Yep. Pinkeye.

Yeah. I'm gonna try not to declare my health anymore. On the heels of my last post, I contracted Pink Eye. I was going to write about it at the time, but each time I tried to compose something, it just came out a bunch of profanity. I gave it up as a bad job.

Went to taiko last night, and did my best, which was sometimes spectacularly crappy, but sometimes nearly accurate. I'm still playing catch up. I have hopes that I'll at least get back to my usual level of proficiency, even if it was never that great. I was excited to learn Matsuri Taiko left-handed. Whee!

Wanna hear a weird little story? Well, we were going to take the dogs to have their toe nails clipped just before Christmas, since we were taking them to Josh's mom's house with us. Unfortunately, I started doing the vomit thing, and Josh can't take both of them alone. (You will recall, of course, that Callie came to us very VERY not leash trained.) The toenail event was rescheduled for yesterday. All four of us, plus the two dogs, went to Wentzville in the truck. At Petsmart, Jake was more well behaved even than usual, and Callie was bonkers. She pulled, and wandered, and wrapped Josh up in the leash. She was awful during the clipping, too. I had told Josh that I wanted to get her a harness. She's going to pull, anyway, we might as well not have to worry about strangling her, on top of everything else. After checking out, we put Callie in the harness. What do you think happened? She walked sweetly and quietly out to the car, without even pulling! Darn those Humane Society girls! I asked them specifically if she had been walked with a harness and they said they had done both! They could have mentioned that she did infinitely better with the harness. But it was funny. And I just love it when you purchase something and know right away that it was a good idea.

About the "truck": During this recent cold, the fuel gauge froze and broke. We now use the tripometer to determine if it's nearing time to add gas to the car. And did I ever tell you that the locks broke? It's a beaut'.

Been watching Firefly with Josh. I like it. That Captain Hammer can actually act. Anyway, lots of lovable characters. And now I must watch Serenity again.

Today we are going to do some cleaning. This is good. All this squalor is getting very stifling. I think we're also going to remove the Christmas decorations.

I want to go out. I have several invitations, even. But it's looking like I will have to decline. Josh is still working second shift. Still working Thurs - Monday. He's working New Year's Eve (and day, too). I was going to go to my mom's for her New Year's party, but Josh will be getting back home right at midnight, and it doesn't seem nice. I've also declined another invitation already, but didn't say either way to our neighbors down the street. Maybe that's a good compromise? But I shudder at the thought of hauling the kids down the block without help. Really none of these are the "out" that I want to go, anyway.

Well, enough about me. What did you think of 2010? I keep trying to remember, but it's hard to get past knowing I've been sick since my birthday. I think it was good. Josh got his new job this year. Can that be? Wow. It's only been 7 months. Seems like forever. Grant started Kindergarten. We got Callie. We went to Colorado to see Brother.

Next year, I hope to be in better shape and better health. I also want to learn a little conversational Japanese so that when our visitors come from Osuwa Taiko, I can be somewhat of a help. I plan to start working after they return to Japan, so I am hoping for good things from that, too. I hope Abbie likes school when she starts in the fall. Before that, though, I hope the swimming lessons go better than last year.

Next year, I hope the country can finally turn it's head to education, and that something sensible can be done about health provision. I hope people can be a little bit more considerate, without stalking around in high dudgeon, ranting at people who do not/cannot/will not consider their every feeling above his/her own. It's getting ridiculous what people think is their due, versus what they think is their duty. I also think we need to clean house in congress and get rid of pretty much everyone and start over. Grudge matches are the opposite of productive. Next year, I hope we can take the fashion industry far, far away from the 1980's. I made plenty of jokes about it yesterday, but 80's clothes were unprecedentedly ugly. There is really no reason to re-visit them. Oh, and I want to not hear about any movie and it's record breaking ticket sales, unless they are factoring in the fact that the price of tickets keeps increasing.

That wasn't great, but I was very distracted. It's getting very busy here.

And now....let the housecleaning begin. Hugs to you all! I hope your day is a good one!!