Happy Holidays! And a mega apology

12/24/05
Happy Holidays and one mega huge apology

In the spirit of always starting with something positive: Happy Holidays!

And now the apology: The realisation has just swamped me, while reading a story's A/N, in which the author profusely apologised for not mentioning his/her beta for a couple of chapters. I rushed back to my .rtf file, which I had uploaded to TPP in a hurry about twenty-four hours ago, and alas, I had completely forgotten to add the edited A/N to it after I did the corrections, which, I'm ashamed to admit, were rather lengthy. NotSoSaintly, I sincerely hope, will forgive me for that faux pas. Please? Pretty please? My only excuse is that I've had a week that was busier than the entire year has been so far (including all our travels), with still no internet access at home, and the plot bunnies developing faster than I can write them down. Alas, I have corrected the misdeed now and it'll probably take a few hours before the chapter shows up again, so I'll put the link to it in my next entry.

Our gifting exchange has been a smashing success this year. :-) Sara is ecstatic with her iPod, knee-length striped socks and arm warmers. Little One equally so with his PS2 *wrinkles_nose_with_disdain*, white shirt and musical bow-tie. Dorkboy is very happy with his new toys (A PS2 game [Prince of Persia], a movie [Life of Brian], a dish for olives, an olive fork and spoon made of olive wood, a drum), and his new black, pure cotton shirt (I did try to find linen, but to no avail at this time of year!) and his musical black and white tie. Pictures to follow shortly. And me... well, there are no words for it. I've been gifted beyond belief! Sara found for me the CD 'The Best of Johnny Cash'. You may laugh, but I have serious memories associated with that one, and I'm very happy to have, once again, come into ownership of said works. Then, Little One chose to gift me with the Special Edition of the DVD Phantom of the Opera! It includes the mask *looks_extremely_smug*! And Dorkboy gave me the best, the interface to connect the keyboard to the iMac. And not only that! He figured out how to make it work!!! I have been musicking ever since, only taking small breaks to read or cook. Dinner did turn out well, though, musically inspired :-)

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Little One proudly wearing his music bow tie

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The Christmas Market

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Musical Men

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The New Phantom

Goodness, Gracious...

... Get ready to gasp in astonishment: I have spent two phone cards (each offering more than a hundred minutes) today! That is more in one day than I've spent the entire year on the phone.
And I wasn't even going to! The only one I had planned was the one to the Lady Joyous who I phoned late morning. And what a surprise it was for her! She's planning to visit us, and we are all rejoicing! Little One in particular, even though he wasn't the most talkative when he spoke to his two best friends on the phone. But that was probably more out of sheer shock that he finally got a chance to do so...
When I went to the internet café late afternoon, just as I was getting ready to log off, I received a message from Aunt M, so I quickly looked at it. She was busy with cooking, having a house full of family members, so I quickly wrote back saying I'll call tomorrow, seeing that she was pretty busy today (especially considering the time difference of seven hours). So I got home, told DB about the email, and what does the doofus do? He said, well, we really should just put in a quick call, to wish her happy holidays, and he picked up the phone. So we ended up talking close to an hour. Next, I called my brother who went completely speechless. It was kind of funny. Like a mirror of my phoning habits, LOL. It's all still new to me, ya know... Well, we talked (with lots of pauses, or as Sara so had to point out, "awkward pauses" *snort*), and then the kids talked to him, and then Sara talked to her cousin, for the first time, and then Dorkboy talked to him some more. And then, my throat felt positively scratchy.
But an hour and two glasses of wine later, I figured I really should call Aunt B, because it just wouldn't be fair not to call her on the same day, and besides, I really enjoy talking to her, so I did. And that was another hour, or possibly a bit longer. A very much enjoyable evening, even though my ears are ringing now, and I'm still shocked at myself for having talked so much on the phone.