A facebook friend of mine (I'll call her Nancy)  recently posted that she'd heard some news that made her very said. She wasn't specific about what the news was, so I asked her about it in chat. I learned that  she has an elderly neighbor who is very ill and near death.

My friend had been this woman's neighbor for a long time and had a lot of happy ( Read more... )

I went to see my siblings, nieces & nephews, and ILORs (my sister-in-laws family, or In-Laws Once Removed) on Christmas Day. As usual, I had a wonderful time. It's always great to see my family, and it was especially nice this year. My sister had to miss thanksgiving because of her ill-health. It was heartening to see her well enough to make it to ( Read more... )

When I was in graduate school at Chapel Hill. Fred Brooks was a regular participant, and he always waxed as wise and eloquent on scripture as he did on computer science ( Read more... )

We might not have had a white Christmas after all, according to this article in the  Charlotte Observer:

Was white Christmas a dream?

The article does not deny that snow fell on Christmas day. But since the National Weather Service takes the snow depth reading at 7 AM, and it hadn't started snowing then, we didn't have a white Christmas. (It  doesn't ( Read more... )

I spent Christmas at my sister-in-laws parents house here in town. My brother  and his wife, their kids Andi and Barney, my sister, and my sister-in-laws brother Max were all there.  There were also three dogs, including my nephew's dog Elinor, whom I had never met before. Elinor is a very friendly, sweet-natured pug-boxer mix. Even though we don't ( Read more... )

I had quite a weekend. I had to get grades in by noon today, and this was made trickier by the fact that my last two exams were on Friday. On top of that commencement was this weekend and they were having a white elephant gift exchange at Jackson's Java. I had doubts if I could make it to either of these events. Attending commencement was sort of ( Read more... )

I went by BAM tonight to see if the copy of After The Hangover  I'd ordered had come in. This was not a good idea. I'm very busy right now, and they told me they'd call me when they had it. But it had been over a week and I hadn't heard anything, so I thought somehow I had missed the message.

It hadn't come in. I couldn't resist some browsing ( ( Read more... )

Elle and I exchanged Christmas gifts today. I know, Christmas was over a month ago. It's a long story, and even if I wanted to take the time to tell it, I couldn't because I don't know all of it.

Anyway, I got her a book, some DVD's, some lady stuff, and a couple of stocking stuffers. She got me some books from my Amazon wish list, specifically

• Pol ( Read more... )

I know, it's been almost a week, and I haven't had to work, so this should have been posted by now. I have managed to be busy with other things, such as catching up on time with real life friends.

I spent Christmas day with my siblings and my sister-in-laws family (I call them ILORS, for In-laws once removed), as usual. It was as enjoyable as always ( Read more... )