Ah! It's mostly over, and I am hiding while the kids are playing with their toys and the adult kids are drinking beer and getting rowdy. Drew finally smiled at me tonight for the first time. He's toddling around now, and I think that this is about the first time that I've seen him when he wasn't sick or teething or something. Cute kid when he smiles. I don't get to see him nearly as much as the other grandkids. Andy is pretty independent and Karla has a large extended family, so they're not around here very much.

There are many ways to die, and the worst is from boredom. Only about half of the people who have died since the world begin and people evolved have died from boredom. The rest have died to relieve others of their boredom. They're all dead, regardless. And good riddance, if you ask me. We've got enough people here anyway.

The above text was written as a filler because I wanted to see how the right justification works around my gizmos. I thought I would leave it, just for the hell of it. One of those strange things that comes out of my fingers... no input from my teflon brain at all. Speaking of which, I did remember the important thing I was going to say yesterday.

After kicking the power cord out of the wall receptacle for the umpteenth time, I decided that yesterday would be the right time to do the rewiring. Actually, rewiring is making too much of it, although that's what it needs, all I did was replace the old wall receptacles with three-pronged ones. I still need to run the three-wire wires. And I also found out that the wires are 14 gauge and not 12 gauge, so I really need to pull new wire. Now I've lost the subject again, confusing what I need to do with what I actually did.

So, I went downstairs and tripped the breaker for what I thought was the right circuit, and, sure enough, the UPS started wailing, so I knew that I had the right one. So I came up and replaced the plug-in that the computer was attached to. No problem. There is another old plugin on the adjacent wall, so I pulled it out of the wall and started working on it. **BAM!** I have a melted screwdriver and a pitty-patty heart rate. Well, you would think (I did, anyway) that two receptacles in the same room less than four feet apart would be on the same circuit. Not! Anyway, that's done for now. I will probably never replace the two-wire 14 Ga with the right stuff.

I managed to stay up until 03:00 last night. I downloaded Microsofts' Front Page 97, about a two-hour (11 MB) dl. Installed it and tried using it, but it was way too late by then and the brain was just too foggy. Looked interesting, though. I tried downloading the companion program, Image Composer, but kept getting hung up somewhere along the line. Anyway, I got up around 12:00 because the alarm went off. I can blame Lacee for that, she was supposed to be taking a nap yesterday afternoon, she always messes with the damned clocks.

Lisa's mother brought her back home. Lisa's moms' birthday was yesterday, and Lisa baked her a cake with 39 candles on it and set off the fire alarms. What a classic! Lisa's mom has been working nights in the hospital cafeteria to fill in for a vacationing employee. Last night the employees got a free meal, so she was kinda busy. And Lisa also worked at Hardees on the turnpike last night, she's been filling in some hours for them, though she quit a month ago. So she and her mom have been up 24+ hours.

Getting really tired of in the gadda da vida. gonna find something else. OK. We Will Rock You Song for the day... Most of this music is probably OK for as long as it takes someone to read the entry, but they wear out on me pretty fast when I leave them on as I'm writing.

Back to the xmas celebration... Karen made her famous Lasagna and when everyone was stuffed I got to be Santa. I did pretty good except for the fact that Lacee was 'santas' helper' and a lot of the tags 'fell off' or were never put on the packages. So at the end we had six gifts that no one could identify, so Lacee passed them out. There was much comic relief at this time, the most notable was when Steve opened a package evidently intended for Kim... a skimpy nightgown.

Karens' youngest boy, Matt, behaved very well. He and I have never gotten along before, and we kinda enjoyed each other last night. Or...maybe it was me who behaved very well... anyway, it was fun, and I'm not used to having fun with Matt but butting heads. Maybe this is the start of a better relationship with him. I hope so, anyway. A lot of it had to do with the fact that he was relatively sober, not loud and obnoxious as usual.

Another interesting note: Kim and Steve are getting along very well, indeed for the last month or so really seem to be enjoying each other. That is really nice to see, we were all worried about their relationship and where it might be going. Steve seems to be spending more time being sober now too.

Hmmm. There is a common thread here...

Karen just brought in a plate of cheese-eggs and toast, and we discussed Matt and his behaviour last night. She is very happy to see us getting along better... she has hated being 'in the middle' all of these years.

14:22

Time to put this up and go back to bed, I think. I'm glad that I decided not to be a complete grinch this year. It was a close thing, though.

I'm still really enjoying doing this. It is really therapeutic, and I get lots of feedback from lots of very nice people. I have recently been accused of being a 'xian-baiter' with my rhetoric, which makes me feel kinda good. But that's not the point. Much of the xian rhetoric could be described as 'atheist-baiting' but to reply in kind is like dropping down to their level. At any rate, I will probably shut up about it, at least 'til Easter....;=}

'Til Tomorrow, then....