New Year's Resolutions

I saw this over on Trisha's blog in the comment section and had to laugh. 

New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain

Damn Hell

No, no, it's not Damn! Hell!
It's, Damn Hell.

I posted the Gates of Hell a couple of posts back.
It was a place I worked for a very short span of time that is now known as Hell.
Hell, it was known as hell as I was working there.
I spent a life time there one month.

One day I was racing up the stairs... yep, running up the stairs and I congratulated myself because a short time before that I would not have been able to RUN up the stairs at full speed. Anyway I was racing up the stairs and MISSED. I slammed my toe into the stair and  hobbled for a very long time.  There was no time to go to a doctor or antyhng... It was hell after all.

Didn't think too much about it until I started wanting to wear heels.
My poor toe knuckle totally bitches me out.
It will be okay, it will get use to it and accept what I have done to it.  But when I go through these time of waiting for it to understand,  I curse Hell.

And I am happy for Hell too.
While I was working in Hell my dad died.
I quit.  DH supported me and I quit so that I could get my dad's affairs in order before marrying the love of my life.  Had I been at my old job.  Things would have turned out in a different fashion.

Hell freed me to do what needed to be done so that I could move on to the next phase of my life and so for that I am grateful for Hell.  I am less than pleased that my toe knuckle is paying the price.  It will adapt, we all do.

Critter Christmas

I charged the camera - had it out of the case and was ready to go when the kids arrived and then did not take any pictures.  Didn't even think about it.  >.<  Doh!!

I did, however, get some pictures of the critters Christmas morning. 

We'll begin with Chester

Chester loves peanut butter - his favorite time is when the jar is finally empty and he gets to have it.  This is some sort of pnut butter in a can.  He is intrigued.

And bones too?  Knotty bones??  Heaven!!

Wait.  What?? Knotty bones AND peanut butter?  I love you girl.

He spent the rest of the morning tossing his bone at us.  "Hey, it's out of peanut butter."  We complied as it was Christmas and all.

Bob wasn't left out though he was starting to think perhaps he was...

He started complaining to Stavo - "Dude, the dog got two presents what about me?"

"That's not peanut butter it's... oh, its....Nip!!"

It's a happy Bob!!

The Pigs got a little tikki hut.  Pumpkin aka Plumpkin and Nutmeg aka Pip Squeak are in the photo.  Autumn was hiding in the house.  "What is this flashy thing and why does Nana keep doing that?"

We told Chester that the boys were coming and he took up his spot and waited.

The kids surprised me, I mean, Santa surprised me and brought a couple of gifts too.  Mom told the kids that Santa was gonna get his ass kicked.  They just laughed at me.

Jess and Stavo Santa gifts

All kinds of fun things here - Calendars, face masks, a gargoyle, tea, wasabi peas, lip balm, foot stuff. It was quite the haul. 

The Boy's Santa

Chocolate covered pretzels, nuts and that jolly fella in the center...

 he sings and dances around. 

I'll have to see if we can get video of it because it is so freaking cute.

All in all it was a wonderful day.  Stavo made sweet rolls and bacon for the masses.  We exchanged gifts and amazingly everyone got what they wanted.  (We draw names and basically tell the people what we'd like. Keeps the season simple!)  



Merry Christmas Eve and Gate to Hell...

But not in the same sentence...

Our Christmas Tree (Solstice lighting)

See the cow?  The boys last name has Cow in it and they once thought of starting a coffee shop in Portland named ... oh, maybe I'm not at liberty to say... it is like the Spotted Owl, but not... needless to say when we found the spotted cow ornaments... had to have.  This year's addition is the little owl that peeks at us from the tree.  I am very pleased he found me.

And on to the Gates of Hell. 

I didn't know this existed. My office window was the one you can just see in the picture.  I worked here for a month a lifetime ago.  It is referred to as Hell.  I work next door these days.  People ask where we are located and I'm tempted to say, "As close to hell as you can get and not be there."  A few days ago I parked in a new location and when I came out I saw the Gates to Hell.  I of course took a picture and am sharing it with you..

One would expect the gates to hell to seem more ominous somehow... trust me, evil lurks in that building, the kind that Stephen King is afraid to speak of... if the devil walks in this world, he works there. 

Oh Dear!!!

So he bided his time, knowing someday, somehow, that

smug self-satisfied snowman would pay.

Julie turned me on to Cack Wrecks and this was on there today. 

I snorted tea out my nose and laughed and laughed.

Thank you Julie.  This site has given me many a giggle. 

Interesting

One of my co-workers is reading a book called Stop Walking on Eggshells.  It's about learning to live with someone who has borderline personality disorder.  In the front of the book it has a little quiz, "This book might be right for you if..."  It then goes on to list a bunch of scenarios.  As my co-worker read down the list I was thinking, Wow, this smacks of the relationship I have with Cybil  and Cybil was right there saying, "YES! YES! YES!" Cybil then goes on to say, "Oh the two I LOVED the best were...."  Oddly these two traits that she considered the BEST were ones that described herself. 

I, of course, couldn't say anything at the time but after lunch I went into the gal with the book and said, "Are you afraid to voice your opinion for fear of an irrational outburst?"


I pondered picking up the book as I am a definite eggshell walker with Cybil but one of the things in the little quiz that came up over and over was the tone that this was someone you cared about, someone you wanted in your life and needed to find a way to make it work without being the one that is always giving and giving in.

Might be worth the ten bucks, but I don't really care about Cybil.  I've made my peace with the time I've already wasted on her and don't need to waste anymore. 

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I know a gal who is of similar age and she HATES birthdays.
I love them!!  How can you hate that which brought us to this moment in time?

I am a crone and am proud of it.
My hair is graying, okay more gray than not-- I am okay with it, generally ;)
My face is wrinkling -- I am okay with that too.

I have a terrific children and am married to a wonderful man.
It don't get no better than this.

I have been major spoiled this B-day.  It has been a B-Day month and I love it.

DH gave me a Kindle Fire -- happy, happy, joy, joy... I am totally loving this thing.  The first book I bought was by Kate George.  Moon Lighting in Vermont.  Gotta support our own.  What a great book.  Read it in one day.  I also bought California Screaming, but have not started it yet. Got busy with other things... I'm such a book whore.  Love it.

The boys gave me a TV and Stand.
At T-Day I got a movie to watch and I guess my old TV had all the action outside the screen? Had I been asked I would have said the old TV was perfectly fine.  I must admit the new TV is really awesome.  Thanks boys.

Jess and Stavo gave me Scrivener -- a writing program that I've been lusting after for a year now.  It was made for Mac, but I have windows and everyone talked and talked and talked about Scrivener and how wondrous it was.  Then they started beta testing it for windows.  If I was less of a computer klutz I would have been on the band wagon, but I suck when it comes to stuff like that and so I waited for the product to be 'ready'.  And ready it is!!!  YaY.

I've been working through the tutorial.
Work.  Work is the right word. Trying to read and understand what it is telling me.  Finding everything.  What is left and what is right and thinking I know and still getting it confused.  This is a sad but true fact.  I have trouble with left and right.  Port and Starboard are no better.  Damn near ran down another boat with Doug screaming, 'Your other Port!!!"

I am excited to work through the tutorial and start on my own project.  Fleshing out my Nano.

What I really love, it noted that the tutorial was the Brit version.  And that's cool.  But this is the best line ever....after struggling through this tutorial for a couple of hours... normal people would have whizzed through it... I am not normal, but I get were I'm going, generally.  I digress... best line ever.

"now you really do need that cup of tea, and probably another biscuit too."

Oh god yes, but make mine coffee and some breakfast and we have a deal!!

After this I'm ready to tackle round two.

At work I got flowers and amazon gift cards to support my new habit.  Very nice.

It is just my B-Day morn, but it is gonna be a grand day.

New 'Penny Kid'...

Stavo had to work Saturday morning.  Jess and I went out to score a little Christmas cheer.  Found it!!  We stopped by PetCo to donate food for the homeless critters and while we were there... one thing let to another and... Everyone meet Nutmeg.  

We wondered how long it would take Stavo to figure out what we had done.  He took one look at Jess and said, "What have you done?"


It's out of focus, but I was trying to be sneaky, a paparazzi I'm not.  ahahaha  I love that he immediately knew that Jess up to something.  We now have three pigs, Autumn, Pumpkin Pie and Nutmeg.

Laughed and Laughed and Laughed

I saw this on the news this morning and it made me smile. I love the lady with the red hair, she looks like she's having a blast. Not sure why the one tent dropped his pants, but I guess a tent has got to do what a tent has got to do.

I work in a crazy place...

But you all figured that out on Halloween when we tormented my boss and all came dressed as cats.

It gets better...one of the girls, who I adore and have worked with forever, has a swim suit in her office that she should have taken back last May.  We were laughing about it, one thing led to another and...

Our boss comes in, shakes his head and leaves.

Jamie has a heater in her office. It is a Pelonis and it dawned on me one day that minus a few letters this could be funny. So I, of course, immediately took out the letters.

At first we'd talk about Jamie's penis in hushed tones... but eventually penis became synonymous for heater.  I borrowed Jamie's penis so often that last week she bought me my own penis.  Thank you Jamie!

We were looking at the pictures and I said I'll call this one -- looking for Jamie's penis

No one saw that it was right there all along... there on the floor. ahaha.

Yesterday we were messing around with Jamie's I-pad and she took this lovely photo of me.  We also discovered that we are 93%  compatible love match.   Don't tell Doug. ; )

And sometimes we even work... but I don't have a picture so I can't actually prove it.

It could have been a rough day...

But it wasn't.  I kept to the high road and this song kept playing in my head -- okay at times I was singing softly to myself-- but, 'Damn, it feels good to be me".

I have to get back in the habit...

My life has been such turmoil lately that there just didn't seem like there was anything to say and I'm not talking Thumper wisdom...



There was just nothing -- nothing at all.  I could have complained about Cybil and how she was turning everyone's lives into a waking nightmare.  Could have been entertaining, but I was living it. The thought of writing about it was just too much.  "Make it stop mommy, the bad lady frightens me"

I had an epiphany yesterday and from that came a sense of calm. I’d been working on trying to find the calm place but to no avail. When a churning mass of doggy do is swirling around you sometimes it is hard to find the center.


As I tip-toed on the egg shells waiting for the next outburst, the next accusation, it dawned on me that I had done nothing wrong, why am I skulking about? I really don’t care what others think or say about me when they are false accusations.

It was then I said, “Thank you Honey.” I had a grandmother who for whatever reason did not like me. I learned to shrug it off. I had done nothing to earn her disapproval, it just existed. That’s her problem not mine.

I always wondered why Honey was in my life. I thought it was so that one day she would marry my Grandpa John, a wonderful man. But now I think it was for just this occasion. I have the ability to say, “No, I wasn’t wrong. You can say anything about me you want—it doesn’t matter. Those that know me will have my back and those are the only people I really care about.

To Cybil: I've discovered there is joy in just letting the shit storm wash over you. I can always shower, but you will have to go through life knowing what a truly horrible person you are to be so destructive.

To Honey: Whatever I did to you in another life… I’d say I’m sorry but hell I’d do it again if it would get me to this point in this one. Thank you.