RAMBLINGS

Well, it’s a foggy Saturday night and I’m semi cross-eyed. I guess that’s better than totally cross-eyed. A couple of special cards to be made. Elements and I becoming more comfortable with each other. I may actually have learned enough to make reading the book useful.

Anyway, my sister’s birthday is the day after Christmas (talk about your slightly overdue Christmas present-my very own baby doll) and for the first time since they moved to Eastern Oregon for Rick’s first teaching job, they aren’t coming home for the holidays. Several reasons-he’s facing minor but painful surgery and to be honest they are both dead tired. They’re both teachers-good ones-but it takes a lot out of you.

So…………birthday and Christmas have to be organized this weekend so we can get stuff to UPS by Monday. Still long distance phone calls and chatting are cheaper than motel bills. I don’t trust the weather in the Columbia Gorge this time of year. If the weather holds it’s not a problem. If it decides to snow, freeze and blow  (the Columbia Gorge-AKA the Great Northwest Wind tunnel. There are actually five seasons in that part of Oregon-the usual four and windy) you can find yourself staying in Umatilla longer than you planned. Or, stuck on this side wanting to go east. My dad used to pass along a story from a guy he worked with. The co-worker had a VW Superbeetle. He had to go to eastern Oregon during really bad weather. Apparently between the ice and the wind he almost ended up in the river. To hear him tell it the car got replaced with something a lot heavier at a dealership at the next ext.  

Something to look forward to for the New Year. We are replacing our dealer computer program at work. Oh, joy I can spend part of my vacation reviewing my debits and credits. The new program takes everything from the opposite tack of the ADP program. January should be very interesting.

Well, now it’s a foggy Sunday morning. When it looks like I’m going to ramble a bit-I make the entry in Word and transfer it. Any of you out there with Macs know that the entry in your journal is one loooooooooooooong straight line for every paragraph. Makes correcting your mistakes cumbersome.

The extended cut of the Return of the King is now out and I’m about 95% happy with the results. The other 5, I can understand. It would have taken too long to explain why they were doing what was left out to make it worthwhile. Elijah Wood, the young actor who plays Frodo-the poor sod saddled with that nasty ring- basically finished growing up during the main filming of the picture. He celebrated his 18th birthday right after filming started and I am constantly amazed at the sheer power of his performance.

Ok, I gotta get going. Need to go pick up a couple of last minute items to stick in sis’s package. Hmmm. I may have to pick up two little beef sticks. If I send one the kids’ll finish it before their dad’s up to getting any. I guess I could claim that eating it will lead to premature hair loss or something like that. Rick’s safe-he’s already lost his. LOL