:  my niece’s quick decisions.  She and I have a great future of hit-and-run shopping trips ahead of us.

I’d planned all along to make a gingerbread house that we could decorate, but I hadn’t actually made the gingerbread pieces yet.  Luckily, my niece spotted a gingerbread house kit at Target, and I was happy to pay $9.99 for already made construction-grade cookies, frosting mix and almost all the candy we’d need.  It went together pretty quickly and I could tell my niece had a great time deciding where all the candy decorations would go.

We spent the rest of the evening watching "The Incredibles" and "Shrek" in between making homemade pizza and a cake.  My niece didn’t stay up too far past her bedtime, and I finished the evening by reciting "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" from memory, with corrections supplied by my niece where appropriate.

We had a lovely time and I got some good Christmas gift hints from her (she saw "A Little Princess" at school and loved it, so I’m going to buy her that DVD and also a DVD of "The Secret Garden").  It was just what I needed to get in the proper frame of mind for the upcoming holidays.

Today is my 11th wedding anniversary.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than eleven years since my husband presented me with an engagement ring in the parking lot of a Bagel & Bagel restaurant on my dinner break. 

Yes, it’s been more than eleven years since I told my family, "We’re taking a trip to Las Vegas in December and we’re going to get married while we’re there."

Of course, tipping our hand turned out to be a big miscalculation when we ended up dragging NINE people (mostly members of both our families) to Las Vegas with us for the wedding.  If you’re considering getting married in Las Vegas, take my advice and elope.

When we arrived in Vegas eleven years ago, we learned that its courthouse had the whole license application thing down to a level of casualness we hadn’t expected.  The forms had been duplicated so many times that we could hardly read them.  We filled one out, paid our $15 and we were ready to get married at the chapel of our choice.

We had the ceremony at the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel (which has since burned down), my husband wearing an Armani suit he bought at our local Junior League Thrift Store (also for $15) and I wearing my mother’s wedding dress from 1965, which I’d had altered slightly to make the boobs less Barbarella-like.  I made my own veil from a kit I got at a craft store.  My shoes were beautiful, but so hideously uncomfortable that they made me want to hurt other people just to share the misery.

Last year for our tenth anniversary we went all out:  a trip back to Las Vegas to renew our vows with an Elvis minister.  Here’s my account of that trip:  Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V.  Considering that I am probably still carrying the resulting credit card balance, you can understand why this year’s celebration will be somewhat muted in comparison.

I have a reservation tonight at an Argentinian restaurant set high on a hill overlooking the town below.  I’ve requested a table by the window so we can admire the lights and snowy landscape.  We’ve done all the glitz of Vegas and now we’re ready for a leisurely celebration that will give us the chance to sit, talk, and remember why we got married in the first place.

I don’t think my husband reads this very often anymore, but just in case, "Happy Anniversary, Honey!"

Yesterday was our office holiday party, which started at 1:00 p.m. and lasted until 5:00 p.m.  All I can say is that this new company throws a heck of a party and is exceedingly generous with employee gifts (and cash, too).  The cash is all going to the electric and cable companies, but I still ended up with enough presents that I may end up re-gifting some of them.  I was very impressed.

The bad thing about yesterday is that it snowed all day long.  My car slid a little as I got into our office parking lot in the morning.  By the time I left the office to go to the Christmas party about 25 blocks away, there was a significant amount of snow on the roads and I had to proceed carefully.

I stayed at the party until about 4:45 and offered to take a co-worker home.  I would ordinarily need no more than 15 minutes to reach my neighborhood from where we started out.  It took an hour and a half.  My poor little hybrid car started to smell like singed electrical components after tackling certain slick hills.  It got around quite well compared to a lot of cars, but it was still a struggle.

Once I’d dropped off my co-worker, I was just a few blocks from home.  I took a route designed to avoid two steep hills near my house, but my car started sliding before I got to my turn, and I slid right past my street and down the steepest hill.  There I was, stuck in a trough between two hills, getting uncomfortably warm in my heavy coat from the adrenalin and stress.  I tried several times to proceed in my original direction so I could go back around and try again, but I couldn’t make it to the top of the hill.  I turned around and tried to go up the hill to my street, but it was steeper still.

I finally turned back the way I started and backed up as far as possible, kept my car in first gear and doggedly climbed to the top of the hill.  Did I mention I’d forgotten my cell phone that day?  I was so late that I really wished I could call my husband, but I had no way of doing so.  I debated stopping for food and to make a phone call, but decided that I’d had enough of being out in the snow.  I circled around, controlled the slide enough this time to slide around the right turn into my street, and finally made it home.

It kept snowing all night long and I seriously doubt I’ll be going to the office today.  Fortunately, I can handle most of my work from home.  In a pinch, maybe I can talk my husband into taking me to work in his Jeep.

It’s a shame that adults can’t revel in the joy of a "snow day" the way children can.

Last night I put up and decorated my Christmas tree.  Even though I have three trash bags full of wreaths and garlands, and a huge tub full of other Christmas decorations, I decided to stop with the tree.  well, I did hang the little fake ball of mistletoe over the kitchen door, but that was it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love having the house decorated.  It’s just that it’s an awful lot of trouble to drag everything out, put it up and then undo it all after a month.  I enjoy looking at the sparkly tree in the evening, but I think that’s enough.

Instead of fussing with fake holly swags, I’m going to concentrate my holiday energies on other festivities.  As usual, this is leading to a list:

• On Friday, my department at work is having a potluck.  I’ve volunteered to make a cheesecake, which will need to be done no later than Wednesday evening so it’ll have time to cure.
• As long as I’m baking, I think I’ll make and put together a gingerbread house.  My niece is coming over this weekend to accompany me to a party my community service group is throwing for the residents of a nursing home, and decorating the gingerbread house would be a good activity for later in the day.
• I’m hosting at least three parties this season:  a candle party because a friend of mine sells them, my semi-annual cookie exchange party, and a "Crappy Claymation Fest" featuring such holiday classics as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Year Without A Santa Claus."

With all that on my plate, you can see that decorating is the least of my concerns.  The tree is festive enough for the company
I’ll have and it’s easy to disassemble and stuff back in its box on New Year’s weekend.  (We won’t talk about when I might eventually get around to taking down the outdoor Christmas lights.  Summer is a good goal, don’t you think?)

So which way do you lean when it comes to holiday decorating?  Over-the-top, every-nook-and-cranny decorating, something more minimalist, or perhaps none at all?