It's ALL about the Lists!

Dragon Mood? -- memory smoked & singed on the edges

Big list, little list AND a list for the weekend. Oy vey!

S and I are taking four days to do some camping next week. Then we are visiting some friends who have an eye-popping view of Lake Michigan from their living room windows. We all enjoy bridge, never get to play bridge and ARE GOING TO play bridge with one another! Yeah!

I got ahead of myself. So, the lists, big and small, are to ensure that I get everything done that I need to, pack this, turn off that, send this bill, pick up that item. Another OY VEY!

Dragon Mood? -- excited, full of anticipation

Happy Wednesday, Happy Wendishday as we say in the family, and ... if you're working ... Happy HUMP day! I'll settle for the first two salutations.

For me, this is a few days of preparation and waiting. We will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, tomorrow night to join Caroline and Ron and friends to build the deck you've been seeing here in earlier posts. Caroline has spent over $1000 in pressure-treated wood, along with 32 bags of ready-mix cement to secure all the posts.

The deck will be L-shaped, the main portion measuring 12' x 20' with a 6' x 10' foot. It will be angled about 15 degrees off of horizontal and stand about 10 feet from the back stoop of her house.

S and I are excited. Well, I know that I'm excited. I think S is kind of exhausted with work, trying to pace herself through the week. Work is automotive-related and as a result, terrifically stressful. She walks in the door and I can see the stress all over her face. It is troubling to me to see her that way. I'm hoping that working with her tools, being outdoors, working with wood will help evaporate some of the stress from her body.

What will I be doing? Anything and everything that I can. Holding the dumb end of a tape, holding framing lumber while it's clamped, schlepping wood from one place to another and my specialty: I mark all the fine cuts for S to make. It takes a good eye and ability to visualize things that are yet-to-be. I imagine that I also may be involved with food prep, meal cleanup and myriad other little details.

The other event that I haven't mentioned is that my son, Josh, hopefully will be joining us for at least a small portion of the weekend ... and bringing a guest, a young lady. I know that her name is Leah, she's an MSU alum, a packaging engineer in the Milwaukee area and someone that I am looking forward to meeting. And I'm looking forward to spending a little time with Josh. He is a very successful actuary who works hard and spends long hours doing his job. He is in the busiest time of his work year, so we'll see him for only a portion of the weekend.

Can you tell I'm excited?

These are for me???

Dragon Mood? -- relishing being appreciated and celebrated

Look what arrived at our doorstep yesterday, completely unannounced and an absolutely lovely surprise!

The attached note said these are for both S and me, thanking us for all that we do.

I DEFINITELY enjoy being celebrated!

Yeah for moms!

Happy Mother's Day to ALL YOU MOMS out there!

Yeah for moms!

Month-long hiatus

Dragon Mood? -- remembering in a travel-weary, but pleasant haze

Wow, it's been a whole month since I last posted. When I tell you what S and I have been up to, you won't be surprised! We have been scootin' around the Great Lakes area for the past three weekends. And I mean SCOOTIN'!

For Labor Day, S and I trekked to Madison to hang out with Carolina and the man in her life, Ron. We drove out late Thursday night, encountering construction, traffic delays (even at midnight) and the requisite Hi-we're-here-at-two-a.m. arrival.

Ron started off our Friday with delicious, tradition-creating omelettes. We poked around in a dusty, ramshackle place that could barely be called a store, filled with vintage record albums (remember those?). S found one after another that caught her eye, eliciting the comment, "Oh, put this one in the pile." I think she ended up with at least ten albums! It was fun to watch her excitement. We had other ambitious plans, but got 'sidetracked' and ended up in some bar called WTF (I thought it was you-know-what) but it actually stands for Weary Traveller F--- I can't remember what the F stands for. The rest of Friday afternoon is a bit hazy for me; I think we sort of drank our way through the afternoon.

Josh arrived Friday night. We celebrated by busting out the bar; Josh drank Manhattans, Ron, Lina and I sipped on dirty martoonis and Steph toasted with her favorite, Warsteiner beer. Friday was ANOTHER late night!

Saturday morning, Ron and Caroline toddled off to a tailgate party (beer, anyone?) before the first Badger game (cough-cough, ack-ack). Josh, S and I had a scrumptious breakfast at Marigold Kitchen in downtown Madison. Mmmm-mmm-good!

We managed to catch about half of the Farmers' Market and emerged with arms full and backpack loaded with veggies and fresh flowers and green things(!). I hit the Soap Opera (absolutely LOVE that place!) and then joined everyone else at the 'tree' bar where Corinne bartends -- honest to God, I don't know anymore about the place then that! [With the amazing power of the internet and Google, it's called Paul's Club ... and here's a review that captures what I noticed about it, as well:]

When you walk in it's super dark inside, carpeted (unusual for a bar), loungy couches, and a HUGE FREAKIN TREE in the middle of the place. Christmas lights round out the cozy vibe along with a killer jukebox.

Paul's Club most definitely serves up tasty drinks, nice variety of beers, and the BEST Bloody Mary I have ever had. Try it! Seriously.

Well, there is SOMETHING I would add: CORINNE, the very nice and very cool bartender from Seattle MAKES those BEST bloody Marys. They are truly the best bloodys I've ever drank. And believe me, I've drunk more than a few! All right, I'll quit mooning over the drinks; don't wanna sound like some LUSH or something! (chuckling)

Saturday evening we watched Michigan State get spanked by Cal. Darn!

Sunday was ALL about beer-brewing, watching little Abbey from next door and just hanging out with one another, relaxing. Oh yeah, and we all kicked in and fixed a killer dinner with marinated chicken breasts, S's Famous Celery Root dish, green beans roasted in olive oil and garlic, and Lina's oft-requested Cucumber Salad. It was a feast fit for kings and queens. Oh yeah, and we watched Cary Grant movies. Don't remember which ones ...?

Monday morning, Josh took off pretty early. S and I left by 2 p.m. for our journey back to Michigan. Thankfully, it was a pretty easy drive and with several stops, we were home by 11 p.m. We had Tuesday off which allowed us to sleep in, wake up slowly and do some errands in that neck of the woods.

While I had had some trepidations about Caroline having a man living with her now and how that would feel, it was a wonderful weekend. I felt like Caroline and Ron went out of their way to make both S and I feel welcome, comfortable and at home. Ron hit a home-run with S, with his recommending that old record shack. I was happy to see him be so attentive to my precious daughter and how happy she felt to me. 'Nuff said.

NEXT ... S's Family Reunion

AND EVEN LATER ... Dad's 80th Birthday celebration

Happy Fourth

Dragon Mood? -- feeling happy maybe?

H-A-P-P-Y, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY ..................

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY

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HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY

Not jaded

Dragon Mood? -- still quivering with momentary patriotism

Here in Motown, there is a curious tradition where we celebrate the Fourth of July BEFORE the Fourth of July. Like last night, on June 23rd, a whole ELEVEN days before the real deal!

Anyway, dear readers, I wanted to give you the good news: I am not jaded. Towards the end of the spectacular fireworks display over the Detroit River, with hundreds of thousands of Windsor and Detroit spectators watching (S and I comfortably ensconced in our plastic Adirondack chairs watching on the boob tube), the fireworks zooming and bursting and whizzing to patriotic music, I cried. My tears probably were due more to the music than the fireworks, but I thought, "This is a great country. I LOVE America. These fireworks represent all that is great about America and her people. I'm glad we didn't move to Canada when Bush became president!"

Memorable Fourth of July nights

Dragon Mood? -- happy and tired

Ten twenty-six, Fourth of July night and things are a-boomin' and a-poppin' around here. Anybody and everybody who's got fireworks is out settin' 'em off! Happy FOURTH of July, everybody!

I'm back here at the pied-a-terre, gettin' ready to head to bed ... so I can be ready to head to WORK tomorrow morning. Driving down here this evening, I was reminiscing and remembering some memorable Fourth of July nights that S and I've had together.

Like the Fourth up in Copper Harbor, at the national park. We were camping in the playground of the park, it was so insanely full! We watched fireworks, drank beer and played cribbage until four in the morning. Then we hiked a ways to a park bathroom to pee, brush our teeth and get ready for bed ... and some weirdo teenage kid was peeping in the women's bathroom. Scared the sh*t out of us!

Like the Fourth, driving through western South Dakota on the freeway, observing one little rural town after another's fireworks displays from a distance. It felt intimate and distant at the same time and I felt so happy and proud to be American that night.

Like the Fourth last year. We were at Riverfront Park in Lansing, with two of S's three sons, two wives, one grandbaby. It was Preston's first Fourth as a toddler and Mark held him in his arms, oohing and aahing with each poof and pffft and fizzle of the fireworks.

Sweet memories!

And tonight, I'm thinking of my sweetie at home in the pines. And my sweet kidlets down on the farm in Texas, with my sister and my dad and my aunts and uncles and cousins. Ohh, I bet they're having a good time! Drinkin' and playin' Spite and Malice. Maybe shootin' off some fireworks? Maybe watching the stars in that Texas night sky that seems to go on forever and ever?

Whoo-hoo!

Dragon Mood? -- freedom-loving patriot

H A P P Y

F O U R T H

    of   J U L Y ! !

Hello, Goodbye

Dragon Mood? -- feeling the emotional highs and lows of beginnings and endings

Hello, July; Goodbye, June! I'm getting ready to head to bed and realized this will be my last opportunity to post here in June. This working stuff is seriously cutting into my blogging time!

Here in Motown, the-powers-that-be always have Fourth of July fireworks the week before the Fourth of July. Don't ask me why? Because people want to party with the Windsor folks while it's still June? I dunno!

Anyway, with S on vacation at our other house, I was here alone last night for the fireworks. I got my jammies on, turned off the lights and sat in the darkened TV room, watching the spectacular fireworks display over the Detroit River. Despite my 54 years, I felt thrilled and excited along with sentimental and patriotic and joyous. Imagine that -- all from fireworks!

Here's just one (small) sample of the stunning display we all got to watch!


This photo was taken by photographer, John T. Greilick, of the Detroit News.

May Day

Dragon Mood? -- awake or dreaming?

Why is it ... some weeks I can't wait to post my thoughts to calypso ... while other weeks, like this one, I feel strangely quiet?

Tuesday was May Day, a day I always feel drawn to. It has some long-ago associations for me of 2nd grade, making brightly-colored construction paper tulips and being one of the children to wrap crepe paper around a tall May pole. Did that really happen or did I just dream it?

Christmas at Eastertime ...

Dragon Mood? -- enjoying shiny new things

Christmas at Eastertime ... or what's the Easter Bunny doing in a Santa suit? Actually, my stepson, Mark, and his wife Lindsey and Toddler Preston gave me a very generous gift certificate to a national bookstore at Christmas. This past weekend, S and I were tired of doing the I'm-unemployed-we-must-be-frugal thing and took ourselves to this store and SPLURGED!

Here's what I got:

• A copy of the book, Prediabetes What You Need to Know to Keep Diabetes Away by Gretchen Becker


• A copy of the book, The First Year Type 2 Diabetes by Gretchen Becker


• The DVD Qigong Beginning Practice which will hopefully enable me to relearn the qigong I began several years ago

I'm excited about my gifts and am looking forward to reading them and watching them here in the weeks to come.

Good Friday morning fire

Dragon Mood? -- a water Dragon who loves a good fire!

Rather than allow it to languish there, I am "post-"blogging this posting which I wrote in the back of my sudoku book last Friday morning:    I am such a Fire sign! Sitting here in the pine tree house, I am enjoying a fire in the fireplace this morning. Here's some things I'm struck by:

• I love a full, almost 'roaring' fire.
• I love the constant change of a good fire. The word, in astrology, is mutability.
• I enjoy watching the interaction between fire and its life-source, air.
• I love "stirring" up the fire ... and watching what happens as a result.
• Fires need room to "breathe" and thrive. I can identify; so do I.
• I welcome (as do most) the warmth a fire provides.
• I thoroughly enjoy the mood a fire creates: relaxed, peaceful, calm, romantic, exciting, celebratory. I also enjoy the 'moods' of the fire itself, whether that is roaring, blazing, crackling, steady or dying.

I just added a big chunk of well-seasoned hickory to the fire. The fire quickly embraces the dark, dry wood. Listening to its gentle roar and the ensuing snapping and crackling of the fire, I smile and revel in my happiness.

An Auspicious Day

Dragon Mood? -- exhilarated and excited by auspiciousness

TODAY, as a Chinese fortuneteller might say, is an auspicious day. Aside from it being the day after April Fools' Day -- which is auspicious in its own right -- there are four things happening today which merit mention.

The first auspicious event happening today is a full moon. It is the first full moon since the vernal equinox. Whether you know it or not, whether it even registers on your lunar radar or not, the first full moon after the vernal equinox has historically been a significant event, a time for holy days and celebrating. Learn about the ancient Saxons from this site:

Eostre was the Saxon version of the Germanic lunar goddess Ostara. She gave her name to the Christian Easter and to the female hormone estrogen. Her feast day was held on the full moon following the vernal equinox -- almost the identical calculation as for the Christian Easter in the west. One delightful legend associated with Eostre was that she found an injured bird on the ground one winter. To save its life, she transformed it into a hare. But "the transformation was not a complete one. The bird took the appearance of a hare but retained the ability to lay eggs. ..the hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Eostre."

Related to the occurrence of the full moon, today is also Pesach, the beginning of the Jewish holiday, Passover. Passover commemorates the exodus of the Israelites from ancient Egypt and the "birth" of the children of Israel as a Jewish nation.

On a more mundane, albeit athletic level -- though some may regard it as the high, holy day of college basketball -- is the National Championship game for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The final competitors, the two rivals facing off this evening in Atlanta, Georgia, are the Ohio State University Buckeyes and the University of Florida Gators. In the Final Four round, OSU beat the Georgetown Hoyas and Florida beat UCLA to have a go at one another and a crack at the national title. As a diehard Spartan, and a fellow competitor of the Big Ten, I'll probably root for OSU.

Finally, today was an auspicious day because it was Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers baseball team, who had an incredible season last year and ended up winning the coveted American League Championship for the first time in 23 years or something like that. All the local Motown television stations provided lots and lots of air time to the event, including the local Fox channel, which carried the entire game live. I was a very bad, slacker-like unemployed person and sat and watched most of the game. (In my defense, I did take the dog and myself out for a 30-minute walk during the 6th, 7th and 8th innings. Not a complete slacker.) Sadly, the Tigers lost their opener to the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-3. But it was still a wonderful, exciting event, loaded with all kinds of hopefulness and anticipation.

First day of S-P-R-I-N-G-G-G-G-G!

Dragon Mood? -- excited about spring colors!

Today is the first day of spring! Whoo-hoo! Like many others, I thought that spring started tomorrow, March 21st, but that's not true. Curious about the why? Read on.

From an MSNBC article:

... in America, spring no longer falls on March 21. In 2005, for instance, the vernal equinox, the first day of spring for the Northern Hemisphere [came] on Sunday, March 20, at 7:33 a.m. ET.

Now this doesn’t seem right. I mean, when we were all growing up, the first day of spring was always on March 21, not March 20, right? Now, all of a sudden, spring comes on March 20.

How did that happen?

While it’s true that we’ve traditionally celebrated the beginning of spring on March 21, astronomers and calendar manufacturers alike now say that the spring season starts one day earlier, March 20, in all time zones in North America. Unheard of? Not if you look at the statistics. In fact, did you know that during the 20th century, March 21 was actually the exception rather than the rule?

The vernal equinox landed on March 21 only 36 out of 100 years. And from 1981 to 2102, Americans will celebrate the first day of spring no later than March 20.

In the years 2008 and 2012, those living in Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific, Mountain and Central time zones will see spring begin even earlier, on March 19. And in 2016, it will start on March 19 for the entire United States.

There are a few reasons why seasonal dates can vary from year to year.

• A year is not an even number of days, and neither are the seasons. To achieve a value as close as possible to the exact length of the year, our Gregorian calendar was constructed to give a close approximation to the tropical year, which is the actual length of time it takes for Earth to complete one orbit around the sun. It eliminates leap days in century years not evenly divisible by 400, such 1700, 1800 and 2100, and millennium years that are divisible by 4,000, such as 8000 and 12000.
  
  
• Another reason is that Earth’s elliptical orbit is changing its orientation relative to the sun (it skews), which causes Earth’s axis to point progressively in a different direction — a phenomenon called precession. Since the seasons are defined as beginning at strict 90-degree intervals, these positional changes affect the time Earth reaches each 90-degree location in its orbit around the sun.
  
  
• The pull of gravity from the other planets also affects Earth's location in its orbit.

So, looking beyond all the scientific wheres and why-fors, spring means rain and fluorescent new-growth green and birds singing and flowers poking up through the mud and WARMTH. Yippee!

Naturally dyed Easter eggs

Dragon Mood? -- dyed-in-the-wool Easter egg lover

While hanging out yesterday, awaiting my departure time, I happened to catch Martha Stewart's daytime show. She was demonstrating with Olivia Dukakis how to dye Easter eggs with natural food items.

The food that most intrigued me was onion skins. Martha wrapped loose onion skins around each egg, wrapped it again with cheesecloth and hard-boiled it. After the egg had cooled, she removed the wrappings and the egg had a lovely, natural marbleized appearance.

Celestial Seasonings also has an article about naturally dyed eggs here.

And to recap the holidays, Part II

Dragon Mood? -- downloading

Yosh headed back to Milwaukee right after the Casino Royale movie. S, Lina and I were all sleep-deprived and tired from Christmas... but first, we went to the video/DVD store and got a couple more movies. My memory is that we went home and slept.

Wednesday, each of us had missions. My mission was to buy some badly-needed bras. Lina and I went to Macy's. Serendipitously, they were having an "intimates" sale. I got sized for a bra (thanks, Lina and Oprah!) and with Caroline's help, found one style that I really like! I ended up buying four bras and six pairs of panties. Yay!

I can't remember Lina's mission. We did hit Bath & Body Works and Marshall's, one of her favorite stores. She found a cool item (which I can't reveal here) for Ruth and Paul's home and a lovely male manager (who I suspect is family) gave her a helluva deal on it. To celebrate, we decided to return to Dusty's for some drinks (compliments of a $50 payoff from Yosh on losing a drinking bet).

S's mission was to buy some gifts for her mom and grandma. She went to Schuler's to buy Sally several books. We then joined S at El Azteco for margaritas and yummy Mexican food.

Thursday, S headed up north. Grandma was back in the hospital with frightening swelling in her arm and word of several scary clots close to her heart. (I will blog about this in a separate post.)

Lina and I took it easy and enjoyed one another's company. We watched videos, took naps, got more videos, got Chinese take-out and .... watched more videos?

Friday, we took an easy drive north to visit Grandma in the hospital. Friday was also Sally's 71st birthday, which we celebrated at Spike's. Also celebrating were S's sister, Becky and her daughter, Lydia.

S stayed up north for another day while Lina and I returned to the house in the pine trees. Late Friday night, the dogs were happy to see us and ready for peeing and running around.

Saturday was another low-key day. I honestly can't remember what we did that day, but I'm sure we had fun. Oh yes ... we went to Tar-zhays to pick out an accessorizing item to the can't-tell-you gift item for Ruth and Paul. Oh yes, and we went to Home Depot to PICK OUT COLOR SWATCHES! How could I forget? That was fun! Have I mentioned that I LOVE color!

Saturday night we made popcorn and ... what else? ... watched some videos. What a bunch of futon potatoes we were!

Sunday was readying ourselves and the house for New Year's Eve. We bought groceries, Lina prepared food, S and I tidied the house, I ran the vacuum cleaner and then ...

We had a fashion show. S had put out the word that she was in desperate need of work clothes ... and by golly, Santa had delivered. So Lina and I requested that she give us a fashion show, modeling all her new duds. She gave us a bang-up one! I probably have never mentioned it here, but my partner has got a sexy figure and she wears clothes well. We had lots of fun, commenting on her combinations, take this off, try this on, oh I like those together!

After the fashion show, we all took quick power naps, showered, did our hair and dressed for our BIG intimate NYE gathering. S wore her new, glammy black jacket with a red blouse underneath along with black slacks. Lina was decked out in black, including new, very HOT high-heeled shorty boots. I tried to keep up with my decked-out companions wearing my new-favorite bottle green fine gauge sweater and an Italian scarf from Ruth and Jess.

Our friend, Kevin, arrived mid-evening along with his constant companion, Jack, a muscular little Jack Russell terrier who loves nothing more than to bounce into your lap while you're playing euchre. Oh, hello!

We played euchre right up until midnight, popped some yummy bottles of champagne that Caroline brought from Madison and toasted one another using our ever-so-elegant Waterford champagne flutes. We wandered out onto the deck, enjoying the unseasonably mild air and the almost-full moon that lit up the clear night sky. The night felt gentle and full of promise, a lovely way to celebrate a holiday and start a new year, don't you think?

And to recap the holidays

Dragon Mood? -- bewildered

Recap the holidays? Where to start?

The holidays broke roughly into three chunks for me: time with Yosh before Christmas, Christmas Day and time with Lina after Christmas. In retrospect, S and I literally had no time alone during the ten days that I was home. We didn't really plan and make time for each other -- other events intervened -- but when we sat down and talked about it, it made us a bit sad that we had made no time just for one another.

Time with Yosh was brief but thoroughly enjoyable. Saturday, the three of us did meet at Dusty's after individual Christmas shopping for great drinking and memorable appetizers. Yosh drank Maker's Mark, S drank some imported beer I can't recall and I drank the most amazing dirty martini. Vodka martini, Grey Goose, blue cheese-stuffed olives -- are you getting the picture? -- but the most remarkable part of the martini was the tiny crystals of ice floating on that wondrous briny booze. I complimented our server and he said that is a little trick of the bartender's, shaking the martini shaker until the outside has frosted from the ice. That's when you know the environment is perfect for ice crystal-making!

Saturday evening, the three of us played cards. We played two rounds of cribbage (both times beating S!) and then a round of cut-throat, three-handed euchre. We also managed to beat S on that round. There was also a Christmas miracle in there somewhere, but damn if I can remember what it was! We even commented on it! Later that night, S and I broke tradition and actually wrapped gifts for three hours and it wasn't Christmas Eve or Christmas Day!

Sunday was another whirlwind day. Yosh and I drank some yummy Alterra coffee from Milwaukee and then headed to Oliver T's to pick up our traditional smoked and peppered salmon for Christmas Day. We also swung by Beaners in East Lansing so Josh could fire up his laptop and demonstrate for me a new approach to cyber job hunting. That was a curious way to spend Christmas Eve afternoon. It was a gorgeous afternoon, sunny and mild, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time with him.

That evening, Josh made smooshy potato soup for Lina, I fixed brownies for all our adult kids, I started laying out all the stocking stuffers on our bed to figure out who got what ... and darn if I can remember what I did the rest of the time. All I know is that there was no twiddle-your-thumbs time in there -- we were all busy with preparations.

Lina showed up right around midnight on Christmas Eve. She made exceptionally good time traveling from Madison -- I wonder if the speedometer needle ever tired of hovering around 80? Thank God her trip was a safe one!

Christmas Day was all gift wrapping, food preparation, bloody Mary drinking and the like. S's kids and spouses started showing up around 5. We weren't able to start opening gifts until around 7. And then -- whew! -- what a whirlwind of paper, gifts, hugs, thank yous and I-can't-believe-you- got-this-for me exclamations! Our time together as a family even included tears of sadness and tears of wonder! I never knew that a vintage Pink Floyd album could elicit such a reaction!

People started leaving around 10:30 because they had to work the next morning. Matt and Sarah and Madison stayed because they didn't have to work and wanted to play cards. I started fading around 12:30 p.m. I was just too pooped to pop anymore. I remember getting in my red flannel scottie pajamas, wrapped in my new all-cotton white robe from Tim, laying down on the living room couch, falling asleep to psychedelic Pink Floyd music remembering why I was never a good candidate for being a sixties hippie -- sometimes, I just don't like that music!

Pretty much all I remember from Tuesday, the day after Christmas was that the house was trashed, there was wrapping paper and empty boxes and gifts still strewn all around, and we left the house to go see the movie, Casino Royale. Being a card-carrying lesbian, I probably shouldn't say this, but the new 007, Daniel Craig, is HOT! I quit watching 007 movies 20 years ago because they were all so formulaic and actually rather boring -- but NOT THIS MOVIE! There's little computer graphics techno-wizardry and enough edge-of-your-seat action that the movie was fun, enjoyable, even exciting. Go see it! I recommend it!

I'll continue my holiday recap later.

My last post of 2006

Dragon Mood? -- excited with anticipation

I'm getting ready to leave the pied-a-terre and head 'home' to the pine trees for the holidays.

Josh will be rolling in late tonight. I have cleaning and laundry and bedmaking to do before then, but those are simple put-on-the-Christmas-music chores that are part and parcel of holiday preparations. I'm hoping that Josh and S and I will have some time for fun and visiting this weekend.

I have a little Christmas elfing yet to do .... a gift check to cash and disperse from Papa and Evelyn .... gifts to wrap .... our traditional peppered smoked salmon fillet to retrieve from Oliver T's (Josh has agreed to drive over there with me) ... Christmas music to listen and sing along to ... drinks to drink ... Christmas Eve potato soup to prepare ... you know, the regular things people do in anticipation of Christmas!

Caroline rolls in late Christmas Eve. I'm just hoping that the roads are clear and dry for her drive.

We'll all gather (S's kids and spouses) late-in-the-day on Christmas Day to exchange gifts, eat, drink and smoke cigars. Whether or not Grandma and Sally will join us is up in the air. I don't know if S has invited them nor if they'll make the drive down.

Josh leaves to head back to Milwaukee sometime on the 26th. He's got work on his mind ... as well as partying with his peeps, I imagine!

Caroline is staying through the New Year. I'm not exactly sure what we'll be doing, but I know we'll have fun no matter what!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! Hard to imagine but my next post will be in 2007!