Got some 2L wonderful holiday cheer from Herm via email… I’m really looking forward to hopping back in there. The motherboard and memoryt is back in place, just waiting on the graphics card now (which was supposed to have arrived a week or more ago)

Lo! in the middle of the wood,
The folded leaf is woo’d from out the bud
With winds upon the branch, and there
Grows green and broad, and takes no care,
Sun-steep’d at noon, and in the moon
Nightly dew-fed; and turning yellow
Falls, and floats adown the air.
Lo! sweeten’d with the summer light,
The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,
Drops in a silent autumn night.
All its allotted length of days,
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil.

~ Tennyson

Newton had a great Christmas morning… I gave him a gift bag full of paper wads. He went for it pretty confidently, took a paw, turned it on its side and grabbed one, and smacked it around. I have little doubt that he’ll use the big bag as a hideout, too. I’ve got a spray bottle of “liquid catnip” but haven’t used it yet.. I was going to recharge some of his toys with it, but he’s still pretty fond of grabbing them, and raking with his rear claws, purring all the while without needing one. Newt gave me my favorite present, too, just some morning lovies.

Went to Christmas party at Cathi’s Folks… it was lovely, a beautiful study in organized chaos. I wasn’t Santa’s helper this year, Joe took the role, which was pretty awesomely done. He did a great job, and the gazillion kidlets ate it up.

Speaking of eating things up, Mama ‘borg sent me home with a pile of food. stuffed shells, Christmas cookies, cake, cauliflower salad, and muchy good cheer. Stephen and Elizabeth are so much older now, Allie and Nicole are both quite grown, too! A lot can happen to a kid in 4 years. Nicole looks like 16 or more at 14, and I can’t believe Steven’s old enough to drive now.

Mayah and her sis were running pretty wild on holiday sweets, santa excitement and general overstimulation. Dave had already gotten his fill of the insanity a bit before I arrived, but he’s very good about keeping his cool. Cathi thrives in whirlwind chaos, so it wasn’t a big thing for her.

I met Rosie at last, and she’s a sweetheart, and her son is Mayah’s “boyfriend” (they’re both 5).

I still possess the power of being a big teddy bear to the kidlets. Apparently, I’m a big, soft jungle gym for tykes to maul, which was fine by me. Allie was doting on me once I commented on how good the cookies she made were.( She was the star kid of the party, anyhow. Usually the youngest, she got a chance to shine by being the “big girl” with the littler kidlets by helping and leading without being bossy. )

Dick did a good job communicating without his robo-voice… his prosthetic allows him to cap off airflow and talk with a hoarse whisper now, rather than the cylon-voicebox he was using before. He’s had a lot carved out of him during his fight with the big C. Mouth, throat, lung, but now he’s healthy as a proverbial horse.

500+ colors (via world of stuff)

1 year ago – Mel gifts, chrismahanukwanzakah, speed up firefox, disasteroid

2 years ago – Newtie Headbutt, Work mission

3 years ago – Scottovia, bro confession to me, pepys, cat code

4 years ago – dream fragment, internal dialog comes out, satan in the olympics

5 years ago – Boxing day, word galaxy, Life/panagrams, Whitman