Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015, Please Be Good to Us.

Well that's it. Another year gone. Nothing left except to have a wee deoch an doris, wait for the fireworks,sing Auld Lang Syne and to wish all of you who use the common dating system

A Very Happy New Year

Goodnight and may your God/s go with you

Ze

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

So That Was Christmas

Damn. It's over so quickly.

OK - we're still in the "Twelve Days" bit so I'm still putting the tree lights on in the evening, still eating a mince pie with my morning cuppa, still hanging on to Christmas until Epiphany arrives.

But it does pass so quickly. Right from the "Is it December yet?? Can I put the tree up yet??" impatience, through the "Nearly here" build up to the "Yay, it's Christmas Eve" celebration. And then you turn around and Christmas Day has ended, Boxing Day has ended, and you're staring down the barrel of Hogmanay...

And it's such a very long time before it's Christmas again...

It's what Shultz's Charlie Brown used to call "The Post Christmas Letdown". *sigh*

Ah well... only another 360 days till Christmas... *bounce*

..........................................................

And E, mate, I used to know somebody who had a theory about the years passing more quickly... He used to say...

"When you're ten a year is a tenth of your life, and that's a pretty big slice, but when you're fifty a year is only a fiftieth and that's so tiny, no wonder it passes by so quickly."

He was right. Imagine a pizza cut into ten slices. Now the same pizza cut into fifty... hardly even a bite...

Depressing, isn't it.

Ze

Monday, December 29, 2014

2014 Year End

Can you believe the year is coming to a close? I think as I age time goes faster. I also think letting this one go is fine. It seemed less fun than many others. I am not sure why or how to pin point the issues, but in general it's easier to look forward to 2015. Next year will require some organization on my part as a new house is just around the corner.

So this new year brings forth some change, how much is all dependent on realities of life. We will have to live through it and get back to you next year. Have a wonderful New Year's Eve and be careful out there.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Back to Reality

E heads back to work tomorrow. Fortunately she's off Thursday and Friday. The only downside to a three day week is, after being off for a week, there's bound to be a ton of stuff waiting for her. More than enough to make her three day week loads of fun.

I, along with the kids, get another whole week off. Tomorrow's plans for me include picking up meds for the cat and taking the boys out to find a birthday gift for their dad. He's hitting the big 50 on the 31st. I'm a little worried he's going to be a bit down.

I'm also going to get Duncan to come up with a menu he can cook for dinner that night. For Christmas he received a recipe book from my mom. It contains all of our family's favorites. I added some of mine to the book as well. He's now set to expand the menu over at Mike's house. Making dinner and an easy chocolate cake is his assignment for Mike's birthday.

Tamara

Saturday, December 27, 2014

One More Day

Tomorrow is the last vacation day for me and I really wish I had more. But I still have tomorrow. All this time off has been really good and I will look forward to my few days off at New Year's. I hope you all have been getting some fun and Joy out of it all. If not, try for tomorrow. I will be for sure.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Friday, December 26, 2014

Vacation

We had an easy Friday. We stayed far away from malls and department stores. My comics were retrieved and the dog had a nice outing to the dog park.

Little e is off at her other mom's house. Cal is with us and thoroughly enjoying his new gaming headset, gaming mouse and mousepad. He and his friends took full advantage of the big sale at Steam. They'll be playing co-op games for days.

E goes back to work on Monday. Our agenda for the weekend is an easy one...relax.

Tamara

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Achievement Unlocked

The Hoelscher-Hodge clan had our usual fun chaos holiday event. We hope whatever your evening consisted of was good. Whether holiday or not have a wonderful time.

More vacation for me and that is splendid.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht

First - to our readers who follow the Western traditions of Christianity, and to all of our readers, of all faiths or none, who celebrate this festival.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

My Christmas started in earnest today with Carols from King's.

And yes - I did get to watch the space station pass overhead and I bet I was every bit as excited to see the ISS as the kiddies were to see Father Christmas flying over!!

So now all that remains is for me to wish you a peaceful, happy rest of your week.

Goodnight and may your God/s go with you


Ze

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

I Believed in Father Christmas...

Nearly here.

Nearly here. Just two more sleeps!!

For those of you with kids - or who, like me, are overgrown kids don't forget the Santa Tracker.

And if you're in the UK, and you have kids young enough to still believe, the International Space Station id due to pass over us at about 6pm on Christmas Eve It will move very quickly so you'll need to be careful so as not to miss it. But it will be very bright and very swift and you can tell your kids it's Father Christmas flying over.

Yes - I will be outside, watching for it. *g*

Ze

Monday, December 22, 2014

The easy vacation agenda continues....

Today we made it to the Sheraton in downtown Seattle to see the Gingerbread houses. As usual, a good time was had by all.

Tomorrow we're planning on finally seeing Mockingjay Part 1.

Tamara

Sunday, December 21, 2014

A Good Sunday

We slept in. T wrapped presents while we watched Guardians of the Galaxy. I had never seen it whereas T had, it was fun and I recommend it.

She got crazy and even mopped the kitchen, dinning room and hallways. Then we headed off to daughter's basketball game. Sadly they lost this one but it was close and the team they played was really the best they had seen all season.

Chinese food for dinner and now home doing update and Sunday chores.

Hope you all have a great evening and Monday. Vacation begins for us and we will head downtown and see the gingerbread houses once again.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Relaxing

It's the last rainy Saturday before Christmas and we stayed far, far away from the mall. In the morning we tidied the house a bit. After lunch we ran a few grocery errands.

Now we're settled in for the evening and watching a little Twin Peaks. We'll probably pull out the wrapping paper and get busy with the presents.

So far vacation is off to a good start.

Tamara

Friday, December 19, 2014

TGIF

Vacation Time! It's been a long week and now we have some well deserved time off. Here is hoping your weekend is splendid. Mine will be. We have some house chores and a basketball game on Sunday but really not too much and that is wonderful. I am then off with the whole family next week...another grand thing.

Enjoy the updates.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Finally

One more day and then we're off for Winter break. Probably because I've been looking forward to break so much this week has seemed like it would never end. But I made it. Tomorrow we'll have a holiday party, lunch, afternoon classes and finally a spirit assembly. We also get out a full hour early.

I'm so looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday.

Tamara

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Suffer the Little Children

So much sadness in the world this week. It should be a happy time, a time of peace and love. Instead a bunch of murdering scum - please don't dignify them by identifying them by a religion - they aren't religious, they aren't true Muslims - they're just butchers, fanatical thugs, murdering peaceful Muslims. There's a special place in hell reserved for people who hurt kids...

Our thoughts are with the bereaved.

This coming weekend is the winter solstice - so Good Yule to our Pagan and Wiccan readers in the northern hemisphere, Good Litha to those in the southern.

Little Snow continues to improve. She was even slightly playful tonight. She tired quickly but still... it was good to see her more lively. I just wish this high-protein recovery food was quite so smelly - it really does stink... she seems to like it though.

See you next week. Goodnight and may your God/s go with you.

Ze

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Ferret on the Mend

First - Happy Hanukkah to all our Jewish readers.

Took a couple of days off work - little ferretty ferret was very, very poorly Sunday night. She's been struggling with oestrus for a few weeks and on Sunday evening she suddenly, rapidly, deteriorated. Scared the living daylights out of me. My vet doesn't do out-of-hours visits. You can ring for advice or ring for an urgent appointment for the first working day, but that's it.

A good friend pointed me in the direction of a vet who would do out-of-hours (thank you so much, Beth.) And I got an emergency consultation right away. One hormone jab (the previous two didn't work), one vitamin jab, one iron jab (poor little mite - that one hurts), and a considerable sum of money later and the immediate crisis was over. The vet wanted me to come back on Monday morning. So I did.

Another iron jab, and some high-protein liquid feed that I have to give her - little-and-often - for the next couple of days. This visit was free - included in Sunday's fees.

It looks like the hormone jabs have finally worked and oestrus is ending. Thank God for that. Because if they stay in oestrus they die... and I'm kind of fond of the little stinker and don't want to lose her.

Off again today so I could keep feeding her the special food every hour. She's still not quite her usual self, but she's so much better today that it's hard to believe she was that sick on Sunday. She even ate a little proper food this morning in addition to the high-protein liquid. And yes - I will be switching vet. This bloke is so much more knowledgeable about ferrets than my old vet (who's great with dogs and cats but not so good with ferrets).

Ze

Monday, December 15, 2014

4 days to go...

...then vacation for a full week. That I like. Then I go back to work for just 3 days and then grab another 4 day weekend. All good.

My division is officially done with lay offs (last of them today) for at least 8 months. So now I have to find something positive to keep me going. Good news is in two years we will be looking for a new house and that will come with a new mortgage, so between now and than I need to be working for that.

Our house is ready for the Christmas morning chaos. Than the kids will go to their other houses until the 1st and it will be mighty quiet around here for a few days.

Now onto your updates with the reality that tomorrow Ze will be back with her massive amount I am sure. We all owe her big.

Have a great night/day.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Sunday

Soon it will be time to leave for little e's basketball game. This will be their third game and they'll likely be playing with four again. They only have five players on the team. Last weekend they defeated a team with 12 players. Yes, they won playing only four on the court.

Someone on the other team wasn't happy about losing 27 to 8 and they reported the game to the league. Turns out you have to forfeit if you don't have at least five players in the game. Mind you, they had five players suited up for the game but the fifth sat on the bench due to a sprained ankle.

This game will be another forfeit but the girls want to play anyway. I want them to kick butt with four players again.

Tamara

Saturday, December 13, 2014

12-13-14

That should be lucky right?

So a busy Saturday in the sunshine. Went to the Sugar Plum Faire at Emory's school and T had her last training session. Cal is off with his dad doing some type of filming thing.

Tomorrow one basketball game to go to in the afternoon. Hopefully we can be full slugs until then. We may have to do some chore stuff like groceries.

Have a good night and enjoy your updates.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Friday, December 12, 2014

Counting down....

It's been a long week and it's technically not over for me. Tomorrow I'll attend my final training class. I'm happy that it's been very informative. It's much harder to stay focused and awake when all the instructors do is read the text to you.

All of us just have to make it through next week and then we get a small vacation. I know the kids are likely counting down to Christmas day. I'm counting down to the first day I can sleep in.

Tamara

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Busy night

Off to see our daughter do a quick dance performance with the Gothard Sisters.

Enjoy your updates.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Jabs again.

Snow's not the only one who's had her jabs this week.

I got my 'flu jab on Monday after work. My arm is a little bruised and a little sore. But at least I won't get the 'flu. Not that there seems to be any around at the moment anyway.

What with that and my HepB booster last week, (if you work in an industry that sometimes requires you to clear waste ground ready for re-use there's always the danger of needle-stick. Precautions against HepB are always sensible), my immune system is working so hard that I'm dog-tired when I get home from work. Right now I'm having so much trouble concentrating that I might not even know my name if asked.

See you next week. Goodnight and may your God/s go with you

Ze

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

More Jabs

Snow update - she's had a second - different strength - jill-jab. We're hoping that one works. If not she'll be scheduled for a spaying operation. Not ideal at her age but better than the alternative. Keep your fingers crossed.

Ze