That was the year that was

In reflection, last year had some very good things (new job, taking classes, getting pregnant) and some very bad things (the death of longstrider's grandfather, the car accident that killed two more family members while driving to said grandfather's funeral, the election). It makes it hard to judge as a year. But frankly, as far as years go, it doesn't hold a candle to the horror-show that was 2001, so despite the bad things being very bad, I will on the whole chalk it up as a good year because after all, the good things were very good. :)

So far, the new year has been quite pleasant. We've spent a good deal of it relaxing and recovering from travel, punctuated by periods of productivity. I packed up a bunch of books in preparation for the Great Book Migration of '05 (we have to make room for the baby _somehow_, so quite a few of the paperbacks are getting moved to bookcases up in the attic) and did some other rearranging and throwing away of Stuff in preparation for even more rearranging and throwing away of stuff. longstrider got the joy of moving many boxes up to the attic. Then we ate posole, a pork and hominy stew that's the traditional New Year's dinner of the southwest. My father made it for me for years, so it's just not the new year without it.

Today, I've spent much of the day futzing around on my laptop with Sonya curled up right next to me. I have plans to attack painting a bookcase after dinner, but this may or may not happen depending on my motivation level.

Sigh of Relief

I rectified a great wrong today. Last year, I bought a "Series of Unfortunate Events" calendar, which had lovely Edward Goreyish illustrations from the books and cheery mottoes like "Today begins the Year of the Rooster, honoring an animal known for its suspicious activities at dawn" and "Valentine's Day: February is midwinter and February 14th is mid-February, so today is the mid-midwinter, the bleakest day of the year. Also, love is celebrated."

How could you not want that on your wall for another year?

So when we were buying calendars, I specifically looked for another and felt very lucky when I found it after some searching. And then I got it home, and opened it up and realized to my horror it was the movie tie-in version with absolutely no mottoes of any sort at all, just lots of pictures of Jim Carrey.

Since I couldn't bear the thought of twelve months of Jim Carrey staring down at me from the wall (just thinking of the children - I'm sure that sort of thing can cause birth defects), we went out to another bookstore tonight to find the proper calendar. Luckily, Border's had an entire stack.

So now I have the proper illustrated calendar, ready to tell me helpful things like "National Poison Prevention Week ends. Now you may eat poison if you wish." I feel much better now.