Decisions, decisions

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of 2008. We have several options for ringing in the new year:

• Sashay up to Sundance's Tree Room restaurant for their fancy five course New Year's Eve meal at only $110 per person;
• Trip over to Tucano's Brazilian Grill for "an evening of fun, food, music and dancing Brazilian-Style" for just $49.95 per person;
• Visit Village Inn, which will be open all night and features yucky pies and decent food; or
  
• Hold the fort at home, drink Martinelli's till we puke and go to bed at 10.

Hmmmmm.

Had ourselves a merry little Christmas

We spent Christmas this year with Regis' family up in Logan. It was really fun, and went better than I expected: normally I don't sleep well there, what with the air mattress and tons of people in the house with early morning paper routes. But this time I slept well, Abby slept well, and Regis slept well (what a shock), and our special Asian food dinner was tasty and almost all ready at the same time.

We all got lots of nifty presents. I've been enjoying my new clock/iPod player. Regis has already done significant work on the mound of chocolate Santa brought him. Abby's been enjoying her new toys and toothbrush, and I'm excited about her cute new clothes. She already needs a new Sunday dress, which boggles my mind since we just bought her two new ones a couple of months ago. As Regis said, we've been spoiled. She used to wear things for six months or so, but the way she's eating these days we suspect some serious growth is coming.

State Hunting

As I said to Regis a couple days ago, I really don't think I can stand living in Utah much longer. It's just too cold. There are lots of good things about this state, but I can't handle being trapped in my house for at least four months of the year. The problem is, where to go?

So You Think You Can . . .

We did not teach her this. I love it when she comes up with things on her own.

Snow Baby

Abby got really excited when she saw the snow blowing around outside the window today. She and Regis had fun looking out at it, and even stepped outside for a closer look. She seemed so thrilled that we took off her jammies, put her into her brand-new snowsuit, and bounced out the door. The enthusiasm quickly waned: I don't think she was prepared for the chilly wind.

Behold, and believe whaaaat you see . . . Behold how my lover loves me! :)

That's all the text I was going to have, but Regis didn't know the reference (The King and I) so I thought I might explain a little more. This is yarn. Lovely yarn. I'm very excited to make things out of it. Regis bought it for me. Therefore, these are photographs that describe how my husband loves me: he, he himself . . . the GRINCH . . . er, Regis, drove with me ALLLLL the way up to Salt Lake IN THE SNOW just to let me walk around yarn stores and salivate. And then, because he loves me even more than that, he let me buy some expensive yarn made of sheepy wool. He's a good man, that Regis. I love him lots.

Philistine

I don't think Regis appreciates blogging as a productive form of housework. I asked him what I should blog about briefly, to make up for the last two hugely long posts, and he said "Beer." And then he suggested that I go empty the dish rack so he could finish doing the dishes.

I feel so unappreciated.

Waiting for Results

So, there's this commandment that I really struggle with.

I like to think that I'm good with most of the big ten. I mean, I'm not usually really tempted to steal, or adulterate, or covet my neighbor's wife. The commandment I'm talking about is one of those that Jesus thought was really important. I'm still working on "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and I like to think I'm getting better. But my real trouble is with the one like unto it: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Because if I actually do have that one down, my amour propre is in serious danger.

To be fair, I don't hate all of my neighbors. I wouldn't even say that I hate most of my neighbors. But there is one who smokes. And I can't stand him. If he died, my uppermost emotion would be delight.

It's probably not entirely his fault that I feel this way. I think I'm mostly frustrated by my helplessness in this situation. See, I live in an apartment complex. This complex is tyrannized by its homeowner's association (HOA), which so far has proved itself aggravatingly and belligerently inept. We pay a large fee every month for them to flounder around and ignore requests and complaints. Unfortunately, we really don't have any power to change the situation. (Not having to deal with an HOA will be a big selling point wherever I live next.)

So here's the sad tale. The rule is that there is no smoking within 25 feet of any complex structure, including parking structures. I've called to complain probably 15 times since this guy moved in about him smoking by our apartment, in front of our apartment, and next to our parking area. No response. No change. We tried asking him not to smoke near our place, which resulted in us being insulted and sworn at. A real charmer, that one. I've contacted all three members of the HOA presidency and griped. Nothing. This is the point at which I started daydreaming about sniper rifles and "accidentally" running this jerk over. Regis tried again to ask him to stop smoking, and was told that one of the HOA presidency actually said it was ok for the guy to smoke in the complex as long as he kept walking and didn't smoke by any open windows. Yes. I was not pleased.

This morning, I decided to try again. I called the member of the presidency that I'd contacted least, and actually got him on the phone. I checked with him to make sure the rule was actually what I thought it was, and asked why nothing had been done about this guy. He actually listened, was polite, and explained the actions he would take, including fining the smoker and talking to him about it. I was impressed in spite of myself. Poor guy--he probably doesn't realize that he just nominated himself as Complaints Department. Now I'm waiting to see if anything actually happens.