Happy New Year!

I am safely back at home. So much to say, with very few coherent brain cells available! Let’s see – after getting *plenty*, if not more than enough sleep over the two nights in Palm Desert – I think I’ve had maybe 8 TOTAL over the past 72 hours. So please forgive the unorganized spewing of thoughts that shall occur!

Before leaving for Oxnard, I’d had a follow up mammogram appt for some calcifications detected on the left side during the first picture show. I guess the new machines pick up much more detail than ever. The second set of films were inconclusive though so a needle biopsy will be done this month. These things are typically nothing, but also naturally something to check out. Fine. This is why I have done those 3-day walks, right? So that we have the technology to see and check out everything unusual.

Oxnard – man oh man, I have not worked so hard in a long time! 4 of us working to install crown moulding in two houses over 3 days. My gawd! How insane was that? Well – insane enough to mean no sleep lemme just say that! More reason to be thankful for those 3-day walks – my mental ability to just keep plugging along is pretty fine tuned. What made things hard for me personally was the resurgence of a cold that I thought I had fought off before Christmas. No voice loss this time, but lots of sneezing, stuffiness and coughing. Ugh! My task was to do the touch up painting once the boards were hung and the caulking of seams and cracks was completed. Up and down the ladder. A lot. Thankfully these houses are very new and the owner’s are very clean so there was not a lot of dust or creepy crawly creatures. Obviously I was without any time to get on the internet or take any photos as all we did was work. However, I did have fun yesterday watching football on a couple of gorgeous HD TV sets. Omigosh how clear and amazing was that! Now we cannot wait to get it installed here (my b-day present from M is a wall mounted HD LCD set).
Anyway, the real reason I went was to help out M and spend time with him. It was worth it. We had some good conversations while working together when he was not in stress mode. It kind of feels good to work on a project like that where you see the results and push yourself mentally and physically. Very exhilarating – though exhausting too! I am so going to appreciate my nice office space tomorrow! Both boys called me last night. A is in Hawaii until the 4th and is apparently swimming a lot. He was barely awake at midnight my time! N called me in tears unfortunately has his GF dumped him 😦 Even though he knew it was not something that would last forever, it was his first long term adult relationship and naturally the end of it hurts. It was not totally unexpected, but he did push the issue which is why she confirmed her intentions last night. So I know he will be moping about here a lot for a bit.
Anyhow, since I was not home, the decorations are still up though I did unplug everything. I’ll get that done this weekend. Or maybe spend my birthday doing that! Given how pooped I am and still coughing, I may just go in to work tomorrow and bust through as much as possible and then take off on the 3rd. The University gives us an annual “floating holiday” to take our birthday off (or a random day if the day itself falls on a weekend).
Blah! OK, eyes are bleary now. Oh – resolutions for ’07 were formulated while I painted. I will use my birthday to deal with that topic.