Quirky & Snowy

Happy New Year almost! Vic & I will be spending the evening at her mom's house. They say that what you do on New Year's Eve indicates how you'll spend the rest of the year. I'm not sure I really believe that, though, because if it were true we would have a heck of a lot more drunk people walking the streets all year long, dontcha think? Vic is actually at her mom's right now and I'm supposed to join them around 9ish tonight. Maybe. We've got a snowstorm headed our way in a few hours. If I'm not able to leave before the deluge begins, I may be snowbound at home with Shannon and the kitties. Not such a bad thing, actually, but I'd really like to spend the last night of 2007 with Vic. Also, I'm sure she'd be pissed and I don't want to spend the rest of 2008 with her pissy.

While bored at work today, I got to thinking about some of my quirkier, but oh-so-lovable traits and I thought I would take a moment to reflect on them with all of you:

1. I can't change the month on the calendar until it's actually that month. For example, when I leave tonight it will still be December, but I can't put up the new calendar yet, even though it will be January when I return.
2. When I cut the grass, I always cut the front grass first.
3. I always make peeing the last thing I do before I leave the house for an extended period of time. Even if it's just to sit outside and read for 30 mins.
4. Multiple books by the same author have to arranged by publication date on my bookshelf, not alphabetically.
5. I always use a Detroit Tigers huggy for my can of pop (yes, I said POP) and the front of the huggy always has to face me.

No Blankie For Me

On my way home from Vic's mom's house this morning, I passed a florist with a sign advertising New Year's plants and grave blankets. How interesting that they are marketing toward the new and the very not new. I just don't understand the whole burial thing at all. What's the point of taking my dead, but still useful body, and putting it into a very expensive box that's going to be stuck in the ground like a jar of pennies. And then, to further astound me, someone is going to spend a heap of money to etch my name in a slab of stone to show where exactly the jar of pennies is located for the maybe 2 or 3 people that want to come to visit my decayed corpse in a box. And then somebody is going to actually spend good money on a grave blanket?? Can I just have the money now?

It makes way more sense to donate my useful pieces to someone who might need them. And then take whatever is left over and give it to nice young doctor-wannabes to practice on. You just know that very few people are going to trek out to the very cheery cemetary to stand by my stone and fill me in on the goings-on of their lives. I'd rather you just sat quietly in a comfy chair with a little soft soothing music playing in the background (maybe something Celtic-y) and talked to me that way.

Vic, of course, disagrees with me whole-heartedly. She's all about being stuck in the ground. She doesn't even want to donate anything. I want to live on in another person. I say "recycle!" I don't want to be a jar of pennies. I want to be the 80% post-consumer waste used to make the Christmas card!

A Week Later...

Calculator Buddy
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265

Wow ~ what a busy week this has been! Now that Vic's mom is out of the hospital and back at her own home, we are busier than ever before! About 2/3 of my day is spent at Mom's house. She's going to need 24 hour care for a while yet. We don't know exactly how long ~ Vic thinks until Summer, but I think she's making really good progress and might be on her own in a few months. It's not really a hard job, because she's been able to dress herself and moves around pretty good with the walker (it has wheels!), but it's still time spent away from our own house and our own children. I know Shannon especially really misses us.

The other day at work I was making lists and came up with the following:

5 Things On My Desk That Make Me Smile
1. My Calculator Buddy (see photo). I have the Blue Buddy and sometimes I take him by the hands and walk him across my desk.
2. The kitty Microsoft Office assistant. I especially like it when he rolls over on his back and takes a nap.
3. The London snowglobe we got in London two years ago. I shake it every morning.
4. The Martha Stewart bathroom cup I found in the clearance aisle at KMart. I put a sticker of some little mousies jumping into piles of Fall leaves on the cup and keep my pens in it.
5. A photo of Vickie & Shannon taken in our front yard our first Summer in Michigan. They both had longer hair then!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Tree
Originally uploaded by wahoo1265

I thought I would send along a photo of our Christmas tree. As you can see, it's quite small, but all the presents seem to fit perfectly around it, so it must be doing something right! We thought that it wouldn't be such a good idea to have a big tree with lots of ornaments (i.e. kitty toys) this year because we'll both be out of the house so much (more on that in a bit). This is the first year since I've known Vic (almost 10 yrs.!) that she hasn't whined non-stop to open her presents! Maybe it's because we've both been so busy with work and her mom. I think we'll probably open most of them Sunday because we'll be spending almost all day Monday & Tuesday at her mom's and I really don't want to drag all those gifts over there. We'll open a bunch of little stuff at Mom's on Christmas day while she opens her presents from us.

Vic's mom finally came home from the hospital yesterday afternoon after being in & out of the hospital since March! She's very happy to be home. She's going to need someone to stay with her 24 hrs., so the fun is just starting for me and Vic! We've worked out a tentative schedule and I have a friend who is going to work some hours, too, but it's still going to amount to a lot of time away from home for the both of us. Poor Shannon ~ Mom is allergic to dogs, so she can't come with us and I know she is going to miss us both something fierce. I hate leaving her alone, even when I just go to work. I miss her already.

I'm not sure how good of a blogger I'll be over the next couple of weeks because I'll be spending most of my time working at my job or at Mom's and school starts back up in a few weeks, so I know that will keep me occupied, too. I'm really hoping that we can both keep our weekends clear just so that we can catch up on house-stuff! Wish us luck! And Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Snowy Sunday

Early Saturday evening the snow really started to come down. It was like a hurricane of snow! Lots of wind and huge flakes everywhere. And very pretty to watch. So we took a few pics and I thought I'd share them with everyone. (I'm not especially good with multiple photos in my blog, so I hope they come out okay.)

This is the view from our backporch late Saturday night.





We woke up to 7" of beautiful white snow. This is me on our patio in the backyard! I really needed that nose mitten ~ it was chilly out!

Shannon absolutely loves the snow! She normally wakes up, stretches and comes downstairs, but today she bounded downstairs cuz she knew there would be plenty of snow to play in.

She especially likes playing ball in the snow. She doesn't have to chase after the ball, but she gets to dig around in the snow. Buried treasure!

And of course snow angels!

Vic has been really good about feeding the backyard birdies during the snowy months. We get a lot of cardinals and starlings...and fewer pigeons than we do during the Summer!

Peaceful-ish Saturday

As I type, the snow is gently falling outside, we have a wonderful fire in the fireplace and the world's best dog is lying at my feet. It's really peaceful right now...except for Vickie watching some dumb soap opera she taped from Friday afternoon. Oh well...

Earlier today we put up the outside lights and a little lawn Christmas tree. It was snowing when we put it all up, which was very "season-y" and we're under one of our famous Michigan severe weather warnings until tomorrow night. Weather guy is calling for 12' of snow, a swarm of locusts and flocks of frogs to fall from the heavens all night long. Should make for an interesting weekend.

Feast One Hundred & Seventy Two
Appetizer
Make up a word and give us its definition.
Sockoffame (sock-off-a-me) ~ when your sock gets twisted around on your foot and the heel part actually ends up on the top of your foot and your sock is partways off. Vic has these all the time & it makes me insane.

Soup
What is currently your favorite song?
The Muppets singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas." I love Beeker. "Me-me-me-me-me-me."

Salad
What’s at the top of your Christmas wish list this year?
A peaceful and prosperous 2008. Really. I could use both. Desperately.

Main Course
Name a scent that reminds you of someone special in your life.
Fendi. It's what Vic wears.

Dessert
Who is someone on television that you feel probably shouldn’t be, and why?
George W. Bush. Ever.

Tree

We finally have our Christmas tree put up. Of course, our tree is only 2' high, but that's not the point...it's up. Now that I don't have to fret about schoolwork every night, I'll have to start wrapping presents. The problem with wrapping too early is that Vic can't wait until Christmas to open them. So she bugs me non-stop for weeks until I finally cave in and let her open them. I guess that's our own family ritual.

Vic's mom is supposed to have her supposed final surgery tomorrow morning. The hospital is trying to kick her out on Friday, but it seems like with every surgery she stays at least another 3 weeks, so a Friday departure is looking doubtful. I know she really wants to be home, though. It's depressing spending all day in a hospital room ~ I don't think I could do it.

At work, tomorow, my little team is having a birthday lunch for me. I know it sounds silly, but I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be nice to take a break in the middle of the day and just "hang out" for a while. I'm not sure if Vic will be home tomorrow night to celebrate with me, but I know we've got a trip to the museum planned for Saturday. I'm really looking forward to that!

Catching Up

Yea! No more school. For a while anyway. I got an A in my Microbiology class; it turned out that this class wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was hard, but I was really prepared for it to be the hardest thing I ever went thru ~ so it turned out to be okay. My online class starts the first week of January, so this should give me plenty of time to catch up on blogging and just relaxing.

I'm also in the middle of appealing my grade for the Pathophysiology class I took over the Summer. I should have a final outcome sometime in the next couple of weeks, so I'm told. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I can't really gauge what the outcome is going to be, but I think I wrote a pretty good appeal.

Vic's mom is making progress, but slowly. The hospital actually wanted to discharge her next week, but none of us feels she's ready for that yet. Vic thinks that the hospital people want her gone because they need the room for someone else ~ I'd like to think she's wrong, but I'm not so sure. So for right now, she'll be in the hospital for at least another week.

I finally finished my Christmas shopping. I bought the last thing on my list online today. I also made out all my Christmas cards and I'm ready to start wrapping presents next week. Vic & I are supposed to put up the tree and lights tomorrow, so it should soon be festive around the house!

Feast One Hundred & Seventy One
Appetizer
What was the last game you purchased?
Battleship. Vic had never played before, but yet she somehow manages to always kick my ass.

Soup
Name something in which you don’t believe.
I can't believe that Bush ever got elected to President. Twice!

Salad
If you could choose a celebrity to be your boss, who would you pick?
Last year I would've chosen J.K. Rowling, but now that the last Harry Potter has been written, I think I would have to change my boss. Maybe Paul Newman. I'd never run out of salad dressing.

Main Course
What was a lesson you had to learn the hard way?
You can't drink from a bottle while lying on your back.

Dessert
Describe your idea of the perfect relaxation room.
Our living room when there's a nice fire in the fireplace and some soft Celtic music playing in the background while the snow falls lightly outside.