Thank You Poobahs!!!

It arrived! My blog candy from the Opus girls arrived today! It's so awesome! I've been home 1/2 hour and I've already opened it and played with it and I can guarantee, I'll have my first LO using the treats, done before 2010 hits! the heck with making supper tonight.
This is after I sent a very sad email to Rosemary saying (with a tear in my eye) that I had given up and accepted it had somehow gotten lost in the mail or something. Almost 4 weeks to get from Maryland to Canada. Where is Maryland anyways???? Timbuktoo?
Anyhoo, it all came in this sweet felt (I LOVE felt) bag and I feel as though Christmas arrived all over again.
So Rosemary, please disregard my weepy email and thank you thank you thank you both!
I hope we all have a safe, warm New Year's Eve tonight!

But I'm still eating....

I'll miss Christmas when it's gone.

Almost time to diet....

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Linux

I have a laptop. It has Linux on it. This makes me very happy. I spent a few nights trying to download some anti-virus software (unsuccessfully) until I learned that Linux doesn't need anti-virus software BECAUSE IT DOESN'T GET VIRUSES!!!!!
What a concept. I can take it with me on trips, and connect to the Internet so that I can still blog and check my email. I cannot however do much else. THIS WILL NOT STOP ME! I can get "Linux for Dummies" from the library.
And it will never steal Word from me. Hah!

OK, I know

I posted this pic of the little pink girls tobogganing b'fore. But now it's in a LO and I just think it's so girly and so pretty! Well, I guess girly and pretty are kind of one and the same.
On a different note, has anyone else had their version of WORD (as in the Microsoft Netherworld) totally disappear from their computer? Where did it go? Why can't I do any more word processing? What is it about my life that has made Bill Gates et al feel the need to make it their mission to screw me over???? I'm not kidding folks, it's gone. I looked everywhere for it. Gone. and that is not the only thing. I can no longer open Power Point slide shows, Excel documents, god, if I look down my damn underwear is probably missing too!
And yes, I've restarted the mother ship. It hasn't helped.
I know I've mentioned this in earlier posts, but I really really really hate Microsoft. No, hate is such a strong word. I DESPISE them. And I felt that way before they took my Word.
My word! She IS upset, isn't she?

Back to work tomorrow

But what a wonderful day I've had! I told myself I WILL complete the scrapbook pages from our summer vacation before I go to Palm Springs on the 22nd. That doesn't give me much time, really, but I can do it if I don't eat or sleep or use the bathroom. I can do it.
Along those lines, I have scrapbooked all day. It's after nine and I just now made supper and ate. I've gotten a lot done, and my back is seizing up from standing for 18 hours, but I'm happy! I was procrastinating last night by doing some digital LO's and this is one of them. I really like it. That's the house next door to the house where I work. Winter is pretty, when it's not obscenely cold. More often than not, it IS obscenely cold, so I'll take anything I can get that's above zero. Even if it isn't pretty.

Recipe Box

I made a recipe box for the girl for Christmas. In it are recipes from my Grandma (her Great-Grandma), my Mom (her Grandma) and me (her Mom :-)) I chose recipes that I loved as a little girl and those that she loved as a little girl. It took some time, my fingers are getting kind of arthritic, so the writing took over a week. but I hope it will be the beginning for her of treasured recipes that she can pass on to her children.

Arnold gets into the Christmas Spirit

Yes, that is a cat. Not a happy cat, but a cat, nonetheless. Makes you kind of feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it? First, Arnold, tried to open the wrapped gifts, by stripping the paper off with his evil little claws. Then he thought he could hide from the yelling humans, by sticking his head between a few gifts, even though his butt was left out in the open. "If I can't see you, you can't see me!" meow, meow.
We got him back though. Go ahead, which is your favorite, the elf or the reindeer with the droopy antlers? You decide. I've made my choice. It's the picture I have in my mind of his striped bright orange behind, with it's twitching bright orange tail, sticking out from a couple of parcels. Smart cat, that Arnold.

Merry Christmas!!!

Yes, we did it! We made it through Christmas and are now in a turkey-induced semi-comatose state.What a yummy dinner we had! And then went for a walk along the river. The only downer was that we found a deer with a broken leg, so we went to the police station to see if they would let a wildlife officer know. But the officer said, he would go and deal with it. That would never happen is the city-they're too busy dealing with home invasions and armed robberies. Nice, this small town thing.

Christmas Eve

I'm at the girl's drinking hot chocloate and watching TV. We had a wonderful dinner at a Greek restaurant that served Butter Chicken (?!) and then drove around and looked at some Xmas lights. It was nice. WALMART IS CLOSED!!!! Gasp! The world must have come to an end when I wasn't looking.
Having said that, A very Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Bad Blogger!

Ok, that didn't work so well. I actually went downstairs and made coffee for the morning while my picture uploaded. But it did, so it's all good, right? I'm going to bed at a reasonable hour, so that I don't sleep in until noon. The girl is making kraft dinner for lunch when I arrive. At my request. No way I'm going to be late for that! Good night.

two more sleeps

and I'm getting excited! Tomorrow I drive to Lethbridge to spend Christmas with my kid. One of her roommate's family is at the house and after I talk to the Mom about who is making what for Christmas supper, we'll go to the grocery store and get some food. Munchies too, for movie-watching tomorrow Eve, while we wait for Santa to arrive.
I am almost as excited about being off work for five, count em five, days as I am about going to see the girl. Maybe even more. Nah, they're about even.
Blogger is having a brain fart tonight, it won't let me upload a picture. Guess I'll do this in two posts.

three more sleeps

I ate chocolate for breakfast. That's what we do at Christmas, we get chocolates and candies and cookies as gifts and there they are on the desk. It's brutal, brutal, I tell ya! I don't know how they expect me to get any work done when I'm bouncing off the walls all morning and then nodding off at my desk right after that. It's sadistic. One of the PO's gave us a box of oranges (she explained for those who don't eat chocolate) and I said, Oh, I don't think there are any of THOSE here. We gave the oranges to the men. Really, we're saving them from a life of chocolate-indused debaucharie. We're very thoughtful, don't you think?

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Florida

I was behind a car from Florida today. Their license plate had an orange on it and I could swear I heard it screaming "Make it Stop!!!". About the snow of course. I wondered what the people inside it were thinking. Were they thinking "Oh, this is so pretty!" or were they thinking "OMG, what if I hit a patch of ice?" or maybe they were simply fighting, the husband saying "I TOLD you we should have gone to Arizona, but NO you had to see your mother!"
Welcome to Calgary, Florida.

Christmas Baking

I've been going through my mother's recipies too, for a reason I can't say out loud until after Christmas morning ;-))and remembering how much baking she would do each holiday season. She would make divinity, brown sugar fudge, and shortbread (of course) which she would make with her hands, mixing everything together so carefully using her fingers.
Most special of all, she would make these caramels to die for and my brother and I would have to cut little pieces of saran wrap and wrap them all individually. We would eat more than we wrapped, and bicker while we did it. Bicker, that's what we did best. I miss him. and those caramels. I made some Lemongrass and Sea Salt caramels this year, but I suspect Mom's old candy thermometer has gone to the candy shop in the sky-it turned into toffee, instead of caramels. But it tastes pretty good!

thinking of my Mom

I've been missing my Mom for the past few days. It's been a couple of years since she passed on, but for some reason, she's in my thoughts right now more than usual.
I made a tree of branches with her earrings as decorations, and when I opened her jewelry box, I smelled her scent. Maybe that's what's up. At any rate, these photos are of a couple of ornaments from my childhood (so very long ago). I've lots of memories, decorating the tree and my brother and I arguing about how the tinsel should go on-he would throw handfuls of it and I would laboriously hang them one by one. Let's see, who is healthier...him, I think!

Friday Fill-ins on Saturday

I stayed out until after midnight last nights taking photographs of Xmas lights. I drove by a skating rink and there was a hockey game on, thought Wow I really want to photograph that! But the gas tank "empty!" warning light was on and had been for some time. So I wanted to get gas first. Then I got trapped in a convoy of snow plows. By the time I got back, the players had left. Maybe I'll have to go back.I meant to do the Friday Fill-In, but was too tired when I got home, so here is my Saturday Fill-In:
1. No, we will not cook your Christmas turkey for you. It's time you learnt how. 2. I can sit and watch you work, at the old kitchen table. 3. I watched the steam rising from the hot cup of coffee and thought I should have had you do this last year. 4. If I really think about it, I know it's going to be OK. 5. I'll take a nap while you set the table. 5. It all looks delicious at least from my point of view. 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to photographing Xmas lights (which I did), tomorrow my plans include a drive to the Res, and Sunday, I want to go to the Sing-Along Messiah Concert.

Christmas ATC's

Just a quick post for tonight. I made this LO for my office, to make it "Christmasy"
We have decorated, there's a big tree in the dining room, and someone threw a massive red bow on the plant in the bathroom. Come to think of it, someone took that off this morning, probably because we had real people coming in for a meeting, as opposed to us staff, who are challenged in so many ways. :-) I hung Xmas lights around my office window (althought they look like they were hung by a couple of drunken elves). I just felt it needed something else. So, ho ho ho.