Category: general

I’m stuffed to the gills on Christmas music. *burps up a little holly* Martin had his annual Lucia-slash-Christmas family service this morning where his music play group gathered with their fondly smiling parents and various siblings and relatives at the village congregation house. He opted for the stylish gingerbread man outfit, complete with floppy hat, and along with a group of mostly girls dressed in white with red ribbon sashes about their waists and plastic battery-driven candle crowns on their heads, plus a couple of boys dressed as Santa, they proceeded up the aisle singing “Sankta Lucia” and arranged themselves...

I don’t watch TV. People react very strangely to that statement. They look at me as if I’ve just said I have a contagious debilitating disease, one that they can’t relate to and hope they can’t catch. Sometimes they back away slowly. Sometimes they don’t believe me. Oh, I don’t mean that I NEVER watch TV. I watch The West Wing, and sometimes a few minutes of David Letterman or Conan, but it’s extremely rare for me to sit in front of the TV for more than 10 minutes. And this is in a country where you don’t get a...

babysitter (started at age 12) camp counselor daycare aide dorm snackshop cook & cashier, also advertising materials dorm maintenance & paint crew university laundry (worst job EVER) bagel deli counter & cashier bookstore clerk & cashier advertising agency account coordinator freelance writing and design (ongoing) marketing coordinator for a bank amnesty international boutique clerk & cashier (praktik) marketing communications coordinator for a telecommunications giant marketing coordinator for an OEM Christmas decorations are up! At least all the ones that don’t hang from a pine tree branch. All the PartyLite stuff arrived this week and I just opened the boxes and...

Christmas letter—not done. Christmas cards—not started. Christmas baking—pawned off partially on SiL. Christmas shopping—half done. Holiday calendar—completely packed. When you don’t have anything to write about and too much else to do, POST PICTURES!

After 6 weeks on the job, I just had a salary discussion with my boss and will be getting an additional small monthly raise, plus a mobile phone. My boss is very pleased with what I’ve accomplished so far, and I left the meeting with a good feeling. 🙂 I can feel the acceleration at work. It feels fast. And it feels good. We had a super turnout last night at the AWC monthly meeting, due in large part to the annual Christmas cookie exchange. We had 16 participants, and each of us baked 6 cookies for EACH of the...

There are people everywhere. I doubt there are very many places left in the world now where you can walk very far without coming across the obvious spoors of mankind. Tracks, roads, garbage washed up on the beach, cultivation, jet trails across the sky, we’re taking over. Not long ago I read an article that claimed the earth would run out of oil and gas within the next 30-50 years. I keep foreseeing a science fiction future of no grass, no trees, no animals except pets and domesticated breeds for slaughter and it’s in my lifetime. All the little villages...

Whoa! Having houseguests and a huge dinner party makes it easy to miss posting on your journal! You would think that we took it pretty easy yesterday but you’d be wrong. Well, you’d be half wrong. Anders got the Advent lights put up and all the Christmas decorations down from the attic so that I can start decorating at my leisure. Leisure! *snort* She said leisure! While John and I went to drop Martin off at a birthday party (the boy he doesn’t like, if you remember, whom he subsequently got into a fight with AT THE BIRTHDAY PARTY) and...

Muahahahaha! I did it! With ozswede‘s inestimable help, we bad-copped, good-copped my brother into starting an LJ! A great big welcome to johann_metzger! Woo hoo, Mom & Sarah, you’re next! 😀

We are having so much fun! My brother and Simone are here and she not only brought sushi with her on Thursday but she and John made chicken casseroles yesterday for dinner. 🙂 Unfortunately, one of them got overturned in a casserole catastrophe, but the other 2 were great. 🙂 ozswede and tallefjant arrived last night, along with little Lambi and Bruce & Sheila (the birds) so we have a very lively household at the moment. Thanksgiving dinner preparations are in full swing. The turkeys were done last night and the rest of the guests are arriving at 5 p.m....

One of the ghost stories that stuck with me from childhood was The Monkey’s Paw. It’s the story of a well-intentioned wish gone horribly wrong. I’ve read other such stories that also send a twisting shock back on the wisher in one form or another. Once, when asked what I would wish for if I could have any wish, I thought a good one would be to have back everything I had ever mislaid or lost or had stolen from me. The friend who asked me the question, upon hearing my answer, said something that made me stop and shudder,...