happy holidays

Hope you had a great Christmas. We did. As you can see.

in case you don't have anything better to do

You can always develop an abscess in a tooth and have a root canal five days before Christmas.

If I were you, I would not put that on my list of top five things I need to get done right away.

Just sayin'.

tis the season

people have been putting up lights at my mom's house

She loves this. I keep telling myself that there are probably kids who beg their parents, every December, to please, please, please drive them past the blue light house so they can see what has been added this year.

one down, one to go

Finished another semester. Submitted my last final yesterday.

Why then am I still thinking about modification of child custody and grandparent visitation rights?

Why am I still creating Access databases with forms and reports in my sleep?

Why am I still more than a tad annoyed about the two group projects in different classes this semester--both that started with four members, ended with two.

In one of the groups I did the usual--played my role as mom and did all the work that didn't get done by the other group member. Got the maximum points.

In the other group, I didn't do that this time. I did my part of the assignment--well, actually more than my part, but I didn't do all of the work that the other member didn't do. So the teacher gave me five points extra for my extra contribution. But because we (the group) didn't do all of the assigned work, my grade was a C. Well, C+ if you add in the extra 5 points.

When I was a senior in high school I had a teacher who had a big blackboard that covered a whole wall in his class and it had only one thing written on it. All year, in big pastel colorful chalk block letters it said only one thing--LIFE ISN'T FAIR. He said that if he could teach us that, he would have succeeded. I suspect he was tired of hearing kids tell him that "this isn't fair" or "that isn't fair"--but it worked for me. I don't generally fall back into the pit of unfairness when things aren't going the way I want them to.

But I'm telling you, group projects in college are JUST NOT FAIR.

these two are animals

how many feet are actually touching the floor?

i am so on it

1. Bowling with Stu & Shi & girls & Jack yesterday.
2. Done with this semester except for one take-home final and I'm making excellent progress on it.
3. Took a final today for that dang INFO 3120 class--feeling pretty certain I will get more than the 43% I got on the midterm.
4. Online shopping is awesome. I know, overused word, but very much accurate in this instance.
5. Purchased a tree today--a real tree. My house smells so much more gardeny tonight.
6. I am feeling so festive. And happy.


~~~

That online shopping thing? I think I'll use my unexpected Kohl's cash (I know, how did that happen?) to purchase one of these for myself.

how do people do it?

It's that time of year again. The time when I realize that Christmas is in two and one half weeks and I must give in to the pressure and make a list or two and get into that whole Christmas spirit thing.

What has happened to cause me to lose the excited anticipation? Did it dwindle away as my children grew up? If I had unlimited funds would it feel like more fun? Would a live tree cheer me in ways that the boxed tree in the basement storage room cannot? If we had snow would I be secretly plotting and smiling?

I started today thinking of possible gifts for family, friends, and neighbors, and strongly considered a trip to the Christmas tree lot to purchase a live tree. The thought of baking the traditional cookies of my youth, mixing up a bunch of tasty cheeseballs, cooking a batch of toffee--all of these have stirred in me a bit of enthusiasm.

Wait--there--feel that? It's coming back.