Merry Christmas!

For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. Luke 2:11

Merry Christmas to you, dear readers, and best wishes for a happy holiday season!

What comes from one wild ride...

There was once a young woman, not an overly adventurous one, who once in her life took a wild and crazy chance.

This young woman hopped on her subway and rode down to the airport (it's now known as Reagan National, but it wasn't then). And there, she accepted a marriage proposal from a total stranger.

Well, perhaps not total. She had conversed with said stranger on the Internet, back in a day and age when most of the country had never *heard* of the Internet. And so for six months after the fateful meeting at the airport, this young woman and her beau had to explain to people what the Internet was.

And fifteen years ago today, that young woman (who, in case you had not yet figured out, is yours truly) stood before God and man and swore to be this stranger's wife until death tore them asunder.

It's been an interesting ride, but I'm glad for that fifteen years and I hope for at least as many more.

Happy Anniversary, DH!

Domestic archaeology...

I'm off work this week, and have been trying to get a little further on The Great Decluttering. Monday I did a couple of bookcases, yesterday was the walk-in closet and a little more reshelving of books, and today I tackled the desk. There's still a lot more to be done (I'm only at 82% on Decluttering) but I am at least making progress.

I have also discovered that Post-It Notes breed. I found 12 wrapped pads, and I didn't even bother counting how many small freebie or partial pads I found.
Index cards must be the larval form - I found innumerable random index cards while cleaning up.

In general, I've been amazed at some of the strange things I've found - a printout of Jabberwocky in Latin, playing cards I got in Prague, pictures of my stepchildren as toddlers and preschoolers. Little random snippets of life from the past 15 years.

There's still so much to do, but I think most of the 'archaeology' is done. What remains is primarily weeding through books and computer games - we have more items that need to be shelved than there is shelf space.

Exploring the trivial....

I've been tagged by the very talented Caffeinated One to share 10 useless things about me. There certainly are lots of useless trivia about me, but the tricky part is deciding which are sharable without leaving my readers in a state of either boredom or disgust.

1. I think that fake watermelon and fake banana are two of the nastiest flavors ever invented. (Of course, I'm not big on real watermelon or banana either...)
   
2. When eating, I tend to eat all of one item before starting another.
   
3. My elbows can bend at a greater than 180° angle. I'd estimate about 210° - I don't have a protractor to hand.
   
4. I almost never wear socks. I probably own 20+ pair because whenever I travel to someplace cold enough to need socks, I have to buy more because I always forget to pack any.
   
5. My eyes have vastly different prescriptions: 20/30 OD, 20/275 OS.
   
6. I've been trying to grow my hair down to my hips for seemingly forever, but it seems to have other ideas.
   
7. I can drink coffee without sugar, but not without milk/cream. Real dairy, please, not the nasty fake stuff.
   
8. Both of my grandmothers were redheads.
   
9. To my knowledge, I am not related to, or descended from, anyone even remotely famous. Mostly just solid hardworking German peasant stock.
   
10. I have a collection of books in other languages - including some I can't even read!

I also think that inflatable Christmas decorations are the tackiest things ever invented, but I probably covered that in a previous entry.

I'm not sure who all has been tagged, so if you want to play along...Tag!

Battery

There must be a corollary to Murphy's Law that states that smoke detectors, and most notably the one closest to the master bedroom, will announce the presence of low battery at the most ungodly hours.

I woke up at such an hour, initially wondering why I was awake. Until I heard the *chirp*. At first I resolved to just change it tomorrow, but each time I had nearly succeeded in chasing down the elusive somnolence, that infernal *chirp* recalled me to consciousness. Despite my most ardent rationalizations against bestirring myself from a nice warm bed, I eventually found myself stumbling around for the demanded 9V, a stepladder, and the switch to the breaker that powers the detectors.

Having then duly silenced my foe, I was eventually able to snatch a coveted hour or two of sleep.

My family slept through it all.

Inklings...

Yesterday in the car, I saw a magnetic One Ring on the back of another vehicle.

Or so I thought - as I got closer, I realized it was a magnetic "Livestrong" bracelet. But I swear it looked like the One Ring from 20 feet away.. does that make me a LotR geek?

Speaking of Tolkien and friends, the whole family saw the new Narnia movie yesterday afternoon. It was very well done, in my opinion, and true to the book. I think C.S.Lewis would have been pleased, and since his stepson Douglas Gresham was involved, I'm sure that helps matters. I really liked that the movie opened with The Blitz, lending historical context to why the Pevensies were at the country manor in the first place. When I first read the Chronicles of Narnia, back in elementary school, I didn't know about The Blitz and that many parents sent their children away from the cities for safety. I also liked all the little touches - the good-natured banter between Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, the White Witch's outfits (especially her icicle crown), and so on. I won't want to spoil too much, though! On the whole, it came across as very believable and very real. So much so that I was immediately discomfited by DsD and her friend commenting that Tumnus was 'cute' - they meant the actor, of course, but I'd already thought of him *as* a faun by then.

Definitely one to get when it comes out on DVD! This blows the 70's animated version I have out of the water, that's for certain. And DD wanted to read the books first thing when we got home. My set is getting kind of ratty - maybe Santa will gift her with a brand new set for Christmas.

DD's Santa letter

I saw DD's Santa letter today, and it was such an "awww" moment I had to share:

Dear Santa,
I love you Santa. I tried to by a good girl. I like the my little Pony mave and the orange too. I love God. God love us.
Love (DD)

She got the My Little Pony movie and a chocolate orange from Santa last year. No mention of what she might want this year.

Inconceivable!

Seeing Mandy Patinkin on medication ads, I keep thinking the ad should be:

My name...is Inigo Montoya
Cholesterol kill my father.
Use Crestor or die.

Man, I haven't seen The Princess Bride in forever. I need to watch it again sometime.

Death by Dr. Pepper!

I have been, in some form or another, a horrible caffeine addict for much of my adult life. Sometimes tea, sometimes coffee, but I get into the habit on work mornings of having a cup of hot caffeine. It's a bad habit, and probably stemming more from the desire to have A Hot Beverage than that I need the caffeine.

I've given up caffeine for Lent before. Several times, in fact, and I know to quit the caffeine a week beforehand to get the headaches out of the way. And to stock up on herbal teas. But somehow, the habit sneaks back in.

Overall, though, I do drink a lot less caffeine than I did 3-4 years ago. I've discovered that part of my consumption came from 'warm-up' cups - I get busy, my coffee gets tepid, I go top off the cup to warm it up. I've started using hot water instead of coffee for warmups, and with tea, it's less of an issue since one is already adding hot water to a tea bag in the first place! I'm trying to get in the habit of just starting the day with a cup of hot water - no caffeine in that!

Like many things, caffeine in moderation isn't a bad thing. Recent studies suggest that some of our favorite caffeinated drinks may even be good for us.

But like many things, too much of a good thing can be bad, or even deadly. One friend found a site that purports to tell us how much of one's favorite caffeine source it would take to kill you. So I decided to run a few numbers on my favorite caffeinated drinks:
Dr. Pepper: 308 cans
Mr. Pibb: 315 cans
Barq's: 574 cans
Arizona green tea: 316 bottles
Tea (imported): 210 cups
Tea (US): 421 cups
Chocolate milk: 2525 glasses
Coffee (brewed): 117 cups
Hot cocoa: 901 cups
Chai: 126 cups

Now, from a practical perspective, I don't think one can die of caffeine overdose from beverages alone. By the time you get to that 100th cup or can, your body would probably have already processed your first one.

You'd probably be unable to sleep for a week, though!

First down!

There's a first time for everything.

This past weekend, my alma mater Central Florida hosted the first-ever Conference-USA Championship game at the Citrus Bowl. We got tickets and drove over to attend the game. A coworker had given me a parking pass to one of the better lots, one that allowed us to do a bit of tailgating, so we put our portable grill in the back of my wagon, loaded up a cooler with burgers and sodas, and off we went. I'd never tailgated before - it was quite fun. I bet it's an absolute blast with a large group! Plus making our own burgers is much better than paying $6 each. The prices of stadium food and drink are nigh on extortion.

After my first tailgate, we went into the stadium. Our seats were up on the second tier, so while we weren't close to the field we had a pretty good view. I had only been to a college football game once in my life, and DD had never been. She got a bit upset the first couple minutes because of the noise, but she slipped quite easily into the groove and had an absolute blast. There really is nothing quite like seeing a game live - it beats watching it on television hands-down. Part of that is the interaction - between the bouncing balloons, cheers, key-jingling, and the wave, it was easy to feel a part of the action.

As for the outcome...well, that was the dark spot. The first half was very close and ended in a tie. The second half was pretty much all Tulsa - UCF turned the ball over four times, which was the difference in the game. Up until then, both teams were pretty evenly matched. So the final was Tulsa 44, UCF 27. Still, a good time was had. Traffic was a bit slow getting home, and although the game was at noon, it was dark by the time we got back home, making for a very full but enjoyable day.

Yesterday was a bit more laid-back, although I had to catch up on laundry and a few other items since I hadn't done them Saturday. I generally prefer not to do chores on Sunday if I can help it.

So now it's Monday, with less than three weeks until Christmas. So much to do, so little time...

Ramblin' wreckage?

DH told me a variant of this over dinner today - this is an online version I found:

It seems that George III of England was having difficulty collecting taxes, especially from the provinces. So he figured he'd take one of those old English torture racks, put it on wheels and have horses pull it out to the provinces as a warning. But the rack was too heavy for horses to pull, so an elephant was provided. Of course, the elephant had to be escorted by a special keeper.

As the strange vehicle moved through the streets of London, one peasant asked another, "What on Earth is that?"

"Don't you know?" the other replied. "That's a ramblin' rack for George's tax and an elephant engineer."

A longer version closer to what DH told me is here.

Speaking of which, if any passing Georgia Tech grads know of a good cross-stitch or blackwork chart for the Ramblin' Wreck, please let me know! I've done Tech Tower and the Seal for DH but I would love to do the Wreck as well. Maybe I'll get ambitious and do up my own.