Yeah, OK, New Year, Blah Blah.

So I made it to midnight. Or 4 minutes 'till at this point. It's Greg's fault, he put on a movie. Anyway, it was a productive New Year's Eve, as I managed to win a coupon for a free Chick-fil-A chicken biscuit while I was rummaging around online. You gotta be one of the first 150,000 to register to win, so I'm not promising the link will work at any point in the future. But I do think it's an appropriate way to wrap up my year. I've scrounged and saved and pinched more pennies this year than I ever have in my life. Which reminds me, I also won a gift basket from Glad and the Food Network by going here a couple of days ago and entering the Tyler Florence thing, then doing the instant win game. I'm just on fire this week. Not sure when that one ends, so it may not work long either.

(Ok, had to take a break to kiss on my hubby. He switched over to watch the Peach Drop, or Peach Drip, as he called it, just in time for the countdown. First time I've ever been awake to be kissed at midnight on New Year's, I think...)

So anyway, despite my earlier cynicism about the whole thing, I now offer up a Happy New Year to each and all. Now I think I'll go finish watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and then maybe I'll feel like going to bed. I fear curling up in bed and watching Ratatouille earlier may have given me a bona fide second wind, which could make going to sleep a hard to reach resolution for the evening. The pup, however, is snoring on the couch. Lucky pup.

Hoopla. Woo.

It's New Year's Eve. Sadly, I don't care much. I'm not much on the symbolism. It's much like yestserday and much like tomorrow, except I'll have a hard time writing the date for a few weeks. I don't like the cold, and I don't like crowds, so I won't be at any parties tonight. And chances are if past years are any indication, I won't be awake at midnight (unless we're playing Super Mario Galaxy, which is a possibility). I like New Year's Day, but mostly because it's a day off from work. Otherwise, eh.

I remember a few years ago I decided this was stupid. I mean, why have a big party holiday in the middle of freaking winter? I officially moved my New Year's Day to the Spring; it just made more sense. The weather's nice and the days are longer. It's when my year starts, before that I'm just hibernating and surviving. I'm thinking early May, so it doesn't interfere with Memorial Day. Heck, let's make it May 1st. Easy enough to remember. Wonder if I could talk the powers that be into giving me that day off instead of tomorrow. Doubting it.

Lucky Critters...

I did not kill any animals currently residing in my house last night, and for that they should all be very grateful.

1:50am - Casper wants out for a potty break. No problem. Right on schedule. I let him out, let him back in, and crawl back in bed. This is where he usually goes back to sleep on the couch.

2:05am - Casper is back in the bedroom, being a bit whinny. And every time he moves the tag on his collar clinks, which is pretty constant when he's running back and forth from the bedroom to the living room.

2:07 - I roll over and find dog paws on my bed and a wet nose very close to my face. YOU JUST WENT OUT PUP! WHAT DO YOU WANT?

I spend the next 8 minutes trying to calm down a pup who clearly has never experienced a thunderstorm before in his life. He's 5 years old and lived through Katrina, but the quick storm that came through last night had him freaked out.

3:55am - I think my alarm clock is going off, only twice as loud as usual. No, wait, my alarm doesn't sound like, "MEOOOOOOOOW." The cat's standing in the doorway, hungry. Did I mention we have the cat this week? We do. She's been mostly good. But at 3:55 she was hungry. I get up and feed her, go back to bed.

3:57am - Casper starts running down the hall again. Guess he realized the cat was up. I get up again, close our bedroom door and ignore him.

4:00am - The stupid dog is standing outside the room where the cat is eating (I had closed that door to keep him out of her food) and is BARKING at her. He's scared to death of the cat, but with a door in between them he's suddenly a big dog.

I repeat, no animals died in my home last night. But only because I was too tired to strangle the dog. If I had realized the rain wasn't going to come through until after I left for work this morning, I'd have tossed his rear end outside and let him back in when I left. Lucky dog. Lucky indeed.

Gifts that Rock, Part 2

Mom got her chemo port removed today. It's like a huge symbol that the disease is gone. She found out she had cancer on December 7 of last year. One year a couple of weeks later it's really, REALLY gone. Now there's a gift you can't fit under the tree.

Spam Email of the Year

I just got a spam email with the following subject line (copied exactly, capitalization and all):

food patch additive but well i am that month

I'm pretty sure that's code for "Congratulations! You just won the Nigerian lottery!"