Just briefly:

avalon616 throws an excellent party. :) Also, omgwtfaninja and bloodandsmoke should just hang around in togas all the damn time, they look scarily good in them.

No major aftereffects to be had, I think I had all of one drink due to my intestines crying havoc and letting slip the dogs of... I could continue with that metaphor, but it's gonna go somewhere gross. Nonetheless, it was good to see everyone in one room, the ball dropped, I got kissed at midnight (and again at 1, which was midnight somewhere, right?)... I'd say New Years was a success.

New Years Day sees me up and procrastinating hard from cleaning up the kitchen (I started, but it's pretty daunting, as cell23 made stuffed dates and hot wings for the party and thus the place looks like a bomb went off. D:) and other housecleaning stuff. Eeegh, starting the year with procrastination, this is not a good sign. Also the other big to-dos are some major hair stuff (involving conditioner and yarn, since I got a new skein yesterday. "Cherry Cola." Hmm. Appropriate.), a good portion of which will involve plopping myself on my couch and knocking a few things off my netflix queue. Company is welcome for that. Also some work and projecty stuff.

I have resolutions, though when asked last night they all flew out of my head. Mostly they can be summed up by the wisdom of a certain dog:



Also see dedicating a lot less time and brainspace to the Internet, certain people that shall not be named, drama and bullshit.

Eggs though. Girl has to have one stupid internet indulgence.

~~

Anyway. Off to do things.

Things that are good:

• I'm perversely pleased by the hip deep snowdrift piled up against our back door. Honestly now that I'm not trying to get home in it, I'm rather pleased by the snow in general.
  
  
• My state of mind after a good night sleep in my own pre-toasted bed glomnomnommed all over my man, whom I missed very very much this weekend. (and vice versa).
  
  
• Coffee.
  
• No holly for me this year but I am caught up on all other Christmas dragons.
  
  
• There's a 2L of Pepsi Throwback in my fridge.
  
  
• There's also the last loaf of pumpkin bread for the season, as cell23 forgot to take it for dinner. MORE FOR ME NOM NOM NOM.
  
  
• Christmas loot: 2 cashmere sweaters, a pair of silly designer but WARM swede boots, a down blanket, a wafflemaker (!!!), and a black and white Amazon Kindle. Yes, someone got me an e-reader for Christmas. It's like the 21st centruy's all NOPE, you can't stop at music/movies, YOUR BOOKS GO NEXT. Yes, this is seriously amusing to me as well.
  
  
• Licor 43 Cuarenta y Tres. I tweeted about this last night but I am putting out the call to everyone again to keep an eye out for this stuff because it is DELICIOUS and WE MUST DRINK IT NOW.
  
  
• Watching of the Doctor Who Christmas Carol will happen at some point tonight. Yes. From all reports, it is good. And excuse me, that seems to be a topless River Song in the trailers for next season. I'll be in my bunk now.
  
  
• Found both my camera cable and my gloves. :) Man these muppet-fur convertible mitten things have been the best gloves ever. Not only have I managed to hang onto them for three winters now, but they have boomerang properties - every time I "lose" them they reappear.

Things that are not as good:

They exist, but I'm going to drink my coffee and attempt to accentuate the positive today. There may be an extended [crazy] post coming, I'm not sure yet. I will say I'm sad I missed the kiddos this weekend, but I've had it on good authority that they liked their presents. And apparently Kidzilla has entered the charming gaping-holes-in-face stage of childhood, as she's lost two of her bottom front teeth now. Hopefully someone took pictures.

Really overall it's just nice to be home. It was in many ways a good holiday but it was also a very rough one and I'm not ashamed to say I'm glad it's over. Plans for today include hiding from the snow, doing some pottering around the house, work, to-do lists, SVU and making some Skype calls to folk who want to hear my voice.

Trying to decide whether I want to full on dress up today (and if so, in what). I went all out two years ago, not so much last year, and at this point, hunched over my coffee, the caffeine hasn't hit me worthless brains hard enough yet to really commit one way or another.

It's Sunday on a kid weekend, which means Kidzilla is parked in front of Daddy's computer watching the new Peep and the Big Wide World cartoon (what is this show I don't even) and Lovebug is currently curled up in my spot in bed with a still passed out cell23, watching (what else?) Thomas the Tank Engine shorts on my iPod. (Netflix, man, how does that work?!) We had a pretty excellent day yesterday in Hamp, by the way - we went up to the Smith school's playground with the kids and let them play for a good solid couple of hours, and Lovebug made friends with a little boy exactly his age (two days older) and size and cell23, the other kid's mother and I got to watch them be three year old boys together, with all the hilarity that comes with that. So glad that playground is still there, by the way, and pretty much looks and works the same as when I discovered it fourteen years ago... which is something. You don't see completely wood play structures much anymore, they've all gone metal and plastic and awful. Maybe next time we'll hit Jackson Street.

I think Kidzilla and I have started a Saturday Night movie tradition. Last night we watched Up, which I hadn't gotten to see before... oh boy. I think if Kidzilla and cell23 hadn't been sitting there, I would have turned into a big pile of weepy mess. That said, I don't think the movie was Pixar's best, but it was very very good, and gutpunchy in that way that Pixar is so wonderfully infuriatingly good at. seriously WAY TO GO FOR EMOTIONAL JUGULAR PEOPLE.

Following this up with DW's "Forest of the Dead" probably didn't help matters that much. Ai yi yi.

Not sure what's on the agenda today, piratey shenanigans (?) aside. Kiddoes are getting picked up later, and I've got some work I gotta do, but other than that today's kind of a blank slate. Been more or less feeling better the past couple of days though so there's that. I've gotta say I really do like having the kids around when they're here... not sure if it's just me liking a full house, me liking hanging out with them specifically, the usual silly/hilarity of having two small people who are close to each other around, watching cell23 in Daddy mode, all of the above, or what, but it's really nice. And you'd think I was happy about living here or something - I was washing up and tidying the kitchen last night after the kids had been put to bed and singing while I did so. What. I haven't done that in years. Y HELO THAR HAPPY WTF R U DOIN HERE

Coming back full circle to today's theme, I leave you with a picture taken last Pirate Day (and actually the first picture in my Picasa "Drükids" album).



It's funny how she looks both exactly the same and yet completely different one year later.

Yarr.

Birthday party over, Kidzilla has been packed off home with a birthday haul of books, school supplies and apples (we were at the orchard again today) and a ball of nervous for her first day of school in the morning. She'll be fine. :)

It was a good weekend with them, not too crazy, didn't feel overscheduled, there were lots of hang out and snuggle and play times. cell23 and I chatted about it a bit last night, and we both agree it's a lot more... I don't know, relaxed is not the right word, nor is "easier" but whatever the word I'm fishing for is, it's really nice having our own space for them to run around and be themselves in. Course it's just nice having our own space, full stop. It occurred to me recently that it's been probably more than five years since I truly shared a living space with someone and felt like I had an equal claim to it rather than just feeling like all I had a right to was my room. I mean, there was the spot at the Perry for a bit, but that never really felt mine either even though I wasn't sharing it with anyone. But yeah, it's pretty nice so far. Course, it's only been a week and I may well find some reason to stab him in his sleep soon, which reminds me, I still owe him some profound swatting for a zinger he aimed at chirping_monkey and me earlier today... oy. It was funny, no lie, but he needs to be smacked into at least next tuesday for it.

Tomorrow feels very much back to life back to reality and I'm trying not to dread it as such. There's a trip to sephora to look forward to at least, so it's certainly not all gloom doom and work.

Something cell23 pointed out yesterday has been making me kinda consider starting to jack out from the interbutts for a while again. Goodness knows I have a shitton of better things to do besides stare into the pixels, and these days I actually am starting to get back the desire to do them. Amazing what you want to do when you're not a ball of anxiety, eh?

Goose out.

Packing: Everything that needs to go in a box is in a box except for computer cords (those'll go over near last) and random items I'm still using.

Furniture: bed is taken down, spiders found living in the frame summarily dispatched to dustier environs. Depending on how antsy I get in the next hour or two I may hit the kitchen table next.

Floor: vacuuming is half done - will do all of it when all my shit has exited the room.

Other cleany type things: eh. Will get to them when Cara leaves and I can break out the lysol. Also I should empty the recycling one last time, it's getting unruly.

Mental state: Tweaky about the fact that I still can't quite get things from point a to point b yet, but using the resultant antsy to get things a bit more organized for the next three days. Have the nagging feeling that I'm forgetting something in all of this, but I think that's just me being neurotic. Mostly as stuff gets broken down and consolidated and organized, I'm mostly just getting excited and also being just all kinds of ready to go go go on the rest of this. Plus in between all the aaaagh and the running around and the snags and the cleaning and the packing, there's been some really nice hang out and omg we're doing this and together wtf squeeeeeeeeeeeee time with the Manbeast. All things considered, while the leadup to it has been insanely stressful, the process of actually moving so far has been weirdly serene so far. We'll see if that keeps up when we actually have to pick up and move all the things, but eh. I've got a feeling that when all gets moving, this is going to go super quick and easy and then it'll just be unpacking and the day to day process of one not lovingly stabbing the other in their sleep.

So far so good, tl;dr.

Also I shake my fist in impotent, yet pleased rage at TJ09. A new egg release to distract my ass was not what I needed today.



Should probably stuff something snacky in my craw (eating is good), drink water (its hot and moving is thirsty work), then psyche myself into another round of Do All The Things (cause you know, I should and stuff).