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2005 pops up like Kleenex
Jan. 2nd, 2005 08:02 am.
Oh, it's been a pretty good one, all told, for events within my circle, not counting war, tsunami, earthquakes and politics. Focusing just on the Williams Doyle Family, we see a pretty little family with a happy child at the center and two parents hovering around. I agonized over the Christmas card until happy inspiration struck. I can recycle my old card ideas and put in three figures instead of two! I realized, and it was smooth sailing after that. I sat down with a stylus and drew two happy snowpeople embracing a smaller one in pastel colors, and filled out the back with a tactfully vague account of 2004. The nice thing about a 1/3 page format is it keeps things brief -- maybe even short enough that people will read it.
The plan was I'd work three days Christmas week, and two days New Year's week. I decided to read all of the basic songbook, "Gems of the Universe" and play each song through at least once, and ended up finishing with time to spare before January 1, thank you. As expected, I found a couple of things I'd never noticed before, or knew the names to. I square danced to "The Spanish Cavalier" in grade school, only the lyrics were changed a bit: "First couple to your right, circle three hands around / and swing with the other fellow's lady / and when you are done, go back where you belong / and swing with your Honololu Baby."
The first week went as scheduled. Thursday, Sarah was in school and I was off work, so I had a quiet grownup day. Christmas Eve we were all home, and made a trip out to deliver presents to a friend's kids, and I got to play some pool in the garage and borrowed Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" to listen to. Sarah was really into the Christmas present thing, and circled the tree looking for more boxes to open after we finally managed to open all of the apparently limitless bounty of the day. We've kept busy, and somewhat on schedule. After a slacker start, I've been seeing that Sarah gets up in the morning, so there'd maybe be a physical incentive to sleep at night and nap in the afternoon.
On Sunday it snowed enough that I stayed home from work Monday. We had another exciting family day, with Sarah wanting to experience the snow directly every few minutes, and I thought that should be leavened with some looking outside through the glass and not getting cold over and over. Tuesday was the day we had an 8:30 appointment at the Norfolk INS office to get final confirmation of Sarah's citizenship. Arriving in a timely fashion, we found that they weren't opening the office until 9:30, and it took longer than that for the line to start moving. Some of the movement was people going inside, and some was from people being sent away -- to the end of the line, maybe. I couldn't see it. In a brief but heartwarming ceremony, I said goodbye to a green card with a tiny baby's picture on it. I didn't have my camera, or I'd have tried to get a shot of it in the basket of cards. I seem to recall the day the photo was taken, in a store on Shamian Island that sold diapers and photos, apparently.
So I got to work late on Tuesday, and there was an unfinished list of things to do for the week, and the heat was off in my part of the building for some reason. I came back in on Wednesday to do more, and brought my space heater in. I'd resisted bringing it so far, knowing once it was turned on I'd be clinging to it all the time. Turns out I was right. I managed to get a bunch of stuff done, but not all, so I face an exciting Monday tomorrow. Once again, Thursday was the 'grownups at home' day, and I was appropriately inert and unambitious. I found time to convert some LPs to mp3 for easy listening -- two disks of 78s about being hopped up, and two disks of Skip Martin's ambitious circa 1960 jazz/classical desecrations, starting with "Sheherajazz" and continuing to "Swingin' with Prince Igor."
Tuesday was also the day the keys arrived from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
geckoman, and Cathy was home when they got here, so she drove to Hampton to feed the kitties and the parrot. I did it on the following days, including once with Sarah. I think today will be another day with Sarah, and maybe we can go to Fort Fun or the park by the library for a little while after. Somewhere in there, I finally managed to go out and find a 'pod for my camera. I was going to get a tripod, like the one that's hiding somewhere in the Torium, but ended up getting a monopod. If I ever find the tripod, I'll have one of each.
Didn't mean to go on so long. I probably forgot to include whatever I was setting out to say. I hope everyone has a good upcoming year, and I will try to add some new photos to Sarah's page at members.cox.net.sarahxihuan after Sarah and I feed Geck's animals. Ave nice dei!
.
Oh, it's been a pretty good one, all told, for events within my circle, not counting war, tsunami, earthquakes and politics. Focusing just on the Williams Doyle Family, we see a pretty little family with a happy child at the center and two parents hovering around. I agonized over the Christmas card until happy inspiration struck. I can recycle my old card ideas and put in three figures instead of two! I realized, and it was smooth sailing after that. I sat down with a stylus and drew two happy snowpeople embracing a smaller one in pastel colors, and filled out the back with a tactfully vague account of 2004. The nice thing about a 1/3 page format is it keeps things brief -- maybe even short enough that people will read it.
The plan was I'd work three days Christmas week, and two days New Year's week. I decided to read all of the basic songbook, "Gems of the Universe" and play each song through at least once, and ended up finishing with time to spare before January 1, thank you. As expected, I found a couple of things I'd never noticed before, or knew the names to. I square danced to "The Spanish Cavalier" in grade school, only the lyrics were changed a bit: "First couple to your right, circle three hands around / and swing with the other fellow's lady / and when you are done, go back where you belong / and swing with your Honololu Baby."
The first week went as scheduled. Thursday, Sarah was in school and I was off work, so I had a quiet grownup day. Christmas Eve we were all home, and made a trip out to deliver presents to a friend's kids, and I got to play some pool in the garage and borrowed Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" to listen to. Sarah was really into the Christmas present thing, and circled the tree looking for more boxes to open after we finally managed to open all of the apparently limitless bounty of the day. We've kept busy, and somewhat on schedule. After a slacker start, I've been seeing that Sarah gets up in the morning, so there'd maybe be a physical incentive to sleep at night and nap in the afternoon.
On Sunday it snowed enough that I stayed home from work Monday. We had another exciting family day, with Sarah wanting to experience the snow directly every few minutes, and I thought that should be leavened with some looking outside through the glass and not getting cold over and over. Tuesday was the day we had an 8:30 appointment at the Norfolk INS office to get final confirmation of Sarah's citizenship. Arriving in a timely fashion, we found that they weren't opening the office until 9:30, and it took longer than that for the line to start moving. Some of the movement was people going inside, and some was from people being sent away -- to the end of the line, maybe. I couldn't see it. In a brief but heartwarming ceremony, I said goodbye to a green card with a tiny baby's picture on it. I didn't have my camera, or I'd have tried to get a shot of it in the basket of cards. I seem to recall the day the photo was taken, in a store on Shamian Island that sold diapers and photos, apparently.
So I got to work late on Tuesday, and there was an unfinished list of things to do for the week, and the heat was off in my part of the building for some reason. I came back in on Wednesday to do more, and brought my space heater in. I'd resisted bringing it so far, knowing once it was turned on I'd be clinging to it all the time. Turns out I was right. I managed to get a bunch of stuff done, but not all, so I face an exciting Monday tomorrow. Once again, Thursday was the 'grownups at home' day, and I was appropriately inert and unambitious. I found time to convert some LPs to mp3 for easy listening -- two disks of 78s about being hopped up, and two disks of Skip Martin's ambitious circa 1960 jazz/classical desecrations, starting with "Sheherajazz" and continuing to "Swingin' with Prince Igor."
Tuesday was also the day the keys arrived from
geckoman, and Cathy was home when they got here, so she drove to Hampton to feed the kitties and the parrot. I did it on the following days, including once with Sarah. I think today will be another day with Sarah, and maybe we can go to Fort Fun or the park by the library for a little while after. Somewhere in there, I finally managed to go out and find a 'pod for my camera. I was going to get a tripod, like the one that's hiding somewhere in the Torium, but ended up getting a monopod. If I ever find the tripod, I'll have one of each.Didn't mean to go on so long. I probably forgot to include whatever I was setting out to say. I hope everyone has a good upcoming year, and I will try to add some new photos to Sarah's page at members.cox.net.sarahxihuan after Sarah and I feed Geck's animals. Ave nice dei!
.
