A Good Christmas Week

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas for 2008! We had a great time at our house for two reasons: my daughter Kelly and her husband Jason are here for the week, and Monday I started my new job!

Very happy and thankful Kelly and Jason could join us. Have not seen them since last Thanksgiving and they are looking healthy and happy together. You can check out her blog via the link on the right. We had a somewhat austere Christmas what with the lack of income on our part and the expense of just coming to see us on their part. Mary Lynn did manage to deck each of us out with a new set of jams which is a tradition for her. So we all looked festive for Christmas Eve and Day! (As I mentioned previously, MLM was able to score some amazing bargains online at Target and Walmart with free shipping etc. -- Made it truly the thought that counted because she sure didn't spend much money! And these are very good quality, name-brand products. Bonus!) I didn't have time to get the big tree up or all the boxes of decorations put away, but Jason put lights on the tree a couple nights ago and if there's time we may put some of my Hallmark Star Trek ornaments on. Should be fun! My BIG present from them was this huge book called the Star Wars Vault. It's beautiful!! Large format in a slipcase filled with the history of Star Wars and loads of actual and replica memorabilia placed in special pockets throughout the pages of this thing -- it's is nothing but win!! Thanks Jason and Kelly!!

Mary Lynn got some nice new jams (which she can always use), and my Dad sent us a gift card to Walmart. So, in addition to buying food and supplies for Christmas dinner, I bought is a two-section waffle maker MLM found online. We've been married 33 years now and have always wanted a waffle maker so figured it was about time. ;) Thanks, Dad!

The new job is fine. VERY glad to be working at all considering the state of the economy -- particularly starting on Christmas week! Never did that before. Usually nobody hires between Halloween and New Year's - just isn't done. Yet, here I am. This was driven by the project schedule which happily ignores the odd holiday. ;) Anyway, very nice people here and I'll get to be working deploying new images on new HP hardware so it will be fun. Only problem is the position I was interviewed for got downgraded from supervisor to tech-jockey -- I told them today to just call me HeadCount which everyone thought quite humorous -- dark humor, however. Anyway, the pay is much lower, no bennies other than a 401k, and I'm classified as a Temp with a three to six month contract. I'm hoping to either get moved to a higher pay grade and/or get the contract extended. I have told those other recruiters who have contacted me that they should consider me available as I will drop this job in a heartbeat if a better position comes along, but the recruiter activity has dropped back down again. At least I'll be making enough to cover our bills and rent. Not sure about covering my medications, though; I really need employer coverage for my health care. Oh, well, not this week I guess.

Took Mary Lynn to the dentist last week and she's needing a lot of work there - having to get two teeth extracted next week. This caused us to have to push her shoulder surgery back yet again! It's just tragic. She needs the surgery (the first of many) to help her get a least mobile enough to get back to her water walking exercise regimen. We have to take this one day at a time. Pray for us.

The kids are spending the day in Chicago and then having dinner with friends of Kelly's when she went to Northwestern here, so that'll be fun. Me and MLM are gonna try the new waffle iron for dinner, I think. ;) Mary Lynn's good friend Dawn got her a one-month membership in Netflix for Christmas so we're expecting the first DVD in the mail today. That'll be a nice change - we've watched all our Christmas movies about thirty times each in the last month, trying to maintain that Christmas spirit! Haven't watched any anime in weeks - MLM seems to be out of the mood for it lately. Or maybe she just wants to keep it Chirstmassy around the house. I've got copies of another half-dozen series to get into so I'm hoping we can do that sometime soon.

Here's hoping for an amazing 2009!