MMVIII

Out with the old and in with the new.

In years that is.

It's now officially 2008 in the Eastern Time Zone. The ball has dropped in New York City and Dick Clark sounds better this year than he did the last few years. How old is he? 80 something?

Many of you have brought in the New Year already, some of you have a few hours to go yet in 2007. Still I say, "Where has the time gone?"

Seems like we were hailing in 2007 only yesterday, yet it is now 2008.

I'll have more to say [look for updates in various colors] as the day progresses, but that will suffice for now, since I need to get some sleep.

Happy New Year, everyone.

[14:30] Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Well, I'd rather not let it snow again, {sigh} but since I wasn't consulted, I'll just have to deal with it. The weather gnomes are prognosticating a dusting to two inches for this area. With the way it's steadily coming down now, I'd say we're going to get more than they predicted today. The precipitation we got on Sunday night/Monday morning was less than expected and was actually a wet, heavy snow. What snow is falling now appears to be more of the dry, fluffy stuff.

I, of course, don't like snow or the cold weather so I've had my fill of both for this winter already. One snowfall per year is pretty much all I can handle, so spring can't come soon enough for me.

I don't recall the specific amount of snow the Boston area had in December, but I do know it was .2" less than the record snowfall amount, set in 1970.

I just got back from dropping off V and M in Nashua. K was supposed to go to her grandparents house today (and pick V and M up along the way) but with the weather/roads being so bad and her not feeling well necessitated a change of plans. I'll see them again on Friday night, as always.

[16:40] As it would turn out, the weather gnomes were right - the snow tapered off quickly and we only got about an inch. More wet, slushy stuff though. No fun to shovel and not enough to break out the snow thrower. Good thing I'm not a weather gnome, then.

New Year's Resolutions:

i. Adhere to my daily Bible reading program. To say that I slacked off tremendously in 2007 would be a gross understatement. Now, which translation to use...

ii. Write for at least 15 minutes every day. No matter if it's Blogger, or in a notebook, or elsewhere on the computer, write whatever comes to mind. I found a years worth of daily writing prompts from 2001 that I halfheartedly worked on seven years ago, so I'll work on those. That novel I want to write just isn't going to evolve onto the paper with out thought and effort on my part..

iii. Aside from i. above; set aside time to read something else every day. The Sports page in the Boston Globe doesn't count (though I will read that, too!). Before bed is probably the time I will do this.

iv. Be less obsessed about surfing the Internet. Wow, this one's going to be hard. It'll be like quitting smoking, I think. Lord knows I've got other stuff that I can do instead. Heck, maybe I'll even go to bed earlier...

v. Get my financial self in order. An uphill battle to be sure but one that can be accomplished, with effort and a lot of discipline.

I was going to add that I should resolve to lose weight and quit smoking, but since I don't need to do either of those things, I won't worry about them.

[22:44] And finally, two bad jokes to begin the new year...

Su Wong marries Lee Wong. The next year, the Wongs have a new baby. The nurse brings over a lovely, healthy, bouncy, baby boy

But definitely a Caucasian, WHITE baby boy. "Congratulations," says the nurse to the new parents. "Well Mr. Wong, what will you and Mrs. Wong name the baby?"

The puzzled father looks at his new baby boy and says,

"Well, two Wong's don't make a white, so I think we will name him..."


Are you ready for this???




Are you sure you are ready??



Well.... here it comes...




"Sum Ting Wong!!!"

and

What's Irish and stays outside all of the time?











(In your best Irish brogue:) Patty O'Furniture