Friday-9:45am

Good Morning!

Good Morning!

Even though these dawns aren't today's...

...and a solid light gray sky... 

...greeted me this morning... 

...I've got Christmas music on Pandora (Judy Garland is singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas as we speak) and lots to show you!  So, grab a cup and maybe a Christmas cookie... ;)

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Okay--Dagan and Leah were coming over Wednesday night.  I had been working quite constantly on the Christmas cards Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (they always take longer and need more steps than you think--LOL!) and I got this far before D&L arrived Wednesday evening and my back took up official protest.  ;)

Got all the fronts trimmed, layered, and taped down.  Used the ATG gun (pink contraption on the table above that has hardly been touched since I purchased it because it has somehow always befuddled me)... 

...until I ran out of tape rolls (over 2 1/2 of them) and then went back to the familiar Scrappy Tape.  The spiraling empty roll scraps were great fun for Miss Karma, BTW.  Thank goodness for youtube or I would never have figured out how to reload this pink contraption--LOL!

I guess I do have the basic hang of the ATG gun now--but, because of a lack of consistency (probably on my part), it remains one of those tools that will forever cause little shudders through the OCD side of my brain--ROFL!  ;)

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I also had all the sentiments taped to the red card stock, but they all still needed the next step (tape on the red back) so they could be attached to the inside of the card like this. 

We ordered Chinese (love fried rice!).  Leah worked on adding Scrappy Tape to the sentiments .  I was too sore to even sit very long at the craft table (or anywhere) by that evening--but so excited to have gotten that close to being done!   

Christmas music while card-making has the same effect on me as Born to Be Wild does to my foot on the gas pedal while driving on the freeway. 

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Dagan was helping me figure out the tablet he gave me.  

Yes--confession--I was quite lost, my gmail was even jumbled beyond recognition, and so I hadn't been using it.  Now I even have some games on it and may figure this tablet out yet--LOL!

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And Dagan brought another computer to set up with this alien system I have for my TV.  ;)  I had a medium sized black box before and now I have a black tower tucked behind the screen there.  Had to shift things around, but he got everything connected.  (Take note of tiny lights wrapped around the floor lamp--story to follow.)  

There was a lot left that Dagan had to do to get everything coordinated but it was getting late and they wanted to go home.  Leah got most of the sentiments ready to tape inside.  She could take her cards with her and I could finish mine up--no problem.  

I still had no TV because the programs were taking forever to load.  So Dagan set it up so that he could finish up remotely at home.  (What a world, eh?)  And with a final phone call to guide me through the clicking...by 11:45pm I had TV again!

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The really funny part about it is--remember when they went through the junk drawer box for me?  Well, this one specific cord they put in the give-away pile (that is long gone now, of course) I now need in order for me to have sound on my TV--LOL!  Murphy's law, right?  Until Dagan can get one my sound is coming through the tower, I believe, and not the TV. I have no control over it whatsoever.  It's a little tinny, can't adjust the volume, and I have to pass on low-volume shows (especially while running the dishwasher), but hopefully Dagan will have another cord by the time they come next week.  :)  

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I am just so happy to have TV!  I can record again--and--I didn't lose any of my previous recordings because they were stored on an even smaller box back there that is the hard drive?  I don't know what all these things are back here...

...but I'll be glad when it's all back to what I'm used to--LOL!
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And, yes--I am one of the few people who still has a VCR that I do use on occasion.  Heck, I have a drawer of cassettes and a boom box!  ;)

I discovered last night while I was watching Netflix streaming that every ten minutes--like clockwork--the TV will say there is no signal and the screen goes black.  But I never lose the sound--LOL!  I just have to wiggle the mouse for a while to get the picture to come back.  The pre-recorded shows worked fine.  I'll have to relay that information to tech support, eh?  Better email Dagan today.  ;)
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Oh, and I finally have a little steam humidifier!! 

Karma was delighted, too.

I literally stuck it in the middle of the living room yesterday--on high!  Ahhhh!

I think both of us were breathing easier after a few hours.

I moved it into the bedroom last night and really slept well!!  Woke up--no little bloody nose and sore throat...ahhh!  Karma will probably quit scratching her dry skin, too.  Nice!!  It's the little things in life.  :):)
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Okay--yesterday FedEx said I had a package.  I wasn't expecting anything to come via FedEx??  He delivered a big box that obviously had a Christmas wreath inside!!
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At first I thought this was somebody's idea of a sweet joke--you know, because of the neighbors and me just posting about them finally replacing their dead brown wreath after Thanksgiving, right?
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But then I saw this on the side of the box.

Mickman Brothers?  
That's John from high school!  
??

Yup!  We recently had our 45th reunion and, of course, I couldn't make it back down to Minneapolis.

How sweet!
Don't get the wrong idea, folks.  John's very happily married with a beautiful family.  I talked to him once since graduation...think it was the 25-year reunion that he attended.  We have had reunions every five years and I went to every one of them until they got too expensive for me that one year they did the cruise on the Mississippi...whichever reunion that was.  (30th?)  I remember I was living in Wisconsin at the time.  
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Anyways, at the reunion I confessed to him that I had such a crush on him junior year when I was fifteen.  He's a really sweet guy and we did go on one date way back then.  I'll have to tell you about that next time because I've had a heck of a time writing this post--pictures that wouldn't load--once the whole blogger program froze up & I had to reboot--and, with breaks, now it is going on 1pm--LOL!  Anyways, it was nothing risque.  Innocent days of youth.  :)
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Oh, and look what's on the inside of their company Christmas card.  I think this is such a marvelous action to take!  For every wreath they sell they plant an evergreen tree in the forest.  Awesome!!  What did I tell you!  Good people!   

I most selfishly did not hang it facing the hallway.  

I wanted to be able to look at this gorgeous wreath myself, right?  LOL!

And the tiny lights--well, they were in the box for the wreath, too.  But I wrapped them around the floor lamp instead.  I was too sore to do anything else with them yesterday--but I wanted to see them blinking.  I can also have them on with no blinking...which reminds me of my dad--LOL!  He always complained about the blinking lights on the tree.  I'm not sure if he really was annoyed by the actual blinking or he hated having to replace those blinker lights so frequently because we had them on day and night if we could get away with it--hehe!
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All I finished yesterday was putting the last of the Scrapy Tape on the backs of the sentiments.  See--my table really is messier if I am too tired and/or sore to straighten up.  ;) 

I'm going to see if I can get to finishing the cards and addressing envelopes today.  The heating pad and I have been best friends since yesterday...so maybe.  Regardless, with patience and perseverance, I am hoping to have at least the majority of them in the mail on Monday.  I can write out envelopes in my chair here, so that's a plus.  If Karma doesn't push her way into the middle of my lapdesk demanding cuddle time, of course.  (Funny how much cuddlier she gets when it is cold--LOL!)
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If you made it all the way to the end--give yourself a star!!  :):)
Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!  (Yes, Burl Ives is singing to me up here in Fargo.)
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“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” 
Laura Ingalls Wilder