Happy New Year

Recent goings-on round here:

I keep having dreams about babies, sometimes about poopy babies and sick babies and snuggly babies that are the size of newborn kittens. In one part of last night's dream, the kitten-sized baby was being sat upon by Chitty, our fat cat. I panicked, running to shoo fat-cat away and get the squished baby (he ended up being fine, even smiled at me). Why can't I just have normal dreams? Is there even such a thing?

Some friends are throwing a donations-shower for us Sunday to help us gather together all the goodies we want to bring with us to Ethiopia. I'm hoping we can even get everything all packed up and ready to fly.

I'm checking email obsessively for new pictures of Abenezer some good folks said they'd send our way...just dying to get those, finding it hard to believe that patience is a virtue (I know they're super-busy right now, picking up their own daughter and getting settled in).

Two nights ago, during an attempt to learn to play bridge, I had a mild meltdown. My brain couldn't take it, and while the two experts were explaining the subtleties of the game at once while I was still trying to get the basic point, this lump started rising in my throat triggering tears that I willed myself to force back, repeating in my mind, "You must not cry, You must not cry. It's just a game, Don't cry!" Luckily, my cell phone started to ring, so I escaped tearful humiliation with a 30 minute phone call. My friend who had called advised me to go have a strong drink of whatever the bridge-players were offering. This is why I like her so much. But such is the state of my mind these days; thinking about our upcoming court-date this Friday and all the things to get done in the next couple of weeks, I cry over card games.

Last night, as Ted and I sat on the couch around 1:00 am drinking our Kirkland brand, Costco-bought "champagne" after returning from a New Year's Eve gathering, I got a serious case of the hiccups (a regular occurence). So all at once, I was hiccuping, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and burping--thanks to the bubbly. That was fun, maybe the best part of our New Year's.

We canceled our annual holiday book-swap party where I make pots of soup and everyone brings a book they don't want anymore to trade with other guests. This would have been our fourth year to do it. We canceled because this is what our kitchen looks like today:



And here is the view down from where the kitchen sink used to be into the basement laundry room.
The living room and dining rooms are full of our yet-to-be-installed cabinets. Not the best time for a party. Probably not the best time to start a kitchen remodel either (though in our defense, we started this project back before Thanksgiving when we didn't think we'd hear about Baby Abe until well into 2008). We're hoping it gets done before we leave for Ethiopia. I'm choosing not to worry about it, just like I chose to shove down the bridge-induced tears.

And lordy lordy, I'm not even thinking about resolutions...

Happy 2008!