quiet holiday

[Steph Barrett]

Up here in the more civilized Northwoods (I now live in Belgrade, which has
a nose so upturned, people can see their own boogers) it is snowing
sideways. Were were supposed to get a dusting... maybe an inch. Perhaps
they mean that is all that will stay stuck where it lands, as the wind is
howling. This is Sunday. Yesterday was cold and sunny. Friday was cool
and clear. Thursday, it was 50 and rained 2". We had a fair bit of snow
and ice on the ground prior to Thursday of last week. That is all gone now,
replaced by a sheer sheet of ice on all surfaces.

Had a decent holiday. My mom and cousins came up here Thursday and Friday.
We did x-mas here Friday because Rena was off work. It was enjoyable. Our
Thursday night before the night before x-mas party flopped amidst previously
mentioned monsoon. Still we had some company. I missed a hockey game where
someone dislocated a shoulder and had a head injury for my party that didn't
happen. As it turned out, the player hurt was injured by one of her own
teammates when our team did not show up and they decided to scrimmage
against each other. We've been telling Heidi her team is too rough. They
got to see it themselves.

Anyway, yesterday, we all loaded up and drove 3 hours to my brother's in NH.
Had a little holiday gift opening there and then I came home. My honey had
been jokingly telling me she wanted "a bow in it" for a gift, so I got home,
found a bow, stuck it on my crotch, and found her reading in the basement
with the stove roaring. I sat down, winked, and fell sound asleep. So much
for that!

How's everyone else for the holidays? Should we meet at the VB? I got a
couple of "glencairn whiskey" glasses for christmas. No scotch to go in
them though.... Perhaps I need EL's help to get me a bottle of good scotch
to try out the glasses.

Steph
cool tootsies even in the slippers...

[Heather Rose Jones]

At 9:17 AM -0500 12/26/04, Steph Barrett wrote:

<snip holiday adventures>

Post by Steph Barrett
How's everyone else for the holidays? Should we meet at the VB? I got a
couple of "glencairn whiskey" glasses for christmas. No scotch to go in
them though.... Perhaps I need EL's help to get me a bottle of good scotch
to try out the glasses.

Hey Steph, did you get hit by any of the power outages in the
rainstorm? My brother's place here in Waterville went dark so we
finished our card game by candlelight then walked five blocks over to
my parents' house where the power was still on. I'm enjoying the
seasonally-necessary snow flurries today -- just in time since I'm
flying back to California tomorrow.

Someone at work asked me about what my family's holiday traditions
and after thinking about it I concluded that our only major one was
all trying to be in the same place at the same time. We've also
developed a minor tradition that whoever has most recently bought a
house has to host the festivities. This year, that fell to my middle
brother who, if I recall correctly, is taking his fifth turn hosting
the family gathering, each in a different residence.

So we gathered, and ate, and played card games, and ate, and shopped,
and watched the nephew play video games, and ate, and played with the
kitten, and went out to a parents' friends' solstice party and played
music, and ate, and opened presents, and met the middle brother's new
romantic interest (his divorce having become final this year) and
ate. Oh, and did I mention that we had a lot of good food? I
managed to squeeze in getting two more chapters of my manuscript sent
off to the editor, so only two and change more to go in the next week.

Heather
(toasty toes watching the snow drift down)
--
****
Heather Rose Jones
***@earthlink.net
****

[Steph Barrett]

Post by Heather Rose Jones
Hey Steph, did you get hit by any of the power outages in the
rainstorm? My brother's place here in Waterville went dark so we
finished our card game by candlelight then walked five blocks over to
my parents' house where the power was still on. I'm enjoying the
seasonally-necessary snow flurries today -- just in time since I'm
flying back to California tomorrow.

I disagree with the proposition that what is going on outside is "flurries".
It's been snowing since I woke up at 8. The flakes are finally coming down
at an angle. For the longest time, they were just blowing by, parallel to
the ground. I'm displeased with this flurrying activity, as I have to run a
load of garbage to the transfer station and with the flurries, I can't drive
down the driveway, so I need to schlep it all up.

I've finished vacuuming. Spent a chunk of the morning shaving the dog's
feet, as Gordon also has a propensity for muppet feet as he ages. I can't
tolerate it. So, his feet are cleanly shaved and the carpet has been
vacuumed. Now, there is no forestalling that adventure to the dump. I
suppose I need a shower. Contact is so extensive during foot shaving that
I've a terrible running nose now. Turns out the only shot I react to on a
weekly basis is the shot that contains grasses and dogs. Seeing as there
aren't much in the way of grasses, I know it's the dog. And the dog shot
gets itchier and more reactive with each passing week. The other shots
don't bother much, but that one... let me tell you. I've not gnawed my arm
off yet, but even benadryl won't stop the itch.

We didn't end up with outages here. Good thing, as we threw a party that no
one came to Thursday night. Now, I'm giving away the eggnog I took a small
personal loan to purchase ($8/ gallon!!!) because I truly fear that Rena and
I will drink it all if it remains here. That's a bad thing. She gave me a
gym membership for Christmas because she wants a workout partner (turns out
the TV isn't in front of the elliptical at the new gym.) I need to go
because I'm getting fat, lazy, and out of shape in my endeavors as a state
lady.

Regarding state ladys, I thought about getting that on my license plate.
You think it would be frowned upon? ST8 LDY. That's what everyone calls
me. We have a new guy in charge now. He wants us to transition to a
"customer service" model where we will refer to the people we work with as
"customers." I object, as most "customers" are there on a voluntary basis.
I've never been to a store where staff go knock on a "customer's" door,
demand they do something they don't want to or can't do... oh... say...
quit shooting up hot chocolate because they're too fucked up to tell they
don't have heroin on the spoon and then... I don't know... Just doesn't
seem like a fair metaphor to me... and I'm crazy for metaphors! If you
don't quit hurting your kids, we'll send them to someone that's a lot less
likely to hurt them is not a selling point for a lot of people
(unfortunately.)

Anyway..... It's still snowing like the dickens. If I drive down the
drive to get the garbage, maybe I won't have to go at all... and I can skip
the gym, probably miss tomorrow's kickoff to the 2-day headache hearing of
the century (two, count em... TWO days in girl clothes so I can listen to
these idiots fight over a child.) Hmmmm... I'm going to go bring the van
down.

Steph
still in slippers

[nora]

Post by Steph Barrett
Had a decent holiday.

glad to hear it, steph!

Post by Steph Barrett
How's everyone else for the holidays?

i'm fine here in the south - a bit warmer than y'all are up there.
since i'm without an income at the moment, i'm racking my brain trying
to come up with an intimate, inexpensive, memorable way to celebrate
new year's eve with my gf.

maybe we'll just light candles and drink cocoa and snuggle ... after
dealing with family stress and holiday stress and unemployment stress
for the past month, i feel more like connecting and being at peace than
partying and cutting loose ...

- misfit
fuzzy black socks with snowmen on them (they're kinda dorky but they
were a christmas gift from my sisters so i'm wearing them anyway)

[kayteau]

Steph talked about her holiday and the snow...

I headed SOUTH from the Washington DC area to visit the sweetie and we ended up with TEN inches of snow in Hampton, VA (on the coast). Richmond, a mere 60 miles away got nary a flake. My brother in Houston of all places managed to scrape together enough snow to make a 5 inch snow man out of the inch or two they got the night before Christmas.

kay
bare feet with red toenails

"From this happy day,
no more blue songs,
only whoop-de-do songs,
from this moment on."
- Cole Porter