Monday, Dec. 27th

* * * From my comments: I figured if anyone would know the answer to this question,”WHERE IS NANCE“….it would be you 🙂 I check at her journal every day and there hasn’t been a posting since the 18th. You both are my all time favorites, so please please help an addicted journal reader out. Well, I know she’s still alive, ’cause I just got an email from her last night, so she’s not being held hostage by terrorists. I haven’t asked her directly, because she might yell at me and tell me to stop pressuring her, but I imagine she’s just taking a little time off to relax, and when she’s got the time and is so inclined, she’ll put up another entry. Personally I think she should quit working so she can hang around all day to entertain me, but I have a feeling she doesn’t see it that way. Hmph! * * * Christmas card stats for 2004! (Last year’s stats are here.) Date I started addressing cards: November 27th (way earlier than last year!) Date I finished: December 20th. Total cards sent out (not including family): 327. States receiving 10 or more cards: California (25), Illinois (17), Michigan (10), New Jersey (11), Ohio (15), Pennsylvania (12), Texas (15), Washington (11), Wisconsin (12). States who don’t love me and didn’t want a card: Delaware, Nebraska, Vermont, Wyoming. Other countries receiving cards: Canada (27), New Zealand (2), Australia (7), United Kingdom (4), Sweden (1), Netherlands (2), Republic of Korea (1), Portugal (1), Germany (2), Iceland (1), Finland (1), Scotland (1), Japan (2). Most often recurring first names: Amy, Chris/Christine/Christy, Donna, Erin, Jennifer, Karen, Katherine/ Catherine, Laura, Lisa, Michele/ Michelle, Patricia/ Patty/ Patti/ Pat, Susan. Number of cards kicked back as undeliverable: Just one so far. Percentage of probability that I accidentally sent out more than one card to at least one person: 100. Was I terribly organized about my card sending this year?: Totally, scarily organized. Did I have a lot of fun shopping for funny cards?: You betcha. What I’ll do differently next year: Not a damn thing. I did an astoundingly good job this year. Number of cards I’ve received: 130 (as of Friday morning) (Edited 1/14/05) I got home from Maine in January to find another 40 cards waiting for me. That means I got a total of 170 cards. That’s pretty damn awesome. Thanks everyone for the awesome cards you sent, as well as the family pictures, the yearly newsletters, and the pictures of your cats. I love getting them! I didn’t display the cards this year, but a few people asked to see all the cards I got, so I set them up on the kitchen counter and took a bunch of pictures. These are big-ass pictures, in case you were wondering. (Edited 1/14/05: I’ve deleted the pictures of the cards, in the interest of saving space) I didn’t take pictures of any of the picture cards, because they wouldn’t stand up, and also because a lot of the picture cards had first and last names on them, and hello! Stalker alert! Better to be safe than sorry, y’know. * * * We were driving to Fred’s father and stepmother’s house on Friday evening, and Fred and I started talking about the song Do They Know It’s Christmas? Fred made fun of George Michael’s part in the song (I don’t remember which line that is) and then I said “What about the one Bono sings?” and then I sang (badly) “Tonight thank god it’s them instead of youuuuuuuuuu!” Fred laughed, and then from the back seat, the spud piped up, making fun of my horrible singing voice. “Mom, you’re going to be bigger than Britney Spears!” Well, really. How could I NOT say it? “Oh, I think I already AM bigger than Britney Spears. Twice as big, probably!” They thought that was quite funny. And two minutes later, Do They Know It’s Christmas came on the radio. It’s just not Christmas until I hear that song, for some reason. * * * The spud went with me to feed-and-scoop at the pet store this morning. There were only four cats there – Squeaky, Hobart, Duckie, and Rosalind – so it took me maybe twenty minutes to clean all their cages. I didn’t get any pictures, though, sorry. Anyway, at one point Fred called, and while I was standing there talking to him, Hobart decided it would be a good idea to leap up and sink his claws into my stomach, and then attempt to climb me. Having a small cat, no matter how skinny and light, sink his claws into your stomach is NO FUCKING FUN, believe you me. I screamed and grabbed Hobart so he’d let go. On the other end of the phone, Fred seemed to think it was funny as hell. Bastard. Hobart is an awfully sweet little guy and I love him to death, but he has no concept of “don’t bite” and “don’t scratch.” He’d certainly give Mister Boogers a run for his money! * * * Fred’s stepsister’s husband has lost a lot of weight since we saw him last Christmas. I don’t know exactly how much he’s lost, but if I had to guess, I’d say he’s lost about 100 pounds. He looks absolutely amazing. When Fred’s sister asked how he’d lost the weight (because you’ve gotta ask!), he said he’d cut out the sugar, cut back on portion sizes, and cut down the carbs a little. He ate a big salad and a couple of pieces of lasagna at dinner, but he didn’t have a piece of the cake Fred made. He seemed so much happier this year; he’s been a pretty quiet guy in the past, but he was downright chatty this year. He actually talked to Fred about going hiking together, which would be cool. He’s a really nice guy, and it was neat to see the changes in him, physically and otherwise. * * * I saw this in the grocery store parking lot this morning and it made me laugh. * * * Miz Poo lurves the sun. * * *]]>