Ring Out the Old, Ring in the New

So here we are again, the end of another year, with a new start right around the corner.

I usually find New Year's Eve to be a bit of an anticlimax after Christmas. The thing I remember most about the last time I went out on New Year's Eve was the hordes of drunken idiots reeling around the dance floor. I don't remember how many years ago that was, just that I haven't been out on New Year's since then. I just don't really "do" New Year's.

Having said that, I do try to make some positive changes in my life in the form of resolutions each year.

The year before last I resolved to get my finances under control. Although I'm not rolling in superfluous cash, I do at least know where my money is going and no longer get nasty shocks when opening bills I'm not expecting.

Last year, although I actually quit smoking in November of that year, maintaining that was part of my resolutions for this year.

This year, I need to make a positive commitment to getting fit and, if possible, to losing the weight I have gained since quitting smoking. I've already made a start, with the exercising I've mentioned in previous blog posts, but I'll admit I've let them slide. So my New Year's Resolution is to Just Get Moving!

Part of this resolution will involve getting more organized, so I can schedule time for exercising as well as all the other things I do at home. It's very easy for me to let things slip, and suddenly just not have time, but if I actually make a schedule I'm more likely to keep to it.

And then there's the fun of planning with E. for the coming year - planning visits, and dreaming about possible plans for a more permanent future. And, since my sister will read this - don't panic, I'm not running away or anything, we're just discussing possibilities - necessary when you have two people in love, but with established jobs and established homes in two separate cities.

Oh, and one more resolution - my sister will like this too - I promise to add some photos to the currently empty "Family Photo Album" on my personal website.

So as evening draws close, I wish everyone a Happy and Safe New Year Celebration and hope that the coming year is full of bright possibilities for you and yours.

Here's a cute page to give you some pointers for a safe and fulfilling New Year.

Let it Snow!

Haven't blogged for a few days because I've been down with the creeping crud that was going around at work. But I did want to brag about the snowball I made on Christmas Day. So rarely does the Texas Gulf Coast get snow that it made national news. Being indoors all day, I didn't actually SEE it snowing, but when I looked out Christmas morning my eyes beheld a winter wonderland of snow.

Well, ok, not exactly a winter wonderland... actually everywhere looked pretty green... except for my patio chairs... for reasons unknown to me, snow had accumulated on my patio chairs. There was enough snow for me to make a snowball - which I did and took a photograph of, for posterity.

OK, so it wasn't as impressive as the snowman on Galveston beach, but it was MY white Christmas :-)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday.

Bah Humbug?

When E. was here at the beginning of December, we took a drive round my neighborhood with the digital camera and took photographs of all the lighting displays. It seems like half the neighborhood was going for the "Griswold Award" (and if you've seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, you'll know what I mean)

Now here we are, just a few days away from Christmas and on my way into the neighborhood last night, it struck me that half of those houses didn't have their lights on. What happened? Did they lose momentum? I guess that can happen when you put your lights up in November... one of my co-workers, who decorated over Thanksgiving, said she's getting sick of them and is ready for Christmas to be over so she can take them down. Since I always decorate just a couple of weeks before Christmas, that doesn't happen to me. My Christmas lights (humble though they may be) will shine brightly all the way through the season.

And what's wrong with this picture? I work in a fairly close-knit department within a large company. In the past week, the ladies of the group have given small gifts to everyone in the department. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive, just a little token of appreciation. (I actually haven't opened any of my gifts, I've kept them so I will have something to open under the tree on Christmas, since I'll be on my own that day) However, our department is equally divided - male and female - and while all the women spontaneously took part in this impromptu gift exchange, not one of the guys did so much as give a card, or even a communal box of chocolates or cookies.

Do we work with a bunch of Grinches?

So Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

GEORGE W BUSH
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. Our side of the road is the right side of the road and the chicken is either against us or for us. There is no middle ground for any chicken.

COLIN POWELL
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

DONALD RUMSFELD
I have known about the chicken crossing the road for several months. I was investigating why the chicken moved but didn't feel it was necessary to alert anyone.

HANS BLIX
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road I am now against it!

RALPH NADER
The chicken's habitat on the other side of the road had been polluted by unchecked industrial greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV.

PAT BUCHANAN
To steal the job of a decent, hard-working American.

RUSH LIMBAUGH
I don't know why the chicken crossed the road, but I'll bet it was getting a government grant to cross the road, and I'll bet that somebody out there is already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road syndrome. Can you believe this? How much more of this can real Americans take? Chickens

crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars. And when I say tax dollars, I'm talking about your money, money the government took from you to build road for chickens to cross.

MARTHA STEWART
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any inside information.

DR SEUSS
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY
To die in the rain. Alone.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR
I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

GRANDPA
In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together -- in peace.

ARISTOTLE
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

KARL MARX
It was an historic inevitability.

CAPTAIN KIRK
To boldly go where no chicken has ever gone before.

SIGMOND FREUD
The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES
I have just witnessed eChicken2004, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook... and Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken.

ALBERT EINSTEIN
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE
That was my chicken! I invented the chicken.

COLONEL SANDERS
Did I miss one?

An Early Christmas

E. and I celebrated our Christmas early this year. He visited from San Francisco this past weekend, taking advantage of much lower fares than he would have got had he visited closer to Christmas. (Sometimes the practical overrides the sentimental)

We had a wonderful weekend, as we always do. Time always seems to slow down for us, or perhaps it's just that we cherish every second we spend together, so it just *seems* to slow down. We spent time putting up my Christmas tree and decorations, and then took a drive around the neighborhood, photographing the lights. I can attest that the Wallace family in my neighborhood are giving the Griswold's some serious competition in the lighting overload arena this year!

We drove over to the barn to visit my horses, on a lovely crisp clear day. E. took a bunch of photos of me messing around with the horses. Bit of a shock to see in photographs how much weight I have put on since i quit smoking a year ago - but hopefully that will change as I keep going with my exercising. At least E. still loves me (even if there *is* more of me to love these days, LOL)

All in all, a lovely weekend. Now I'm looking forward to the next visit in February :-)

Cats in the Christmas Tree

At the beginning of December, I mentioned an article I had written about Christmas With Cats, which details some ideas I had about decorating for the holidays when you have cats in the house.

On a forum I visit, someone posted this link which had me rolling off my chair with laughter.

Thank goodness, after E. and I had put up my little tree this weekend, my seven cats didn't follow the example set by Iris and Fern!

Installing Love

I came across this in a forum I visit. I thought it especially appropriate for the time of year. Everyone should have this installed.

******************************

Tech Support: Yes, ... how can I help you?

Customer: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install Love. Can you guide me though the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?

Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running ?

Customer: Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in! your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off ?

Customer: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.

Customer: Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - Program not run on external components ." What should I do?

Tech Support: Don't worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.

Customer: So, what should I do?

Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer: Okay, done.

Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.

Customer: Thank you, God.

Switching Cellphone Providers

I went to plug my cell phone in to recharge it the other day and it came up with a little message "Unable to charge"

WTF??

I unplugged and tried again, same message. Hmmm. Not good. So yesterday (Saturday) I headed in to Cingular to see if the battery needed replacing or something.

The rather snooty woman made a comment, "well it could be because of this corrosion on the bottom" and showed me - sure enough there was corrosion. I remembered I had got caught in a Texas rainstorm last week, and my cellphone sits in an outside pocket of my purse. It must have got wet - I remember I myself looked like I had swam to my car I was so soaked.

So then the lady and I started the back and forth -- "well can I buy a replacement phone, the cheapest you have got," -- "this is all we have." -- "$119??? that's a bit steep! What about this $69 one here on the wall" -- "we don't have those in stock."

The conversation went downhill from there. And disintegrated completely when she informed me that the prepaid "plan" I'm on - basically $30 for 90 minutes and I have 90 days to use them - is no longer available. It's now 10 cents per minute PLUS a dollar a day "access fee"

Basically, my response was "f*** that" - although being a polite English person what I actually said was, "You've got to be kidding, that's three times what I'm paying now, never mind I'll find something else"

What I *really* wanted to say was "F*** that"

Anyway, so last night I was chatting online with E and decided to do some online searching, did a search for "prepaid wireless phone" (or something) and ignored the first search return, which was a paid placement by Cingular, and ended up at myrateplan.com which allowed me to enter my zip code, the features I wanted and then select from four or five different companies. Interestingly, when I entered my criteria, Cingular didn't even show up on the list.

I looked through the plans, found one that looked ideal, clicked through and found myself at Amazon.com. Turns out you can buy cell phones, and plans, online now! Wow! So, after hmming and haaaaing for a while, I finally settled on Virgin Mobile.

I got a Kiyacera Rave 7 phone for like $40 (including 10 minutes of airtime) I also got a $20 top up card. Once the phone arrives, I just call an 800 number to get it activated (will have to be a new number, but I never remember my cell number anyway) Then, the only requirement is to fill it up with at least $20 worth of minutes every 90 days. That works out less than I am currently paying with Cingular, and a whole lot less than they want me to pay to get a new phone and continue service.

Of course, this sort of plan isn't for everyone, but I just don't talk on the phone a lot. In fact, if you've read my blog, you'll know that one of my pet peeves is people who have private, personal conversations on their cell phones in a public place, forcing you to listen to the sordid details of their lives. I have three phones at home, and I have a phone at work. The only time I need a cell phone is for when I am not at home or at work -- if the car breaks down, for example, or, god forbid, if I am in another car wreck, or if I need to call work and tell them I'm stuck in traffic. Each of my calls lasts less than 5 minutes. So the prepaid plan is definitely the way for me to go.

So we'll see how this works out. Virgin Mobile is, of course, run by the same guy (Sir Richard Branson) who owns Virgin Records, the Virgin Megastores, Virgin Atlantic airlines and now is planning commercial flights into space. He should be able to keep me connected, don't you think?

Catch a Falling Snowflake

The chances of me seeing real snow here in Texas are, let's just say, minimal. But I found this cute, if addictive, site where you can catch a falling snowflake and also create your own snowflake greeting.

Christmas Songs

I'm getting a pretty impressive collection on MP3's on my computer now. I don't have an iPod, but I do have an Apple Macintosh computer at home (which I noticed, in the Apple Store in San Francisco, is billed as "the ultimate iPod accessory - huh? the computer is now the accessory?)

But back to my MP3's... I now have about 350 songs in my iTunes MP3 player. That's nothing compared to some of the folks I know online who have 2,500+, but I actually listen to all of mine. A lot of my collection replaces music that I once had on vinyl (remember vinyl?) but I'm also gathering new songs as well, or at least songs I didn't have before.

Last night, I downloaded some Christmas songs from the Apple Music Store. After listening to clips of a zillion different versions of The Carol of the Bells, I couldn't decide which to get, but ended up getting:

Happy Christmas (War is Over) by John Lennon
I Believe in Father Christmas by Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Step into Christmas by Elton John

and one more Christmas song by The Eagles, which the title has flown right out of my mind!

It occurs to me that all those songs were popular in the early 80's, which was about the time I left England and moved here. I think part of the reason I like them is that they remind me of the Christmases of the past.

Now I'm looking forward to making Christmas memories for the future :-)

Celebrity Yawn

OK, for years I have heard that the reason they don't show the equestrian sport of dressage (my own personal passion) on TV is that it is boring to watch and no one understands it.

So why then is TV suddenly littered with shows that consist of a group of people (often "celebrities") sitting around a table, playing poker?

I'll admit, I haven't actually watched one of these shows, but since presumably all the players sit around with their "poker faces" on, how exciting can it be?

What's next, Celebrity Dominos?

The First Day of Christmas

Well here we are in December and the temperature dipped obligingly last night so that I woke up to a winter wonderland of frost on the roof and on the lawn. Hard to dress appropriately though, when the weather forecast is calling for 60+ degrees this afternoon!

I'm getting in the Christmas spirit and have already sent out cards. It helps that I am participating in a couple of Christmas card exchanges with some of the online groups I belong to. I've already received cards from the Netherlands and from England. I know that many people don't even bother with Christmas cards, but it is a tradition I have stuck with, ever since leaving family and friends in England 20-something years ago.

I won't put up my decorations or tree for a while yet - E. is coming on the 10th and we're putting the lights up together that weekend. I'll probably do the interior decorations after that, or perhaps before, so we can admire them together.

If you've read other parts of my blog, you'll know that the Cat in Cat's Place refers to the fact that I have seven cats. As you can imagine, decorating for Christmas can be challenging. Last year I wrote an article entitled Christmas with Cats which gives some ideas on Christmas decorations for cat owners.