Happy New Year!

This is my second attempt to post from the hot place.  The first, a "Merry Christmas" post, failed to go through.  I think I have the problem licked, though.  Thanks to MLL for the kind prompt.  I expect I'll be posting very infrequently until the end of February, unless I get really motivated and this posting method works.  In any case, the point of this post is "Happy New Year!"  I expect I'll be officially in 2008 before just about anyone who might read this, so I don't feel too bad about jumping the gun by a few hours.

 

Oh, and the hot place isn't really all that hot right now.  60s-80s in the daytime, 50s at night.  Tolerable.

Goin' to the hot place

Today's the day I leave on my extended trip. The one I get to go on instead of the one I wanted to go on. Which is OK, as far as it goes, because the one I wanted to go on has turned into a sort of living nightmare for the ones who went. Don't ask, just know that everyone got sick, and no one gets to come home for MUCH longer than they thought (and those two things are absolutely unrelated).

Anyway, I'm going to try to keep posting while I'm away. We'll see how successful that is.

Wish me luck.

Tagged...

Susie tagged me with a blog meme. Normally I don't do these things. I get them from my sisters, my brother, my mom sometimes, and I read what they send me, but, and I don't know why, I just don't "answer and send to your 36 best friends."

Even this one, I'm supposed to comment-tag 7 other bloggers. I only read 5 blogs regularly (apart from mine and Susie's), and one of those belongs to a celebrity. The others I read, but don't really comment on, and I'd feel like I was tracking mud on the carpets if my first comment was "blog tag."

All of that said, I'll still answer my seven random things. If you know me, you may know some of these, but this is for those of you who don't. And I'll turn this on its head a little: If you're a blogger, and you're reading this, link to your blog in my comments, and tag yourself. Mmmkay?

Seven Random or Weird Things about Me

1. I wish I could be a writer. I like to write, and I think I do it fairly well. I just can't seem to make myself sit down and write the whole story. (I know, NaNoWriMo...)

2. I have a nearly "phonographic" memory. I can remember, verbatim, almost anything I hear, if I pay attention, even years later. Conversations, movies, songs, doesn't matter. I can quote whole sections of movies I've seen once.

3. I bought my first new car with a manual transmission, but I had never driven one. I had to be show how just to drive it off the lot.

4. I was on an episode of "The Screen Savers." OK, I wasn't "on" the episode, but I was part of the show. I went to a taping and was selected to play in the LAN party on-set.

5. When I go to a new country, I like to go to the supermarket. I love seeing all the products I've never heard of.

6. I'm a sucker for weird flavored potato chips. Steak and Onion. Cheese and Onion. Prawn. Thai Chili Chicken. Mmm.

7. I've made a point of never having heard the Titanic theme ("My heart goes on" or whatever, by Celine Dion) all the way through. I've left the room, and even a building, so that I can continue to claim that. I've never seen the movie either. I know the ending...

It's his party...

Right now Susie and David are in the other room getting things ready for his birthday party. The theme this year is Harry Potter. We'll be having a Potions class (mixing various drinkable liquids to see who can create the coolest new flavor), a Care of Magical Creatures class (match the description to the Beanie Baby, or something like that), a Herbology class (taste the cut-up exotic fruit, name it and match it to its whole form), Divination (a gazing ball, tea leaves, and maybe some palmistry) and a "make a scale for the dragon tapestry" session.

If you didn't know, we (especially Susie) get a real charge out of making our kids' birthday parties into "events." It's a lot more fun than the standard "pin the tail on the donkey" thing, and since the kids get to choose their own theme, we know it's going to be something they like. David's last party theme was Doctor Who.

I'll see if I can post some pictures, post-event, or at least link to Susie posts, which will be sure to have pictures.

Oh, and I chickened out. Didn't have the talk. We're going to let things go, and at least get one more year out of it.

The great conspiracy

December. I can't really believe it's here, which is strange, because for the last 2 weeks I've been thinking it's December already. We got the advent calendars set up for the kids, and the Christmas elf is lurking about. Christmas is, indeed, imminent.

I think I'm going to have to have "the talk" with David tomorrow. We were at the mall last weekend, and Lily was really psyched to see Santa in his grotto. At first, we thought that David was the one who had suggested it, but he didn't want to go. So Susie and Lily went into the grotto ("Approximate wait from here: 30 min") and, after exchanging significant glances with Susie, I took David off to see why he didn't want to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.

"It's just, when you get to be my age, you figure out the secret," he said. And yes, that's an exact quote. But just to be sure, I asked, "What secret?"

"The secret of Santa's grottoes. It's just a man in a Santa suit in there, not the real Santa."

But we're just a small leap of logic away, aren't we? Is it better for me to take him aside and explain, or let him stew and figure it out? I know when I figured it out, I was afraid to mention it. I was afraid it would be the end of the goodness for me.

Yeah, I think it's time for the talk. What do you think?