All I'm Saying there's a joke in here somewhere

By the time most of you read this, it will be the last day of 2008. I, for one, am rather glad of it.

It hasn't been the greatest year for me and for a few of my friends. I can't say that I have suffered any major trauma, but on the great roller coaster of life, I'd say that 2008 dropped me off at a lower elevation than it picked me up at.

I'm trying to look at it as a year of growth, a year when I have tried to really do big work on the things that bother me, and to learn how to better deal with stuff as it comes up. Possibly symptomatic of the problem with 2008 overall is that I worked my ass off at my job. I really did give the proverbial 110%, and it wore me out. So my resolution for 2009?

Do not volunteer for projects that do not directly affect my department, even if I am the one who would do it the best. I have to get out from under thinking that I can save the world singlehandedly.

I'm happy to report that my boss fully supports me in my resolution.

What about you all? Are you happy or sad that a new year is about to begin? Any resolutions?

I don't feel like we received anywhere near as many Christmas cards as usual this year. I know I didn't send out as many; I shaved the list down from 75 to 50. I got to thinking about it and decided that sending 50 cards out was ridiculous in the first place--I probably don't even talk to that many different people in a year. So rather than really stretching it, I cut the list down. And then I heard about it when Matt didn't have enough cards to send one to each of his coworkers (from whom we received exactly one card, so it isn't like they really got stiffed).

Did you send out cards this year? Did you send more or less than usual?

As you may have noticed, I have been singularly uninspired in blogging these last few days. Christmas got ahold of me and threw off all of my routines, blogging and working out included, and replaced them with eating. Cookies, turkey, candy, some healthy fruits and veggies, but mainly junk.

Our holiday was very nice. My best present (received) is a gift certificate to a spa I like, and I think I am going to blow it in a major one-day orgy of spa services next month. (Not really an orgy--it's not to that kind of spa.) Freya was the best thing about Christmas, though. She woke up Thursday morning and the first words out of her mouth were, "Is Santa here?" I told her he'd been here the night before, and should we go see our presents? She went trucking out of the bedroom and the first thing she saw was her play kitchen. She said, "Santa brought me something to cook with!" and jumped up and down. Then she ran over to the coffee table and said, "He ate his cookies and drank his milk!" Basically, she didn't say anything that wasn't exclamatory until about 10:30 a.m.

I got Matt a Zune for his big gift, and he's been a total music junkie for the last several days. I am extremely glad that I figured out how to keep all his music contained to one area of our Zune Pass account, because I am just not that big a fan of Yes!, The Moody Blues, The Fixx, Missing Persons, etc. Nor is he a big fan of Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynne, or Bree Sharp.

So, it's back to the work grind (sorta) tomorrow. I'll be in and out of the office, since Freya has that two-week Christmas vacation and Matt and I are splitting staying home with her this next week.

How was your Christmas? If you traveled, did you stay safe and on time?

That's right: you. Right there, reading this. You're sticking with me this holiday week, a week when my stats are showing me that a lot of folks are dropping off to either clean the house, cook some goodies, travel through godawful weather, talk to Great Aunt Hester on the phone, or whatever. It's been pretty quiet.

Me, I'm just slogging along. Work has been lethally dull, and if you're reading this at work right now, it's safe for me to assume you're in the same boat I am. So hey, do me a favor: post one of your favorite time-killer sites for me in the comments.

Here are a few for you:
People magazine
Google News
Hecklerspray
Women's Health
Hanna Andersson

Christmas is getting awfully close, and aren't you glad? Or are you? Or are you confused with the verbiage of these questions? God knows I am...

We got Freya a little plastic sled today and spent a half-hour sledding down the biggest, meanest hill for a quarter mile in any direction--our driveway. It's pretty flat around here, actually. She loved it, so she's taking it along to the house of a friend of mine tomorrow. It's good to have friends who will take your daughter for a morning here and there while her preschool is closed and you still have to work. (Note to Freya's Montessori: Really. I respect the Montessori curriculum, I really do. But you're not a real school, so you don't really have to follow the Boise Schools schedule. I'm not a teacher; I don't get two weeks off at Christmas.)

Aside from wrapping a few of Freya's Christmas gifts, we are all set for the 25th. Whew.

We got like three or four inches of snow in Boise on Sunday, plus a skiff more this morning. I believe we're supposed to have a real white Christmas, and that will be very nice!

Okay, I'm out of blather for tonight. Are you glad? Or aren't you?

When I first saw the commercial for the Snuggie (The Blanket With Sleeves!), I thought to myself, "Jeez, those people look like a bunch of cultists!" Then I saw the part of the commercial where a family is sitting around a campfire toasting marshmallows in their (likely not flame-retardant) Snuggies, and I thought, "Dammit, Mom, it was your turn to bring the virgin sacrifice...guess we'll just have to roast marshmallows again."

Turns out I am not the only person who has thought of it.

I'm feeling like the Flying Spaghetti Monster is kind of passe' these days. I'm joining the Cult of Snuggie. Who's with me?

I have a new very favorite song: "White Winter Hymnal," by Fleet Foxes. They're a group out of Seattle who I heard described on Sirius as "influenced by Neil Young and Brian Wilson," and I thought, "Yeah, whatever." And then I heard the song and it blew my mind, and it has been on repeat on my Zune frequently over the last several days. I am so amazed at the thought that there could be a revival of...harmony. You know, where people sing on key and their voices blend. Harmony--we haven't heard it in a long while.

Check it out:

Freya has been potty trained for quite a while now, and this week we have achieved two further milestones!

One, she has quit wearing Pull-Ups at night, which means we are entirely free of buying barrier products. (Unless she relapses, which is always a possibility and would be okay if it happened.)

Two, she actually pottied in a grown-up sized toilet tonight! We were at my office holiday get-together which is (sort of oddly) located in a very family-friendly, smoke-free bar. I always get stuck organizing these office events, so I always put them at this same place so that we can go get a drink or two, have something to eat, and I can still bring Freya. She plays with the pool table and eats mozarella sticks, and is reasonably content. So anyway, she told me she needed to go potty and I was sort of panicked because we didn't have the portable with us. I figured if nothing else, I could get a giant wad of paper towels and hold it against her bum area as she peed into it. (Mothers: we improvise.) But she said she wanted to try to sit on the toilet, and she wasn't even a bit scared--she always had been before. So she peed, and I cheered, and fifteen minutes later she told me she needed to go poop on the potty, and she did that too!

She has totally earned her Christmas presents.

We've hit that week before Christmas where we have something going on pretty much every night for the rest of the week. My office is having our typically-informal drinks and munchies at our regular hang-out spot tomorrow night, Thursday I have to make two different desserts for two different events, and Friday we have Freya's school Christmas program in the afternoon and then a potluck dessert and game night with our next-door neighbors and their son, daughter and granddaughters.

It's nice to have things to do, it really is. But I have a feeling that I'm going to be a little traumatized by the time we wrap it up. I've already begged out of Matt's office Christmas party on Saturday because it is 30 miles away and doesn't even start until Freya's bed time (and he's totally down with that).

So am I crazy to be thinking of inviting some friends over for a big Boxing Day/Kwanza/Day After dinner on the 26th?

The guy who threw his shoes at President Bush? I can't really say that I blame him, and I appreciate the sentiment involved, I truly do. I think it was very brave, honorable, and very, very foolish. I understand some Iraqis are quite upset that he is imprisoned, but I ask myself, "If an American citizen at a town hall meeting in American did the same thing, where would he or she end up?" Jail. So...go on and throw your shoes, but do it with the realization that you'll likely end up in the clink. Personally, I'd be scared to death that the Secret Service would just draw down and shoot me on the spot, but I tend to be a little paranoid.

The case of Caylee Anthony's disappearance (and likely murder) just breaks my heart. I ache when I think about it, and I wish that she could somehow know that millions of mothers, fathers and childless folks hurt for her sake. I'm perpetually shocked and sickened at stories of children being hurt, and this is just...it's dreadful.

I'm pretty disgusted that barking moon-bat Tom Cruise has taken my sometime-internet message board name as the title for his new movie. I do not want to be associated with him in the faintest way, even if he and Matt Lauer kissed and made up. I cannot forgive him for his Scientologist views and couch-hopping.

Well, there you have it: the world according to Me.

In a more current events/opinion tack, tell me how much gas costs where you are. I paid $1.31 at Fred Meyer using my $.10/gallon grocery point discount yesterday, and I'm pretty uneasy about how quickly the cost has dropped. I knew gas prices were artificially inflated, but...I dunno...I'm uneasy. So what's the cheapest you've seen it?

We decided to help Freya write a letter to Santa, and we're going to take it to Macy's today, because for each letter to Santa mailed from Macy's, they make a $1 donation to the Make a Wish Foundation, up to one million dollars. Here's her letter:

Dear Santa,

(My mom is writing this letter for me.)

I love you. I would like you to bring little toy pets, like a little dog that barks. Santa, please bring your reindeer. I want to pet the reindeer.

My friend Toren would like a xylophone; I would like a zebra and an elephant. Dad would like Christmas trees for his birthday and Mom would like a curling iron. I would like a pony with hair to style. Grover would like bones.

Come down our chimney. I like your white beard.

Love,
Freya

I was dejected to find out tonight that General Tso's Chicken has anywhere between 650 and 1300 calories per serving. I went with the 650 for the sake of my calorie tracker, but DAYUM. Who'da thunk it?

Good thing I took an extra long workout break today...

This isn't going to mean anything to anyone unless you are Sisyphus, so feel free to ignore it.

Unless you are Sisyphus.

I cannot get my e-mail replies to you to work. I reply directly to your comments, and it cogitates within my e-mail for days and I get numerous reject messages and it's eventually undeliverable. And any time I try to post a comment to the 43rd State Blues page, I get a message that I don't have the right permissions for that.

So really, it isn't that I don't want to talk. It's that I can't. Any other e-mail addresses that work?

Today is the final day of my pantry challenge, wherein we didn't grocery shop for anything but produce and milk for two weeks, attempting to eat entirely out of the contents of our pantry and freezer.

My goals for this were to become more mindful of what food we already had on hand, reducing the amount that I bought at the store; to get use up some of the surplus we have cluttering up the pantry; and to save my usual $65/week at the grocery store.

I have to admit...the last thing is really the only one of those goals that I really achieved. As I was telling a friend via e-mail this morning, I think we'd have to go a lot longer than two weeks to make any kind of dent at all in the contents of our pantry. We actually ate very little out of it, mainly sticking to stuff out of the fridge and freezer.

I think what I really need to do is an inventory of the pantry, and then create some meal plans using at least two ingredients per meal. If I did that for two weeks, we'd have it whittled down to a very manageable amount. Maybe I can do the inventory over the Christmas break.

Did anyone else participate and want to report in?

I had a really great idea earlier today as to what to post here on the blog tonight. And then I promptly forgot it. The good news is that I'm sure to remember it and it won't have lost its *zing* for waiting a day or two. The bad news is that means you have to deal with a bunch of random crap.

1. Lately I have just really been wanting to win a contest. And I never win. I'm always entering at The Pioneer Woman, and at also the Women's Health Daily Prize. But I haven't won anything yet. You'd have heard about it.

2. Freya spent all day at home with me because she has a sinus infection. And she really, really does not like the taste of the medicine she has to take. I am most sincerely hoping she rallies strongly overnight. She's been pretty good all day today, but last night was rough.

3. I am quite tickled that Bratz dolls are scheduled to disappear, but am sure that Mattel will just find something equally offensive and exploitative to take their place.

And that's all I've got for you. Your turn: say something random. Unless you're a comment-spammer. I've had too much of that lately.

I have been meaning to watch the much-ballyhooed "Prop 8, The Musical" viral video, which features Jack Black (*heart*), Neil Patrick Harris, Kathy Najimy and others. I finally got some time to track it down and it was great. Check it out!

We had our second snow of the year this morning and it has already melted. (Yay.) I find that having lived in Cascade for four consecutive winters jaded me a lot for snow. But I have to admit, Freya's excitement when it snows makes it a lot more palatable.

I share with you, Freya's first snow angels:

We went to Lowe's today to get our Christmas tree, and Matt wanted to get some of those newfangled LED Christmas lights so he could get all Griswoldy and yet use less electricity.

Imagine our thunderstruckitude when the two huge rows of holiday merchandise that we had seen just a couple of weeks before had shrunk to about a row's worth of picked-over crap behind a sign that said, "Holiday Clearance, 50% off all decorations." There were about 15 strings of lights left, none of them of the LED variety.

What the hell, people? It's still like three weeks until Christmas! We're not exactly showing up on December 24 and looking to score a Homer Simpson inflatable.

And then we went out to the fresh tree section, and guess what? The Christmas trees were 50% off too. It's like 9 days after Thanksgiving and already we've moved on to...what? New Year's? Or is it time to open up the lawn and garden section?

At least our whole haul cost half what we were expecting...

I'm very much keeping up with my exercise program, though I suffered a major running setback when I totally overdid it the first week and have had to rest my shin splints for the last two weeks to make up for it. But I am still in the gym on the elliptical and the exercise bike, and the calorie tracker at SparkPeople has been so useful for me to think more about what I eat.

But I did badly on food today. I went out to lunch at my favorite spot (Darlene knows where) and I ordered my favorite sandwich: a crispy chicken BLT. I really only wanted to eat half of it, plus the side salad. I wasn't even that hungry, but I decided the filling was too watery for the sammy to be any good later, so I ate that too. And then tonight was home-made pizza night. And honestly, I wasn't that hungry but I still ate two pieces.

Now my tummy doesn't feel too good, and I have an extra 600 or so calories to account for. But hey, at least it isn't a DQ Blizzard.

I'm gradually starting to get faintly excited about Christmas. Aren't I just a declaritive ball of fire? *wink* Actually, that's pretty good for me--I rarely get excited about Christmas at all. I like it, but I just don't go crazy or anything. Probably that Jehovah's Witness upbringing...

But I'm excited because of Freya. She's VERY into the Christmas spirit this year, and since we get about 10 catalogs a day in the mail, she likes to go through each and every page and say, "I'd like that for Christmas. I like that for Christmas, too." What she is actually getting is a play kitchen, which is something I advertised for on Craigslist and found a woman who refurbishes furniture who had bought a hand-made kitchen from circa 1978 (avocado counter top being my biggest clue), and who is refinishing it in white and pink. It is going to be so. damn. cute.

Freya is also getting all the accoutrements for her kitchen, including play food, a tea set and some pots and pans. And then there is the art set and easel, and all the stocking stuffers. We've decided to wait until she's asleep on Christmas Eve, and then set all our presents under the tree. (In the past, Matt and I have just put presents there as we get them and wrap them. I don't think Freya can withstand that kind of temptation anymore.)

So where are you at with your Christmas spirit and preparations? Is there any gift you are especially excited to give this year, or something really special on your own wish list?

Freya has taken to studying her poop very closely, and then pronouncing a judgement. For example, yesterday she sat on her potty seat for a fair while. Her potty seat is in the living room, which I can see into from the kitchen. (I know, I know. Kinda weird to have it in the living room, but she'll get caught up watching Ultimate Fighting Championship and forget to go potty otherwise. Kidding. About half of that statement.)

Anyway, she was sitting on her potty and I was cooking dinner. She stood up and hollered, "Hey guys! Come look! A lobster!"

I chose not to look, but it was Matt's turn to clean up the bucket and he said it did sort of look like a lobster's tail.

And then this morning we heard a similar bellow, "Hey, it's a snowman!"

This may be some sort of clue as to her future career choice. I'm just hoping she doesn't turn into some kind of uber-naturalist who studies peoples' poos and then says something like, "Your thyroid looks too sedentary; I recommend a tincture of hyssop."