A light December

Yes, I know. I have disappeared. Santa did not bring me a new computer, alas, so my posting from home has been limited. Not to mention the computer room isn't really a place for the Boo to hang out, so I have to wait until he's napping, and there's lots of other things to do.

Like clean up from our first Christmas as a family. Holy crap, Boo got a lot of stuff. My living room is overrun. It was an amazing Christmas.

Happy new year, everyone. Resolution: To post more in 2009.

Happy...

• Easter
• Early Passover
• Spring equinox
• Weekend

I think that covers everyone. Enjoy!

The last blog post of 2007

What a year! We:

• Put in a pool
• Got a new stove and over-the-hood microwave and convection oven (thanks, Mass state lottery)
• Went on several mini-vacations
• Watched the Pats go 16-0 (I love saying that) and the Red Sox win their second World Series in three years (that never gets old, either)
• Oh, and got pregnant, spending most of the year preparing for the arrival of Boo Boo the Bear
  

On that last one: Like General Francisco Franco being still dead on that old SNL Weekend Update sketch, I am still pregnant -- 39 weeks to be exact. I can't wait for him to be born, but I'm hoping he holds back until this round of snowy, shitty weather passes through.

Happy new year! We're laying low tonight -- hard partying and pregnancy really don't mix in my book. And you?

Halloween at Casa Christine

As mentioned, Leominster is pretty strict about trick-or-treating between 6 and 8, so I drove home like a banshee to make it in time. I got home at 5:50, made sure the hoses were off the lawn, lit the jack-o-lantern and candles and waited for kid no. 1.

About 6:15, the kiddos started coming. They came in spurts at first, and then around 7, they started coming in waves. My observations:

Funniest costume: A kid in a Yankees shirt who looked like he'd gotten the snot beaten out of him.

Cutest: A princess who pulled up in her pumpkin coach (a specially decked-out wagon), complete with a streamer door.

Rudest: Since we get so many kids (at least 100), I ration the candy pretty strictly -- two pieces a kid. A bunch of kids came to our door, and one of the older boys (about nine) turns to me and says, "Can I tell you something? There's a house up there that lets the kids take four big handfuls of candy." I didn't really know what to say, but turns out the other kids said it for me: "That's rude!" "Don't say that to the lady!" "Make sure you say thank you!" The kid turned nine shades of red and said, "I was just kidding!"

We decided that once 8 hit, we were going to go to dinner. So since we actually had candy left this year (seemed a little lighter than in past years -- any other Leominsterites find the same?), we left the bowl on the steps with the lights on and went out. I persuaded M to give up his beloved peanut butter candy for the bowl, with the rationale of, "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours."

We came back from dinner and all the candy was intact. So now we have a bunch. For which you'd think a pregnant lady would be grateful, but I discovered last night that excessive amounts of chocolate give me heartburn like you wouldn't believe. I'm sure M will take care of it.

A wish for late Memorial Day

This Memorial Day, I keep thinking of this lyric by John Mayer:

If we had the power,
To bring our neighbors home from war
They'd never miss a Christmas
No more ribbons on the door.

May they all come home soon.

In honor of Admin Day

The printer scenes from Office Space. Best-Movie-EVER. I battled a paper jam the other day with our tech guy, and we were yelling lines from the movie at the printer. Classic.

Holiday eating: The aftermath

I put on five pounds over the holidays. When you consider I put on 13 last year, it's not so bad. Check out this article about getting back on the wagon.

Today's lesson: Don't judge a day by the time you wake up

Yesterday, I accidentially set my alarm for 8 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. Which means I didn't wake up until (drum roll) 9:11 a.m. I was an hour late for work. And being highly superstitious, I thought the 9/11 (or 911) wakeup time doomed me to a bad day. One of those days where you should have just stayed in bed in the first place.

Well, other than getting some extremely bad news from a friend, yesterday pretty much kicked ass. I got a ton done in the office, and then I went to the mall, picked up some good bah-gins and went home to a nice dinner with my M. Then I camped out in the basement to watch season 1 Grey's Anatomy. (One more epi to go, and I've watched the whole first season.) So I'm glad I got out of bed despite the time yesterday.

Happy new year! I'll be hanging out by the fire with M and watching funny movies. Enjoy!

In the 'no, really?' news category

A new study reveals women stress-eat during the holidays. Gee, I never would have guessed it...

Not converted to Google

So I went to sign into Blogger this morning and was told I needed to convert my blog over to Google. So I said, hell yeah, convert my ass. I'm still waiting for the convert, so I'm going ahead and posting in the meantime.

There's a lot going on in my personal life right now, and it's the kind of stuff you shouldn't be talking about on a public blog. Which would explain my absence. Suffice it to say that it's been a nutty couple of weeks at Casa Christine n' M. But it's all good. As M says, 2006 was still a much better year overall than 2005.

And speaking of 2006 coming to an end, we started talking about New Year's Eve plans. I think we are going to lay low this year. Have you got plans? What are you going to do?

Thanksgiving meme

In the spirit of Snickolett's awesome post, here's my meme. Yes, I hate these things, and yes, I am making an exception:

10 Shallow Things I'm Grateful For
1. My green eyes
2. Chocolate
3. Tom Brady
4. The fact I have four days off and my birthday off next week
5. Pottery Barn and J.Jill catalogs
6. House and Grey's Anatomy
7. Chinese food
8. Diet Coke
9. Lattes
10. My car

10 Things I'm Genuinely Grateful For
1. M's continued good health -- I consider it a miracle.
2. Our great church and the fact we found it.
3. My mom and dad.
4. My brother
5. Having three out of four grandparents left
6. That I'm still here for another birthday next week
7. That we got such an amazing, relaxing and romantic vacation this year and were able to afford it.
8. Medical technology
9. The fact I come home to a beautiful, warm home every night and get to be with the man I love (gag alert, but it's true)
10. My incredible luck at having all of the above.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!

My public service announcement for the day before Thanksgiving

Don't go to Starbucks. I stopped by the one in Acton this morning for a latte treat, and apparently everyone else in the area had the same thought. I'm talking 20 minutes to get a freaking gingerbread latte and lemon scone, people. The baristas were working their tails off, and I asked one of them if they were always this busy in the morning. She said day before Thanksgiving was one of the nuttiest days of the year for them, since a lot of people take the day off and the kids have no school. (I know Leominster kids have the day off.)

So thanks, baristas, for moving us in and out so quickly, and sorry I was cranky. I just don't like waiting for my coffee. I am thankful for you.

By the way, I'm Italian, so I don't celebrate St. Pattie's Day. Yes, I know everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, except the Italians and the gays, according to Kent Brockman on the Simpsons. (I had a few Irish friends, growing up in Melrose, and one of my friends' grandpas hated Italians so she never told him my last name.) But happy St. Pattie's to the Irish among us. M loves corned beef and cabbage.