2003-12-24 1:32 p.m.

Pat, Mo, Netty - I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Thank ya'll so much for my Christmas cards, especially since I've been beyond slack about keeping in touch lately & couldn't even begin to tell you where the Christmas cards I bought are. I hope you guys have an amazing Christmas filled with Love, Laughter, and of course Music!

*******

Now, the vacation - that was two weeks ago. How behind am I? Yeah, very.

North Carolina was wonderful. It was the best 8 days I've had in a long long time. Drive to LAX, easy. 15 mintues to check in & get through security (why I didn't go at christmas). Then I had all three seats to myself on the plane, so I laid down and slept!

I had no problems at Alamo & got a brand new Grand Am for the week. It had 138 miles on it when I got in. It had 1,157 on it when I took it back :-)

My niece is beyond adorable. I spent much time during the week taking pictures of Ally & Noah (the new baby). I'm in the process of updating my pbase account now.

Sunday was Church, the lunch at Grandmas, babysitting Ally & Noah, then sleep. Monday I spent all day with the babies :-) I watched much Dora the Explorer & Blue's Clues.

Tuesday started my visiting schedule. I had lunch in Charlotte with a Marriott guy to scope out the job situation in the mid-atlantic region. Then Tuesday night I had dinner with friends - Tim & Maria.

Wednesday I drove up to Raliegh to have lunch with Mark. Then I drove back through Burlington to try and find some knee high brown boots with a thin heel. I had no luck there & had to go into Greensboro. Yay for new boots!!!

Wednesday night I went to Dusti's and she had made chicken potpie. Nice :-) We spent much time just talking and hanging out. Very Cool.

Thursday AM, breakfast with Tim, another friend from high school. Then it was off to Charlotte to do all of my Christmas shopping. Yay for being able to do Christmas shopping mid-day on a Thursday.

Thursday night - DATE!!! no details here, other than to say I was pleased with how it went. Details will be forthcoming the my 3 bestest Pella Pals ;-)

Friday - SLEEP!!! and more quality time with Ally and Noah. Mom and Dad came in Friday night so we chilled and ate.

Saturday morning I had some sad stuff to take care of. Dad took me to Lowes and we got patio liner (stone) for me to do some work on Chassie's grave. I had gotten a head stone Thursday at Pet-Smart. Then we went and cleaned her grave up, put in the liners and then I cried for about 30 minutes. I miss Chassie :-( Morbid though it may seem, I'm going to add a picture of the gravesite to her pbase photos.

Saturday afternoon I drove around Stanly County doing more landscape shots. Some tobacco barns and an old house. And Saturday night was more family time.

Sunday morning we had our Christmas. I had gotten Ally a toy camara since she'd seen me using mine all week and was all about using it :-) Also I got her some Disney DVDs. I guess I wasn't too naughty this year because Santa was good to me too :-) Lots of clothes and money. Plus my sister always hooks me up with Estee Lauder stuff I usually don't buy because it's expensive.

Then we went to church and Grandmas. Chicken and Dumplins. YUM is not a big enough word to describe how much I love my Grandma's C&D!! Awesome.

My flight was delayed out of Charlotte so I had an extra hour to hang out with Dusti. I guess it's lucky for me that Ally was taking her nap when it was time for me to leave, because I was the one crying like a baby.

Bouncy flight home, but I had all three seats again and did manange to get some sleep.

*****

post vacation:

work, work & then more work. Friday we had an office outing and went up to Julian. Hopefully I'll have those pictures soon.

Then Saturday I went and got Roshi & My joint Christmas prestent - a 2nd Dog!! :-) His name is Randy. They were calling him something else at the shelter - which I can't spell or pronounce - and I knew I'd change it when I assessed his personality. I took Roshi with me so she could meet the potentials, but I knew it would be Randy the second I met him. When he met Roshi, he sniffed, then right away tried to hump her. She didn't know what to do with that. Seems he was just fixed about 2 weeks ago & still has quite the urge. As I was watching him, a Spike scene from season 6 popped into my head: Spike: "made with care for Randy..... Randy Giles? You named me Randy Giles? Why not just call me Horney Giles or Desperate for a Shag Giles?" Rupert: "Randy's a family name, undoubtedly."

So my new dog's name is Randy :-) Again, photos soon.

I guess that's about it. Hopefull I'll get all my p-base stuff updated today, then Turkey tomorrow and back to work on Friday.