I'm thinking I might use that comp day I still have from the outlet sale to take the 20th off and go to El Cerrito

Am I missing something? What’s in El Cerrito?

I need to do my year end review thing today or tomorrow and am not looking forward to it. Bleh. I just don’t have much to say? I did my job, I probably need to be better about some parts of it but am good at other parts, I basically know which of those are which, and there’s plenty for me to do and learn this coming year.

Quick meara, because I have been offline for a couple of weeks due to a very stubborn eye infection.

Happy New Year! May we all have a better year than anticipated in 2026. Noodles sounds like an excellent plan for the year.

Hey, just a reminder to anyone planning on going to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in April (Fri. 4/10-Sun. 4/12)... past attendees can register starting today, and first-timers can register beginning Jan. 8th.

This would be fun to do again, just to see peeps, I am not even close to good enough at the puzzles to participate. I see the Stamford is not available, and generally I can't plan my life very far in advance, so we shall see what happens.

Yep! It’s in St Thomas! I’ve never been to the Virgin Islands.

Nice! First DH lived in St. Thomas for a year or so. (water is nasty, but otherwise quite pretty and good food available) If you are spending any time near me on the way to or from let me know.

Tariffs, ICE, Venezuala - it all comes down to his unchecked impulse to assert power, really just to bully.

All of the above, with a side order of bigotry and cruelty. I am on a serious news diet. My stress levels just can't take it. I read my newsletters, but can't watch them.

I hope Laura is feeling better.

Thank you. It has been a very stubborn eye infection. I couldn't really read for a couple of weeks. I was just able to read my Kindle in bed last night for the first time. I still look horrible, mostly from red chapped skin from ice packs on my face. But on my third medication am finally seeing an end in sight. One thing I did notice was that I could do fine without the computer and phone for a couple of weeks. Blew all my puzzle streaks, but that is fine. I will start again when back to full use.

My hip MRI is tomorrow; MRI solidarity!

May all the tests yield effective plans of action for healing.

Yesterday I got a FedEx package from my boss; we now have an award for excellence in technical writing, in memory of the writer who had hired me. I'm the inaugural recipient. My boss is going to announce it at the team gathering later this week.

That is heartwarming! Congratulations.

MIL, who broke her leg in mid-November is still in rehab, but might be released in the next week or two. It looked like she was getting out today or tomorrow so I had DH get a bunch of her desired groceries so she could stay with us, but now she has been talked into staying where she can get the PT she needs. Her biggest complaint is the food so I am going to start bringing her food. I think I can see well enough to drive now. I tried a couple short runs yesterday and today.

Yikes Laura, that sounds like a super bad eye infection, dang!! Glad you’re on the mend!

There's a rally, meara. I kinda wanted to mark the anniversary of the 1/20/25 ones and El Cerrito is convenient to get to by public transportation, that's all

That seems like a long time to have your eyes not working, Laura! Glad you are on the mend

Laura! I'm so happy to see your pixels again.

I'm trying to lure Matilda out of bed so we can take down the xmas tree.

I woke her up with a chocolate croissant in bed and a caramel macchiato.

This seems fair in exchange for tree dis-ornamenting.

Emmett's coming over after work around 3 to dump the tree and move furniture back.

I woke her up with a chocolate croissant in bed and a caramel macchiato.

That would totes work for me!

The tree is down! Emmett came over and all the furniture movement happened lickety split because he's a big galoot and he just picks up the heavy thing without preamble or help and just moves it where it goes.

Stuff went up to the attic. Stuff came down from the attic. Living room rearranged. Two items on the curb by the discarded tree.

Woo! Also Matilda cleaned the piggie cage yesterday and I finally whipped the kitchen back into shape post holiday and I did a load of laundry and folded it and put it away. (Which is obviously the bottleneck in the whole procedure.)

My downstairs neighbor has begged me to keep the wreath up through the weekend, so I'll do that. But otherwise I'm back at Pilates and back on Ozempic and the house is back to normal and now I'm just digging into the post-Solstice return of light.

And, of course, counting down to Pitchers and Catchers Report.

Wow, that is some A+ post-holiday efficiency!