First Sunday of 2005

It is so cloudy and foggy today... a bad hair day for sure. Not a smidge of blue sky in sight, so it may just be cloudy all day long.

Now that the Christmas holidays are over, we're talking about our Valentine's Charades party. We usually have it right on Valentine's Day, but it falls on a Monday this year. Better to have it on the weekend before, so that's what we're planning to do. (My husband and I plan.... then I do. As the party date gets closer, he realizes all I've done to make it happen. But it's fun to me, not work, and I thoroughly enjoy it all--- the planning, the preparations, and the party itself.)

I already have invitations, and I have all the party favors from last year's Valentine's party that we cancelled because my husband's mom passed away a couple of weeks before Valentine's Day. Nearly an entire year now that she's gone. Amazing how time just passes so quickly. Last year, I had the breakfast room, living room and dining room all decorated for our Valentine's party. After we got the call that mom had passed away, I just went from room to room taking down the decorations. I put all the party bags in the closet, and gave all the chocolates I'd bought to the ladies and men at the Senior Center.

No way could I have had that party last year, even though I could hear mom whispering in my ear that "life goes on." Indeed it does, but let's face it... for every person that's no longer here, life goes on differently than it did before. Even though mom was 1500 miles away, she was still "here." So this will be our first Valentine's party without mom calling up the day after to hear all about it...... just as our Christmas party was the first without mom calling to hear all the details about the food and the surprises.

And now that the holidays are over... it's back to piano lessons for me, and back to eBay. I've not been conscientious with either one since the beginning of December. My only excuse-- too much to do with the holidays and the parties. This Tuesday will be my first lesson in weeks, and I guess it will be a surprise to see what I remember from the last lesson.

As for eBay... I've got a closet half-filled with items to sell on eBay. Some of the things are from mom's home, others are from our home that I took away to make room for mom's treasures. ("One thing in, one thing out"-- that was the rule I followed so our own home wouldn't be over-cluttered.) My other rule was not to go to yard sales till I sold all the stuff in this closet. So I've got to get busy with that because I really do miss going to the sales.

That's about the story so far.... It's just about 9:30 in the morning here, so not much has happened. Our friends A & D are away in Florida, and I'm looking after their cat... at their house, not ours. Can't bring the cat here, although I'd like to. My own three cats (all males) might like to have a female cat around for a few days. I can just see them trying to impress her. I'm sure AngelBoy and ShadowBaby would be jealous, though. Rusty probably wouldn't even notice unless A's cat started to eat his food.

I wish the sun would come out. I'd like to get the Christmas lights taken down from the front of the house, and put the lighted deer back into the garage. But I don't want to be out there in this drippy weather doing that job, so I'll just put it off for another day. Maybe the sun will be out tomorrow. ("Tomorrow... tomorrow.... there's always tomorrow.... it's just a day away." -- as that song from Annie goes.)