Kevin's Watch

working christmas by myself. two people were given the day off.

today i cooked five meals. (finished, made supper for today. cooked the boiled eggs for breakfast. made most of the huge Christmas lunch. made the johnnies for supper.)

have to do our Christmas (me and Julie) on friday.

Welcome back, Sarge!

Merry Christmas to you and Julie; Merry Christmas to all!

null wrote:have to do our Christmas (me and Julie) on friday.

Sorry you have to do that... good to see you around, though..

May you get some peace and joy outta the whole deal, somehow, though...

lorin wrote:Try my technique ....... stick your head in the sand. It's been working great for me the last two weeks.

You silly.

My son is in the US and wants to be a youth worker. He's really gifted in that area but all that high energy makes it hard for him to focus.

Oh my... didn't realize that; one piece of ticket to adventure and joy, along with a hard struggle.

HEY! Didn't anyone see I posted about squash soup three pages back???

Anyway, Just got home a little bit ago from a great big family brunch except it wasn't my family. Bre, a friend of mine and Cyn's invited us to go with them to her husband Andy's family gathering. It was brunch style and there were white elephant gifts and then we played this really fun game with dollar bills and dice that told you to keep your bills, pass left, pass right or put them in the center pot. They were a really great group of people and so many of them told us (Cyn and myself) that we were welcome back anytime or that they looked forward to seeing us at another gathering. I even got hugged by a few of them. Now I am back home and just chillin like a villain...

Hope everyone is happy, warm, healthy and having a lovely day.

Magickmaker and I (Batty's back at her dad's for another week or two) were invited to a friend's house for Christmas dinner. She made duck l'orange, which I'd never had before (and wouldn't ever make myself), and a bunch of side dishes. It was yummy. She gave me a copy of AATE with the UK cover, which she'd found at a local bargain book store (if anyone has heard of Daedalus Books, that's the one); since I like the UK covers better than the US ones, I was quite happy.

This has been a really good holiday season, all told. I don't think I got a single "what the hell am I gonna do with this??" gift.

Back to reality tomorrow, unfortunately. All of my attorneys are on vacation this week, but I predict it will be crazy anyway, as there are sure to be attorneys in the office whose secretaries are out and who are up against a deadline. Secretarial always sends an e-mail around on weeks like this to let everyone know who's in and can be pestered with requests. Oy....

Bah... it's only a couple days after Christmas, and I'm feeling like a colossal grouch...
...I keep "telling myself" I'm going to do various things.
..but as time keeps rollin', it seems that I'm showing by my actions that I have no intention of doing them.

I've got one or two tutoring students who I feel I'm letting down, and I think that's wearing on me.

survived the Christmas day. found out for the next two weeks i will be working two out four days all by myself.

one of c/o's is from India and he went there until the 17th of Jan. he got screwed in the transfer of power at work. originally he was given Christmas off, but the acting captain took that day away. the day he was supposed to be in-flight.

so i went to bat for him with our new captain, who is my second captain from my first unit. and even though i didn't ask and even refused the offer, he will be bringing me a gift back from India.

he has previously invited me to India for his wedding. i want to go so badly, but it will be too expensive. I am going to be looking for a part time job to cover. or i will be begging on the street corner to get the cash.

We are in the northern Nigeria city of Kano, a very old city, more than 96% Mu$lim. Seen some way-cool stuff, including cloth dying in pits in use for more than 500 years (pits are passed down through families and used to dye natural indigo), watched a woman make clay pots using her hands and feet, and walked for miles through the Old City Market, the largest open air market in Africa; including a tannery where leather is processed using centuries-old processes (mostly goat skin but lots of crocodile and snakeskins were hanging on the lines as well), the leather is shipped all over the world, and it's a miracle the smell doesn't reach the whole world.

(I think on my personal top ten list of gloriously smelly stinks, this goes up to #2, just after an armload of rotten eggs that began exploding all over me halfway to the compost pile back in Vermont a few years ago.)

I will post some pics when I find my camera cord!

Guess I haven't been posting as much this week.

More progress report: Bookshelves were assembled on Thursday. As was the bed. I might be moving in next weekend.

I got several books (listed elsewhere) and some DVDs for christmas, but they're all packed up in boxes sitting just out of shot in that picture with all the rest of my books. So I don't get to watch any of them until I've moved.

Nice shelves, Murrin! I predict they'll be jammed full presently.

Deer, looking forward to your pics, as long as they're not in Smellovision.

So the week turned out to be very quiet at work, after all. I even had enough time yesterday to put together my packet of stuff for a blog tour that starts the day after New Year's. Today I wrote my New Year's Day post for the Indie Exchange and sent it off. So I'm caught up for several days. Which is good because Magickmaker wants me to take her shopping tomorrow, after I've driven to Maryland to pick up Batty. I have a feeling 2013 will be even busier than 2012 was....

They're not secured to the wall at the minute, so not loading them up just yet.

What, you don't want to live dangerously?

No, not really.

Test...

Edit: Yikes. I just broke this thread, deleted a post and the entire topic vanished. Had to post again in another thread, delete that post, use the re-appeared most-recent link on the forum index to get back into this thread (still not showing on forum page), and post this to get it to reappear.

Also, 888888 posts!

aliantha wrote:What, you don't want to live dangerously?

I'm Murrin wrote:Test...

Edit: Yikes. I just broke this thread, deleted a post and the entire topic vanished. Had to post again in another thread, delete that post, use the re-appeared most-recent link on the forum index to get back into this thread (still not showing on forum page), and post this to get it to reappear.

Also, 888888 posts!

Does this answer your question, Ali?

Linna Heartlistener wrote:Bah... it's only a couple days after Christmas, and I'm feeling like a colossal grouch...
...I keep "telling myself" I'm going to do various things.
..but as time keeps rollin', it seems that I'm showing by my actions that I have no intention of doing them.

I remember after I hit 30 and had at least one kid, that not only would I very likely never actually sew a full-sized quilt, I really wasn't obligated to, nor did I give a rip. It was so freeing!!! I give you permission to go through your list of things you are supposed to do, and delete those that #1 are not consistent with your gifts and #2 those that the world will go on if you don't do them.

ali wrote:Deer, looking forward to your pics, as long as they're not in Smellovision.

Oh, but you have to get the full experience to really appreciate it!!!

One comment about Kano: the people were lovely and so friendly and eager to converse in Hausa and some English, BUT not only were women extremely scarce (only maybe 2% of the people on the street) those I met would NOT talk to me or even say hello (which Nigerians will always do, as a general rule; to "not greet" is severely rude). The exception was a couple of houses we were invited into- inside their own houses they were unveiled and friendly and conversational. Interesting.

i get no c/o's three out of my four days at work.

dANdeLION wrote:

aliantha wrote:What, you don't want to live dangerously?

I'm Murrin wrote:Test...

Edit: Yikes. I just broke this thread, deleted a post and the entire topic vanished. Had to post again in another thread, delete that post, use the re-appeared most-recent link on the forum index to get back into this thread (still not showing on forum page), and post this to get it to reappear.

Also, 888888 posts!

Does this answer your question, Ali?

Yes, it does -- thanks, dAN!

Oh joy, my corn came off this morning, but has left a small hole. Have administered tea tree oil cream on a plaster. At least I can walk properly again!

Wow, nothing here since the 1st.

I started yoga today. Really interesting. I am surprisingly flexible for a woman of my age. Just think what all those men are missing. I was very tired but very relaxed after it was over. Three things I noticed;

1. My stomach kept getting in the way.

2. I seemed to instinctively want to breathe opposite of the way the instructor told us to breathe. She said to push out your breath by pushing your stomach in from the belly button but my body wanted to let my stomach out when I breathed out. Ass backwards.

3. The hardest thing was to keep my eyes closed and relaxed. My eyes were jumping all over the place under my lids.

But all in all I enjoyed it. And it is a great bargain. 10 sessions for $32.00!