My Truest Fortune Ever

.....as long as you count six months away as "long absent."

Pros and Cons of Life

Good things

1. Christmas
2. New things
3. Generosity
4. Family
5. The reason for Christmas

Bad things

1. Trying to figure out rebates over the internet when the page won't load and the labels on the various fields are ambiguous
2. Being dead tired because, despite vacation, you keep going to bed really late
3. Not having any idea what to post about

How lovely! I thought of more good things than bad!! Now I'm going to try to remedy the second bad thing and get some sleep.

Carols

I love Christmas carols. That is probably the main reason I have music symbols on my background now (although don't be surprised if I change it again). I went to get Bria from Fairwood today, and on the way back she felt like carolling so we--she, Elizabeth H. (who's going to the airport from our house tomorrow), and I--did. We stopped at Evan and Jill's (Lindsay, Jill, and Mrs. F.-from-on-the-hill were there) and Uncle Alden and Aunt Lorraine's. We sang "Angels We Have Heard on High" in parts, and it was so much fun that we'll just HAVE to do it again. Fun, fun, fun.....fun..........(long yawn).... yzswde yu67hg.


(That was my head hitting the keyboard when I fell asleep. I simply must try to do my blogging earlier.)

Guess what I did today!

I actually, factually skated!!! That's right, our pond is open and ready for business!!! Daddy got out the snowblower late this afternoon and now as much of the pond as possible is cleared off. (Parts around the edges couldn't be done because water seeped up from under the ice into the snow creating a slushy mess that is too much for the ol' snowblower to handle.)

I also went sledding down the hill onto the pond. Unfortunately, I found out on my second trip that I have gotten to big to ride my sled on my stomach. It's a short little thing and when I went over either my chest would bump the front painfully or I would wrench my back trying to prevent my chest from bumping painfully. The wrenching was just about as painful. Oh, well, too bad. I am a bit sad about it because my sled is very fast, but we have plenty of sleds that are big enough. I guess I'll just ride those now.

Next I skied down the slopes behind our house, where the seemingly endless array of pine and hemlock trees necessitated a dodging motion not unlike that used in the slalom. I almost hit a tree a couple times, but my cat-like reflexes prevented any serious accident. The closest call came when I was going to fast to stop at the bottom and, dodging the house, sped right down the sledding hill and across the pond. I lay flat on my back on the other side for several minutes before I was able to catch my breath and walk back to the warmth of the house.

After a few minutes of recovery over a steaming mug of hot cocoa, I was once again ready for adventure. The cocoa had made me quite warm, so I felt like swimming. Since our pool is covered (obviously!) and our pond is frozen, I decided to just practice my jumps on the diving board so I would be ready in the spring. I managed a quadruple flip--a personal record! I would estimate that I was nine feet in the air, but that may be an exaggeration. After all, I can't really see how high I am when I am turning so fast in the air!

As you may imagine, I was quite cold after being out in the cold in my swim suit, even though I wore a turtleneck with it. I decided the best way to warm up would be by exercise. Naturally, the best way to get exercise in New Hampshire this time of year is from shovelling. Daddy had already blown all the snow off both the driveway and the pond, so I shovelled the hill that leads to the pond since it and the yard were the only snowy places I could immediately think of. It was only afterward that I realized I had ruined our sledding path. Cara practically exploded when I told her what I had done, and I didn't even dare tell Ryan after that. The poor boy had been so looking forward to sledding, and now I'm the only one who had the opportunity. I guess both he and Cara will have to wait for the next snow.

I was so upset after being yelled at that I had to take my frustration out on something, so I decided to try snowball baseball. I rigged up a system for throwing snowballs that I consider quite ingenious, but which is too complicated to describe here. Unfortunately, the effort in building it was primarily wasted, as the snowballs never failed to explode upon colliding with the bat. I gave up after about twenty-five tries.

Then I woke up. I was back on the pond and had just finished sledding and had been knocked out by a sudden bump or wrench--which one I am not sure. Actually that's not true either. THE WHOLE THING IS A LIE!! That includes that last sentence as well, because the first two paragraphs ARE true. But that's not a lie, and I said the whole thing was a lie. Okay, I think I'd better stop now before I confuse myself!

Christmas is coming!

So sorry about the dreadful irregularity of my blogging. I tend to spend most of my time free from school doing other things, and what time I DO spend blogging I usually spend on either my template or reading other people's blogs. Nevertheless, here I am again to thrill you all.

Speaking of my template, what does the color of my background look like to you? On my computer it looks gold, but on my mom's it looks a bit peachy. Say what you like, peach is not a color that goes with Christmas in MY humble opinion. So if more than, say, one third of the commenters (and there will be many, WON'T THERE!?!?!) are seeing peach instead of gold, I'll change my background.

Last night, when I was putting up some Christmas lights, I had to get a couple extension cords in order to reach from the lights to the plug. I plugged one in and then picked up the rather tangled mess of cords on the floor. As I did so, I stuck my finger in between the prongs of the second extension cord. My heart jumped as I realized that I was just about to be electrocuted! Fortunately the logical remainder of my brain reminded me pretty quickly that, "No, if you were going to be electrocuted it would already have happened." And then: "Besides, the prongs go into the electric socket, not the other way around." Which all shows just how tired I must have been. (It was pretty late.) The whole episode led me to think: life would be incredible dangerous if the people who started the current electrical system did make the prongs come out of the wall with the electric current. And did the first guy to try to start an electrical system do it that way? If he did, it's no wonder I've never heard of him.

A little Christmas season update (mostly for Bria's benefit): The ice on our pond is frozen solid, although we haven't skated yet. We have our icicle lights up on the porch as well as regular lights on our circular stairway. We have our 9-foot tree up and trimmed with the lights on it, as well as a small tree from the backyard that Ryan and I cut down last Friday. We have wrapping paper all over the holiday table (the table in our dining room that we bring up for Sandford holiday meals) and our nativity set on the bookcase. In short, the whole house is looking pretty festive. I've got a little over half my shopping done, and I know what I'm getting for most of the little under half that I have to do. In fact, the only thing missing is Bria herself, and that problem will soon be remedied.....