January 6, 1999 Wednesday

Well, I had wanted to post a Happy New Year entry on the first, but the Husband spent the whole weekend "tweaking" the website. So this will have to suffice; may I be the last to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Today marks the Epiphany, when the 3 Wise Men showed up with their gold, frankincense and that other stuff. This is also the traditional day to remove the Christmas tree (unless you're not particularly religious, then it's out the door New Year's weekend). But this year I did neither. Instead I invited some folks from work for a final Christmas party of the season, with the tree still twinkling and all the Christmas dishes and accessories I've collected over the years.

I hadn't done much hosting prior to the new carpet and upholstery (because the place looked like hell, frankly), so a lot of the guests hadn't been here in a while (if at all). Almost all had seen the website, and some got to meet Opie for the first time. So we were standing around the kitchen, talking about his hunting skills, when he shows up with a fresh mouse in his mouth. Of course, before anyone notices, he's put it down and it's hauling its little butt across the kitchen. Then everyone notices. Caused quite a stir. Opie became the life of the party, and for the first time, the OPIE Project had a live audience.

So everyone adjourns to the dining room while the Husband and one of the guests chases it from behind the refrigerator and into the waiting trap. The Husband took it out to the usual release spot ; the whole episode took less than five minutes, and everyone got a kick out of the entertainment portion of the evening.

Do I know how to throw a party, or what?

January 9, 1999 Saturday

It's my oldest nephew's birthday. It's also the day I dread; packing away Christmas. But it has to be done. I took off work yesterday to begin this less-than-pleasant task, and pretty much had a naked tree by evening. The bazillion little decorative Christmas touches that blanket the house were also dusted off and returned to their original packaging throughout today.

Except for the Christmas dishes, I was done around two. In the interim, the Husband was outside on the wobbly stepladder, removing strings of lights from the tall cypress flanking our front door. If you read my entry last month at this time, you'll remember that I noted that the Husband was outside on the wobbly stepladder, adding those strings of lights to the cypress trees. At that time, I noted that he was in a t-shirt and it was 70 degrees out. Today he was brushing 5 inches of snow off those trees to get to the lights and was bundled up like a bag of laundry.

I ended up with nearly two dozen large boxes of decorations that the Husband had to pack away in the small closet in the garage designated for that purpose. Every year our sum of Christmas bric-a-brac increases, and every year I manage to box it away, and every year the Husband manages to cram it all in that one closet.

Which is where I left him. My nephew is sixteen today; much too old to settle for my taste in clothes. So for his birthday, I'm taking him out to buy the fashions of his choice. I think he's looking forward to it.

And when I return, all evidence of Christmas '98 will be gone. Please.

January 18, 1999 Monday

Today is one of those holidays that the government recognizes but the private sector does not. Too bad; I remember when Dr. King was alive; he was one of the good guys.

It was a two-party weekend, so I was busy. I made the cake for one of the celebrations (a non-relative, even) and it was a success. And the twins appeared at this celebration also, so it was a fun evening.

The other party celebrated the coming-of-driving-age of a friend's oldest male child. It didn't matter what the topic of conversation was, it always came back to the kid's driver's license (he knew to the minute how much longer it would be before he had that license in hand). And I gotta give the parents credit for remaining cool; I think I'd be quite nervous over the prospect of a child driving for the first time solo. I'm just glad Opie will never drive.

We removed another mouse to the compost heap this morning; Opie's getting very covert recently. Usually he's so proud of his catches that he brings them to us, wherever we are. Now he just drops them off in the kitchen without further ado.

I'm going into work soon; I'm working second shift today, 'cause I'm responsible for stuff there too, so I won't be home 'til Midnight. I love the diversity of my job. Usually.

January 26, 1999 Tuesday

New Jersey just changed the way they handle car inspections. The inspections are tougher, but they're only required every two years now, instead of every year. The new procedures began this past September, when all cars manufactured in an odd-numbered year could skip the 1998 inspection. An exempt windshield sticker was to be sent with each renewed registration beginning in September. But the stickers weren't ready or something, so they weren't sent until the October registrations, although September registrations were still exempt from inspection. So cars carrying the September 98 inspection sticker on the windshield are officially exempt. Owners can pick up an exempt sticker from the inspection station, but it's not required.

Still with me?

In December I was stopped by a cop who claimed my inspection sticker had expired. I politely pointed out that it was a September 98 sticker on an odd-year-manufactured car. He said I still had to have an exemption sticker. I said I had apparently misunderstood (I knew he was wrong). Then his partner interceded, and they began debating the issue. FOR FORTY-FIVE MINUTES! They finally apologized, said I was right, and sent me on my way. I was annoyed, but put it behind me.

Today I pulled into the post office as a cop was pulling out. I saw him do an immediate U-turn and pull up next to me. Very politely he asked if there was a good reason why I was driving with an expired inspection sticker. So I explained the whole procedure, the lack of exempt stickers in September, etc., and I did so rather convincingly, 'cause he agreed I may be right, and rather than hold me up, he sent me on my way.

I drove into the next township and, less than three hours later, I was stopped again. Same reason, same explanation, same results.

I had some free time this afternoon, so I drove to the nearest inspection lanes and asked for an exemption sticker. The guy says No; that program only applies to the October and later inspections. So once again I go through the sticker-shortage explanation and how September cars were not required to display an exemption sticker. I was getting good at it by now. I'd managed to convince three cops that I was right. But this guy was stubborn. And he insisted that my sticker had expired and I had to have my car reinspected. The guy next to him agreed. Bureaucrats. I was fed up at this point, and there was only one car in line, so I said what the hell -- at least I won't getted stopped any more. So I took my car through the inspection process, where they check exhaust emissions, front end alignment and brakes, among other things. "What am I doing?" I thought as they began poking around the car. "What if they find something wrong?" Now I was really getting mad. But it passed inspection, and as I drove up to the last guy, he put the new inspection sticker on my windshield.

As I was about pull away, he says "You know you didn't have to get your car inspected this year."

Aaauuuuugh!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 30, 1999 Saturday

Today I'm taking things kind of easy. After I get the wash done, i.e. I did a little tidying up last night because my sister was coming over with her brood of under-threes. We chatted in between catching the kids from falling down the stairs.

Opie was the center attraction for the kiddies. They are fascinated by him, but hestitant to approach him. The twins make a fuss and jump up and down and squeal in front of him, but Opie does not seem at all bothered by them, which I think is amazing. The oldest will sit next to him and pet him with a little encouragement. Opie is great with kids.

We released another mouse this morning. One of the brown and white guys.

Around lunch time, my nephew and brother-in-law showed up. They were at the library, which is near here, so they stopped in on their way home. I listened to the 7-year-old relate his spelling expertise (he aced a spelling test in school).

Tonight we are celebrating the 21st wedding anniversary of my sister and the aforementioned brother-in-law. It will be the usual family gathering and food festival.

And tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. We bought our house on Super Bowl Sunday fifteen years ago. This year, I am joining a bunch of female friends who could care less about football and spending the night in Atlantic City, gambling away a small expendible sum on room service and games of chance. I usually do well at roulette ("well" being defined as able to play for a really long time before going broke).

Not a bad weekend.

February 14, 1999 Sunday

I felt like having a brunch for my family, and being that today is Valentine's Day, that seemed to be a sufficient reason. So last night around ten p.m. I called both my local sisters and my parents and a couple friends who I knew wouldn't think a last minute invitation was weird, and I had a Valentine's Day brunch on the agenda.

Of course everyone asked what they could bring, so I suggested stuff. I had a couple really neat recipes to try, and they were going to be the centerpiece of the meal (they're called brunch rings -- taco filled and chicken filled with cheeses and stuff -- really yummy).

And then everybody showed up with their "what can I bring?" Tons of bagels, croissants, doughnuts, muffins and breads showed up to go with the brunch rings, sausage, bacon and quiches. There was food everywhere.

And we spent the next several hours eating ourselves sick. It was a roaring success. And of course all my nieces and nephews were here to keep things lively. And they love Opie. And fortunately Opie loves them. So everywhere Opie went, four young-un's tagged along. It was a local family-oriented Mardi Gras.

This was the kind of love we celebrate on Valentine's Day.

February 20, 1999 Saturday

Well, I guess it's time to admit it officially.

We're not going to Alaska this year.

Big tragedy, huh? To us it is. We've been planning this trip for five years. This year is our 25th year together (we started dating in 1974, during the week Ed Sullivan died). But I digress. This trip would have included a cruise up the inside passage through glacier bay, a train ride from Fairbanks to Anchorage with an overnight in Denali National Park (lotsa animals and North America's biggest mountain), with a possible side trip above the Arctic Circle. We would have been in Fairbanks on the first day of Summer, when there is 23 hours of daylight.

I'm getting misty.

I'm admitting it officially now because the deadline for early reservations (a.k.a. discounts) is next week.

But the good news is that we'll go next year. Another year of anticipation.

It's my job. We're installing an entirely new networked operating system, for which I must assume responsibility. It goes live the week before we would have left for Alaska. And with dozens of people using the system, it's going to take months of hand-holding before all learning curves are flattened (I'm still learning it myself).

I like my job ...
I like my job ...
I like my job ...

February 25, 1999 Thursday

A few years ago, I decided to do something different for my boss’s birthday, so I made a pineapple upside-down birthday cake. It was big enough to feed all the well-wishers who dropped by throughout the day.

One such well-wisher was a department head who raved about my cake. He had several pieces. And since flattery will generally get you anywhere, I made one for him when his birthday rolled around a mere two weeks later. He raved again, and I beamed.

Now I’m a boss, and I participate in weekly staff meetings with this particular department head. Last week he mentioned casually that his birthday was Tuesday, and he gave me a look. I took that to mean that he was looking for another pineapple upside-down birthday cake, and I figured sure, why not.

But when Tuesday rolled around I had completely forgotten about it. And he never said a word throughout the meeting until the General Manager apologized for not having any snack food for everyone, because he thought we’d all be having pineapple upside-down cake.

Well, I felt dumb. The guy thought I was teasing and had it hidden in my office, and I was going to go get it. I kept apologizing and explaining that I forgot and feeling stupid until they finally believed me.

But I already figured out how to make up for it. Not that I’m going to explain it here and now; too many web surfers in this company. You’ll have to wait ‘til next week. :)

Nine million people are celebrating their birthdays today. That’s a lot of cake.

February 27, 1999 Saturday

I have a beeper, and I always keep it on.

I'm beginning to re-think this policy. Last night around 10pm, my place of employment requested my help, which I couldn't take care of by phone. I called the guy who should know how to handle it, but he wasn't home. He had re-cabled a high-speed printer to a different control unit, but it didn't work. And this particular printer was needed by the night crew (long story; trust me). There are about forty ports on the control unit, and the cables from it run under the floor. If it was connected to the wrong port, I would have no way of knowing which cable went to the printer (which is in another room), unless it was labeled.

So I was faced with the unpleasant task of going into work and having no idea what to do. The Husband gave me an ohmmeter to take with me and showed me how to use it to identify the suspicious cable, and off I went.

Fortunately the cable was marked and I didn't need to do the gymnastics necessary to identify it. I did, however, have to spend many hours trying to reconfigure the printer to the port. The guy who knows this stuff returned home, got my message and came in.

It was the wee hours when I returned home to a welcome bed.

Which is why I overslept Opie's vet appointment this morning. Actually, we made it on time, but the Husband didn't awake me 'til ten minutes before we had to leave. Ugh.

Opie's fine, btw. Can I go back to bed now?

March 9, 1999 Tuesday

Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the introduction of the Barbie doll. Why is that a cause for celebration? Yes, I had several of the scrawny little things; I was too young to know that Barbie was subjecting me to future stress.

More importantly, yesterday was my youngest sister’s birthday, so of course we had to celebrate, and I accepted the mantle of party responsibility. I opted for a sit-down Sunday dinner (I was feeling over-confident), which meant working my tail off Saturday to get ready. But it was a labor of love. Except that by two o’clock Sunday, I was pooped. I wanted to take a nap.

But the arrival of the three under-three’s and their age 8 cousin assured sufficient activity to keep me awake.

In an effort to keep the kids occupied, I decided a practice Easter Egg Hunt was in order. (The under-three’s were new to such things). So I had over forty plastic eggs filled with candy hidden (and not so hidden) around the house.

The adults thought I was weird. But it turns out a practice was in order. The under-three’s each found one egg and sat down to play with it, shaking it to listen to the noise. Meanwhile, the 8-year-old, a highly-competitive game player, was running around scooping up the other 37 eggs.

It seemed like a good idea originally.

Dinner was a success, my sister got lots of new clothes for her birthday, and everyone was gone by nine. I fell asleep watching the X-Files. That seemed like a good idea too.

March 14, 1999 Sunday

My little sister (who celebrated a thirty-something birthday last week) has been blessed with three adorable kids. A three-year-old and a pair of one-year-old twins. Needless to say, the two adults in that family are quite occupied at any given time. As a result, they call on their extended family from time to time for aid and comfort.

I got such a call recently. The three-year-old's dance lesson overlapped with the twin's Gym-boree class (a play-exercise time for parent and child). So I joined Daddy with the twins while Mommy attended to the dance class.

As usual, Gym-boree ended before the dance lesson, and as usual, we joined Mommy in the hall with the other mommies to await the three-year-old. One of the twins was decidedly hyper, so Daddy took him for a walk down the hall. They found the water fountain and the kid was intrigued by it, so Daddy showed him how it worked. The kid was fascinated.

When they returned, Daddy explained proudly how he had calmed the toddler.

"You showed him how to work the water fountain?" Mommy asked incredulously.

The other mommies, who had been chatting among themselves, suddenly fell silent, until one asked "You showed him how to make the water come out?"

All the mommies shook their heads in unison. They knew. The future of a one-year-old possessing working knowledge of a water fountain is not a dry one.

It was kind of funny. I'll let you know how funny after the next encounter with a water fountain.

March 21, 1999 Sunday

Twenty-four years ago, a high-school friend became the first in our group to have a child. Yesterday, I attended an engagement party for that child.

I had watched her as she learned to walk, I baby-sat her, I saw her off to school. She has attended college, graduated and is now working for a living. And like most adults watching kids grow up, I'm amazed that all that happened so quickly.

The party was heavily attended by the kid's college friends, all of whom were getting together for the first time since graduation, and who habitually congregated and talked about young adult things with child-like enthusiasm.

I sat with her parents and a few other friends from my high school days around the kitchen table. From where I sat I could see all the recent college grads in the den, and I'd look back at my now forty-something crowd and see ourselves as we were then. It was somehow amazing to realize that we had been that young, or that they were that old. But it was not a bittersweet realization; it was revitalizing. I almost felt twenty-four again, I had been dating my Husband-To-Be for a couple years, and we were just starting out.

It all felt so good. :)

March 27, 1999 Saturday

Today was a surprise 30th birthday party for my brother-in-law's sister. Just last week I attended an engagement party for a friend's daughter. She was twenty four. A generation removed. Yet my brother-in-law's sister is my contemporary and is only six years older than my friend's daughter. My Husband has a thirty-year-old niece. The Husband is twenty-five years older than the brother-in-law's sister, but is her contemporary.

Consider this: Bill Wyman, sixty-something former bass player for the Rolling Stones, married a 27-year-old woman. Bill Wyman's son from a previous marriage, married the mother of Bill Wyman's bride. Therefore Bill Wyman's son is also his father-in-law. And Bill Wyman's wife is also his daughter-in-law.

The Husband's family has been traced back to the 1600's, and a case of intermarriage occured along the way. As a result, the Husband's sister is also his eighth cousin.

Life is fascinating, isn't it?

April 10, 1999 Saturday

I like taking pictures. I’m into all the photographic gadgets and tricks; I have a Canon AE-1 which gives me lots of versatility. And with ten nieces and nephews, Easter is usually a busy time for me and my camera.

But this Easter was interrupted by the funeral of my aunt in Pittsburgh. I had no Easter to speak of. The Husband and I exchanged Easter baskets quickly before he hustled me to the airport. I never got to Easter services at church, either here or in Pittsburgh. But mostly, I never got to visit all my nieces and nephews in their Easter finery to photograph them for posterity (I’ve been doing so since they were born).

But my youngest sister has saved me. She plans to re-stage Easter by having the whole family over for Sunday brunch this weekend, including the kids in their Easter duds. So I’ve stocked up on film, and I’m looking forward to my Easter with the kids after all.

Do I have a cool family or what?

April 17, 1999 Saturday

I spent the evening in Atlantic City last night (emphasis on "spent"). The Husband and I joined my company's annual trip to the east coast's version of Las-Vegas-by-the-Sea.

I look at it as paying for an evening's entertainment (as opposed to giving away my money), and on that basis it was value received. We had lots of fun, and a good dinner at the Gold Rush (in the Wild Wild West Casino). I pushed eleven dollars worth of quarters into various slot machines, then walked around taking in the sights (every casino in Atlantic City is different, and this was only the second time I'd visited this one).

Finally, I put myself down at a roulette wheel and lost $45 in ten minutes. I was done.

The Husband fared much better; he played all night and won enough to keep playing. But in the end he was ten dollars poorer than when he arrived. Still, he had a nice evening for ten dollars.

One of my dear friends hit the jackpot on one of the smaller slot machines. She came home with $250.

I just came home. Next time :)

April 27, 1999 Tuesday

This time last year I was in Colorado. And life was much simpler. Now I'm making more money and have more responsibility. And life is increasingly more complicated.

I don't work any set hours. Yesterday I didn't get to work 'til almost noon. It's a zoo. My social life is ...

Wait; I don't have a social life.

That's not true; friends from Lancaster PA are coming to visit this weekend. I'm looking forward to that.

My sister's twins will be two next week; I'm looking forward to that too.

My headache is the new network operating system that everyone in the building has to learn how to use, and it's my responsibility to teach them without commerce grinding to a halt.

I keep saying to my boss "Tell me again why I wanted this job."

It'll get better. It has to.

April 30, 1999 Friday

Yow, it’s the end of the month already. And our local Webmaster is screaming for another entry. Like he’s up-to-date with his entries.

We’ve all been pretty busy this month, even Opie. He’s been conscientiously restocking our mouse supply on an almost-daily basis (check the OpieLog; it’s been mouse city around here recently).

Last week our intrepid feline got us up three 5 a.m.’s in a row by bringing a small furry critter into the bedroom. My sleep schedule is chaotic enough without cat and mouse games at 5 a.m.

Last night we closed off Opie’s door for the night. He spent the whole night quietly at the foot of the bed without complaint, and we slept until the alarm jolted us into the morning.

Our friends from Lancaster were supposed to visit this weekend, but they had to cancel. They have six kids; I give them credit for being able to make any kind of plans. Rescheduling will be a new challenge.

Geez, it’s May tomorrow. And it’s going to hit 80 degrees this weekend. I am so unprepared for summer.

But that’s okay, because it’ll be over before I realize it anyway.

June 9, 1999 Wednesday

Last week I became the Opie Project Animal Control Officer For A Day. Against my wishes.

Opie deemed it necessary to bring a bird into the house, just after the Husband had left for work. Now Opie is not a morning cat. He'll eat his breakfast, then curl up either on the living room couch or the bed in the spare bedroom, where he will still be when I leave for work. Usually.

But not this particular morning. My first instinct was to call the Husband and tell him to get his butt home and remove this bird. But no, I would take care of this on my own.

Couldn't be a rabbit or a toad; they're easy. No, this was a bird. I have no idea what kind of bird it was. It was black, it was chubby, it had a long beak. And this bird was not following protocol. He was not hiding behind the couch. He was at the sliding door in the dining room, pecking at the glass! I was afraid if I tried to get close to open the door, I would scare him into some small cranny somewhere and never get him out.

I got a towel and threw it over him. I slid open the door and gently scooped him up. I placed him on the deck, quickly removed the towel and closed the door.

The bird looked left. The bird looked right. The bird flew up onto the railing. He repeated the quick surveillance and flew off to wherever these birds go.

And I went off to work pleased with myself.

But I don't want to do it again. :)

June 16, 1999 Wednesday

My parents are heading south today to visit my sister in South Carolina. They’ll be spending Father’s Day there, so we won’t be having a Father’s Day celebration here. At least not on Father’s Day.

My youngest sister realized that fact last Saturday night. It is not like us to let an occasion go by without celebrating. So she began preparing a Father’s Day celebration for the next day (last Sunday). She called me to plan the menu and appropriate Father’s Day gifts.

My other (local) sister couldn’t make it; they had other plans. There was no opportunity at this point for changing plans, so we proceeded without them.

Considering the minimal prep time, it came off rather well. And it wasn’t just for my father. My sister’s husband, the father of the twins, was also honored. Even the Husband was presented a gift from the cat (It was a twenty dollar bill. I would like to know where Opie got that).

And of course the twins can always be counted on for cheap entertainment. I don’t need a party excuse to enjoy them. And their older sister (who is three) gave us a preview of her dance recital in full costume. She did an impromptu to “La Vida Loca.”

We all had fun; it was worth the extra effort.. And the sister who couldn’t make it? She’ll be having a Father’s Day celebration at her house when my parents return from South Carolina.

Never a dull moment.

June 23, 1999 Wednesday

I work for a company that deals with large volumes of data and relies heavily on their computers and networks. And I’m responsible for all the computers and the internal network. And this year they decided to change the way that each of the 300 employees interfaces with all the data (new operating system). A recipe for disaster.

So I postponed our trip to Alaska and chose to work 24 hours a day instead.

Okay, it’s not that bad. But I am on call 24/7, and call they do.

To my total amazement, the transition is going smoothly. All the moaning that I’d been hearing from the users about how it’s not going to work just seemed to vanish. Different departments are going online at different times, and I’m running back and forth, holding hands and offering encouragement, and it’s all for nothing. All the training seems to have sunk in. I couldn’t be happier.

Yeah I could. I could be in Alaska.

June 26, 1999 Saturday

My three-year-old niece (almost four) had her first dance recital, and she was really looking forward to it, as was the entire extended family of aunts and uncles. She was only one of dozens of performances, so the house was packed with relatives uttering “awwww ...” at every appropriate occasion.

Our problem was the niece’s brother and sister (the 2-year-old twins). All the usual folks that could be counted on to babysit had tickets for the dance recital. So my sister made the brave decision to bring them along. If they got antsy, there were plenty of relatives on hand to take turns carrying them out to the hallway and quieting them down.

As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about. They proved to be as entertaining as the performers. The music was loud, and they were digging it, bobbing up an down in time with the music. They were having as much fun as the rest of us. The little dolls were no trouble at all.

As for the recital itself, the niece was flawless, and we applauded accordingly. One poor girl did suffer from serious stage fright and refused to appear, but she wasn’t related to any of us, so it was okay. :)

And a splendid time was had by all.

June 30, 1999 Wednesday

Flashback.

In the early sixties (when my age was a single digit), Lesley Gore had a song called "It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To." This was followed up by the tender sequel "Judy’s Turn To Cry."

It told the story of the eternal love triangle, from the viewpoint of insipidly lame teenagers.

It seems that Johnny and Lesley had a boyfriend/girlfriend thing going, but for some reason, Johnny picked Lesley’s birthday party to begin making out with Lesley’s friend Judy, in the presence of all their mutual friends.

Right away, you can tell this guy is all class. With a capital A.

Lesley handles it well; she throws a liplock on the first guy that walks past.

Now Johnny realizes that it’s okay for him to pull this crap, but there is something inherently wrong with Lesley doing likewise. So Johnny steps forward, not to debate the issue, not to apologize for his actions, not to keep things from getting out of hand. No, Johnny, in the presence of all their mutual friends at Lesley's birthday party, punches the guy's lights out.

Lesley is impressed. It seems that commiting an act of violence on an innocent third party means that Johnny still loves her, despite the fact that he’s just given his class ring to Judy (a gesture he obviously never made to Lesley).

This trio deserves each other, don’t they?

So Lesley and Johnny are back together. She apparently missed the subtle little telltale signs that Johnny was a moronic, violence-prone control freak.

Although she probably realized it eventually, since her next single was entitled "You Don’t Own Me."

Well, Johnny didn’t have to listen to that women’s-lib crap from his woman, so he slapped her around a bit. She, in turn, slapped him with a restraining order. Johnny went back to Judy, and Judy has been barefoot and pregnant since, and living in mortal fear of a beating for no reason whenever Johnny gets drunk.

And they lived happily ever after. Jerks.

July 19, 1999 Monday

I took last Friday off and invited my 3-year-old niece to join me to make cookies. And she loves to visit Opie.

We went to lunch at a local eatery first, and when we returned, there was a mouse waiting in the trap. She was thrilled; she had never seen a mouse before. She studied it in the safety of the little green trap until I said we had to let it go. She was confused; she couldn't understand why we didn't want to keep it (I got to admit, we do catch cute mice). I offered a lame excuse about never trying to keep wild animals caged up, and she might even have bought that. I asked if she wanted to come with me while I set it free, but she chose to watch from the deck. She waved 'bye to the mouse and he was forgotten.

I asked her what kind of cake she wanted to make and she said pink. Okay. I knew I had red food dye high up in one of the cabinets, but I didn't feel like perching on a chair to hunt for it. But I did. It was in the back of a cabinet, and I had to stretch to reach it and pull it forward with just two fingertips. Just as it reached the front edge of the shelf, it slipped from my precarious grasp and hurtled (yes, it hurtled!) toward the kitchen counter and/or floor.

Now, that was not a long distance, and the drop was probably less than a second's duration. But in that brief period of time I envisioned the glass bottle shattering, and red dye radiating outward to the far corners of the kitchen, me on my hands and knees picking up specs of glass and mopping up dye before it soaked into otherwise unnoticeable crevices throughout the kitchen. I saw myself wiping red dye off my niece, and I saw myself pre-treating and washing her clothes, and I saw myself explaining the child's sudden redness to her mother.

All this in less than a second.

Fortunately, the bottle hit something soft. Unfortunately, it was my niece's face. But she was more surprised than hurt by it, so I encouraged laughter while I retrieved the undamaged bottle.

So we had pink cupcakes with chocolate icing. And we had chocolate pudding. And chocolate pudding pops. And mostly we had fun. That's the way to spend a day off.

July 25, 1999 Sunday

I'm down at the shore this week. That's the beach to the rest of the world, but it's"the shore" in New Jersey. My sisters and I rent the same house every year around this time, and there's usually a dozen or more humans occupying the premises at any given time, because we invite everyone we know to come down for a day.

The Husband is busy at work and can't get time off, but he usually manages to spend the first Sunday here, and today is no exception.

There are two big trade-offs for this week. Air conditioning and the Internet. I'll have neither for a week. And we're in the middle of a heat wave (heat indices exceeding 100). But there is a steady ocean breeze here, and it's not terrible. If you brought nine electric fans with you.

The Husband is returning home tonight and will be shuttling this entry for the week with him.

My parents came down for the day and brought my grandmother with them. Today is my grandmother's birthday. She was born in 1902. Three years from now we'll be celebrating her 100th birthday. We took her out to dinner tonight and a swell time was had by all. Except my 3-year-old niece, who kept throwing up in the car on the way to the restaurant. Which meant Daddy dropped off everyone else, then took her home. Which also meant Mommy couldn't enjoy the evening out 'cause she was worried about her little one. Which meant she left before her food arrived and took her two other little ones (the twins) with her.

Happy birthday Grams.

We ended up having the restaurant bag their meals as take-out and we brought their dinner home.

And so begins my week "away from it all."

July 28, 1999 Wednesday

I'm at the beach house with my sisters and loving it! Back Saturday.

July 31, 1999 Saturday

I'm back. From a week at the shore.

We (my sisters and I) have been doing this week at the shore thing since high school. It's just a chance to be somewhere else. It's nearby, but different, y'know?

But unlike high school days, we now have nieces and nephews with whom to share the experience of salt water up our noses.

Still, this year wasn't quite the same. It was just me and one sister (and her family). The other local sister had sent her oldest child to Europe for a month (part of an exchange student type thing), which used up their vacation budget quickly (he'll be home Monday; I'll bet he'll have stories to tell).

And friends usually drop in for a day or two (they're welcome any time), and they did, but not in the numbers that we've experienced previously. There's something memorable about having fourteen people gathered around the table in a non-air-conditioned house during a heat wave. We never had a crowd this year.

And the heat, while not comfy, was not unbearable. It was nearly ten degrees cooler at the shore at any given time, and there was almost always a breeze.

So, yeah, it was fun. But now I'm back.

Poo.

August 7, 1999 Saturday

Okay, it's officially a drought here in the northeastern United States. That means I can't wash my car, and it needs a bath. Has for a while. It's not a big car; it wouldn't take much. Oh well, he who hesitates ...

Lawn watering is also off limits. Which means everybody's lawn will begin to look like ours looks normally :)

At least the heat wave has broken (though not officially, 'cause it still manages to touch ninety each day); it is definitely more bearable outdoors than it has been.

My younger sister of the three kids under four years old agreed to baby-sit an additional one year old, and then wondered what she'd gotten herself into. So I volunteered to help out. What was she thinking?

My parents 50th anniversary is next weekend and we're having a nicely-organized bash in their honor. Relatives from hundreds of miles away will be there. We've rented a large tent canopy for an outdoor gathering at my sister's house (the one with the pool). Filling pools is also in violation of drought restrictions, and my brother-in-law is afraid that enough water might evaporate by next week to keep the pool filters from working, which means swimming will not be part of the festivities. Most of these folks are friends of my parents and in their seventies; I don't think they'll miss having the chance to cannonball off the diving board.

Although there's still a week to go, we're not really ready; I just hope there's not a lot of last minute chaos.

If there is, you'll hear about it here. Or even if there's not.

August 15, 1999 Sunday

Friday was my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary, and for months we've been preparing an appropriately extravagant celebration to commemmorate the event.

I was awakened on the morning of the party (yesterday) at 5 am to thunder and lightning and wind and driving rain. I was not a happy celebrant. By 8 am the rain was gone, but everything was wet, and it was a gray and miserable day. But I figured it would be okay if the rain didn't return.

But as the morning progressed, the sun came out and dried up all the rain. The sky cleared. I fired up my computer and checked all the weather sites and Doppler Radar maps. There were no new clouds anywhere on the east coast. The forecast of all-day rain was modified to the probability of evening thunderstorms. Not really what I wanted to hear, but I was still optimistic.

The party began at four pm, and everyone was punctual; by 4:30, everyone was seated under the dining canopy with drinks and hors d'ouevres and conversation. Shortly after five, dinner was ready to be served, and people headed for the serving canopy (opposite side of the pool from the dining canopy; the only two areas that could take large canopy tents). It was a beautiful sunny day.

I spoke too soon. The sky began to darken severely. People were rushing through the serving line to get back to the other tent before the rains came. It looked like we were going to make it. The Husband and I and three others were the last people in the serving tent when the skies opened up. It was a deluge! A gullywasher. It poured. Fortunately, it wasn't too windy, and we stayed dry. But we were stuck in the serving tent, with no place to sit, and the only utensils being plastic forks. The caterer had to cut our meat for us. So we dined upright during the thunder and lightning show.

The house blocked our view of the dining tent, but the Husband would occasionally dart out during a lull in the storm to see how they were doing. They were huddled in the middle of the tent, but they had utensils and chairs. And the bar!

After about a half-hour of this (seemed that long, anyway); my brother-in-law began escorting some folks into the house under several umbrellas. It was a somewhat futile attempt at keeping dry, but a large number of the older folks did get into the house. Of course, you know what happened then. The rain let up, and we were able to get back to the dining tent without getting soaked..

The rain continued lightly for quite a while, but we stayed dry in the center of the tent and had a fun time.

The rain did not dampen the event. In fact, it made it quite memorable. Everyone took it in stride and had a good time.

Did I mention that this all took place during a declared drought emergency?

August 21, 1999 Saturday

Today my niece is 4 years old. It doesn't seem she's that old already. So there were lots of relatives bearing lots of gifts, and of course the kid loved it. Her two-year-old siblings loved it too; they didn't realize that it wasn't for them.

Permit me to interrupt with the following: between now and the end of September it's gonna be a party every weekend. Last weekend was my parents' 50th anniversay. This weekend was my niece's birthday. Next weekend, my sister's. The following weekend, a friend's 40th. The weekend after that, my nephew's 8th. After that, my brother-in-law's 44th. Something follows that, but I've forgotten what it is.

Anyway, I threw that in because my sister showed up at the party today in her birthday present; a Chrysler Cirrus. So there was a mandatory ogling of the new vehicle for a while. The highlight was trying to find the battery in the engine compartment. I won ('cause I peeked in the owner's manual). It's behind a panel in the left front wheel well. Batteries used to be one of those things you could replace yourself, y'know?

My niece, the 4-year-old sweetie, enjoyed herself immensely. She took everybody (those under 4 feet tall, anyway) out into the back yard (it was a nice day), leaving us older folks to chat the afternoon away. And we did.

Ice cream and cake wrapped up the festivities, as all such events should be.

Happy birthday, where applicable.

August 29, 1999 Sunday

Today is my sister's birthday. Yesterday was her party. It was the usual range of festivities involving my family; all five nieces and nephews were present, all my sisters (except the one in South Carolina) and their spouses, and my parents, plus a coupla close friends.

Unlike our usual birthday parties, this was a sit-down dinner for sixteen, hosted by my youngest sister. Of course most of the day was spent entertaining and being entertained by the kids. The 2-year-old twins and the 4-year-old competed for attention; the 7-year-old didn't have a chance. The 16-year-old brought his girl friend and they pretty much stayed by themselves.

Another exception to the usual party routine was the Husband. He was playing with the kids, for more than his usual ten minutes. This went on for more than an hour (at one point my 55-year-old Husband was engaged in a pillow fight with the 4-and-unders, using the pillows from the living room furniture).

His usual routine after dinner is a nap on the couch; he'll be zonked out tonight, thought I. But he fooled me; it was back to playing with the kids after dinner.

The ceremonial opening of presents was followed by cake and ice cream, and a splendid time was had by all.

And the Husband did sleep soundly that night. :-)

August 31, 1999 Tuesday

We got a digital camera!

An Olympus C2000. I love it. I wasn’t sure how I’d take to digital photography ‘cause I’m set in my ways, photography-wise. I love my Canon AE-1 (which I refer to as my "real" camera), but the digital certainly keeps pace with it.

Non-photography types can skip the next paragraph.

The Olympus digital has aperture priority and shutter-priority modes, as well as fully automatic, four flash modes, a macro setting, a zoom lens and other goodies; all stuff that I’m gotten used to having with my "real" cameras. So I’m not having to do without any features to go digital.

I mail ordered it from a website and I ordered NiMH batteries and a charger along with the camera (neither comes with it), but they were backordered, so I got the camera (I had it sent to my work address) and played with it using the alkaline AA’s that came with it. By the time I got home, the batteries were dead. The thing eats batteries. We put in more alkalines and killed them off that evening playing with it.

That’s my only complaint, though. We did get NiMH’s this weekend, and they last much longer, and they recharge quickly. We’re going to have to get a couple more sets of them ($20 for 4 AA’s) and more memory. The current 8Mb allows for 38 pix at 1024x768, which is my resolution of choice. 32 Mb will get us 156 exposures, and, along with the 8 Mb card, gives us a traveling capacity of nearly 200 pictures. That’s plenty, considering we can always delete the less-than-optimum pictures.

I’m excited. This little camera may become a "real" camera before I realize it.

 September 10, 1999 Friday

Labor Day weekend we visited friends in Lancaster PA. We hadn’t been there in a while, and the guy’s 40th birthday was pending (it’s this weekend, actually). And his spouse is eight months pregnant. With child number 7. So it was easier for the two of us to go out there than have the nine of them come here. :)

We didn’t get out there at Christmastime last year (and we usually do), and when we went out earlier this year, I forgot to bring the presents I had gotten for the kids. So this time I remembered to bring last year’s Christmas presents. And a couple of the kids had celebrated birthdays since our last visit, so there were more goodies to add to the pile. The kids were thrilled, if not also a bit bewildered by Christmas in September, and we put on Christmas music and opened presents. Then we all had watermelon (except the Husband, who is allergic).

The older kids are 13 and 14, and can’t really be called kids for much longer. I’m always amazed how they look out for each other. Such overcrowding in Nature generally calls for the larger siblings to eat the smaller ones.

A word about photographing children in groups. If you’ve tried, you know they have no incentive to stand in one spot while you compose and focus the shot and instruct the others. You usually end up with a shot that has one kid crosseyed, another picking his butt and no one smiling.

The digital camera changes all that. When they know they get to see the picture on that little screen on the back of the camera right after it’s taken, they enthusiastically follow instructions to see the rewards of their efforts almost immediately. And their enthusiasm shows. Which makes for a better picture. And they usually want to “do it again,” which is no big deal, ‘cause you can just delete the photos you don’t want.

So we talked in between photo sessions, caught up on old news and had a fun time. And a big dinner (I brought a couple desserts that were a hit with the kids). The day was too quickly gone; it was after midnight when we finally got home.

Another Christmas come and gone. :)

September 16, 1999 Thursday

My nephew turned eight this week, and we rocked his video game world with a score of games that only eight-year olds can appreciate.

But Dad outdid the usual video games. It seems the kid has shown a distinct interest in golf; he watches it on tv and understands the game. So his dad bought him a set of clubs and signed him up for lessons.

Golf clubs! For eight-year-olds! But when they start young they can earn their own way through college :)

Traditionally in our family, the birthday honoree gets to pick the dinner menu for his party. The kid picked four separate pasta dishes. And, because it was his birthday (and only because it was his birthday), we had four entrees with dinner (and we were expected to try them all). And we did.

Other than that, it was our usual celebration: food, presents and kids running amok. They dragged out the Lincoln Logs and convinced the Husband to build a log cabin for them while I photographed the occasion with the new digital camera.

I think there's only one birthday left to celebrate. Before mine, that is :)

September 23, 1999 Thursday

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band are touring for the first time in a while, but I never got off my butt to try to get tickets (they're usually sold out the first day, and it takes hours to get through on the phone, and forget about standing in lines for days), and I've already seen him three times, so I was content to let this tour pass by. Not really, but I convinced myself I was.

Then my sister got tickets. For NOTHING! Her in-laws couldn't go and gave her the tickets. Did I want to go with her? Yow!

I'm probably getting too old to be excited about rock concerts, but I'll worry about that later. We had strange seats; they were behind and above the stage. It was like looking down from backstage. And we could see the whole crowd spreading outward from the stage. The first few rows were lit and the diversity of the crowd was apparent. There were young kids, young adults, middle-agers, and in the very first row, clapping and singing along with the music was a gray-haired woman who had to be 65.

About midway through I leaned over to my sister and asked "Is that smell what I think it is?"

"Marijuana," she opined.

It was only a few minutes later when she leaned over to me and asked, "Is that smell what I think it is?"

It was. It was Ben-Gay.

Like I said, the man appeals to all ages.

September 26, 1999 Sunday

What a beautiful weekend, I love autumn.

I used to volunteer more for work, doing community service type things, but lately I seem to be spending so much time at work I haven’t volunteered much. But our town’s community day was yesterday and although I wasn’t looking forward to it, I decided to go represent my company by handing out blow pops.

It was easy enough. Little kids and “big” kids pick one of the lollipops. Some of the sticks are colored and depending on the color you could win a prize. Beach towels, mugs, t-shirts, sweatshirts, umbrellas, tote bags, and all kinds of goodies. The kids loved us, mostly 'cause they got to keep the lollipop. The adults were surprised that they got to play too. And even if the stick wasn’t colored, you still got either a pen or some tattoos. Hey, it was free!

A guy came over with money in his hand to donate to our cause. He was amazed it was free and picked his blow pop. It was white. As I laughed, I told him he looked like a tattoo kind of guy. He again remarked about it not costing and my friend and co-worker jokingly said, “Hey, you could always buy us hotdogs.”

Not five minutes later, our guy was back with 3 of the foot-long varieties, apologizing for not knowing what condiments to put on them. He disappeared into the crowd and the three of us munched on the best tasting hotdogs we’d had for a while. What a sweet thing to do. We hoped he would pass by again so we could point him toward one of the green colored blowpop sticks. Those hotdogs were definitely worth a sweatshirt. We didn’t see him near our table again; too bad we didn’t think about it sooner. I wonder how many other people he bought hotdogs for?

It’s the little things that mean a lot!

September 30, 1999 Thursday

Tomorrow begins the final quarter of the year, and I always look forward to it for a number of reasons. Such as:

In eleven days: Our anniversary
Three weeks later: Halloween
Four weeks later: My birthday
Four weeks later: Christmas
One week later: Y2K

It’s gonna go quickly too. We have a week’s vacation on the Chesapeake Bay in there too. And even though we already got our anniversary present (the Olympus digital camera), there are still memory upgrades, floppy disk adapters, other accessories to suggest to the relatives as gift items.

And of course Halloween is for kids, and all my sisters’ and friends’ kids will show up all decked out for the occasion; that’s always a fun evening.

And my birthday! There are multiple celebrations to look forward to (my birthday has never been just one day - the Husband and I celebrate the actual day, I get feted at work, and a party with friends follows on the weekend). And just to keep the ball rolling, my sister, father and brother-in-law all have birthdays the following week.

By then the Christmas season is in full swing and I’m out there shopping ‘til I’m dropping. Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

And this year we close out with the added bonus of whatever Y2K has in store for us. :)

And it all starts in just over a week.

October 10, 1999 Sunday

Tomorrow is our anniversary. It's also Bill and Hillary's anniversary. No correlation.

We have a tradition of getting a single gift for both of us for our anniversary. Something we will both use. This year it was the Olympus digital camera. All the relatives know we got it, and they know there are plenty of things to accessorize it with in the anniversary gift ideas department.

So what do I do two days before a gift-getting event? I go out and buy a 32 meg SmartMedia card (not likely we'll be getting one of those, giftwise, and if we do it just means expanded photo capacity). And if we didn't get one, I was worried that we wouldn't have sufficient memory for our upcoming excursion around the Chesapeake Bay.

Olympus has this phobia about using non-Olympus products with their camera. Use ONLY SmartMedia cards for the Olympus; use ONLY the Olympus AC adapter, use ONLY the Olympus battery charger. But the price is the same as the non-brands, so I don't have a problem with that.

The problem I did have was finding the Olympus brand. Nobody carried them. The third store I tried did guarantee to take back the card if it didn't work, and I was frustrated at that point, so I agreed. It was a Diamond Rio card, and it worked perfectly; no formatting necessary.

So now, with the original 8 meg card, we have a 200-pix capacity at 1024x768. We're cool.

October 20, 1999 Wednesday

After months of long days at work and call-ins on weekends, we managed a week off last week. We visited several sites on the Chesapeake Bay, ate extremely well, and relaxed to the fullest potential.

Our 15th anniversary was Monday, and we forgot to get each other cards. We already had our anniversary present (the digital camera). So we had total strangers out on a nature trail take our picture to commemorate the occasion.

My sisters will be giving us a small anniversary party the week after we return.

My favorite part of the vacation was the wild ponies on Chincoteague Island. A pony walked right past us on a nature trail, paying us no attention. The only other ponies we saw were grazing in a large field at a good distance away. And Lightning, the motel’s mascot, who lived in a stable at the back of the motel. We gave him a couple apples.

We visited the Husband’s niece, a student at William and Mary College. We all had breakfast together at a pancake house called "Mama Steve’s."

We had planned a trip to Tangier Island (pop. 850), with its isolated fishing village and colonial era structures, but it rained the day we planned to go, and we couldn’t reschedule it conveniently. Next time.

We also planned a day at Busch Gardens, but it was closed, except on weekends. So we toured Yorktown instead (last battle of the American Revolutionary War).

And we spent six hours covering two more battlefields (Civil War this time); Chancellorsville and the Wilderness. The Husband likes that stuff. I find it interesting to realize what actually occured on the ground on which I’m standing.

And we finally got to see the Viet Nam Memorial (the marble wall with all the names engraved on it) in Washington DC. This was on a Saturday, and the place was mobbed. Took us an hour in city traffic to get to it. But it was worth it.

And I took 61 digital pictures with our anniversary present (the Olympus digital camera). I’m still going through them. At one battlefield, I stood in one spot and took a series of pictures moving left to right, and was able to combine them into one extra-wide panorama shot on the computer. I’m real proud of myself.

But now it’s back to work, where I’m short-handed for the next two weeks because of vacations. Welcome home.

October 25, 1999 Monday

Our 15th wedding anniversary was October 11, and my family would not have hesitated to celebrate the occasion with some form of get-together, except that we were on an island off the coast of Virginia at the time.

Not to be deprived of the occasion, they scheduled a party for the weekend after our return (i.e. yesterday), and we were treated to pizza, many kinds of desserts (including sugar-free for the Husband), and gifts and cards.

And, of course, all the nieces and nephews were present. The 4-year-old niece, who had long, beautiful hair, decided to give herself a haircut. Her mother was appalled. It wasn’t terrible, though. It should grow back in by the next millennium :)

It was the usual celebration; food, gifts, the women chatting around the kitchen table; the guys watching sports on tv.

Many of our well-wishers gave us money, which was greatly appreciated. We spent it all on digital camera accessories (AC adapter, floppy disk adapter, extra NiMH batteries, leather camera case) when we got home (through the magic of internet mail order).

Digitally speaking, we are up to date.

October 28, 1999 Thursday

The camera stuff we ordered Sunday night came today, just as I was leaving for work (I'm working late tonight so I came in late). I didn't have a chance to play with any of it, except the camera case, which is so cute! (As you know, "cute" is always a priority). It's leather, with the Olympus logo embossed in it, and with little tiny zippered pouches for things like spare SmartMedia cards and batteries (nothing much bigger however). The camera fits snuggly inside and is well padded. It's still a small package, and quite cute (did I mention it was cute).

When we took it on vacation, I kept the camera in my purse, and it managed to get scuffed up, and the lens cap kept falling off. Those problems can now be considered solved.

We also got the Floppy Disk Adapter. That allows you to remove the memory card from the camera (it's very thin and tiny) and insert it in the adapter, which then fits into the floppy disk drive. This way, all the pictures can be downloaded without the necessity of connecting the camera to the computer (annoying when access to the back of your computer is limited).

And we got an AC adapter. The Husband wanted one so he could take nothing shots around the house, or download stuff from the camera, without depleting the batteries. I'm quite happy with how long the batteries hold out. One of the complaints about our model camera (and most digital cameras) is that it eats batteries. But we took it with us on a week's vacation, shot 61 1024x768 res pictures, downloaded them to two computers, shot another 17 pics of the nieces and nephews, downloaded them, and we're still on the same 4 AA NiMH batteries (we bought another set anyway).

So we've got the camera, the Floppy Disk Adapter, an 8 Mb SmartMedia card, a 32 Mb SmartMedia card, 3 sets of NiMH batteries and two chargers.

And a really cute case.

October 31, 1999 Sunday

In four short years, my little sister went from being a single professional woman to a married mother of three in diapers. I don't know how she does it but she does.

Friday she followed her husband to Midas to leave his car for brakes, took him to the train station so he could get to work, take her 4-year-old to school, then return to help her get into her costume for the school's Halloween parade. It was more convenient to come here than go home and back to school again, so she did, with the twins in tow (she knew I worked late last night and would not be going in too early today).

So of course I had to go see my niece in her Halloween parade, which I did, and I didn't get to work 'til noon. Now I also have a 9-year-old nephew (a different sister's kid), who also was in his school's Halloween parade at 3:30, and I couldn't very well attend the niece's and not his, so I planned to cut out early after coming in at noon.

But I was accosted as soon as I walked in. The network printers wouldn't work. The server seemed okay, so it was likely the electrically-complex switchbox. I turned that off and on again, to no avail. No surprise. I removed the cover, blew out months of dust, reseated the ribbon cables (of which there were bazillions) and tried again. All the LED's fired up. Another disaster averted. I returned to my office to see how much I could accomplish before the next Halloween parade on my schedule.

I never got there. The network printers still weren't functioning. Uh oh. I was out of procedures. I retraced my steps and found nothing. The network guy was setting up systems offsite today, so I tracked him down and asked for ideas. He gave me the standard list that I had already tried.

Panic time (although I never really panic). I was trying to think up a good excuse to give my nephew for missing his Halloween parade. What to do.

A last resort was rebooting the server, but it means getting a hundred people to log off, and there was no reason to believe that would work.. Still, a Halloween parade was at stake. So I had a hundred people log off for a few minutes. And the printers began working again. And I was a hero again. And I made it to the Halloween parade. Last resorts are there for a reason.

Happy Halloween.

November 7, 1999 Sunday

My brother-in-law and I both work for corporations that rely heavily on their data storage and computers. And we will both be working New Year’s Eve to thwart the dreaded Y2K menace.

My task is not as complex as his (his company is much bigger, with computers networked across several states; all my responsibilty is within a couple buildings). My company has had several meetings on the subject and explored our vulnerability and is confident that we will not suffer seriously. Should the unexpected take us down, we have alternate sources to tap into. Without getting boringly complex, we are confident that we are Y2K compliant.

Nevertheless, I will be working New Year’s Eve until the wee hours of the mornin' (if all goes well. It’ll be until God-knows-when if it doesn’t). The Husband will be keeping me company; he figures it’ll be more memorable that any traditional New Year’s Eve celebration. We’ll have tv to observe the Times Square festivities and to report any Y2K disasters (assuming that the anticipated world-wide power failure does not occur).

My brother-in-law works in a more structured business environment. He’s on their Y2K committee, and they regularly run tests on various parts of the system to verify compliance. And they will be regularly running these tests right up ‘til New Year’s Eve. They’ll even be running them into the New Year, just to check for hidden bombs that Y2K might have planted at the stroke of midnight. That’s something I wonder about myself. Can the glitch cause screw-ups that won’t show up for months? Will I be constantly on my toes ‘til the new millennium actually does arrive in 2001?

And here’s a goody I just heard about. The Roaring Twenties were so named because the economy was so good; the stock market kept roaring upward and everyone was making money. President Hoover predicted a new era in business and the end of poverty. Then the bottom dropped out, and a ten-year Great Depression followed. Our current boom economy is very similar to that of the Roaring Twenties. If this bull market lasts just as long as it did in the Roaring Twenties, do you know when the bottom will drop out?

Jan. 1 2000

November 16, 1999 Tuesday

Opie is always very proud of himself when he brings home a capture. He has a particular gutteral meow that means "Hey, come look at what I've got!". And we do come running. Opie will then stand aside and bask in the glory of his achievment, which we try to catch with a minimum of fuss.

And the Husband is always proud of himself when he succeeds in returning the particular woodland creature to its natural habitat, with said minimum of fuss. He will pat Opie on the head, sarcastically congratulate him on a job well done, then go log it in on the computer.

But guess who gets to clean up the mess? It can't be a pleasant trip into the house in the mouth of a carnivore, and bowel control is not a priority in matters of survival.

Opie brought home a bird the other morning, and it hid behind the kitchen curtain, trying to figure out what windows were all about, while the Husband put the bird plan in action (close venetian blinds and other window coverings, open front door wide, chase bird. When the bird sees the outside daylight, it swoops out the door). This procedure, so far, has been 100% effective. The bird experiences minimum trauma and is back outside in minutes.

Still, that was enough time for this particular bird to crap all over the kitchen window. Normally, the few birds that Opie has brought in had not hung around long enough to feel the need to leave any souvenirs.

But for the exceptions I reserve the right to rant. So I did. Thank you.

Have a nice day :)

November 24, 1999 Wednesday

I took off from work today. Actually, I took the whole week off. I’ve accrued five weeks vacation and I have to take it before the end of the year, and I’ve been so busy this year that I’m in danger of running out of year before I run out of vacation :)

But that’s not why I took off this particular week. My sister usually hosts Thanksgiving dinner for our clan (the Husband and I attend every other year, alternating Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners between his family and mine), but for some reason I asked her if she’d like me to have the dinner this year. She agreed heartily.

I’ve never made a Thanksgiving dinner in my life. Not that I can’t. I’ve cooked a small turkey with all the fixin’s for the Husband and me on several occasions. And I’ve cooked for my whole family before. But this is Thanksgiving dinner for sixteen people! Should be fun.

Actually, it will be. My sisters will each bring something, and they’ll all show up early to help with the preparations (including the sister from South Carolina, who is here for the occasion), and we’ll have a good time.

Tomorrow.

Today, I clean. And when you clean, you clean alone. This does not qualify as a family participation event. I guess I’m about halfway done, and I’m taking a break.

Opie’s been helping by wisely staying out of the way. So now he’s taking a break with me. Just a few more minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 November 28, 1999 Sunday

It's the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, and unlike two years ago, when we spent the entire day enduring holiday traffic from my sister's house in South Carolina to the friendly surroundings that are our home in New Jersey, I did nothing. I watched tv. I napped. The Husband did pretty much the same.

As indicated by the graphic, today is my birthday, so I'm entitled to do nothing, and to include my Husband in the nothingness if I so choose. Along about dusk we made the short trip to my sister's house, where a combined birthday party/dinner had been planned (Thursday is the SC sister's birthday, and she was home for the holidays, so we celebrated both birthdays).

It was the usual fun dinner. We ate well, laughed loudly, played with the nieces and nephews 'til they exceeded the rowdy limits, then we had to blame THEM for being out of control.

This weekend also officially kicked off the holiday shopping season, and I got much of my shopping done. To my surprise, so did the Husband. And he almost never goes to a store on this particular weekend.

And next weekend we get a Christmas tree. It's all happening quickly now.

November 30, 1999 Tuesday

My birthday present from the Husband. A very large mouse. (That's a full-sized human rocker he's sitting in). But I love it.

December 4, 1999 Saturday

We planned to get our Christmas tree today, but it rained last night and everything was wet, even though the sun shone brightly all day. So I spent the day putting out the various non-tree decorations throughout the house. Around three I realized I pretty much needed the tree to proceed any further, so I quickly showered and we rushed out to the tree farm, arriving with only about an hour of daylight left (it takes me at least that long to pick out a tree). I was worried I wouldn't find anything I liked and have to make by choice in gathering twilight and not be happy with it. I was wrong. For some reason, there were several trees I liked, and as the twilight gathered, my dilemma was selecting from several perfect trees, and I did.

It's a big one, by most people's standards, but not by mine. Every year I get new ornaments, and every year the tree gets bigger to accommodate them. But this year it's a bit smaller than usual, but it's a pretty tree; I'm happy with it.

We brought it home in the Husband's truck, which caught a few eyes at the ol' tree farm. One of the kids working there called it an "Elvis car."

I have so much vacation time to use up by the end of the month that I'm only working two days a week for the rest of the year. That will give me the time I need to decorate, finish Christmas shopping and socialize without being a nervous wreck.

And tomorrow is my dad's birthday; we're celebrating at my sister's house, as usual. It's also my brother-in-law's birthday, so it'll be a joint celebration. It's a dinner celebration, and I have to make one of the main courses. Which means I have to go grocery shopping.

Other than that, I'm ready to celebrate.

December 10, 1999 Friday

It's my time of year. Everything goes my way this time of year. Well, almost everything. The other night after we had celebrated my dad's and brother-in-law's birthday at my sister's house, I stuck around to help clean up the mess. There was a knock at the door and my brother-in-law called for me. Hmmmmm, who could that be? The husband already left.

When I saw the pale looking young man at the door, I knew what had happened. "You didn't hit my car, did you?"

He meekly said, "I'm soooooo sorry, I hit it good!"

I looked at him and said, "I'm sorry too."

To make a long story short, if you're gonna have an accident this is the kind to have. NO ONE got hurt! But my formerly cute little car looks very sad. The police came and took all the information to file the report. The young man's parents came, their insurance would be handling the claim. Everyone was friendly, polite, nice and apologetic. The officer sensed this and asked me if I had a problem with him not giving the young man a ticket and I said that I certainly did not.

The next morning there was an e-mail from the young man's mom, telling me they'd certainly pay for a rental till my car was repaired. Imagine, she offered without being asked.

The auto body place is taking care of everything else. The police report, the insurance, and even had a rental there for me when I dropped my car off yesterday morning. I'll miss my car, till I get it back, but the whole experience has shown me how responsible some young adults are. I keep thinking he could have just pulled away and I'd never know.

My car is damaged to the tune of around $3,000. His dad's Lexus has a bent license plate.

Guess my next car should be a Lexus :)

December 21, 1999 Tuesday

Opie is feeling his old self again (thank you all for asking); this morning he brought us a mouse to let us know he still had his skills :)

To use up my vacation time (it's use it or lose it) I've only been working two days a week this month. This week it's Wednesday and Thursday. I'm beginning to wonder how good an idea this was. A month of five days off, two days on, only to have it reversed out next month. Ugh.

Which means I almost had to have my Christmas shopping done by today. And I did! In fact it was almost completely done yesterday. Well, it's gettin' close, y'know?

So today I wrapped. Then I wrapped some more. I ended up with a stiff neck and stiff knees. And I'm still not done. But tomorrow and Thursday I work. Which means I'll be wrapping on Christmas Eve.

Seems I made a lot of impulse buys. I didn't realize how many 'til I dragged it all out. You know how it goes -- you see something and think "Oh that would be nice for xxxxxxxxx." I must've thought that a lot, 'cause I've got a real load of impulse this year.

And I still have many gifts to wrap before I sleep. In a minute. I'm on break.

Happy wrapping, and to all a good night.

December 27, 1999 Monday

Geez, is it over already?

The smaller the kids, the bigger the toys. With three nieces and nephews four and under, the Barbie airplane, the Playskool Garage and other bulky products for young minds and hands were creating a traffic hazard in the house. It was like living in a warehouse. And the wrapping was a major project in itself. It took twenty minutes to load everything into the Husband's truck (which he dubbed the Sleigh for this day only).

Check it out:

Now smaller gifts (all ours!) are scattered around the house, stacked orderly out of the traffic lanes, sedately displayed with pride. I'm kinda looking forward to getting all the stuff put away, but when that happens, Christmas will be over, and I don't look forward to that. Christmas is my time of year, and I had lots of fun. I hope you did too.

My last entry for this year will be Friday night, from work, just before midnight, New Year's Eve. The Husband will be with me and he will upload his last entry just after midnight. Hopefully, he'll have nothing traumatic to report.

Don't know Opie's plans yet :)

 December 31, 1999 Friday

Twenty minutes to go 'til Y2k wreaks whatever havoc it has in store. If I was worried before, I'm not now. Most of the world is already under the influence of the year 2000 and there haven't been any major glitches. There haven't even been any minor glitches. Okay, they couldn't set the Thames on fire, but I don't think that was specifically a Y2K item.

So here I sit at work, poised to put out the Y2K fires that may erupt in 16 minutes. But they won't. I'm confident now. Tonight's going to be a piece of cake.

Speaking of which, they've set out a great spread to keep us Y2K workers appeased; cold cuts, hot roast beef, shrimp. I'll probably be eating all night. There's bubbly too, for eleven minutes from now.

The Husband is with me; he's getting a kick outa this. It's a very memorable New Year's Eve, says he. He brought the digital camera to upload pictures of the historic moment, but he forgot the floppy disk adapter and the serial cable. So no pictures tonight.

Ten minutes to go. If I'm gonna upload this before midnight, I better get to it (and I may have fires to put out after that). :)

Happy bubbly.