Hey, did you see these in the People year end issue?
Sudoku
They call it the Rubik’s Cube of number puzzles. I tried it…never finished one!
Puggle
half pug/half beagle….really cute!

Myspace.com
Sean uses it and Xanga went ‘bye bye’.
Jergens Natural Glow
self tanning lotion that flew off the shelves. This is the first I heard of it.
Nut necklaces
Nope…wonder if they have an aroma
Ballroom Dancing
I have two left feet, not into this. My mom, who grew up watching movie musicals loved the ABC show.
Penguins
Just saw the movie and have a new interest in these brave little troopers.

How do you balance your stitching time with your other obligations such as work, household chores, etc.?
I’m a nightowl…I stitch all night long…that’s the answer. I can hardly stitch during the day as I have other chores, errands and computer time (eBay listing, etc). I stitch while sitting in front of the telly. It tends to take me longer to finish projects too.
Brian and Sean have been home and I have hardly stitched at all. We’ve been figuring out broadband (taking off programs we don’t need also) and going out at night to shop and visit, so that’s a very unusual occurrence.

It really wasn’t that difficult to leave it. The only good thing about it lately was it’s email and AIM which we can still use! They really try to keep you from going, but not once did I hear the word ‘free’. If I had heard that word, I may have kept it a little longer. We vanished a lot of their clogging files from our computer. More room for photos and fun stuff.
I went food shopping today. The store was dead-fine with me. My best buy were 5 bags of those ‘purdy’ shiny bows in all sizes and colors for only $1! I said five bags! I would have bought more, but no room in the cart. I’ll have to get more as I use and reuse them for a number of years.
Brian and Sean have been home and will be home until next week. Brian fixed a broken shelf in my hope chest today. Cosmo the cat had tried to climb on it but it slammed shut. He is one lucky feline. Bri also spray painted a scratch on my van from me hitting a hunk of ice coming out of my mom’s driveway-twice! I think the mean neighbors had something to do with that.
I am dying to go to Wally World and get some marked down stuff. The parking lots been pretty full these last few days after Christmas. I need to get my brother Ken a birthday gift (he’ll be 39 on Jan. 8th). Love that guy.

It’s been a day of trying to muster up energy. It seems to have vanished for me along with the holiday. It’s really hard for one person to prepare a big meal on little sleep. (Up and down all night from achy legs, etc.)
Today I stayed in my bathrobe until 1:45. I ate some leftover eggplant parmigiana and headed for the shower. I tidied up the gift boxes and noticed Sean’s little 20 Question hand held game and played with that and beat it a few times (with eggplant as one thing I was thinking of). Then at 3 I blew my hair dry and just laid across the bed and snoozed!
Sean had gone out with a gal pal from high school and a few others to the movies, so the house was quiet for us. Brian’s been listening to his new Cream cd and trying to register his dad’s Trackfone. It’s been busy all the time.
We just had burgers for dinner and I am still in a vegetative state. I need to take back the guys main gift-a portable DVD player as the screen won’t brighten up to see the movie. Maybe tomorrow? Maybe.

Here’s one of Ken’s face. ; )

I really am. I was vegging on the sofa at 7 pm last night. In the last 4 days, I baked 6 kinds of cookies, made fudge, peanut brittle and a 20 pound turkey. Almost messed up the last few things I made. Actually the first batch of peanut brittle has some waxed paper stuck to it and wasn’t quite crisp enough. I thought I’d make it thinner brittle and put unoiled waxed paper on it to roll it down. Live and learn.
The fudge was easy and taste good. Whew.
My peanut butter pinwheels almost got tossed. I put the rolled up dough in the freezer and forgot about it! The chocolate inside was too hard to slice. I put the ‘log’ in the microwave and the dough started to melt with the chocolate. After a half hour back in the frig, they could be sliced and baked.
I needed to really tidy up more, but I really couldn’t muster up the energy to do so.
I better go to bed soon as we will be going to midnight mass after we come home from spending Christmas eve with my mom.
Have a lovely holiday.

Sean and I went shopping for last minute gifts last night. The bargains are amazing! Wish I was loaded. ; )
We ate in Ruby’s Diner (this burger wasn’t as good as the last one) and headed into Borders (where I bought 4 magazines!) and something else. I wanted to run into Pier One. They were having a 10% off sale. I believe the Christmas stuff was already on sale. This little gold metal tree was near the door and I told Sean I thought it would be perfect for my Cross stitch ornaments until I get a big feather tree (whenever that will be). It had a price of $20 on it. I knew I’d get $2 off. So when all was said and done, it was $12! It was the last one they had, so the guy had to take their decorations off it. It’s on top of the computer desk. The other decorations there are a Santa in a fur suit, a funky birdhouse, a candle I decorated a few years ago, and a Snowbaby using a computer.

I was telling you about the pretty basket shown in the Best of Christmas BH&G magazine. I just had to make one! Mine’s a little different. I used an oval basket similar to what they used, but more greenery and dowels for a trellis. It’s on my front step landing to the left of the door. The first photo is inside where the basket is in front of my rolltop desk. The three candles are lit and the camera shutter is slower.