2004, you can kiss my cute ass. Finished it off by gorging on Chinese food, listening to Bob Newhart, and falling asleep well before midnight, and then waking up at midnight, seriously considering getting into the car and driving about running over people who were shooting off fireworks. (When the hell did that become a tradition, anyway? Yes, I am officially old.)

2005 started with sleeping in, coffee at Jamie's General Bean and breakfast at Payne's next door (terrific throwback greasy spoon in Centreville.)

Finally got a rolling pin last night, and all is right with the world. Bread is on the first second rising cycle, and hopefully will be done and cooled by the time I have to leave for dinner for Grandma's birthday. (She'll kick my ass if I'm late, even with fresh out of the oven bread...) I'd forgotten how delightfully violent making bread is! I have no doubt that there is flour on the ceiling. :-D

Some good news coming out of the tsunami - and proof you need to pay attention in school and listen to your elders:
Elders' Sea Knowledge Spares Some Thais
"The elders told us that if the water recedes fast it will reappear in the same quantity in which it disappeared," 65-year-old village chief Sarmao Kathalay told the paper.
British 'angel' saved hundreds from tsunami with classroom knowledge
A 10-year-old British schoolgirl saved the lives of hundreds of people in southern Asia by warning them a wall of water was about to strike, after learning about tsunamis in geography class, British media reported.

And here come the resolutions...

-- Get the house more organized. I'm getting better, but still need a lot of work. The house is OK, but it really needs to get to a point of "a place for everything and everything in it's place." Right now it's more of a "everything at least is stacked up somewhere..." That is just gonna take plain ol' time & discipline...

-- Get me more organized. I suck at time management. I somehow am able to get what must be done, done - but there is so much more and if I had my act a touch more together, I could accomplish a heck of a lot more. I can't help but think that possibly a tiny less time spent on my butt reading things on the internet may help, but that sounds awfully extreme... ;)

-- Take more photographs. I've got a great camera and I need to take it with me more places.

-- Do more creative stuff. I've got it in me, just need to take the time and DO something with it! More beading, knitting, sewing, painting, all of it.

-- Read more books. 2004 was probably a lifetime low for books read for me. Must not let that happen again!

-- Take advantage of having good cooking tools and cook more!! (That's already in progress, wheeee!)

-- Get back on the exercise wagon to offset the effects of the abovementioned good cooking tools.

-- Bed before 11 on school nights. 10 would be ideal. Seriously. If you see me posting after 10, yell at me.

-- Just be a better, kinder person in general, despite the fact I am surrounded by dumbasses sometimes. ;) Nah, seriously, just gotta keep paying it forward for the good fortune that I do have, even when it seems like everything sucks.

-- Figure out a way to create a 30 hour day, and then decide how I will spend my Nobel Prize money for the discovery. :-D

-- Addition: No more sitting my butt down at the computer when I get home unless all the other stuff is done.

-- Addition 2: Keep the finances under control. Came out ahead last year (thanks to the market not screwing me, which helped), and I need to continue that.

-- Addition 3: Maybe quit smoking this year? Would be a good idea in general, but you have to *want* to, and I can't say that want has been there yet.



May 2005 bring you and yours nothing but the very best.