Year End Wrap-Up

The holiday season has come and gone and I’m woefully behind in getting the words swirling in my head down on virtual paper and up on my blog.

First a short run-down of recent events. We never did put up a tree or lights or send out cards, but gifts were bought and shipped on time to Canada to my family and bought and wrapped with time to spare for local friends and family. Five years ago I would have been mortified if I had not sent out cards! I don’t know if that’s growth or indifference.

We spent Christmas Eve afternoon with most of D’s family and everyone had a good time trying out Mom’s new Shiat_su massaging cushion. She ended up giving it back to us because it hurt her back too much, we gave her an electric toothbrush instead and now the cushion sits on our loveseat. We all agreed that it did hurt, but it hurt sooooo good.

We opened our gifts to each on Christmas Eve and I got a very lovely white gold ring with diamonds, there are four small bars across the ring and the diamonds are randomly spaced on the bars, so it looks like music. I also got a hand-made wooden bird cage, D said it was for inspiration while I was blogging, isn’t that cute?

Christmas Day was spent with the extended Blond Family; first brunch at one house, complete with assorted small children (5 year-old Wonder Boy, 2 year-old twin girls and an 18-month old Japanese-American baby, all equally adorable) and two Vizslas.

Then to Mom & Dad Blond’s house for the rest of the day, most of which was spent opening the many, many, MANY presents under their tree. So many that breaks are required because everyone has to open gifts individually and it literally takes hours to get through them all. After a nice dinner we went home and unpacked our loot – the dining room and family room are still stewn with gift bags and tissue paper, but hey, that’s what weekends are for.

Then I promptly got sick, catching the combo stomach and regular flu that’s going around the Bay Area. Our power went out early Wednesday morning so we cranked up the generator so we could get ready for work. I am a slave to electricity. My world screeches to a halt without it.

As the day wore on I felt worse and worse, but made it through the Project From Hell and met D for dinner at a local diner (see slave to electricity above). Sometime in the middle of the night I awoke and said, “I have to throw up now”, as I grabbed the flashlight next to the bed and made it to the bathroom in time to lose my dinner of French toast. After several minutes during which I wished I could die, I crawled back into bed and slept the rest of the night. In the morning the power was still out but since I spent the entire day semi-conscious on the couch I didn’t really mind, I was warm in front of the wood stove. The power finally came back on Thursday evening at about 5:30, just before I was starting to figure out where we wanted to go out to eat.

New Year’s Eve afternoon we met the Blonds (sans Wonder Boy) and drove down to Monterey. After checking into our hotel we walked to a delightful restaurant for dinner then came back to change into our fancy duds to attend the “Silver Fishes & New Year’s Wishes” gala at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Our money went to a good cause and it was a great time. One of the cool things was the crowd ranged in age from 20’s to 70’s, as the patrons of the aquarium were there in full force, they were the ones wearing real fur and diamonds. They weren’t afraid to shake their groove thing either! Of course the exhibits are amazing, we especially loved the jellyfish, they are so strange and beautiful.

By the next morning I felt much better and after the best banana walnut pancakes I’ve ever had, drove to the farm for a riding lesson. I couldn’t think of a better way to start a new year than riding Angel. Before we left I had taken my riding stuff out of my trunk and put it on the ground behind D’s Jeep, thinking it was locked. Big mistake. While we were busy getting ready to leave, Lexi the yellow lab puppy from across the street discovered this treasure trove and proceeded to chew up my helmet. Oh well, I got a new helmet out of the deal.


My sister sent me a lot of gifts this year, she always goes out of her way to send me stuff, but this year she really went all out – 3 boxes worth! One of them contained a gorgeous horse statue made out of leather. I know, I had that thought at first too: a cow was sacrificed to make this horse? But it really is beautiful, don't you think?

Another contained an “11 piece porcelain nativity with wood stable” as it says on the box. I opened it enough to ensure that that was really what was inside (I’ve learned to never trust the box) and promptly put it aside. I thought it was exceedingly strange that she would get me something so overtly religious, but I will have to leave it at that, that’s a subject for a long post in the near future.

A lot of folks are recounting their year and for the most part the consensus was that 2006 sucked. Although many of my friends, online and IRL, suffered devastating losses of various kinds, I have to say that for me there were three things that stand out and they are all positive:

1. Meeting D’s son and grandson.

2. Starting a new job in April with my consulting company.

3. Fulfilling a long-time wish to learn to ride.

All of them, works in progress. Not a bad year after all.