Stale ** I bought a crispy rice square at Boston Market for dessert today, hoping it would cheer me up (I AM starting to come out of my funk, but that's unrelated). It's stale. Like, really stale. On top of my chicken being dry and just unappetizing today. Grrrrrr.
Posted 12:40 PM by Kerry O.

This ** ...is going to be one of those days.
Posted 8:49 AM by Kerry O.

Netherweek ** This week is always so weird. Hopefully it will be slow at work, because I'm kind of out of whack today anyway. Did you all have a nice Christmas? We did!

Christmas Eve, we made yummy food and headed to the late service at church. Next year, we'll happily go to the earlier service. My mom went early because she wasn't feeling well, and her re-cap sounds much better than the one my brother and Joe and I went to. Christmas morning, I was awakened by a puppy pouncing on me. Now, I should note that Joe was already up and looking for something on TV (I had no idea - I was zonked out), and the dog never wakes me up unless it's 4 a.m. and she needs to pee. But no, she'd already been outside (her nose and paws were very cold), and she was standing on my chest, staring at my face and waking me up. SOOOO cute, I couldn't stand it. She must have known it was Christmas, but she didn't even get any presents. :-( On the present front, I must just say that my family is very generous, and I felt like this year, I could afford to be generous too. I was completely pleased with the quality and quantity of gifts I gave to everyone, for the first time in a while. We spent the day with various family members, and had an overall wonderful time. I did get a digital camera from my loving husband, so if you read this regularly, you can finally expect to see some random pics popping up. Surely not of me, but of someone or something! HA! We had one or two pictures of me throughout the day, but they were dreadful and I deleted them. Heh. So *I* have no pictures of me from Christmas Day. My brother and Joe's dad, do, including a surely lovely side shot I'm dreading seeing. But we have lots of pictures of our beautiful dog and of random people opening gifts. Perhaps I'll share those later.

Hope your Christmas was wonderful!

Oh, and thank you, Secret Santa! I forgot to mention that!
Posted 8:24 AM by Kerry O.

It came upon a midnight clear **

Yet with the woes of sin and strife,
The world hath suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled,
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not,
The love song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.
Posted 9:39 AM by Kerry O.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil **
If the United States sends its troops to conquer Iraq, to bomb its cities, defeat its armies and disarm its dictator, some men will return physically sound but morally broken. Having crossed to the other side - to the place where killing is allowed, encouraged, demanded - they will not be able to return. They'll be a threat to their neighbors, their spouses, their teachers and themselves. Dispatched into hell, they'll bring it back with them.

(And, no, I'm not Catholic. I just stumbled across this article and found it very interesting.)
Posted 8:57 AM by Kerry O.

Christmas Eve ** There's one thing to be said for having to work on Christmas Eve: At least rush hour is really, really light.
Posted 7:30 AM by Kerry O.

Rain Day ** Remember how you felt when you were a little kid and it rained? School teachers always kept you inside for some kind of weird activity, sometimes with other classes, and always exciting? Well, okay, they weren't always exciting, but it was something different and that was worth it. But the rain itself just made you goofy. Well, I realized today that it doesn't matter how old I get, I'll always feel that way when it rains. I love rain. It comes from growing up in the desert and getting fed up with 19 out of 20 days of pure, unadulterated sunshine. The last 3 days have been headache-inducing, dreary, cold, and rainy. And I have been goofy and foggy the whole time. Today is the worst. I would give anything not to be at work today. Coupled with the impending Christmas Eve 1/2 day and Christmas Day off, and related celebrations, it's all just making me want to curl up on a sofa with hot apple cider and my beautiful puppy. Right now. No such luck, though. Fortunately I only have an hour left...
Posted 2:15 PM by Kerry O.