Thank you for the swell holiday cards, ldy, danigolden, and nashata!

Thank you for the miracle fish, Dani! Perfect fit! (And you recognized who was on the card! 🙂 )

Nashata… your words are so very kind, and well fitting for this holiday season.

Ldy, your wish is an excellent desire for any time of year, and this season is especially ideal.

They’re all wonderful. 🙂

Happy Birthday, eebomb!

plum pudding = steaming brown mound of suet and plums. *gag* just say no. If you want Victorian… have a snickerdoodle or something.

Sakes… where’d the cool weather go? nights are back in the 70s.

47.0° F / 8.3° C was the low on the 16th.
62.0° F / 16.7° C was the low yesterday.

last night, it was 71.60° F / 22.0° C

There was a beautiful full moon… I could see everything lit by the pale face quite comfortably. It was a good night to sit out front and read by porch light.

Some Fort Lauderdale Factoids –

• There really was a fort that went along with Fort Lauderdale. The city got its name when Major William Lauderdale set up a small fort here in 1838 to protect local settlers during the Second Seminole War.
• Fort Lauderdale is often called the Venice of America and for good reason. The city boasts more than 300 miles of canals, channels and rivers. Many of the inland waterways are in reclaimed marshland that was drained in the land boom days of the 1920s.
• Fort Lauderdale is the center of Florida’s Gold Coast. No, it’s not named for the tourist dollars raked in each year. The name comes from the shipwrecks that occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when Spanish treasure ships hugged the coast on the way home in an effort to avoid storms, but instead sunk on the reefs.
• We have more than 100 species of butterflies.
• There are so many canals and tributaries in town, there’s a water taxi to take you form place to place. (Actually, it’s more of a jitney. You can pay $7 for an all day pass) I think that there’s approximately 60 stops… bookstores, malls, parks, etc.

MMmmm… Star Wars Christmas cards. I think the one with R2-D2 in the antlers, and C-3P0 in the Santa outfit is maybe too deep a peek into their lifestyle.

A year ago today – Parachute Newt, evil PI matchmaking/stalking service, lugs and galoots

Two Years ago – Dreams of my sweetheart, alfie the Christmas tree lyrics, Christmas card from nashata, autism research form seven years ago, relief from a pressure-cooker week.

About 100 Fort Lauderdale live journals are updated daily. (There are 718 total, as of this writing. maybe 280 or so are updated within the last week.)

Teeny Tiny Little Old Ones in Antarctica: Organisms that have lain dormant for 2800 years sprang back to life after scientists retrieved them from a frozen lake in the Antarctic. The lake has been buried under 19m of ice – yet it appears to contain life-forms.

Hundreds of Muslim Immigrants Rounded Up in Calif.
full story for when yahoo expires

Shizziolate the web page of your choice.

Version two of Scotto

I’m trying my hand at shading… I don’t know if I like him better than this one or not. I think the skin tone might be a smidge dark.. it’s me after a few days in the sun.

and here’s the source figure –

Work’s Holiday party is tomorrow.

That = free lunch, and being paid to chitty-chatty with the other folks there. (That’s why I prefer to have the Christmas Party during work hours… get paid to feed your face, plus, I don’t have to make any effort to go anyplace else.

It looks like I’m getting a Day off Christmas Eve, probably. (It might be a half-day for some, but I come in late-shift.) There’s a bonus.

I got my Mail-prezzies sent off today. Luck willing, they’ll make it there by the top of next week.

Thank you, Kay, for the lovely Snowman card!

Please pet this innocent tissue to be used without any complain every day.

(Eco kun)

He is made with environmentally friendly 50% recycled paper. Likes to read a book on a shelf. He has an ability to eat trash and produce recycled paper.

I slept very late this morning…possibly a side effect of yesterday’s procedure. Newt was particularly sniffy and curious about me this morning… poking his nose and nuzzling my face from eye socket to under the chin. I was giving him pets the whole time, and he was just purring like a lawnmower.

Anyhow, not much to say this morning, Dear journal, except that work awaits. I’m going to try to send my packages from the mail shop.

Heh… I got myself another goodie box after going to the doctor. (It’s a random grab bag of Mage Knight figures)

There was another spine sucker inside. I’m beginning to see a pattern.

(I also got a pair of crystal protectors, a thorn maiden, darkwing zombie, Xandressan Sailor, Sect Executioner, and my fave of them, a Dwarven bombard.

My Back feels *great*… to celebrate, I had a few slices of mushroom and garlic pizza with Dave. (I bought him a goodie bag and lunch, too, to thank him for tooling me around today.)

The doctor says that he’ll send me a jpeg of the needles he stuck in my back, and the dyed solution showing where the stuff went. I’ll post that when I get it. It was much less painful than last time… I hardly noticed it at all.

Anyhoo, I’m home and relaxing now, organizing my toys and chilling out. I’m going to have to make my trip to the PO tomorrow morning before work…the pickup at UPS took far too long.

Avoidance of Worry and Moderation of Diet the Main Things, Says Dr. Dezso.

These comments on how to attain old age are made by a writer in the Journal of the American Medical Association:

“The chances of attaining old age are much greater if we live much of our life in fresh country air. Statistics go to show, according to Dr. Dezso of Budapest, that the fourth generation of the town dweller is unknown; but enough is currently reported to make the conclusion inevitable that the sine qua non of longevity is a certain amount of time spent in the country.

“The city child is subject to a number of disturbing conditions other than mere absence of creature comforts, which undermine the constitution by throwing too heavy a burden on the sense organs, through which exhaustion of the central nervous system follows; among these conditions are noises, a perpetual round of hurry, and unending sequences of incidents exhausting the attention to which are superadded the physical discomforts of vitiated air effluvia from human beings and waste organic products, besides offensive gasses and infection laden dust.

“To attain old age we have to relieve ourselves from worry, strains and anxieties, withdraw periodically from the whirl of effortful existence, modify our diet, omit the use of stimulants and narcotics, and spend reasonably long periods of time under pleasant conditions in practical retirement. Above all, amusement should be simplified and accepted rather than sought after. Only vegetable and semi-animal foods should be eaten.”

Minnetonka Record, January 23, 1914

Home again… Just relaxing, and taking it easy.

I know folks that’re going to the two towers tonight at midnight. I’m looking forward to the reviews. I hope that they’re good.

I’ve got to fast as of midnight tonight, so I’m having a meal now. Mac & cheese and peas. Yum. Starchy comfort food.

Ew… Clinton and Demi Moore? Probably pure rumor, but…I bet if he separated from Hillary, it’d *help* her political career.(I really don’t want to see that… I feel that she’s as much of a problem ethically as her husband, politically speaking.)

Newtcam pic du jour…

Going in for 2nd epidural tomorrow. I’m glad I can get it done before it gets too cumbersome. Had fun dancing with the insurance companies….finally, the admin at the pain center took care of it. I hope Santa brings her something special.

NPR recently did this report on “The Sounds of Christmas”, an intriguing art exhibit at Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art. With the help of local DJs, artist Christian Marclay takes hoary old Christmas albums and mashes them together into funny, sometimes eerie sound collages. (Thanks scrub!)

Off to work. until later, dear journal!

I was tapping my foot. Not impatiently, just keeping time.

Drawn waiting at the bus stop…I just put whatever came out of my head. Initially it was going to be a step-by-step image that built itself…I end up drawing me. how’s that for meta?

Thank you for the card, sandi*!

I’m delighted that you’re in a positive place for growth and happiness! You’re due!

Thank you so much for the card, meredith & heath (& LittleOne & GM and Pink-nosed Dukes!)

The Photo of you folks is a-frickin’-dorable! Silver-star bonanza! Glitter kitties! Fuzzy-sticker! Freakishy good penmanship!

I slept deeply last night, but I did wake up once or twice. It got pretty chilly… dropped to about 46F. (May not seem cold to some, but when I hit the sack, it was 10 degrees warmer.) Dreams of snuggling with my beloved made it feel warmer than it was. I woke up briefly at about four this morning with Newt under the covers with me. When I first fell asleep, He was snoozing stretched out along my left leg. It looks like it’ll be much the same tonight. He didn’t pitty-pat me awake… so he must’ve been very comfy. We played twist-tie fetch for about 30 minutes this morning and maybe another fifteen of “wrestle the hand”. He’s relaxing on the South ledge now, soaking up some sunbeams, and watching the world outside. I’m fresh from a hot shower and shave, and I’m feeling pretty good, considering that it’s a Monday, and there’s no new Strongbad yet. Ah well… off to work with me. Got to pay the bills!

Where *is* the new Strongbad? There should be one here. Oh well.. you can click on his icon to check out the archives.

Testing to see if the weather chart will work