Author: Polgara

Only 14 or so more hours, and 2005 will be history. Amen and good riddance. Henceforth 2005 shall be known as 2005 (ptooey!).

Let’s round things up, shall we?

January: Massive rains caused my walls to buckle and pieces to crumble off, leaving ugly holes. Subluxed (i.e. dislocated) my fibular head, leading to a year of pain (and it’s still ongoing). Lost a gig and a half of personal files when my brand new hard drive ate them all. Little Moo was born, and I gave up the scary life of dial-up in exchange for DSL. I worked my butt off for a really cool exhibition that turned out pretty well (Jacques-Louis David). Finished a sweater for a two year old (my first and so far only sweater) as a belated Xmas present.

I could tell y’all about how apparently I’ve been the biggest roadblock to my own recovery for months now, thanks to an unintended misunderstanding (I think my PT might’ve had an itty bitty stroke), but instead, I’ll share some links:

Best Christmas lights display evah!

Second best Christmas lights display evah! (by the same family, but not as good IMHO)

The story of the family with the best Christmas lights displays evah

Christmas Carol and Song Quiz (I used to have a hard copy of this for company Christmas parties, but I’d long since lost it—yet another reason to *heart* Google.)

Child’s Play—Buy a toy for a children’s hospital for Christmas.

Sorry for the long absence. Life has been busy, some of it good, some of it bad.

The Knee: My doctor thinks it’s time for surgery. The injections worked to reduce the swelling, and therefore the pain, but the knee is now subluxating (dislocating) on a regular basis (don’t worry, it’s not sharp pain, more like pressure and discomfort, and if it does it for a long period, then achy pain). I went to one doctor last week for a second opinion, and he disagrees with, well, everything my doctor has said, but he’s also not highly regarded among my physical therapist’s patients. I have a third opinion schedule for 12/8, so we’ll see what happens then.

The Thanksgiving Holiday: I spent the whole weekend on Santa Catalina Island with seven friends, where we rented the lower level of a two-family house in Avalon just two blocks from the harbor. For the main event, my friends K & L brined and cooked an 18 pound turkey; A provided the mashed potatoes; and the rest of us filled in with wine, corn (me!), salad, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberries (both homemade relish and the canned variety) and pie. It was a marvelous holiday filled with yummy food and relaxing Scrabble and Uno games, with a couple of cold bugs jumping from person to person for a little variety. The weekend was spent eating leftovers, napping by the fireplace, and wandering the little town, where everything was in walking distance. S and I went on a tour of the conservancy part of the island on Friday (bison galore!), and L and I saw the latest Harry Potter movie at the classic Avalon Theatre in the old casino on our last night. It was a good relaxing weekend, just what we all needed.

The current projects: I have today off thanks to an early morning phone call from my boss letting me know the power was out in our building, so I’ve been dividing my time between much-needed cleaning, and posting some stuff for sale on craigslist.org. I’ve got Christmas presents, medical bills, and a wedding shower for my sister to worry about, so if you’d like to help a girl out, consider buying some second hand books (either Hamilton or Koontz), or a collector’s edition Barbie and Ken. 😀

The sis got some mysterious film developed, which included some pics from Thanksgiving 2002, the year I surprised Mom by coming home unexpectedly. There are some nice pics of Mom in there, so check them out when you get the chance.

In other news, my doctor and physical therapist decided the cane wasn’t working, so I’m on crutches these days. On the plus side, I now have a parking placard so I can park in the blue spots now. I don’t think I really needed one before, but the crutches are so incredibly exhausting that walking to the kitchen from my office cube requires a rest stop.