It's down. After moaning and groaning about putting up the Christmas tree I enjoted it so much I didn't want to take it down. But yesterday I bit the bullet and dismantled it. It's back in its box waiting for the Big Scary guy to take it and the ornaments to the garage. The family room looks a bit bare but tidier. So it's goodbye for eleven months. That doesn't sound like a very long time--I'd better think about starting my shopping! (I really like to shop throughout the year when I find appropriate gifts for the people on my list.)

Speaking of Christmas gifts, I had given Tom tickets to the Carousel Dinner Theater in Akron. They were for Saturday, January 19 which also is his birthday; (he's fifty one-derful.) We headed out but the further west we went the worse the weather got. By the time we reached Geneva the visibility was nearly zero. It was horrible. We decided we'd rather not be killed in an attempt to get there so we reluctantly turned around and headed back on Route 20, rather than hazarding the interstate any longer. We finally decided to salvage the weekend the best we could by staying at the Hampton Inn in Austinburg. We ordered food from Covered Bridge Pizza and just relaxed. It was nice but not what I'd planned. So the way I see it, I still owe him a Christmas present.

We have tickets for a Cavs game in March, courtesy of Plastpro; I sure hope we have more success then than we did Saturday.

I bought Tom a really neat birthday present, one he wasn't able to guess ahead of time. I'm finally becoming more devious apparently. While reading Smithsonian early in January I found an ad for a watch made in such a way you can see the gears in the thing. He loves timepieces and I knew he would love this one. I was right!! Plus, he was totally floored. As we say at our house, "I done good." It makes me happy to do things that please him.

Today I'm finishing painting Tommy's room. Since I get paint all over me I do it only on days I don't have to work. Tuesday is my day off so painting was the only thing on the agenda. I decided to take a break to check the email and blogs, so it's not quite done yet. Almost, though. Let the record show, I hate painting, so I listen to DVDs or Rush Limbaugh and the work goes quickly. I'm not cooking, either. We're having 599-5600 for supper.