Merry Christmas to All

or happy Saturday, if that's more your style.

It's cold (for us) and rainy and nasty out there, and later the kids and I will drive across the state to visit my parents. The visit is fine, I hate that drive. I tried for 20 years to get them to move to Orlando, but they always had an excuse not to, and now house prices here are a valid reason. I just hate that drive. With a passion.

The Boychild and I exchanged Christmas gifts last night, he is a very good son and got his mother just what she wanted/needed - a very nice HP scanner - a Scanjet 3970, to be precise. When my husband was sick he sat with his ancient PC and ancient scanner and scanned his family photos to CD for the kids, attempting to identify the many Unknown Italians in them. Then he got too tired and unable to complete the task with all of our old family photos, and the scanner and PC also have gone the way of all old technology. I intend to work on scanning family stuff in my Ample Spare Time. Heh.

I am a very good mother and he got a Dell gift card, so he can replace that ancient cobbled-together POS computer he's been attempting to use since his laptop up 'n died.

Girlchild and I haven't opened our gifts to each other yet, mine are very small and I'm thinking CD/gift card? She isn't awake yet - I need to take a shower and then kick her out of bed to shower and get ready for the slog to the grandparents. We'll open gifts before we go, or after we get back, I don't know.

I'm on my, uh, fourth cup of coffee - half-caf at this point - that's why I love my Senseo, I can put in one regular and one decaf pod and adjust my caffeine intake one cup at a time. I'm thinking about the end of the year, and what I want to do with my life in 2005. 2004 was my first full year on my own, and it was a pretty good year - I could have done without the hurricanes and the Boy's bad car wreck and a lot of the other drama, but I'm comfortable living alone and, in fact, selfishly enjoy it in some ways.

If 2004 was the year of renovating the kitchen and backyard, 2005 is the year of renovating ME. Back to the gym I must go - I need to get out of the house to exercise, I find too many reasons to skip it if I stay home. Too many hours sitting in front of a computer has done bad things to my flexibility, especially in my upper body. I sit at a computer, I knit, I have a lot of stress in my life, my neck and shoulders get so tight and inflexible it's starting to really annoy me. It's so true that over 40 you have to work on these things every single day, things deteriorate a lot faster now.

I will rejoin the gym, and I'm also considering starting a serious yoga practice. My previous attempt at a formal yoga class was not very satisfactory, but I think it was both the type of yoga (kundalini) and the instructor (scraggly pubic-hair-beard guy who was WAY too serene, if you know what I mean). I've found a new school that sounds more my style, and will sign up for a basic class this week.

It's so funny that the Boss independently felt the need to take up yoga, because, as he put it, the stress is strong enough to bust through the meds these days. So maybe we'll get so damn serene our jobs will no longer make us insane? Maybe.

Actual knitting content: Yesterday I watched Christmas movies (Miracle on 34th Street and Christmas Vacation) and finished the first Sockotta sock. Then I picked up another long-abandoned sock, a Second Sock Syndrome victim at least two years old, and turned the heel on that baby. I have about two feet of another leper bandage moving right along. AND I picked up the new FCEK. I read a few grumbles on KR about this issue, but so far I see lots of things I really like and would make.
Randomly thumbing through magazine as I type, and always with an eye toward stash reduction, I like:
Cute little crocheted cardi #29.
Shrug #6
Cabled bag #2
The felted yoga mat bag.
The cabled turtleneck and some other things would be nice if I lived up North, but are useless here.
Of the above, I can definitely see making the crocheted cardigan and the shrug.

Almost 8 - time to get moving. I hope my small but loyal readership has a lovely, fun, relaxing holiday.