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We made it back safely and pretty much uneventfully, which is always good when talking about driving. Montana Christmas 2006 was wonderful; we saw friends and family and more friends and more family, and even Georgie seemed to have a good time. He was plumb-tuckered out most nights.

Thanks to everyone for the gifts, hospitality, and good times! *hugs* We’ll be back for more in the summer. In the meantime, Oregon isn’t that far away so if you’re bored, come visit!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I am in Montana, as is Eric, and we are celebrating with the families. Enjoy your holidays!

Eric and Lee left for Montana on Saturday (very) a.m., which left me with a lot of time for myself this weekend. I welcomed this extreme rarity, as I almost never entertain an empty household. Okay, well, George was here the whole time, but TJ worked on Sunday.

Saturday I was supremely lazy. I did nothing. Laid around, played some Oblivion, watched Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Beerfest, began consuming Ice 101 by the shot with TJ, half-watched the first episode of Firefly, and went to bed. Oh, and ate leftover pizza and the last of the chocolate chip cookies I made with Eric earlier in the week. LAZY.

Sunday was the exact opposite. While watching New Orleans lose to Washington, I did laundry and dishes. Around 2:30 George and I went into town, and although I wandered the mall for like 1/2 hour, I bought nothing and got no further in my Christmas shopping. *sigh* I just wasn’t in the mood. At all. Traffic sucked too. Then we went to the pet store – George’s favorite – and he was very well behaved. I picked up a really pretty royal blue beta for my supervisor to replace the one that died earlier this year, and of course treats for my well-behaved mutt. Did I mention traffic was a nightmare? Yeah, it was. So we came home. Then I baked. For like 4 hours. I made oatmeal cookies, mexican wedding cakes, and red & white candy cane sugar cookies without peppermint flavoring. They all turned out delicious and I have far too many cookies, but I’ll be taking a good portion to work as will TJ I believe, so we don’t eat them all. Now I must exercise. Lots. Which is where I’m headed right now.

okay, so I’d like to add a little area to publish my latest interests – book, music, movie – but I just thought of it so its gonna be a few days (at least). So I’ll just post them now:

LATEST MOVIE: Tenacious D: Pick of Destiny — laugh out loud funny, but lots of “mature themes”

LATEST BOOK: Pursuit, by forgotten — awesome cat-and-mouse plot.

LATEST MUSIC: The Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack — especially the Marilyn Manson and Dave Matthews songs, but I like most of the CD.

This is my official good-bye to “Gram,” my dad’s mother who passed away today around 3pm eastern standard time.  She apparently fell asleep on the couch due to her very low blood sugar and died peacefully.  She will be cremated and flown to Victorville, California, to be buried next to her husband, who died in 1980.  I believe a small service will be held around the weekend of December 16th-17th for her, and I think my dad and his wife and I will be the only ones in attendance.  Her only other child, her daughter, died in September of an aneurism.

I (with my dad and his wife) visited Gram (or Grandma Greer) earlier this year - she was very frail although mentally sharp.  She still dearly missed her husband, so I’m sure after 26 years she is happy to rejoin him.

Yes, I have a flea-ridden mutt. For the past couple of weeks George has been itchy, but recently it has been really bad. We gave him a thorough once-over and found hard little black dots all over his back and tail, so we looked it up. We found that those dots are little bits of dried blood! Poor Jorge Grande! So we immediately dropped him in a tub of hot soapy water to drown them out. It worked – there were about 8 dead fleas in the water when we were done. Then we vaccuumed the entire house and are washing the sheets, his bed, and pretty much everything that might harbor the little bug(ger)s.

The funny part? We think he got them from one of our (human) friends who has a farm.