A Bright and Shiny New Year!

OK! I stole that from a Rudolph special, but you know...

Anyway, the holidays were a blur. I spent most of the final two weeks of the year working and managed to get hurt on the job again. But, again, no one had time to do the accident report and so I haven't been to the doctor yet. Those people owe me TWO good knees and I want them sooner rather than later.

Ms. Thang decided (with the help of her screwy friends) to chop her hair "a la Emo". It made for a three hour rant and cutting off her Internet access for going on the third day now. I had to haul her butt to Great Cuts to get what was left of her hair in a salvageable state. It was really fun telling two agents and a manager that her hair had changed--AGAIN. One was OK with it, but the other two were not so amused. Can't wait for the ballet teacher to see it!

My dad came down this past weekend on the way to see my almost-93 y/o grandpa. We were supposed to go, but D has too much school stuff going on for her to miss almost a week of classes. So we just caught up on stuff, swapped the latest family pictures and gossip, talked smack about my youngest brother and went out a few times.

I love my dad, but he is at an age where he is having to be reminded of stuff (73). He has also decided to fixate on his time in the Marines and is now sporting all sorts of Marine clothing. He also is embracing the Cherokee in our woodpile, so he has grown his hair long and wears it in a ponytail. That was cute to see. But no matter what, he is my dad and I have to humor his foibles because he worked hard all his life, went to war and got injured, and still worked till his eye got messed up (Dr. Imhof Lazik clinic--don't go there!!!)

He plans to take a trip to Russia for his next birthday with his scary girlfriend. He earned it and I hope he has fun.

Me? I turn the big 5-0 this year and I *may* get as far as the beach at Santa Monica for a day or so. I'll prolly just spend it hanging out around the city and taking in a movie. I anticipate more planning and all that for Ms. D's 13th birthday bash. I believe the theme is "Rubber Duckies"--all the guests are supposed to wear yellow (the "must-have" color this year) and the goody bags will have yellow stuff like bath oil, puff scrubbers and duckies. Remember when a party was just "show up and have some cake"?

The Holiday Roundup

As another year starts, I have to put in my 2¢ about how the last one ended. "Nutcracker" is over and D is still wearing the wounds from her last performance. The mother of the girl playing "Clara" on the 24th decided she just HAD to take pictures on stage. So she made all the other kids who were warming up get off and go behind the scrims to the other side. Well, it is freakin' dark back there (as a backstage volunteer, I KNOW it is) and no one helped the kids with a light. D tripped over a lighting cable and fell right into the castle drawbridge set piece and hit the right side of her face. One of the moms who was waiting on that side slapped some extra blush on her face and she did her thing after a quick cry. When I got backstage at intermission, she cried all over again. The thing is, I know shit happens, but neither JK or VS-K said "jack" to her or to me. D complained that her really swollen jaw hurt for the rest of the day, but luckily no teeth were broken or anything.

A week later, it is yellow and green and the top part is almost faded. The bottom part is still rough.

Other than that....

We got through Christmas OK. Went out to eat at Sam's Town as usual. D got a lot of stuff and still found a way to fuss about not getting everything she wanted. Geez!!!

We spent this last weekend being touristy. Sunday night, we enjoyed MY Christmas present--VAN HALEN tickets!!!! All I can say is--"DAMN!!!!" I got some pictures, but I had a too-small SD card in the sucky (just in case they were taking them away) camera and didn't get nearly enough. Here is a taste, though.... It's only the opening, but you will get the point.

I just hope that they stay together much longer and don't piss each other off again. It was like they never broke up (even though Wolfgang is now playing bass instead of Michael Anthony). D and I both rocked out and sang along to everything. Hey, I raised my kid on Rock and Roll and she knows a good thing when she hears it.

I had to work yesterday, but last night we went to see Danny Gans just to do a Strip NYE thing. Before the show, we went to one of the ice cream shop outside the theater and had something. At the next table, Elvis was having a light snack. It was definitely Vegas! It was a good show and we got out of the area before it got really insane. The plan was to watch the fireworks but D conked out in the car and we watched it on TV.

Today was supposed to be a "tidy up the house" day (you can actually see the floor in D's room again). D had a friend over this afternoon who is home from Germany for the holidays and they played video and computer games before whipping out the old Uno game and then doing their nails. So even though B is coming tomorrow, the house is not as clean as it needs to be. But then--what else is new? For a house where people only seem to use as a way station, the place always looks like a cyclone hit it.

Back to work tomorrow... *Sigh*