Preparations

I'm typing this without the keypad on the letter 'a' on my keyboard - which is totally throwing me off 'cuz I keep moving my hand over and consequently, type gibberish periodically. Searching for the key....thinking I'm too far left - but I'm there...it's just that I'm having to 'hit' the teeny, tiny rubber button that's under the keypad. Another keyboard on order. I must have a 'hard' touch....will probably plug in a keyboard instead 'cuz I've been needing a 10-key also and miss having one...so perhaps losing another keyboard on my laptop is just God's way of saying 'get a real keyboard, you typing maniac'. Heh.

New Years Eve is tomorrow and we're attending our usual party - and I'm actually going to COOK appetizers instead of buying them. Stuffed jalapenos and other stuff. We will be there around 6ish and be playing our usual games around 7. Hopefully I'll make it past midnight - I have the past two years and hope to continue that trend.

We have one more family outing planned for Thursday. I've promised the kids that I will not attempt to get them out the door before 11AM - we will all likely be sleeping in quite a bit since we're not usually in bed before 3AM - it's a fun party and we all stay up really late and sleep really late. But we want to get to the mall sometime during the break and Thursday is B's last day off this week - and we have things to take care of around the house tomorrow that make tomorrow problematic. We will shop a bit and then have a nice lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and come home in late afternoon/early evening. Everyone wanted to go tomorrow and I vetoed that - but then rescinded my veto....only to have B. decide that going anywhere tomorrow will interfere with his gym schedule. Between work and gym outings, it's nearly impossible to work out scheduling. But we continue to try.

J. and the kids went to Tulare for a night and returned late this afternoon. I had plans to go to Jackson for a day - but decided to not waste the money. So I spent about 1/2 what I would have probably lost on a purse - I don't need it but I want it - and I've been looking at it for a month. It's 1/2 off which is a phenomenal deal - so I bought it. It will be a nice addition to my purse 'collection'. And it's smaller than what I've been using and that is critical - the bigger the purse, the more crap I put in it and it's too heavy to manage. So I'm downsizing, even my purse. (Rationalization is a wonderful thing, isn't it?).

It's been a fun close to three weeks off and it's a bit hard to accept that it's winding down. Sometime in the next few days, the laptop from work will be on the desk and I'll attempt to clean up my emails. My mailbox has been basically 'closed' for the time I've been off 'cuz it's too full and I haven't done anything about it. Thankfully, we are all off for the two weeks of the holidays and so I haven't missed much. Still, it's astounding the amount of stuff I'm still getting that clogs my box. Oh well. I have to clean it out before we all arrive on Monday morning and try to clean it out - our Internet will undoubtedly be at a snail's pace for most of the morning.

Happy New Year to all....it's the year of change and I'm so happy to be watching this historic President take office. We have so many challenges ahead but I feel optimistic and hopeful for the first time in a long time. I hope it can only get better from here...but I say that guardedly because there have been so many times in the past 8 years when I've thought it was as bad as it's going to get only to wake up the next morning and discover it's even worse. Change will take time. I don't expect miracles. One day at a time.