The past couple of years, I've finally given into the habit of sending the annual Christmas letter with our Christmas cards. As it will soon be time to send those greetings, I've been turning over in my head what I want to say in our letter this year. I'm just not sure. I kind of want to start out with the really important stuff:

Dear Friends ( Read more... )

I have nothing especially thrilling to tell you today, but that is the sign of a stable, happy hobbit life ( Read more... )

I can't believe that I never composed this list before -- or at least didn't add it into Memories so I could conveniently reference it later. Inspired by rdansky's pronouncement that "The Raven" is the 4th Worst Film in Human History, I decided to compose my own list to see how it stacks up. It doesn't even come close to these babies ( Read more... )

I've missed you guys! I'm sad to have been out of touch for so long. I'm trying to read through back entries to catch up with everyone, and it seems like I've missed a lot going on in your lives. Sorry I've been wrapped up in my own scene over here for a few weeks.

Ian got a job!Ian started his new job Monday, working in QA for a financial ( Read more... )

This morning I discovered that a Wells Fargo joint checking account that we're not currently using has been getting dinged $10 a month for our inattention. It's probably at least minimum balance, but perhaps also other things like not having direct deposit feed into it anymore. Really, I'd forgotten there was any money in there at all! When Ian ( Read more... )

All I can think of is, "I love my dead gay son!"My baby Watson has asthma! Poor sweetie. We took the babies in for their annual checkup on Saturday, and then mentioned to the vet that Watson seems to have problems like he's trying to cough up a furball, but totally unproductive. Turns out that's what an asthma attack looks like for a cat. My poor ( Read more... )

Today is Jose's birthday. His sister and her family are here visiting, and the family went up to the mountains on this gorgeous sunny and warm late spring afternoon. While they were securely out of town, I just sneaked into Jose's house (with the key, mind you), and filled the living room and dining room with helium balloons, regular balloons, ( Read more... )

Early start this morning! I woke up at 5:00 am -- Yes, deliberately. A friend of mine out here is recovering from spinal fusion surgery. Yowch is right! The good news is that his recovery is going great, and he's healing well ahead of even best hopes. Yay! He'll have to remain in a neck brace through next week, however, and that means that he can't ( Read more... )

The homebuying bug has bit me!The alarm went off. It's time to gear up to buy a house! We don't think we can afford to buy a house in our current neighborhood, as we'd hoped, unless we find a short sale -- and they do fall out of the sky from time to time. It's certainly worth keeping an eye out. Meanwhile, we've identified another area in ( Read more... )

I've been running at an unusual full-tilt lately, and I think it's starting to catch up with me. I can't decide whether I might be coming down with a cold, or if I'm simply a little tired and overly busy and feeling run-down from that. Either way, I'm feeling like I'm running on low wattage this morning ( Read more... )