R.I.P

Good-bye, sweet Hoover. You will be missed.

Boxing Day

Not really sure what "Boxing Day" is all about, which is really bad for the daughter of two Canadians ...

I had a really great Christmas. Spent the day at The Kids' place, surrounded by family. Conversation was fun, food was plentiful (and extremely yummy!) and my little great-nephew was adorable. It was so good to have a little one around on Christmas! Sis gave him a hand-knit (of course) "Shrek" hat, which he was kind enough to leave on so that we could get a picture of him. I got home relatively early (around 7:30, I think) and watched a few episodes of Criminal Minds.

The Kids gave me a ball winder, a book of knitting patterns for "warm" climates, the newest Piers Anthony Incarnations of Immortality book, some gorgeous stitch markers and tapestry needle holder ... F gave me a Borders gift card (and one from Honeybaked Hams, that he got at work). And earlier in the week, I got a present from MB -- she sent me an awesome calendar full of pics of BBurke, and a gorgeous skein of blue/black yarn (cop uniform colors, of course!). If you click on the picture, you can see the awesome blue & black colors in the yarn - and the chocolate unicorn sucker shows up better, too!

It was odd to have not seen Duh yesterday, there have been very few Christmases that we haven't spent at least a few minutes together. I did get to see her on Thursday, for a little while. She gave me the green skirt and gorgeous bodice that I had borrowed for Ren Faire, and a small "pocket" flask. She seemed to like the necklace I gave her; unfortunately, she already had the charm I gave her, so she'll be exchanging it. Which is perfectly fine, of course. Just a little bit of a hassle for her. Maybe we can do that on Thursday, either before or after we go to City Hall to get her passport paperwork started ... as a Christmas gift to Duh and Happy, KC paid for the Mexico cruise that Social Club is planning! Awesome, right?

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to wish you all a very, very Merry Christmas! Hope your day is wonderful, and that Santa was good to you.

Persistence Pays Off

The Survivor show was fantastic. We had a great time (even The Kids, I think, who didn't watch the show). Got to CBS early enough that F was able to take us on a tour. I've seen it, of course, but LM, MM and A seemed interested. They especially liked the Price Is Right stuff. We then went over to the Farmer's Market for an early dinner -- we went to the same restaurant that we had gone to last year, but the service wasn't nearly as good as what we'd had before. Yeah, last year on of the meals arrived really late, but the waiter was really nice and tried his best to resolve the problem. Yesterday, my cheeseburger didn't arrive until everyone else was just about done eating ... and we only saw the waiter 2 times during that wait ... I wasn't pleased.

Then -- the show. It's always so much fun watching the 2-hour finale episode in a room full of fans! Afterward, we were standing out in the parking lot, talking to F (and kinda keeping an eye on the car that The Boy said was Jeff Probst's). F said, "There's Jeff," and suggested that I walk over and ask for a picture or something. Well, you know me -- I couldn't do that -- so F called over to him, and asked if we could get a picture. Jeff said yes .... (insert fangirl squee here) ... and I'll be posting the picture in the next couple of days, because I don't like how I look in the one taken with my camera, so I'm going to wait until LM can email me the one from hers ...

But --- I got my picture taken with Jeff, after years of going to the Finale show!

Survivor Finale

Tonight is the Survivor finale and reunion show! I'm really excited about going, even though Sis and Rafe won't be joining us this time. She gave up on the season a few weeks ago, so she didn't think she'd enjoy the finale. So - it'll be The Kids and I, and then LM and her daughter, MM, and granddaughter, A. To be honest, this wasn't my favorite season, but I'm jazzed to see A's reaction to being there for the live show.

So, a couple weeks ago, I asked F if he could possibly get some little souvenir from the Y&R set that I could send to MB. Well ... he did one better. One better? How about a million times better. He was able to get a personalized, autographed picture of her favorite actor from the show. Yeah, totally awesome, right? So I got a frame for it and mailed it off on Thursday -- it arrived yesterday and She. Was. Thrilled. She emailed me to say thanks, tweeted about it, and then posted it in the Today Made Me Happy Because thread on Rav. F can be a pretty awesome guy!