Wrapping Up, 01/17/2004 09:51

I feel like such a slacker! I've not written since my last big whine thoughts about the most recent
Memos From Work. I did respond to the latest memo, more about that later.

Where to begin?

The Great Christmas holiday went well. The Husband and I didn't exchange gifts. We'd decided to buy a 9 inch television with a DVD player for the car instead. We prefer to buy the big ticket items we can't really justify as gifts for the holidays. Then the SneakyDog hurt her foot; $400 later and one less toe and we exchanged glances on Christmas day instead of getting the kewl tv/dvd player for the car.

We don't use the DogDoc much. I don't want to be a freeloading relative. I don't want her to worry about charging us, or charging us too much, or whatever. Can you tell I have issues with money? So we go to our long time vet and spend our 9 inch TV money on the SneakyDog who is NOT worth more than a 9 inch TV/DVD player.

The kids had a good Christmas though.

The BoyChild's favorite gift:

A Hot Wheels electric toothbrush we got him as a stocking stuffer.

The GirlChild's favorite gift:

A hot pink ruffled skirt from The Gap.

Unfortunately we had to take it back because the first time we washed it, it came apart and they didn't have another.

After Christmas we drove to Galveston for the Family Holiday.

We did the "drive all night" thing going down and that worked O.K.

Whoever coined the phrase "sleeping like a baby" never met my kids. When the BoyChild is asleep he cries out, twists and turns and screams for no apparent reason. The GirlChild was like that when she was a baby. I have never understood people who let their children sleep with them when they are babies. My kids moved and cried and moaned so much I didn't like being in the same room with them much less the same bed!

We left our house about 12:30 a.m. and arrived in Galveston about 8:30. The kids woke up about 3:00 am and didn't go back to sleep until about 5:30 am. The BoyChild would laugh maniacally, which would slowly turn into a shriek which would slowly turn into a moan and then there would be a moment of silence before the process started over again. A couple of hours of that can make a person understand why animals eat their young.

It sounds kind of hokey, but I enjoy going down there with the Baba, the GranMa and the Baba's Senile Sister. We don't DO anything. Last year the Husband and I went to Houston a time or two to shop, but we didn't do that this year. The Old People (and even though the GranMa is about the same age as the Husband, I lump her into that category) love and care for my children, and make little or no demands upon us. I stay up late, drink too much, play cards and dominos with the Old People, read books, sleep in, play on the beach with the kids and the Husband and watch the occasional movie.

O-matic and his wife came this year. LawyerSIL looked good. Her hair came in curly after the chemo but it looked good. She looked healthy. I don't really know a lot more about how she is doing. I asked, "how are you doing?" and I got "fine" in reply. I don't really know what the etiquette is. Do you say, "Is the tumor getting smaller or larger or staying the same? Pass the bread, please." I guess since she sent e-mail telling us the tumor had shrunk, maybe it is a legitimate question, but I never found the right opportunity to present it.

We spent a week in Galveston in a lovely 6 bedroom 3 bathroom house the Baba rented for the week. We left on Friday night about 9:30 after dinner. I felt like the Joad's from The Grapes of Wrath when we were coming home. My Ecological Disaster, designed to carry 8 adults comfortably, was stuffed to the gills with our crap, our two kids and us. We took a crib for the BoyChild; the one the rental place provides is not a full sized crib and he's a full sized boy. The Husband and I talked about getting one of those deals so we can put crap on the top of the Ecological Disaster but he drew the line at that. As he was trying to stuff this really kewl kite UncleC bought for the GirlChild the Husband admitted maybe we should look into.

The trip back home went better. We left after dinner, about 9:30, and drove straight through. I don't know if it's because we left so much earlier this time, or because they were just tired from being on vacation, but they both slept most of the home. We got home at 5:30 a.m. and put them to bed. They slept until about 10:00 when we all got up again.

We spent Saturday and Sunday getting ready to return to school and work.

And since then work has been kicking my ass.

And so it goes.

Peace,
M&Co.