Dear Blog,

Dear Blog,

I know that I have neglected you horribly of late. You could call that pathetic or you could guess that I might actually have been having a life or you could choose neither and fill in the blank with your own thoughts......up to you....


So now we have reached Dec. 30th - the end of another year - where does time go? I had a wonderful Christmas (did get my Christmas cards written by the way). Spent the eve first at my friend, Jenny's, house where I met her wonderful family and friends, had some delicious eggnog and good conversation. Moved on to my sister's house for family, more good food, conversation and a game of pool. It was all wonderful. Gave the kids their gifts and they seemed to enjoy them.

Christmas day, I overslept (really needed it) and then headed over to my sister, Susan's, for the Christmas extravaganza that comes with having young children. It was so much fun watching them open all of their gifts and took some time. I even got a couple - a Sudoku electronic game to feed my addiction and a little cell phone fob which I have now hung on said cell phone. I forgot to mention that the night before I received a pretty cool pottery incense set. You stick reeds in the pot and the incense soaks up into them to be diffused to the room.

Mom and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa) were there for the extravanganza and putting together of the puppet theatre while Bill was busy putting together the new kitchen set. It was just the right kind of Christmas for me.

On other news, I did manage to finish up work for one client, although I have not been paid, nor any note to me of when payment may be made. That is probably because they are away for the holidays as they had mentioned. Still plugged away at the merchandising job. It is so hard to believe how many belts, wallets and cufflinks are sold this time of year. All of those thousands (yes thousands)_ of pieces are just about gone. Amazing! My boss gave me a wonderful Christmas bonus - work 10 hours the week after Christmas and get paid for 20. Couldn't pass up that deal.

Cal won the Holiday Bowl - some redemption for the Pac-10 which had not been doing too well in the post season this year. Lets hope that USC can do the same on Monday in the Rose Bowl. They need some redemption after the UCLA disaster.

Yesterday, my friend came over and we went to wath The Queen with Helen Mirren. A highly fantasized tale of the Queen of England during the death of Princess Diana period. It was good viewing but I couldn't help but think how much of it was really true since no one really knows what went on behind those Palace doors.

I forgot to mention that I had also seen the Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith the previous week, a true story of a rags to riches story that happened in our very own San Francisco - very inspiring as well as good entertainment.

Fast forward to yesterday. After the movie, we were joined at my house by another friend and shared champagne, wine and food while we watched The Great American Christmas -sort of - mostly just to see the Drew and Ted parts - but they really started getting into some of the other stories as well. It was a pretty well put together movie. As time moved on, someone just had to have dessert so we all agreed and went off to Marie Callendars for a piece of pie, which we brought home and promptly ate. A wonderful, girl-fest of an evening.

And, I guess, Dear Blog, that that is all of the news worth reporting, although I am sure there is much I have left out as well as much that should have been left out - teehee.

I am hoping to attempt a little more "letting go", cleaning up, filing before the end of the year (tomorrow). We will see how it goes. I am feeling a bit lazy.........

And....

Just to show you that I wasn't kiddding about the evite. Here is a photo of me and my friends from the party. It really was a lot of fun and I stayed later than expected.

Disneyland

As you can see from the photos above, I went to Disneyland. A good (great) time was had by all. What a truly magical place!

2 days of (semi) rest

After battling a cold while working and being overall very fatigued, at long last, I had two days "off". That means that I didn't have to go to structured work. It doesn't mean I didn't do anything. Darn. Sunday, I went to the ATW brunch - a very nice, low-key affair for members only and a good way to give back to them for all of their help during the year. That was preceded by cleaning the kitchen and followed up by going through all of the accumulated mail and newspapers in the living room. After that, I relaxed with a couple of movies - The New World (so so), Pirates of the Caribbean (as bad as I expected though not quite as bad as the first one), Ice Age 2 (very entertaining but liked the first one better). I fell asleep a couple of times during Ice Age so decided it was time to sleep.

Monday brought a nice morning - the first in a long time - in which I did not have to get up early and slept in a little. Breakfast and crossword puzzle later, I watched a couple more movies. By now, you have probably figured out that movie marathons are a source of relaxation for me. The Lake House (much better than expected - thank you Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves), Over the Hedge (aahh, disappointment and even more disappointed that MSG was glorified in it - our children and us adults don't need to be exposed to that poison) and An Inconvenient Truth. The last one is the Al Gore testimonial on Global Warming - surprisingly well thought out and well done with humor, seriousness and just a touch of political bitterness. Real food for thought there.

Finally, lest you thought I could have the whole day off, I was off to a USC Board Meeting.

What did not get done. Yard cleaning (rain stopped that), Christmas Card writing, Client file, ATW close. Ahhhhhh but there is always tomorrow.........

evite mystery solved

After much wracking of the brain and many, many days including a trip to LA, Christmas party, Disneyland and more back-breaking work (yeah, I know none of those are related but just thought I would throw them in), I finally, finally (will finish this sentence?), finally figured out, I think, who sent me the eVite. It is a friend of mine who got married and used her married name in the eVite. Not only that, but she used her nickname instead of the name that we knew her by which further confused the issue. Now that I know who it is, I would really like to go to the party. Unfortunately, the location is TBD. Hmmmmmm.....I responded yes to the eVite. Does that mean I get a location address next?

Tune in for the next episode of As The EVITE Turns? Or was that General EVITE or One EVITE to Live? Or maybe Grey's EVITE or better yet, Desperate EVITE!

Ok, ok, so I am a little Goofy now. That is what comes of going to Disneyland and doing Corporate Taxes in the same week!