dianaschnuth

We received our first Christmas card of the season today.

Grandpa and Grandma Cook — Mom’s father and stepmother — sent us a card with an unusually short inscription. Usually, Grandma Cook writes the Christmas cards, and adds something about great-grandbabies or asks how we’re liking our house or something like that.

This year, though, it looks like Grandpa wrote the Christmas cards. Maybe, after 20-some odd years of taking care of their correspondence, Grandma finally flipped and made Grandpa write the cards. 😉

What’s funny, besides the two-line greeting, is that they’ve been forgetting what I used to call them. Apparently, to their other grandchildren, they’re Grandpa Bill (or Billy!) and Grandma Rose, which is how they’ve taken to signing their correspondence to me. *shrug*

Because I must be feeling masochistic this evening, I leave you with this photo of Grandma Cook, my stepdad Tom, me (about age 12), and my Grandpa Cook. This photo was taken around 1988, but Grandpa and Grandma looked like this forever. They’re only now starting to look considerably older, having put on a few pounds and a few wrinkles.

*looks at wedding photo proofs from May 2003*

They really do still look the same, I think, even after 15 years.

Snicked from litagemini:

Take the first sentence (or 2) from the first post of each month of 2005. That’s your year in review.

January: This year has been one of a few large upgrades for myself and Aaron. Not a whole lot happened, but what did was pretty major.

February: I do appreciate your desire to share something funny and/or meaningful. However, I have been on the internet for possibly twice as long as you have, which has given me more time to read the various forwards that are *still* circulating.

March: OMG, I am in such a shitty mood this morning.

April: I was just congratulating myself on getting the first draft of the 2005 LSM brochure done, and remembering to print directions to the corps director’s house, since I’m carpooling up to Saginaw with him tomorrow (instead of my normal carpool buddy).

May: I have decided to try some home recording. To that end, I purchased the Behringer Eurorack UB802 Mixer.

June: I don’t fire up Instant Messenger very often.

July: As I was rifling through a box of old papers the other day, I came across some amusing documentation of college that hadn’t yet made it into a scrapbook…

August: Ugh. I don’t operate well on five hours of sleep.

September: Joel “Lothar” Magnuson, mellophone player with the Kilties Drum & Bugle Corps, tragically passed away this evening after collapsing on the field during the corps’ performance at the Drum Corps Associates’ preliminary competition.

October: The new Lakeshoremen.org is live.

November: The first floor women’s restroom at my work has three stalls. This is not usually a problem, as we don’t all have to go at the same time, so three stalls are sufficient.

December: So, Aaron decided to go on Induction this week, and to step up his daily exercise.

In researching this meme, I have discovered two things: 1.) I write long sentences sometimes; and 2.) I rarely place the thesis sentence of my paragraph at the beginning when I’m telling a story.

Still, that was fun. Any other takers?

I let strangers into our house tonight.

I let them sell me something. I tried to tell them no, but they finally made the offer sound too good.

It’s my debt, though. I’ll pay it off all by myself, and I’ll say it’s a Christmas present to both of us. Aaron’s going to laugh at me, though, and berate me for allowing strangers into our home after dark.

After checking the internet, it looks like I didn’t get jacked all that bad, really. As long as I pay it off faster than the nice salesman financed the thing for.

I still can’t believe I let him sucker me into it, though. Especially after all that deliberation over a camera that I really, really wanted; now I went and let the nice salespeople convince me that I needed something that I really probably didn’t. Something that, overall, cost more than my new camera. WTF.

I need to stop beating myself up over this purchase already. It’s practical. It’ll be worth it in the long run.

Right?

Update, 7 Dec 2005: Aaron hadn’t discovered the new vacuum cleaner by the time the finance people called this morning and ruined the “surprise.” He was going to be offended, he said, if I’d bought him a “demasculating” gift like a vacuum cleaner — but when I explained that it was a present for both of us, he was perfectly OK with it.

When I further explained that the Kirby people had totally suckered me into the purchase, and that I had been worried for the past two days about how he was going to react, he was amused (as I predicted) and assured me that he wasn’t mad (as I also predicted).

Aaron seems to approve of the purchase, as we should never have to buy another vacuum cleaner again. So, Merry Christmas (or Happy Festivus) to us. 🙂