Wishes for 2004

"I guess I must be wishing on someone else's star. It seems like someone else keeps getting what I'm wishing for. Why can't I be as lucky as those other people are?"

Many of us may be able to relate to the words of this song as we watch another year come and go and not see our dreams realized. At the stroke of midnight tonight, let us all keep a positive attitude about 2004. After all, what makes the difference is how we choose to look at it. I hope your 2004 brings you all you are wishing for.

"All good things must come to an end. As we enter a New Year, many of us are setting off on a journey that will take our lives in a different direction. We can make this easier if we open our hearts and our arms, to embrace the future. It is when we cling too tightly to the past that we make life unnecessarily difficult. I leave you, in 2003, with one last prediction. 2004 is due to be a wonderful year. It brings unusual comets and rare alignments. You are going to love it." -- Jonathan Cainer, Astrologer

Happy New Year!

2003 is drawing to a close

How has 2003 been for you? Is it a year you will gladly see come to a close or one you leave behind with many wonderful memories? I'm sure we each have something to take from this year, good and bad. Each of these things have taught us something and have formed part of who we are.

My 2003 leaves me with memories of loss, but also with memories of unspeakable joy. For all of these things, both the losses and the joys, I am thankful. It was during the times of loss that I saw my greatest growth and during the times of joys that I have felt truly blessed. As we say goodbye to 2003 and prepare for 2004, let us remember all this year has brought us. God bless you all!

On the 5th day of Christmas...

Everyone knows this song right? But do you know the true meaning of all those ridiculous sounding gifts? (Although, 5 golden rings sounds like a nice gift -- white gold, of course!) Here is the story of how this song came about.

From 1558 to 1829, Catholics in England were prohibited by law to practice their faith either in public or private. So this song was written to help young Catholics learn the basics of their faith. It was meant as a memory aid. Since it sounded like a rhyming nonsense song, young Catholics could sing it without fear of imprisonment. Here is what it all means.

The "true love" is none other than God himself -- the one who loves all people.
The "me" refers to every person willing to receive what the greatest giver has to offer.

The "partridge in a pear tree" refers to Christ, who died on a tree as a gift from God.
The "two turtle doves" are the old and new testaments.
The "three French hens" represent faith, hope, and love -- the three gifts of the Spirit that abide.
The "four calling birds" are the four gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The "five golden rings" symbolize the first 5 books of the Bible, which hold the teachings of some of the greatest prophets known.
The "six geese-a-laying" are the six days of creation.
The "seven swans-a-swimming" represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
The "eight maids-a-milking" refers to the eight beatitudes -- the virtues of Christ. (Blessed are the poor...etc.)
The "nine ladies dancing" symbolizes the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (There was no law against these things.)
The "ten lords-a-leaping" are the ten commandments.
The "eleven pipers piping" represents the eleven faithful disciples.
The "twelve drummers drumming" are the twelve points of the Apostle's Creed that is used still today in both Catholic and Anglican churches.

Will you ever look at this song again as a silly nonsense song? I know I haven't since I learned what it really meant. Here's to another 7 days of Christmas!!

What would you do if you had a chance to be God for one day?

I watched Bruce Almighty today and he was given that power by God, but for longer than a day. God cautioned him that he could not change free will, but he could do so many things with his power. People have the free will to do as they please in spite of what life brings their way, good or bad.

I know what I would want to do with that power. Do you?

Wow, am I surprised! It was about noon when I went for groceries today. I expected the stores to be busy, but they were not at all. Maybe the malls are, but the grocery stores are not. I guess people are still filling up on turkey, ham, and stuffing. I know I am.

Speaking of turkeys, what the heck are the local poultry farmers feeding their poultry these days. Even when the birds are cooked, the flesh is still pink and doesn't taste the way turkey used to taste. What's with that? Are they injecting these things with chemicals? Perish the thought. I think a person would be better off shooting their own wild turkey or looking for a free-range one or organic one or something REAL! Anyone care to go turkey shooting? I know a place where they live wild (*evil grin*).

When should we make turkey soup? I have the carcass in the freezer. I'm starting to get tired of turkey though. I think I may soon sprout feathers!!!

And the winner is ...

Canada with a score of 3 to 0. WAHOO!!!!! Way to go Canada!!!! What a great way for Canada to celebrate Boxing Day. Great job guys!!!

There is only 364 days left 'til Christmas. Start your shopping early, and don't forget to buy something for me!!!

World junior hockey is on tv, and Canada is leading 1 to nothing! Wahoo! This could be a good game. Let's cheer on Canada and our hometown boys!!

Merry, Merry Christmas!

It is raining outside and the ground is bare, but it is Christmas nevertheless. And what a wonderful Christmas it is! I awoke at 4:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep, so by 5:30 I was up. My 18-year-old son was right on my heels. Both of us like little kids, anxious to open our stockings and gifts. It was great! Who says Christmas is for kids when two adults can have just as much fun! We had a good breakfast and by 7:30 am we headed back to bed to catch a little more shut eye. We were awakened by the ringing of the phone at 9:15 am. By 11:15 I was joined by my daughter and we all went to visit my Mom. My brother was there too. It is the first time in a number of years that both my children accompanied me to my mother's. It was really nice for us all to be together, even though we didn't stay long.

Tonight, for supper, I am cooking my traditional turkey supper and being joined by both my children and my daughter's boyfriend. It is so wonderful to be surrounded by family, especially at this time of year. This is my first Christmas without my Dad, and I've thought of him often throughout the season. His passing early last year taught me how precious the time is that we spend with family and friends. I cherish the moments I spend with those closest to my heart. What a warm and loving day this is. It truly is a Merry Christmas! I hope your Christmas is just as wonderful so far!

It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. - Charles Dickens

Wahoo!! One more sleep!!! Tomorrow is Christmas, and I feel like a kid again. What a night this is! It is one that feels filled with love. May your heart be the inn for your soul, and may all your Christmas dreams come true!!! Merry Christmas.

Season's Greetings

On a night of wonder, on a night filled with love, God sent us a saviour from the heaven's above. And His name shall be Emmanuel, which means "God with us." O holy night!

On this day of wonders when we celebrate the coming of our dear saviour, I wish to extend to all my friends and family, the happiest of Christmases and all the best for a wonderful 2004. To those special people in my life, much love for this holiday season. You are in my heart always! May the joy of this festive season carry you into the new year!

Merry Christmas and God bless you all!

For somehow, not only at Christmas, but all the long year through, the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you. - John Greenleaf Whittier

Two more sleeps ... I'll bet all the little children are anxiously awaiting and bouncing off the walls. I remember those days with my children. I also remember those days as a child. Christmas was always so exciting. I loved all the decorating, all the lights, the gift wrapping and delivering, the food preparation. A lot of those memories still linger. The one disappointment I experienced nearly every year was not getting the one thing I most wanted. I always liked everything else I got, but that hole existed, that one major disappointment. One year I did get what I most wanted. I think it was my best Christmas as a kid. I wanted Spirograph and, sure enough, Santa brought it that year. I was so excited and that hole was filled. As an adult, I hope to have a Christmas like that again some year soon, getting the one thing I most want.

Just two more sleeps...

Have you ever had massage therapy? I highly recommend it. It is awesome. For 75 minutes this evening, I had an awesome massage. This guy knew what he was doing. He stretched and strained, twisted, pushed and pulled on my muscles and tendons. I sure can move easier now. After laying face down for about 1/2 hour, one's face begins to swell and your sinuses begin to stuff up. When he rolled me over, he told me he was now going to "get the boogers out." I laughed. But that he did! About 1/2 after he was finished, my nose started running like a tap and I started sneezing for about an hour. He also discovered that my jaw was tight. TMJ I believe they call it. That was surprising and the treatment made me laugh because of the face I had to make, but now if the dentist said "open wide" I actually could! God bless you J. You did an awesome job!!!

I wonder if Santa has massage therapy after carrying all those toys and squeezing himself down all those chimneys. Bet he could use it.

The Spirit of Christmas

Playing Santa is fun! I have a friend who is sick to whom I delivered some baked goods and candies this afternoon. She was very excited to get them. What a great feeling it is to be able to help someone, particularly when they don't ask for help but you know they need it. It feels very rewarding. I love to give according to what I can and am able to do. It gives me a sense of purpose. I can't offer much in terms of money, but what I can give from my heart means so much more. At least it does for me. Money is a necessity of life, something we all seem to be short of. It is tangible and can't be taken with you in the end. As the saying goes "There are no roof racks on a hearse." I believe that what people do from their heart means so much more than what they can do from their wallet or from a sense of obligation. The gifts most worth giving come from the heart. Those do not come with a price tag -- they are priceless. The heart has a gift that keeps on giving!!!

All Is Not Lost

Well ... all is not lost in the end. I managed to salvage most of the gingerbreads, except for the little bits that would have to be eaten with a spoon after falling apart. Perhaps I'll just pour some rum over it and mix it with vanilla pudding and call it truffle (haha). The butter firmed back up nicely and the whipped shortbreads are all made. Now to make some of those chocolate cookies that everyone seems to love and everyone calls something different. You know the ones -- with coconut and oatmeal. Some call them mud pies or chocolate macaroons or chocolate drops. Me, my recipe is called Quick Chocolate Balls. Whatever they are, they are easy to make and taste good. I tried to make them once with soy milk. The taste was great (the same actually), but I had a sheet of cookie that had to be eaten with a spoon. Soy milk does not cook up like cow's milk does so they wouldn't firm up. A lesson learned.

I also fixed the problem with my tv. I may not know much about stereo systems, but I do pretty good with troubleshooting at least. It seems the problem is my old VCR. The antenna is running through it rather than directly from the tv. I disconnected the VCR and plugged the antenna into the back of the tv instead. Voila!! It now stays on. I guess I will either have to get a switch or a new VCR. I think the switch will be a cheaper option for now.

In spite of all the Murphy's Law stuff happening today, I maintain my philosophy -- Everyday above ground is a good day!!! And as Elizabeth Potier once said, "It isn't life that weighs us down -- it's the way we carry it." I've learned just how true that statement is. The power to view life differently lies within each of us. We need only to find it and put it to use.

Murphy's Law

Have you ever had one of those days that in spite of your best efforts and being in a good mood, things still don't work out the way you intend for them to? Well ... I'm having one of those days. The sun is shining and I have the Christmas tunes playing. Well ... at least I am trying to play them. The &*%$ tv/stereo system keeps shutting itself off. I've lost count, but it must be somewhere in the vacinity of 50 times in the past 3 hours. That in itself is enough to drive a person insane. I need to find someone to fix this for me. It is most annoying. I can put computers together, but stereo equipment is not my forte.

I am also doing some Christmas baking. I made 3 gingerbreads. However, I misread the oven temperature setting and set it 25 degrees higher than it should be without realizing it. Have you ever seen what molasses does in excess heat? You got it, the bottoms of them were as black as coal and stuck in the pans when I tried to remove them. Oh well ... they WERE intended to be given away. Now I will have to salvage what I can of them and see if they are in any kind of shape to give. My butter tarts turned out well. That's a bonus. Next I start to make my whipped shortbread cookies. The butter is still a little too hard to whip, so I put it in the microwave and set the timer for 10 seconds only and push start and turned to do something else. At least I thought I pushed start. I suddenly realized the microwave was still going and turned in time to see the timer turn to 1 minute. Either it is misbehaving, or I hit reheat rather than start. In any case, I now have melted butter. Impossible to whip that!!!! So into the freezer it goes to harden back up so I can start again shortly. In the meantime my oven is still going with nothing in it. My mind pictures my electricity meter whirling around, but I have turned off my heat and opened my window, so one should compensate for the other. I will do a few other things until the butter is solid again. Oh well ... I WILL NOT LET THIS GET ME DOWN. I have the power to be happy in spite of it, and I choose to be happy. I do think, though, that I will call it a day as far as baking is concerned. (hahaha)

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

OK. Here is a question for you? It is something I have been having a debate about for most of my life. We all know that Santa wears a red suit trimmed with white fur, that he has a matching hat with a long top on it with a tassle, and he wears a wide black belt and black boots. But ... What colour are Santa's mitts? My earliest memory of a picture of Santa is a cardboard cutout that my folks used to pin up on the wall. In that picture, he wore green mittens. So ... for me, Santa wears green mitts. Others argue and say that his mitts are red to match his suit. I just argue back that he was a man and had no sense of colour co-ordination so his mitts were green. *ducking* :-) I have a collector's version of The Night before Christmas that is illustrated with pictures of Santa as used in ads by Coca-Cola in the 1960s. Guess what he wore on his hands in those pictures? Tan-coloured leather gloves. Now I'm really confused. Perhaps he has several pairs of hand apparel so that when one pair gets wet from playing in the snow with the reindeer he can change. Who the heck knows!!! What is your memory of what Santa wears on his hands?

Amateurs built the ark ...professionals built the Titanic. Hmmmm...there's food for thought.

Dr. Phil made a statement today that I really liked and can relate to. It goes something like this: To show your emotions toward someone takes great risk and you may get hurt, but that person is worth taking the risk for. I like that. People really are worth taking the risk for. Risk can involve loss and pain, but nothing would be gained either without that risk. Life is full of risks, isn't it? How many do we take? How many do we run from? How many can we make excuses for so that we do not take the risk? I often think of the risks that people take in their jobs, especially jobs such as police, firefighters, window washers, bridge workers, and other occupations that involve great physical risk. How many of these same people would not take such a risk with their emotions as they would with their physical lives? Go figure! How much of life they could miss out on. Me, I am the opposite. I am much less likely to take a risk that could involve physical injury or possible death, but take risks with my emotions. Which involves more fear? I suppose that is a matter of opinion, depending on who you are.

Enough philosophy! I just heard on the news that a junior high school in the community (one I attended myself and that my nephew currently attends) just won an award for their outstanding contribution to the local food bank. Thank you, students, for your commitment to such a wonderful cause. Giving in the true spirit of the holiday season! Now that, my friends, is what Christmas is all about. It feels so good to do something wonderful for someone who truly needs help. I love to give. To me, that is the real meaning of Christmas, to give and love one another as Christ meant for us to do. To all who do such wonderful things, God bless you.

Na...na...na...na...na! I'm on vacation!!!! Oops...am I gloating? No. Just glad to not have to get up before the sun in the morning. That is just inhumane!!

This morning I got 16 documents PDF'd and web mounted and kept putting out fires until I got to eat lunch, which was later than usual. Seems when I am getting ready to go on vacation, everyone has emergency things I must attend to before I go. There was even a number of people whining about what they were going to do without me. Get a life people!!!! I am not indispensible. I've been disposed of before. (haha) Besides, they know I will be checking my e-mail.

This afternoon we had a Christmas coffee party. I arrived at it just in time to hear the last few minutes of the Premier's talk to us. He happened to be visiting. Then the Minister spoke for a moment. Then we had one skit that I am soooo glad the Premier was there for. What a freakin' riot. It was a spoof of the story of The Night Before Christmas talking about budget cuts and looking for that mysterious FTE in the personnel staff to be cut. They cursed in the story 4 times, each time using a sign with symbols on it to fill in, and in the end held up a picture of a donkey for the last curse word. Then they presented the Premier with a copy of the script. He laughed like crazy, but the Deputy was quick to put a halt to the rest of the skits until the Premier mingled with us, met some of us (including me), and then left. Then the funny skits continued. I got to see my boss, "the British workaholic" actually let her hair down a bit and acted in one of the skits--a game show designed to make fun of the education system in our province. I think the line she said that got me laughing the most was when she misquoted scripture to say "Which of you will be the first to get stoned?" What a hoot. Then I left and wrapped things up to head home.

That was the fun I had in my day. That and getting yet another gift from a co-worker. She gave me some certificates so I could get out to go to a movie. Right on!!! Sounds like a plan.

And how was your day?...

I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. - Charles Dickens

Now there's a man who knows the Christmas spirit!!! I've been trying to keep the spirit up at work. It is hard because we are so busy, so there is seldom time to enjoy life. The big boss frowns upon socializing, too, unless it is she who takes a moment here and there to share a bit of wit. With her British literary background one would think she could relate to that. Oh well, Scrooge was British too, was he not?

I have my cubicle decorated for Christmas and have been playing Christmas CDs for the past 2 weeks. Today I even wore a Christmas bell around my neck on a bright red cord. It jingled everywhere I walked. Someone told me I sounded like a cat. I wasn't quite sure how to take that one! That was open to interpretation. I got 3 presents today too. WAHOO! I will put them under the tree for Christmas morning. I won't open them til then. Aren't I strong? Not really...it's just that if I open them now, I won't have much to open on Christmas morning, and Christmas is supposed to be fun and full of surprises, so I shall wait. Besides, what I told Santa I want for Christmas can't be wrapped.

One more sleep...count it--one more sleep... Then I am out of the office for 2.5 weeks. WAHOO!!!! I can't wait!

You know, I kind of like having this blog. It gives me someone to talk to when I come home at night, even if no one is really here to listen. Today was a day! It started out OK, but it was another of those days when you go to work expecting to do ABC and finding DEF, GHI, JKL, and MNO on your desk to do instead. It was really only a half-day work that I could get in to start with. I hate those days. I now have a stack of documents that is literally 10" high that needs to be done as well as several other small tasks. Why is it that when you plan to go on vacation, more work appears on your desk than you can possibly do in the days you have left before you go? That makes no sense to me. Murphy's Law seems to rule for me lately!!!

Anyway, I commence to doing a few of the small tasks at hand first. Then I printed off 2 more documents that I received from one of my workers, having to reboot the computer half way through because Win98 Explorer has a critical error yet again today. Then I head to the photocopier to make copies of them before sending them for editing. A simple task, right? Wrong!!!! The photocopier is ancient and breaks down more than it is working. The documents are 2-sided and I need to make them 1-sided for the editor. A simple task when the machine is programmed to do that automatically. Well...not today! That stubborn old machine was putting me through the paces. I had to break each document into several pieces to copy them since they were too large to do all at once. The first couple sections went OK. Then the machine decided it was dyslexic. It started miscounting the copies. It put the originals in upside down and backward order. The copies it spit out had each 2-page set backwards. I had to reorder each one manually. As I do so, I find pages it has creased and only partially copied and still more pages that it decided to skip altogether. I think this machine has developed Alzheimer's. One hour later, I finally emerged from that room with a stack of papers and a curse being held back between clenched teeth. I was nearly running late for our Christmas luncheon. In any case, I managed to get them ready to go to the editor.

Now...the Christmas luncheon is at the hotel across the street in their dining room. The weather is absolutely gross outside. The rain and wind and slush is incredibly. We are getting soaked, our umbrellas are turning inside out on us, but we proceed anyway putting on a smile. It's Christmas right!!! Bah...humbug. If it weren't for the two white poinsettas in the middle of the table and the Christmas tree in the corner, we wouldn't have known any Christmas spirit there at all. I think Scrooge was sitting in a corner in that room. There were a few good laughs as we sat at the table, but our lunch was over an hour arriving and people were getting grumpy because it was late and they were hungry. In other years, we had some stories to tell, some piano playing, carol singing, small gifts given...not this year. When you have a boss who is a workaholic and wants Christmas to just disappear, it kind of takes the fun out of it. The luncheon is done more as an obligatory thing than it is meant as a break from the grind and a bit of R&R. It was nice, but not really any fun.

Then we arrive back to the office with one hour before I need to leave and only 1.5 hours left before important documents pertaining to the status of my job are to be signed and submitted. I submitted them to the boss 1.5 years ago. Did she read it before 3 p.m today? NO!!!!!!! She finally did at about 3:15. Luckily she didn't change a word and just had me sign it and have it sent along its merry way. I'm counting on these documents to move me up "the ladder of success." Here's wishing me luck, and saying a BIG prayer.!!! I hope you are listening, Lord!!!!

The saving grace of all of this???...2 more sleeps and I am out of that looney cube farm for 2.5 weeks. WAHOO!!!!!!

You know, sometimes I wish I didn't love so deeply. It makes me too empathetic and sympathetic. I cry much too easily. This morning in church, our priest did it again. He told a story that made me cry. A story about a mother's love that was so great for her son that she gave him up for adoption to a loving family and left a letter for the adoptive parents and one for the child, to be given to him when he turned 18. Could you even imagine giving up a child? I couldn't. But I know she felt she had to. What would she possibly say in that letter except to tell her son that she loved him so much that she did what she felt was best for him. To give him something she knew she couldn't. How incredibly heart wrenching and loving at all once. I sat there listening with tears unashamedly streaming down my cheeks. Some may call me a wuss, I prefer to think of myself as sensitive and caring. It was a nice service though. A carolling service that was a segway to Christmas. The story of the creation of Adam and his place in Eden, then to Gabriel announcing to Zechariah in his old age that Elizabeth, his barren wife, would bear a son and call him John (the Baptist), and on to Gabriel's next announcement to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. My favourite quote from scripture is among that announcement to Mary. Luke 1:37 - Nothing is impossible for God. If he can cause a virgin to give birth and an older barren woman, the possibilities are endless of what he can do for us. It is there that I find hope.

There was yet another story in our bulletin today about the soldiers in World War II bringing toys, candy, etc., to an orphanage in a small French village on Christmas Eve. All of the children were excited but one small girl, who stood quietly off to one side. Her parents had just been killed in a car wreck the week before. One of the soldiers approached the little girl and told her of all the things they had brought and asked her what she would like to have. Her reply stunned him. She said "I want someone to hold me." Some gifts can simply not be purchased! Those things that are most treasured have no cost, those intangible things. They are freely given. I know they are the ones I treasure the most. I can relate to that child. To have someone to hold on Christmas Eve, or on any day for that matter, is a precious gift and one I truly treasure.

Have you ever thought about how Santa can possibly visit everyone in the world in one night? I know that the time zone differences could give him 24 hours of nighttime to do it, but those little reindeer must do some boogying. And they say a cheetah is the fastest animal in the world. Surely they must be mistaken! And how the heck does he fit everything in that sleigh for everyone. I've heard of shrink wrapping freight, but he must have to actually sprinkle them with elf dust to shrink those toys and somehow make them grow back to full size before he puts them under the tree. Hmmm...do you think he left some of that elf dust in the jungle? Those little shrunken heads are pretty scary looking things. I always wondered how they did it, but now I wonder if Santa got a little too busy and accidently left some of that dust behind. Oh dear me...

One year as a young child, an old man who lived next door told me that he had shot Santa when he was out hunting in the fall, so he wouldn't show up that year. What a mean thing to say to a little child! I was devastated. Why do some people have to be so mean? Did he not think that would upset a child? That's one incident I shall never forget... In any case, Santa lives on in the hearts and minds of children from ages 1–100. What an exciting thought!! I love Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

I am so glad this week is over. I am exhausted. What a day! We finally finished decorating the tree in the office today. Everyone is too busy to take the time. The decorations are so old and ugly, what a sin! Charlie Brown and the Grinch would be proud.

I arrived at work today and took my shoes out of my bag only to discover that I had forgotten the inserts for them. Oh well...as long as I wasn't doing much walking around, I was OK. Then to put my lunch in the fridge. What's that? I forgot to pack half of it. So I look in my wallet for money to buy a couple things to round it out. The bill section is bare. I open the change section and what do I find? A measly 43 cents. Oops...I didn't get to the bank yet. So I borrow a couple bucks and go the coffee shop for a banana and a bag of chips. Oh those greasy chips. Gotta love them. Gotta have a little bit of pleasure in life, don't we?

Have you ever tried putting graphics into WordPerfect? What a freakin' nightmare. No wonder I prefer to use PageMaker to lay out complex documents. I had two pages following one another that each had graphics on them. Someone decided that all three graphics should be on one page instead of two, and two of them were to be modified. So I set about modifying them and exporting them to a .tif fomat. No problem there. Then comes the fun part! Updating the two already on the page and shifting them around to make room for the third one from the previous page. So...I grab the one on the previous page and place it where I want it. It jumps to a different spot. I put it back again. It jumps again. OK...there is a problem here. I find it is set to be attached to a character rather than the page. So I change it. It now goes where I want it to go, but then...hey where did my other graphic go that was beside it? It slipped down to the bottom of the page. I deleted it since I had to update the link anyway. Now I commence to put it back where it was, in its updated version. I plop it in place and the textbox below it flips down to the next page. I try to bring it back up. It jumps back down. I try again, it jumps back down. Then I finally get it where it is supposed to go and set about replacing the third graphic. It goes in place without much problem. But then...what's that I see? A textbox from about 12 pages previous has suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of my page. I tried to put it back where it belonged by dragging it. The pages wouldn't move well enough, and it disappeared. I tried again, this time cutting and pasting it. It cut OK, but when I pasted it was gone. I searched the document high and low and it was nowhere to be found. Now back to the previous version to copy it from there and paste in into the proper spot. There...done. So I go back to the page of graphics I am working on, and lo and behold what should be facing me there, but the missing textbox that I had just searched for!! Urgghh!!! So I deleted the sucker. I finally was able to have all the graphics attached to the page and placed properly so I could move on. I was about to drop the computer off the Angus L.

That was the first hour of my day. The rest of the day was rather uneventful, but my eyes are bloodshot from staring at the computer screen, and I'm so tired I could just flake out right here at this keyboard and not wake until tomorrow.

DD has a 6' Christmas stocking hung on the wall by her desk. I love it!! The mind races to what I would want to find in a stocking like that. Oh...the possibilities!!!! She tells me her ex filled it for her a couple times with presents. That would be nice too. Sure hope Santa finds me this year! I'll just have to figure out how to leave him a key...and a note to tell him where it is. Now there's a dilemma...

TGIF (In Newfoundland, that is printed on the toes of the Newfies' boots, so they know "toes go in first.")

Well...it looks like Santa's secret has been exposed on the Web for everyone to see. I saw a Web site last night that says that drinking too much milk can clog your arteries. If your arteries are clogged, blood doesn't flow well...anywhere. Poor man. Perhaps this explains why they have elves and reindeer but no children. It may also explain why he only comes once a year. This year, let's leave some nice warm tea or coffee to get that blood pumping and to keep him warm on his travels. We'll be waiting for you Santa...

Poor Santa! With all this talk about leaving apples and oranges for Santa instead of milk and cookies because of all the transfats, we will put this jolly ole fella into a sugar shock! If no one leaves cookies, he may get a sugar low, fall asleep, and forget to leave presents at our homes. That would be dreadful. And think of all that roughage he will be eating! We'd better leave a nightlight burning in the can for him. He may be needing it often. Sure could slow down his rounds!! And if everyone leaves fresh vegy's and fruit for the reindeer, I suggest you don't look up and keep your heads covered if you are walking late at night. Those aren't raindrops that are falling, those are reindeer drops. Look out below!!

Did you know that in Holland, Santa Claus arrives in a horse-drawn carriage? Horses? Where did he leave his reindeer? Who is looking after them and ensuring they are playing fair in their reindeer games? Watch out for that Vixen! A bad-tempered woman is a force to be reckoned with! I shudder at the thought.

In any case, we need to think of a way to keep Santa fat or the legend just goes to pot (pardon the pun). Who ever heard of a thin and fit Santa! That just won't work. I know he may fit down the chimney better if he is slim, but how many of us even have chimneys? Hey...if we don't have a chimney, how does the fat bugger get in? I don't know about you, but I lock my doors when I go to sleep. I know I didn't leave him a key under the mat. Hmmmm...does he have a master key that fits every door? How does he get around the burglar alarm systems? The police and fire stations must go nuts on Christmas Eve. Those whoops and whistles and sirens must be going off all over the city. That would be enough to keep all of us awake to watch him as he flies out of sight. I think I'll wait up this Christmas just to see how he gets in. OK Santa, do your stuff jolly man!!