A Geek in Beantown

Happy $winterholiday!

May your day not have a cake/dessert that's been featured by Cake Wrecks.

From Janet:

1. My boots _need replacing_.
2. _So many things have changed during_ this century.
3. Imitation _schmitation! Gimme the real stuff_.
4. _Do you want to get together for coffee_ and talk?
5. I'd like _to have a not-traffic-y drive home on Sunday, but if I can't have that, I'd like decent weather_.
6. ________ get over it? [I have no idea what to put here.]
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _dinner with Dad, Cathy, Steve and Phyllis_, tomorrow my plans include _hanging out with my stepmom and stepbrother and maybe a movie_ and Sunday, I want to _have a blissfully uneventful drive back to MA_!

I hope that you have a lovely day and weekend, whatever you celebrate!

Celebrating Hanukkah, day eight

Last post of the set!

Where I live

I'm grateful for the people I live with. I don't think I could live with 20 somethings or people who acted like 20 somethings. I don't have much patience for a messy house and we (as a group) are pretty good at keeping the dishes washed, the house tidy, the bathrooms !gross (not gross). We plan meals and eat decently. We have tasty leftovers for lunch. We decorated the house for the winter party and put up the tree together. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but it's a lot better than it might be. (Suzanne still ranks highest in roommate compatibility.) I like the setup in the foyer. I like that my art (that I own, not that I painted) has homes on the walls. I like that the room I'm in is clearly stamped with a sense of me (even if my pictures keep falling off the walls!).

I will NOT miss the crazy driveway, the mice who come in during the fall, the draft from under the kitchen sink that we can't find to block, the insane electrical wiring, the gas station next door, the pipes that freeze because there's not enough insulation in the wall behind the kitchen sink [this I'm hating now because we have NO running water on the second floor; at least the water works on the 3rd floor though], but I will miss the place we've built in spite of all of that.

Celebrating Hanukkah, day seven

World of Warcraft

I had to put this here. Really. Brad tried to get me to play an MMO when we were married, but I got motion sick and couldn't do it. James sat with me until we figured out how to make the camera move in a way that made sense to my brain (the mouse is inverted from what most people have it set to). We belong to the best guild around. We started as a group of mostly-local, mostly-in-real-life-friends and have grown to a big family of people who live all the way on the other side of the US and even in Canada! They're friendly and cheer when you get some silly achievement. They raid with glee. They sing when we're on voice chat (mostly during raids). They help out if they're nearby and you've got a tough quest. I couldn't be happier with how things have worked out there. Plus James and I got our pair to level 80 (that's the current highest level). We started them right after my birthday in 2008 and have been playing ever since (not always because we have other characters we play too).

I think it's nifty that we now have a recipe forum and a local gatherings forum on our guild site. We have pockets of people in close proximity to each other that it would be great fun to get together and hang out. So I'm going to work on that.

I love that I follow some of my guildmates on Twitter and Facebook (and vice versa). That the Internets allow us to be more involved with each others lives.

Celebrating Hanukkah, day six

Friends

I have an incredible circle of friends. They are good caring people who are fun to interact with. I love that we spend Thanksgiving with friends at a T'day potluck. Everyone brings something and we all share. It's the way Thanksgiving is meant to be spent (to me, anyway). There are the people who I see at the parties we throw at our apartment and who bring joy and laughter with them. There is the crew who goes to Arisia and help make that a great time. There are the ones who you always mean to go out with for that cuppa (I'll work on this s'more!). The ones who leave sweet notes on Facebook/Twitter/blog posts. I am grateful for all of the people in my life.

I do miss living with Suzanne and NSPy, but at least I get to see them both pretty regularly!

Celebrating Hanukkah, day five

Family

Dad and Cathy are such wonderful people. I am happy that they are also my parents. I'm especially looking forward to driving to NJ to spend Christmas with them this year. (This is not any kind of slight on Mom and Bill, but I have more interaction with Dad and Cathy.) I'm glad that they come up and visit every three months. I love Cathy's weekly email updates and look forward to reading them, even if I don't always reply. It's cool to know what is happening with them without the need for a telephone (I'm not a phone person).

My brother and family - they live nearby and I see them when Dad and Cathy are in town plus for some holidays. Their house is full of 6 year-old chaos (named Sara) and signs of all of her different activities (that child does A LOT!). I like to see them and catch up. My job has me driving by their exit twice a day, but not at times when anyone would be home, but it does make it easier to meet for Friday dinner when Dad and Cathy are in town.

William and Drew had a horrible house fire [http://risingfromtheashes2009.blogspot.com/] this past summer. They lost their house and their animals. They have come back from that with new house plans (it has to be torn down and rebuilt) and 3 new kitties (fosters who they ended up keeping). They've been through a lot, but hopefully things will continue to get better for them.

Mom and Bill live in Cape May still! They've been there most of my life. They've had some health issues this year, but are both on the mend. They got a new kitty recently who reminds me a lot of the cats Brad and I had. Fluffball! I exchange email with Mom semi-regularly and that's nice.

The rest of the crew - there are a lot of them, but most of them I don't have a lot of contact with. This makes me miss Grandma even more since she was good at keeping all of the parts of the family in touch/up to date with each other. I hope they're all well and prospering.

Celebrating Hanukkah, day four

The Holts

Yup, they get an entire post. These sneaky people wormed their way into my heart and have set up camp. K & L are wonderful girls. I have lots of artwork from them and a picture of them on my wall. Terry is an amazing woman who is also a mom. Allen is wonderful and a great dad too. And Andrew (formerly known as Rockstar P) is the cutest little boy (which is good since he eats all the time so Terry is constantly busy with him).

They'd lived in the greater Boston area a while ago and then moved south. While they were away, I got closer to Terry and Allen. When they moved back, I was overjoyed. Since then, they've become very important to me. I love hanging out with the girls and doing projects. I love hanging out and talking or playing games with Allen & Terry (and any other friends who are around). Their family is a strong one and it fills me with joy to see them.

Celebrating Hanukkah, day three

My health

I had my yearly mammogram in November and my breasts are healthy! My fibroids have been quiet of late. My general health is good, even with my allergies and asthma issues. Those are kept in line with allergy shots and meds. I do need to get on a regular exercise routine but I'm working on getting my brain in that space. :p I'm happy that at 45 my body hasn't turned into a creaky, achy mess. I didn't know if that would happen, but I'm *so* glad it hasn't. I'm still flexible and able to be active.

Celebrating Hanukkah, day two

My job

This job seems to have been created just for me. It's a combination of programming, project management, documentation and people skills that works for me. I get to write Perl, Java and SQL. I get to dig around and figure out why some numbers look funny. Or how to get different numbers from the data. I get to document all kinds of things. I get to take the lead and run with things.

My manager is wonderful and I like working with and for her. The other group we work most closely with (*waves hi to Dave*) is a good buncha people. The people at the company are generally friendly and approachable. I like that. I like the sense that people matter.

Celebrating Hanukkah, day one

I've decided that I wanted to celebrate the good things in my life by posting about one per night of Hanukkah.

~~

James

It is hard to describe how much I love James and how happy he makes me. When we are together, my heart is full of joy and love. When we have a disagreement, he waits for me to be able to express myself and we talk through things. When we're in bed, the joy escapes in giggles and it always makes him smile (though sometimes I think he tries to nibble the giggles out of my cheeks).

We work well together in so many ways. We can prepare a meal together and not get under each other's feet. We can host a party together and create a house full of happy people. We can play World of Warcraft together and laugh about the silly things we accomplish there. We can cry and laugh at movies together. When I'm feeling distant, he's very good at pulling me back. When he's feeling down, I can comfort him (and vice versa). He holds me in my sleep and my whole body relaxes and we both sleep soundly.

Sometimes I'll think of some silly or sweet thing he's said or done and my heart fills with love so quickly that it takes my breath away.

Tree!

Xmas tree 2009,
originally uploaded by jasra.

Apparently I was not holding the camera straight. Pic with flash in flickr.