And Here I Am Once Again

The last couple of days have been uneventful and a little crazy at the same time. By the time I sat down to write, my brain had already called it a night.

We've been working on a local environmental project lately and I spent a good part of the last couple days between emails and the phone with that. I had boring errands to run, homework to supervise, and blogger was down more often than not.

Today was somewhat calmer. I took Tim to work early this morning.. His out-of-town friend was going to meet him there after work and has too small a car for the bike. I went from there to do a little more with Christmas. Picked up three identical watches for the girls; all purple of course. Bought gift boxes, tape, and some wrapping paper and tags. Wrapping is not one of my strong points. My mom used to make beautiful packages out of the oddest shapes. I can handle a present in the shape of a rectangle; anything else goes into a box and becomes a rectangle. The girls are much too busy ripping off the wrapping to notice. Their Christmas stockings are still hung by the chimney with care but they are for decoration. We fill a Christmas bag with stocking stuffers and goodies for all three. I make up for my decorating ineptness with cooking and good will.

While I was at it, I picked up a couple pair of sweat pants for myself. It's been chilly and clammy here even though the temperature hasn't dropped too much. I needed something a little warmer than jeans.

Elcie's choir practice was moved to Wednesday and an hour earlier. Much better time for us. She's almost recovered from her sore throat and Rochelle's head is fine. Rebecca fell and scraped her ankle. She's always in a hurry and she doesn't always watch what's in front of her.

Rochelle and I met Tim, his friend, and Jim & wife at Barnes & Noble for coffee. Rochelle is at the car door every time the keys jingle. I told her she reminded me of a Labrador. She doesn't even ask where I'm going. I don't always take her along but she's my most frequent passenger.

She spent much of the time at B&N windowshopping through the books. My "learning disabled" child can't get enough of reading. She feasted on a strawberry drink and a piece of chocolate raspberry cheescake.

Do you remember the famous restaurant scene in "When Harry Met Sally"? Sometimes Rochelle eating something new puts me in mind of that. Pure rapture only hers is not an act. "I'll have what she's having".

Rebecca and I wasted a couple of hours on math and left 4 questions unanswered. She didn't understand much of it but if they stay with this same chapter she'll get it eventually. Decimals now instead of fractions. I was trying to explain that they are different ways of saying the same thing but she was too tired to take it in. I'll try again tomorrow with examples.

I have the latest Sue Grafton, "S is for Silent" (borrowed). If I like it, I'll pick it up eventually. Or course I'll like it. I have everything from "A is for Alibi" straight through "R is for Ricochet". I wonder what she'll do when she gets to Z (Zed to many of you).

I'm fond of many of the women mystery writers. I'm so serious so much of the time. It's fun to escape for a while with something that doesn't require a lot of thought.

Picked up "Madagascar" for the girls and am about to start on "Am I Blue", also borrowed.

We received our first Christmas gift today; goodies from the United Kingdom. Teas, biscuits, chocolate, and other tasty morsels. I was trying hard to unwrap it carefully. Rebecca finally lost patience and said "I can do it". She did - with one big rip. A good time was had by all.

It was the first package the girls have received from outside the USA. They saved the return address to show off to their friends.

Elcie was up briefly; just returned to bed.

Carol's chemo is on hold for a week. Her white cell count was down, they gave her shots to bring it up, and for the last couple of days she was in pain from the shots. They gave her a shot for the pain. She's having some side effects from the chemo that no one expected as well. Today was better for her.

It's after 11:00 p.m. which is not late for me but I'm a little tired. I think I'll put a load of clothes in the dryer and call it a night.