Gee, I am so ashamed. Even Broos has found time to post :/

The past few weeks have been a bit hectic, even considering school is over. I feel constantly rushed, worried and fretful. It's Rob's birthday tonight, but I have a leadership meeting in the little game that I cannot put off, so he's gone off to get pizza at Vince's, while I sit and consider how to promote our little product, and how to get something going jazzy-like. It overwhelms me and I often feel alone and adrift.

Return of the King was excellent. There were one or two moments that I wished had been done differently, but mostly I was amazed and mournful -- how could Peter Jackson leave out this? How could he not include that? And yet I know that the movie is very well done and I am happy to see my favorite books done in a way that doesn't hurt the books by being too silly. I've been twice already. I cannot wait to go again. A part of me lives there now and it needs nourishment, a fix from home as it were :) And that Billy Boyd sure is cute, isn't he? Bwahahahaha!

The law firm gave out holiday bonus checks, which surprised me. I sent some to my mom for Xmas, and used some to buy gifts for some of my staffers that I felt deserved a bit of fun for the holidays. The rest I'm planning to put away in my retirement account. Unless I spend it :)

Today Susan and I went to the kitchen accessory store downtown so I could buy large muffin tins such as the ones Martha Stewart used to make her Yorkshire puddings in. As we're standing at the register, I toyed with a little keychain wire whisk, and Susan said she wished she had one to take on camping trips. "Why would you need that?" I said, "I'd just use a fork." The sales clerk (who earlier burst out laughing when I expressed disappointment that the gel heater for my fondue pot is 'nonexplosive') chuckled at me, "It's folks like you..." tsking and shaking her head, "At least you're young enough to learn better." Which made me smile because hey, presto! I apparently still look younger than my age! Whee!

An interesting, if low-key weekend. Got out the holiday decorations and decorated. Usually, I have things done by now but school really does put a crimp in my style.

I wrapped gifts last night while watching "Fellowship of the Ring." I'm prepping for the viewing Wednesday, for which I'm taking half a day off work. Since I can't get tickets to the all-day movie fest at the Cinerama, I'll be sitting in the relatively nice, but much smaller, Pacific Place theater for "Return of the King." There's a time crunch though, as I hoped to watch "The Two Towers" tonight, but Rob and I have to watch Survivor, which we both forgot was the final episode for this season.

Puts a damper on my schedule :)

It feels weird to not have registered for any classes for next quarter, but I am just too burned out of school to give it a go. Maybe if I had nothing else on my plate, but there's still so much to do if we're going to sell my condo and move to the big city. :/ I need the time to get things sorted out, take stuff to Goodwill, etc. Moving is exciting but also frightening.

Took my computer science final last night. I'm probably getting a B in the class, as the teacher has an unusual grading method. He gives a score range, say 10 - 15, for items we turn in or exams we take. Then he mentions that no one will ever get 15 points for that item unless they really knock his socks off. To me, that's kind of cheating on his part because no matter how good we think we are, we don't know how to guess how good he thinks we are. For the final paper, for which I pasted dozens of little photos of the insides of PCs cut from dozens of magazines and catalogs, I got 17 out of 20 points. The highest score was 18. It boggles my mind.

Anyway.

I'm tired of school. Two math classes left and I'm too tired to think of it. It's sucked up my life for over a year now and I need a break, especially with working again. We're plotting evil things for the little game, involving some of my favorite Romans, and I want to give them my tenderest attention.

Yesterday's Random Act of Idiocy:

I was decorating the reception area for the holidays and had untangled miles of metallic garland, which I then twisted together ropes of green, red and gold to festoon across the front of my desk. Susan, one of the paralegals, walked by and grinned at me because I had 20-feet of garland draped across my shoulders, spilling into a puddle around my feet. So I did what anyone else in this situation would do. I burst into song.

Doing my best Ginger Grant imitation, I sashayed across the floor toward her, breathily intoning, "I want to be loved by you, by you and nobody else but yoooooooou...." which set us both laughing and was a nice start to our week :)