The Average Blogger

Wrapping up 2015

Well, I did pretty well right up until the end there, with the blogging and whatnot. Apparently when things get too real in real life, I can't bring myself to do much in the way of virtual existence—or any writing existence, since I didn't do any writing in my private diaries either, come to think of it. 

Still, the year showed some marked improvements. If 2014 was The Year I Quit, 2015 was The Year I Resumed. I blogged. I finished my book, even if I didn't get it published. I redid the flowerbed, I decorated for the holidays, I visited my family more than usual (though probably not as much as I should have). 

Thanksgiving was the perfect family holiday. We all sat in bed and watched movies. We got up to cook, to eat, and to change the movies in the player. That was it.

My parents came to visit us for Christmas. It was wonderful. My mom and I went shopping and I think she even had a little fun running around. We all went to the Ebbitt House for Christmas Eve and then walked by the White House tree. The holiday was great, we all got along and had a good time. It was so, so nice. Best I could have asked for. 

Where are we now? The Young Prince starts a new school and a new doctor in January. Not Your Average Blogger is in a new executive gig that he seems to really, really like—and how many people can say that? I dialed back my work schedule to address more home stuff (thank goodness for a good boss who gets it), but still was given more to do and I think I did a pretty OK job of keeping up with it. 

As for last year's resolutions: 1: Eating. We did better, but not great. The kid gained, the old folks lost, but not enough on either score. And as for exercise, well, let me just say, Ha. Still a lot of room for improvement on this one. 

2: Writing. I finished the book. Then I got terribly demoralized trying to get it published. Time to cowgirl up and find a house to do it, even if it's not what I'd hoped for.  On the plus side, NYAB is about done with his second one, and it's guaranteed a publisher, so yay for that. 

3: Work. Going well.  

4: Everything else.  I did some work on social media, but it was not the direction I expected. I downsized, rather than branched out. I cleaned house pretty rigorously and my friends list is a much happier place for me than it was. 

And now, the same survey I do every year: 

1. What did you do this year that you'd never done before?
I went down a zip line.  I went to Bowling Green. 

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
More or less, as stated above. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, but it was too damn close for comfort, thank you very much. 

5. What countries did you visit?
No significant travel this year, really. 

6. What would you like to have in the new year that you lacked this year?
Money makes the world go around... but I'd spend it on a non leaking septic tank, a working water filter, and an untracked driveway. Theoretically, I'll have at least one of those by this time next year. I'd also like to have a YP with a healthy body weight and a better track record with school admins. 

7. What date from the year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
They're all dad-related. The all-clear was nice news.    

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finishing the book.  Hoping that publication will be the biggest achievement of next year. 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Only the usual mental illness and klutzy injuries.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
It's a tossup between the remodeled bathroom and the snowblower we bought so that the contractor could continue remodeling the bathroom. 

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? 
I think it's safe to say everyone's behavior merits celebration at some point. I feel very Fred Claus on this one. 

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? 
This would be the other side of the coin to No. 12.  I'm easily appalled and even more easily depressed. Especially about politics and willful ignorance.

14. Where did most of your money go? 
The bathroom! 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? 
Sleeping late was a much bigger deal this year than it probably should have been.

16. What song will always remind you of this year?
Walk the Moon's Shut Up and Dance.  

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: 
i. happier or sadder? Much happier.  
ii. thinner or fatter? Thinner! For the first time in YEARS, thinner! All thanks to the lovely Kris.  
iii. richer or poorer? Richer, but not for long, once we get the new whatever-we-get.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? 
Getting published. 

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being polite and cheerful in meetings with school administrators when what I really wanted to do was tell them where to get off. I'm pretty much done with that for the rest of my life.  

20. How (did) you spend Christmas?
At home, with my parents visiting. It was fantastic!

21. Did you fall in love?
Every day.  

22. What was your favorite TV program?
I have an awful lot of fun text-snarking with Katherine about Walking Dead. I also got introduced to The Blacklist by Beth, which is pretty good. 

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I only hate in the abstract. With actual real people, I find it much more satisfying simply to excise them from my life.  

24. What was the best book you read? 
Not gonna lie, the Outlander series sucked me right in.   

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That the YP's drumming isn't half-bad. 

26. What did you want and get? 
I am blessed. I got a lot. Dad not dying kinda tops the list, though. 

27. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Martian. Hands down. 

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 44. The YP and I were in Illinois on spring break. I got happily drunk on champagne. 

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Getting published. C'est la vie. 

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?
Same as last year. Seriously, I think I bought maybe one new outfit.   

31. What kept you sane? 
NYAB. Sleep. Same as always. 

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
They all stir me. Actually, the issues don't stir me so much as the jibber-jabbering masses holding forth on the issues like they are experts. 

33. Who did you miss?
My ability to run uphill without wanting to die.

34. Who was the best new person you met?
Well, we didn't really meet and we sort of already knew each other, but Kris is the best! 

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned: 
Don't waste time. 

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

So Long, 2012.

I'm wondering if this blog has jumped the shark. I apparently lack the time and inclination to post regularly, and Facebook is so much easier, with the photos and the feedback and the stuff.  Then again, I'm a little appalled at how easy and lazy things are on the Internets and was telling a friend the other day that I probably ought to spend more time looking into anti-social media.  Jury is still out on all that.

The past month was pretty good, though.  The cookie party was a success-- had about 30 people show up.  We changed things around and invited everyone we know for one time, instead of splitting it up into work people in the afternoon and neighbors at night.  Only one neighbor came, but it was the neighbor I like best, so that worked out well.

We spent the past week doing the family visit thing, and that was nice.  It felt a bit short and rushed, as usual, but maybe that's what makes for a good visit -- to leave wanting more.

The Young Prince was very happy with his holidays and the trip. He was also so happy to get home he spent a good ten minutes hugging the dog, which is something I never thought I'd live to see.

And now, because I do this every year, to read in my dotage:

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
I went to work for a think tank, where I feel very inexperienced and ignorant. I view this as a good thing, however, because it means I'm learning more.  We went 15 rounds with the public education system, and while I don't think we won, we weren't totally defeated, either. I do hate that it felt like a 2-month fight, however. We also took the plunge and medicated the kid, and it's turned out to be a hugely good idea. Even my mom seemed to think so.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I did not gain 40 lbs. This year I resolve to watch TV 25 hours a day.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, although we didn't get to see the sprite for nine months or so. 

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, huzzah. Made it through another one.

5. What countries did you visit?
Does Harry Potter Land count? Our one big trip was to Universal in Orlando.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Same as last year: more free time.  For everything.

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Nov. 1; the first day of the New YP.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not killing bitchy public bureaucrats and fast food cashiers.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Time management. See No. 6.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
We had a shitload of doctor bills, but they weren't for anything horrific or worth mentioning.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Uh. Well, I'm pretty fond of the iPhones.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The Young Prince's, far and away. It was a rough first 9 months, but I truly believe he came out the better for all of it.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
It was an election year. 'Nuff said.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Time off. Time with NYAB.

16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
I'm sorry to say it is Call Me Maybe.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    i. happier or sadder? Much, much happier.
    ii. thinner or fatter? About the same.
    iii. richer or poorer? About the same.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Writing. Reading.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Working. Facebook.

20. How (did) you spend Christmas?
We had two! One for us, and one with family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
I fell in love with Concerta, for sure.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
Walking Dead? Downton Abbey?

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes, a certain Threat Assessment Coordinator for Prince William County. I wouldn't mind her head on a pike.

24. What was the best book you read?
I read a lot of brain candy last year. I'm not sure I'd call any of it Best.  

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Well, I like Hugo quite a bit.

26. What did you want and get?
The way the YP has been for the past two months.

27. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Avengers. Yeah, yeah, shallow violent whatever-ness. It was awesome.

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 41. I ate myself sick on ice cream cake with Miss Angela, and Not Your Average Blogger was most solicitous and lovely.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More money.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Lazy, same-old same-old.

31. What kept you sane?
Hope. Faith. Not so much charity.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
Watching the YP get all fired up about the presidential election.

33. Who did you miss?
I spent a short while missing my old job when I got the new one.

34. Who was the best new person you met?
Erin, who is smart and sharp and nice and like-minded.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
Don't give up. I already knew this, but it was driven home in all manner of ways. 

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
It's getting better all the time.

Our Ongoing War on Wildlife

So, last week's highlight: Another bat found its way into our house.  Our new cats are not as clever as Old Shaysie was, though, and this varmint was not so dumb as the one that got itself stuck in the door. Not Your Average Blogger had to take this one out -- and he did so, unassisted.

It all started in late afternoon. I was outside trying to fix the lights on a recalcitrant Christmas decoration when the Young Prince came flying out of the house. "Mom mom mom there is a bird no a bat well something FLYING in my room!"

"There's not a bird in your room. Come on."

There is SOMETHING! And it is FLYING! "

Then I vaguely recalled hearing the cats going a mite crazy in the room over my head while I was flipping through the mail -- but that had meant nothing at the time because they are constantly chasing each other around the house. So, hm. Went up to look, and yes, he was right.  There it was, hanging all ugly and batlike and upside down from the heating vent over the kid's bed. Shudders. We shut the door while I pondered what to do.  Called my grandmother, since I knew she'd dealt with bats in her house, and she said, "Well, it takes two of us -- your grandfather pins them with a tennis racquet and then I scoop them into a container as he gradually lifts the racquet." 

But alas, I was the only adult home, and the more I thought about standing on a bed, trying to whack a flying creature to the ground and then somehow maneuvering it into a bag, the more absurd it sounded. I asked the YP: "You want to pin it down or bag it up?"

The YP: "What? Me? NEITHER. Let's wait and let the big man deal with it."

Me: "The Big Man? This is what you call your dad now?"

YP: "That is who he is. And he can get rid of the bat."

Well. I heartily agreed. So we shut the door and put a towel under it, and left the cats in there to hunt. I went up a few hours later -- and the thing was gone. Not dead, just vanished. The cats were sprawled out on the kid's bed, but no rodent was to be seen. Not under his bed. Not up in the boxspring. Not under his dresser, in his closet, behind his bookshelves.  I moved his stuffed animals looking for it and found nothing. I then moved on to examine the closet, and nearly had a heart attack when the kid started shrieking as one of the toys fell off the shelf and hit him in the back, sending him flying out the door and down the stairs convinced he was being attacked.

NYAB came home and likewise scoured the room. Nothing.

Needless to say, after all that, there was no way the kid was going to sleep in his room that night.  Sigh.

My schedule is such that I often pass out for the night around the same time the kid does.  Which is why I was upstairs blissfully unaware when NYAB, after making the rounds of checking on his sleeping family, wandered back downstairs, saw the thing flapping around the living room, and whacked it.

I'm still a little creeped out wondering how it got into the house, and I am a lot creeped out at how it got from an upstairs bedroom to the downstairs living room when it was GONE, FREAKING GONE, because the only answer I can come up with is the heating vents and that is just not something I want to think about as I fall asleep at night right in the path of the air current. 

In other news, Christmas packages are all mailed! The decorating is done!  (Twice, even. NYAB and the YP decorated the family tree on Saturday while I worked, and then it fell over -- we suspect the bat-less cats -- so the YP and I undecorated and re-decorated on Sunday.) Baking is in full force and I'm in a mood where I might even try cinnamon rolls this year!

Next Sunday, come hell or another goddamn weekend session of Congress, we are having our cookie party.  Are y'all coming?

Here We Come A-Caroling

I've got my nose out of joint over a whole mess of work-related noise. Time to come here and share the highlight of our weekend instead.

Saturday was fairly pleasant -- the Senate was in and that meant my team had to work, which meant four hours or so of unhappiness for three people and a half-hour of editing for me. Saturday night a former colleague and her son came over to watch the YP while NYAB and I went to a party thrown by one of my employees.  It was a lovely house and there was lovely conversation.

Sunday was the big event, however.  On Sunday we all bundled up (though not enough, as it turned out,) and went to Wolf Trap for a holiday sing-along. This goes on every year, but we'd never made it out before. The Marine Band plays Christmas songs, and then at the end a billion chorale groups tromp on stage and sing and the audience sings with them. Frosty, Rudolph and Santa all put in appearances. The music was great, the emcees were not too gratingly cutesy, and with the exception of the guy behind us who was apparently getting drunk to keep warm and kept trying to heckle the emcees, the audience was appropriately enthusiastic. Thomas was very excited that they played songs he knew, and he rattled his jinglebell with great gusto when it was time to do so.  At the end, they do a candlelight recession from the amphitheater during Silent Night, but since we were in the front row I only saw what it looked like as people were filing out, not what the hall looked like lit up.

Afterward, we went to Joe's for our favorite pizza/baked ziti combo.  Which helped to warm us up, since we'd all frozen after spending 3 hours in 36-degree weather.

Things we will do differently next year:

Only one person will wait in line for seats while the others keep warm in the car.
More blankets.
Bring cash. No plastic for food/hot beverages in the venue.
At least three pairs of socks.

Now watch, next year it will be 90 degrees.  Well, we'll take that too!

Is It Still a Party if Nobody Shows?

I wouldn't know the answer to that actually, since all my hale and hearty neighbors did show up for our annual cookiefest last weekend, but  this is as close as I've ever come to having the game called on account of anything.

What got in the way? Well, first, the Senate decided to be a bunch of prideful twits and convene a jillion weekend sessions.  Then Mother Nature decided to be a prideful twit and dump 2 feet of snow on us.  So between those two things, it's hardly surprising that nobody ventured to make the 40-plus mile drive out on Saturday afternoon.  Even if they had, our road didn't get plowed, so they would have had to walk at least the last half-mile or so.

As it turned out, this was a good thing.  For one thing, I wound up having to do a number of things for work while the poor woman on call tried to get home before the subway closed. Then the YP and NeighborGirl went out and flopped around in the snow for a bit, and then the kid came in and went promptly to bed -- getting out of it only to throw up intermittently, and to come down and wanly say hello to the neighbors when they showed up for the evening portion of our party.   On Sunday he was still barfy, and the house was so, so quiet. It would have been enjoyable if not for the niggling urge every four minutes or so to go up and see if he was still breathing. NYAB and I took advantage of this relative peace to slalom the car up the driveway and to watch a few movies.

Turns out his bug was a doozy -- he was still sick Monday, so NYAB took him to the doctor while I went through another round of Senate votes. Doc said he was dehydrated (really? Go figure!)  and that if he continued to barf he would need to get an IV stuck in him.  NYAB brought him home and we tried to pump him full of Pedialyte, which of course didn't work as I only remembered to go up and tell him to drink every 40 minutes or so.  When he threw up the second time that afternoon, I handed off work to another colleague and went upstairs and monitored so that he took a sip every 5 minutes. That did the trick, he went from cracked and pale to flushed and irritable in a little over an hour.  Meanwhile, his malady ... moved south. Ugh. Still, easier to deal with than barf.

It is now Thursday and he is only now beginning to resemble his normal self. Yesterday he was still somewhat cranky and rather weepy, and wound up crashing for a 6 hour nap at about 4.  Though perhaps he was worn out by the excitement of the Christmas tree trying to commit suicide -- twice -- by toppling over and smashing several lights and ornaments, including some we'd had since I was at least 3, and possibly had been in my -- dad's? mom's? -- family longer than that. Apologies to whichever parental unit's memories just got destroyed.

Meanwhile, it is Christmas Eve and I was up at 5:30 for what I hope will be my last morning of work for a week and a half, and after I update the site one more time tomorrow, I'm done done done.  Since I've worked in some capacity every day for I can't even remember how long at this point -- it feels like Thanksgiving was the last day I didn't touch anything office-related, but that's probably wrong -- I'm ready.  I hate the Senate. I really do.

So tonight I will wrap a jillion presents and go to bed late.  And tomorrow we will get up way early to see what Santa hath wrought.  And the next day we get up before sunrise to go to the airport. And then, weather and travel gods willing, we will wing our way to Hawaii by way of Atlanta and Salt Lake City.  Part of me is sorely tempted to just spend the entire time there sleeping, but I have a feeling once I get there and see vistas with no effing snow, I will perk right up and get moving.

Is it terribly wrong that I am sincerely hoping that the BlackBerry won't work there?

See you in 2010, y'all, when I am tanned and rested.  

Christmas Foodie Tradition

I hope you and yours had a happy merry holiday. Ours was swamped with twisted USB cords, tiny game cards, and lots and lots of books.  I got a new iPod, with mega-memory that will hold allllll our CDs. The kid got a Nintendo DS.  Not Your Average Blogger got the entire history of Holy Land excavations. Ergo, an extended bloggy absence.  That, and a couple outings.

I think y'all know I'm pretty fond of my kid, and we drag him along to a lot of things that maybe other people wish we'd leave him home. (Including him, probably.)  DInners out. The theater. Occasional forays to the office.  So far this season he's been out for dinner twice and sat through the Nutcracker.

So we left him home when I gave NYAB and early birthday gift of tickets to West Side Story. This is a greater gift than you might think, because honestly, of all the musicals on earth, this one is probably the only one I will mock openly and without restraint. People, I had to bite a hole in my tongue to keep from laughing until the first intermission.  NYAB got up to use the facilities and I got all my rants out of my system by sending snarky Bberry messages to Best Boss Ever.  NYAB returned, with the following conversation:

"OK, you can't laugh about this ANY MORE.  Even Russ Grimm is here."
"Huh? How do you know?"
"Because I saw him."
"Well, did you talk to him? What did you say?"
"I said, 'Hey, you're Russ Grimm!'"
"And what did he say, 'Yes, but don't tell anyone you saw me here?'"
"NO. He just said yes and shook my hand."

So that was all nice and fun and good.

But last night was one of my favorite Christmas traditions -- the one wherein we ditch the kid with a sitter and go have dinner at the Willard Hotel.  It is lavish and decadent and represents the one time a year that I eat and drink expensively without a lot of regard to how much I'm spending or whether I finish everything on my plate to make it worth the price.

It's fan-friggin'-tastic, man. Last night was no exception.

Last year was a $45 glass (yes, GLASS) of champagne.  Last night was two mint juleps.No photos, because it is very dark in the Willard and the drink is very dark and all the photos came out looking like a glass of iced sewer water with a lemon peel on top and that is just not fair.

(A word about the mint julep. I first encountered this drink in literature -- The Great Gatsby -- in my early teens and it sounded sooooo good. Doesn't it? Like it is ice and mint ice cream and chocolate and little bits of cotton candy and pixie dust, right?  So imagine my disappointment when my 16-year-old self is in New Orleans with my parents at a very lax-on-IDs bar and upon ordering one I'm presented with a glass of bourbon and some chunked up mint leaves in a glass with some ice cubes. Whaaa? I made a very sad face. My mother laughed. I think my father drank it for me. Fast forward 21 years, and I am pre-theater dining in the very hotel where the drink was invented. Heck, sez I, it's been 20 years. And I like bourbon. Let's take a shot. People, it was soooo good. It is mint leaves and crushed ice and bourbon and little bits of crunchy sugar and drunky dust. So when we are there for dinner a week later, I get two. Yessss.)

Aside from drinks, we had an amuse-bouche of foie gras cappuccino. It tasted about as you'd expect. The bread was better, imho. I had duck canneloni for an appetizer and NYAB did not eat the venison he ordered as it showed up looking a bit like a slice of spam on a plate.  But the main courses didn't disappoint -- NYAB had sea bass and I had prime rib. At that point neither of us was particularly interested in dessert, but we glanced over the menu and didn't really see anything to change our mind. (Especially since I was pretty sure that Best Babysitter Ever and the YP had made cookies in our absence.) So we called it a night.

It was an odd night for dining companions, however.

First, there was the guy dining alone at the table next to ours -- RIGHT next to ours -- who engaged both us and the couple at the table on the other side of him in occasional conversation. It was sort of sad yet annoying. I mean, I'm a big proponent of being nice to those dining alone, but if I want to invite them to my table I do so. And when I'm dining alone -- I take a book, I don't expect the people around me to take me in like an orphan.

Second, apparently it was dress-up night for the DAR or the Ladies of the Confederacy or something, because as we were wrapping up with the check and whatnot a slew of creakity old men in tails and dickeys came in accompanying a swirl of ladies in hoopskirts and ringlets and lace shawls and feathers. I am not even kidding. It was bizarre, but it made for a nice backdrop as their outfits were a nice match for the Willard's chandeliers and heavy oak partitions.  No photos -- I couldn't bring myself to be quite that obviously rude -- even if I did have to choke a laugh into a cough when one old guy dumped his water glass into his plate.

Happy Merry...

Been too busy in actual reality participating in new and old traditions to post in virtualland...

We went to the local Christmas light festival for the fourth year running, and for the first time braved the "winter wonderland" carnival too. Won't be doing that again. Brrr. Who needs a Ferris Wheel when it is 18 degrees out? Noooo.

The Young Prince experienced his first Nutcracker ballet. His favorite part was the battle, natch. He did a pretty good job of being still through the whole thing, though that intermission couldn't come soon enough.

Ditched the kid with Favorite Neighbor Girl Babysitter yesterday and celebrated Not Your Average Blogger's birthday early by going to see West Side Story.  Meh.

Tomorrow we go see the White House tree and possibly a spin through Georgetown to see the decorations, followed up by the apparently-now-a-tradition Christmas Eve pizza/baked ziti at our favorite Italian place in Falls Church.

And the next day is the big day. The YP is pretty wound up already. I'm not sure he will sleep at all that night. Fortunately, no gifts this year require hours of construction effort, so it's not like he'll hear us jamming our thumbs and smashing our fingers and swearing all night even if he is awake.

More in the afterglow. Best wishes, y'all!

Holiday Hangover

Christmas was good. Four days off (with a few hours of working from home here and there) was great. The YP liked his wheelbarrow that we put together (with only one piece we had to disassemble after doing it wrong,) and the 5 kerjillion DVDs he got, and his hockey game and his wooden manual baseball pinball game, and his tinkertoys and his new Cars stuff, and and and.

His Grandpa Illinois (formerly Grandpa Disneyland,) also got him a remote control helicopter. It works, though the silly thing reminds me a lot of a palmetto bug -- which for those of you who have never been to Florida, is a big, blind, flying cockroach. The copter is lightweight but awfully big to hit you in the face, it's very loud for being so small, and it crashes into things and there is absolutely no way to predict which direction the thing is going to fly. In other words, the YP adores it.

NYAB  liked that he finally got a bag to tote logs from the woodpile to the fireplace.

I liked my Fry and Laurie DVDs and camera lens and RO water filter (and I like even better that will be installed! By! Someone! Else!)

 

And now? The YP is sick with some kind of plegmy plague, NYAB and I are working from home because, really, sick kid=good excuse to avoid the commute even though we do have stuff to do, and la, the house, she is a mess. But not as messy as yesterday.

Christmas Dinner conversation:
Me: YP, what do you know about Christmas?
YP: It's Jesus' birthday?
Me: Yes. Where was he born?
YP: Uh. In Bethlehem?
Me: Yes. Very good.
YP: Was I born in Bethlehem?
Me: No. You were born in Falls Church.
YP: No, you mean False Teeth.

Sigh.

Ups and Downs

Congress is finally gone. Work is about to slow to a crawl. Maybe I'll get some projects done. Maybe I'll get some blog posts posted. Maybe I'll ... who am I kidding? I'll sink into a brain coma and come out around Jan. 14.

But before I do, I owe a shoutout to Lori, whose comments I read all the time, but it always seems to be when I'm checking email before dashing out the door and not in a place where I can say anything back.  :)

Right now, I'm trying to figure out why we came home last night to find our Christmas tree lying on its side on the floor. (And strangely, if you Google the phrase "Christmas tree fell over," you get something like 295,000 hits. I suppose now it will be 295,001.)

I'm not sure what happened, obviously, since we weren't home. Several friends suspect it was our cat, and I'm inclined to agree, except this cat is 10 years old, and in 10 years she has never once shown any interest in Christmas trees except to sleep underneath them, presumably because it is warm thanks to all those glowlights. And the tree was listing a bit from the day we set it up ... but ... ???

The YP, of course, was the first to discover this tragedy.  It was kind of funny, actually, because he always goes tearing into the house ahead of NYAB and myself.  Last night, we'd also had dinner at the Cheddar House (NYAB's name for the Cracker Barrel, and no, I don't remember why, but it doesn't make any less sense than the YP requesting to have dinner at "Pancakes!" -- the exclamation point is not optional...) so we got home a bit later than usual. The YP roared off through the garage, threw open the door and scampered into the darkness while I was disgorging coats, laptops, purses, backpacks, bleeblah, from the car.  Next thing I know, he is back at the door and in a quaveringly urgent voice bordering on hysteria he says, "Mama! Dadddy! You MUST COME HERE NOW!! IT IS AN EMERGENCY!!"

Well, come on. Really? An emergency? Is the cat dead?

"NO! THE TREE IS ALL FALLING OVER AND DOWN ON THE FLOOR! COME QUICK NOW!"

Whaaat? Well, sure enough, it had. So the boys fed the cat and got ready for bed and stayed out of the living room while I righted the tree (now it lists toward the wall instead of toward the couch,) and picked up some bits of shattered ornaments (surprisingly few, and all of them fairly cheap,) and vacuumed the rest of the glass and tried to determine if the water from the tree stand had completely ruined any gifts (in fact, as far as I know, it didn't even remotely damage any, though some of the wrapping paper is a bit worse for wear,) and then we went about re-decorating the tree with the ornaments that had fallen off but not broken.

I think the funniest part was that I was convinced the YP sounded tremulous because he was sure we were going to blame him for it, whereas NYAB was pretty sure he was just flat-out traumatized. 

To get over it, we all watched the end of a Rudolph special (not THE Rudolph special, some bizarro sequel involving a trashed teddy bear -- oops! I gave it all away! -- and a hippo named Queen Camilla.)

Tonight we are going out for pizza.  I wonder what we will find when we get home.

Tomorrow, I am working from home, just to be safe. 

Saturday Surprise!

After an astonishingly sucktackular end to my workweek, the weekend brought many wonderful things.

First, my husband was very nice to me and fed me very well.

Second, many incredibly kind people showed up for our cookie party (10 kinds of cookies! Lots of candy! Noooooo salt!) despite the fact that a lawmaker died, Congress was still dithering with federal spending, and there was a Big Fat Threat of a Killer Ice Storm of 2007 -- which did scare a few people from making the drive even though it turned out to be a lot of wind and a fair amount of rain.  (No photos, once again, I was too busy having a good time to actually document any of it.)

Third, my mom and dad showed up for the event, which was a total -- and much-welcomed -- surprise. I didn't even realize how much I'd hoped they would come visit while the house looked nice and there was stuff around to eat until there they were standing in the garage saying, "Hi! Can we put cookies on plates or make coffee or anything?" And they hung around and played with us all day yesterday too, including a foray out to the Bull Run Festival of Lights, even though I know they think that stuff is lame and hokey.

And now it is Monday and I am back at work and not sure quite where I'm sitting in the misery-meter, but the weekend is making it a lot more bearable.  I'm so lucky to know so many of the people I do, and to like so many of the people I'm related to.