Lovely, Love My Family

There have been many highlights to my Thanksgiving trip, but seeing my nieces for the first time in ages & meeting my twin nephews for the first time may top the list.*

Ariel, Dillon, Lucas and Coral

The highlight for my mother was not only have her four grandchildren all together, but having her four children together for the first time in ~14 years.

Kyle, Scott, Dianna and Jodi

*This may change after tomorrow.

To See Or Not To See

In all seriousness, whether or not Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not in a few hours doesn't have much meaning to us here in Southern California. It's not like he's predicting the next STORMWATCH (that's what we call it when it rains here, even a little). But, since I have an affinity for rodents, I couldn't let a "holiday" in which one is the central figure go by unmentioned.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arcaist/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Easter Beagle Won't Let Us Down

While I don't celebrate Easter in any sort of religious way, it's a holiday, like Christmas, that's hard to escape. I can't say yesterday was terrible, but it wasn't the greatest of days. For one, I missed the calling of the start of the egg hunt and then only found one egg. One lousy egg. At least it was one of the plastic ones with candy and not a real egg. Ew. The real kick in the pants came though when I went to stock up on discounted Peeps that night, only to be told they had sold out two days ago. I did pick up some Cadbury Creme Eggs and chocolate marshmallow eggs. But no Peeps. Boo.

None of those disappointments compare to when I was about five years old and my father told me that the Easter Bunny had been hit by a car and killed. As I used to be pretty gullible, I was understandably devastated.

Not all of my Easter memories are bad. Here are my top three:

• I believe it was 1978. I was in 2nd grade and The E. Bunny put Shaun Cassidy tickets in my basket. Coincidentally, a few of my friends got them too. Best first concert ever!

• It must have been 1979 or 1980 and I got my first pair of panty hose for Easter. Nowadays, I avoid wearing them like the plague, but I'd been begging my Mom for some for a while. I was growing up and felt ready to move up from tights. Awesome!

• In 2006, I embarked on making the Easter candy version of the turducken. I called it an Egg Peepunny. Click to see a set of photos of the process and finished product.

It's Never Enough Until You've Got All The Stuff

I'm off today. No, not for the start of vacation, but just a comp day for working this coming Saturday. It's the nature of having a job in a facility that NEVER CLOSES. Luckily for me, my work area is closed on certain days and one of those is Christmas Day. There will be one person from my department that will be there that day, at least for a few hours. My department is also closed at nights, so that is a good thing.

So far, I have not been as productive as I'd intended. I slept later than I wanted and am having a hard time getting started on the multitude of projects that need attention. I did start some laundry, but used up the fabric softener. I'm changing my game plan and thinking of heading out to buy some more and perhaps do a little Christmas shopping.

"Egads!" you might be thinking. That's so last-minute for Christmas shopping!!! Um, no, it really isn't for me. Trust me, no matter what I get done today, I will be at Target, after work on the 24th, really doing some last-minute stuff. Ever been to Target around 8 or 9pm on Christmas Eve? It's INSANE. You get to see the true nature of people and it's not pretty.

For all of you venturing away or at least off from work for the holiday, I wish you a very good time. I have my usual itinerary of fun planned, working or not, so it will be quite merry for me too. Plus, I have my two weeks of vacation in January to look forward to.

Dammit!

Happy Jack Bauer Appreciation Day!

I didn't even know and have said the 'D' word many times today already!