Probably more than anyone needs to know...

OK... so wow... I haven't posted (or read) LJ since mid December... and that was just to grumble about the fact that Winterfest was no-more. So really, I've been out of the loop for almost three months now...
Work has been so busy for me since November... and being that the only time I really read/update LJ is during work hours: hence why I've been out of touch... Here's a quick recap of the last three months:

Work: very busy times... creating huge updates / redesigns to my web time/project tracking system... no time to breath really...
We moved to a new building in mid-December. The new place is really nice. Commute increased from 1-mile/5-minutes to 7-miles/20-minutes. *sigh* Oh well... It was "rough" at first... but totally used to it now and seriously, it's nothing to grumble about.

Thanksgiving was nice... my sister hosted and Barry and I helped with cooking and all.

Holiday Party with labelsdc at the start of December was fun.

Got our new living room furniture... HUGE set, but really nice.

Got a real Xmas tree on Dec 9th... Was so nice to go "tree hunting" at the farm and actually saw the tree down myself. Marea and Chris joined me and housemates Ken & Don for the hunt. Marea and Chris also got their tree. It was nice... only thing that would have made it better would have been some snow on the ground and Barry to be there with us.
(Pictures of tree and living room to follow shortly.)

That night, had a good time at Bill & Jerry's annual wine-tasting party. Got snookered. :)

Annual tree-trimming party at Brian's was fun... drink a beer and hang it on the tree. What a great concept... my only concern is: after a few weeks, does the tree start to smell of rotten beer?

Got to visit campground on the 16th... weren't going to do any parties that night, but then decided at last minute to stay at hotel with Ken & Don and go to Pat's Holiday Party. Was fun... drank a lot... The next morning, our drive home wasn't so "fun"... but we made it and recovered over the next two days. :)

Christmas gift shopping went rather well... Barry and I got out several nights and managed to get everything we wanted to get. Spent one evening at Tara's getting some pearls for several of the girls on our lists (family/friends). (I helped her with her website... check it out: Perennial Designs Jewelry.)

Fantasy Football: I lost... darn... so close though... I was doing well, then really bad... then I started to do better... but it was too late... *sigh* Oh well... at least the dinner and cooking part was all done on one night and was rather fun... Todd's new house was really nice and got to play "Wii" as well, which was interesting/fun.

Christmas was very nice... I went to my traditional dinner at Grandmother N's house. That was nice to do... Barry didn't go, as we still aren't technically "out" with that side of the family yet... but I have a feeling that won't be the case for much longer... Barry's been included on my parent's xmas-card-letter for the last two years. And was in the picture they sent to all the family too this year. :) Christmas morning was at my sister's house... she being pregnant (due in March), she didn't want to travel, so all of the family (including my brother) came to her. It was such a nice day: three hours of present opening -- we take turns and really cherish each gift. Took a breakfast intermission to eat "Cheese Strata" that Barry and I made (YUM, new tradition?)... I spent the most of the day putting together my nephew's "Kenex Roller Coaster" -- It was like a big puzzle or like playing with an erector set or legos... FUN!
(Speaking of Christmas Card Letters: Once again I did not send any cards this year... I'm such a slacker... this is the second year in a row without sending any letters... *grrr* I'm so mad at myself... and yet, have I done anything to correct the situation? no... *sigh*)

New Years: Barry and I went to spend the weekend with Frank & David (our neighbors at The Woods). It was such a fun weekend. They hosted us in their beautiful house in NJ. They drove us into New York on Saturday evening... we drove around in their convertible (through China Town and Little Italy, top-down, freezing weather, bundled-up in blankets and earmuffs, playing loud music, people looking at us like we were a bunch of fags out on the town... which we totally were... it was so much fun!)... then we walked around the village and had some drinks... the two of them are very familiar with the gay bars and places to go/see in the city, so I felt very comfortable and it was SO NICE to be in the city again. (Oh how I've missed the city...) We went to see "Drowsy Chaperone" on Broadway and had front-row mezz seats... it was AWESOME! Then went back to the village to hang out and drink until wee-hours of the morning... and flirt with a bunch of cuties...
Sunday (New Years Eve), we slept in and then helped them prepare for their dinner party that night... they hosted a "murder mystery" party. I was "Mary Kay Eternity" -- in drag, I was the wife of Barry (who played "Jim Bob Eternity") -- we were a TV-evangelist-couple from the south (think Tammy Fae Baker)... very fun... wonderful dinner and lots of champagne...
The following day we recovered from our hangovers and just lounged around.
(Pictures of this also to follow soon...)

January was pretty uneventful... just lots of work, rolling out my system changes to the department, including training all 140 associates in the enhancements.

Barry and I got an SUV (replacing his car) on Jan 24... We got a Toyota FJ Cruiser. It's SO awesome... We totally love it. 4WD and high-clearance... it's going to be so cool to have for the summer going up to camp... and for the winter snow... and just in general it's so cool... :)

Last week (Jan 27 - Feb 3), Barry and I went to Breckenridge, Colorado with a big skiing group. Being that I've always wanted to go skiing out-West... when Matt and Tara suggested that we go with this group that they have gone with a couple times in the past, I jumped at the chance. Barry was looking forward to just getting-away for the week even though he doesn't ski, he figured he could sit in the condo by the fire and relax. It was a great week away from things and I got some good skiing in. At first I was disappointed at the conditions, but then we got about a foot of snow on Wednesday and we went to Vail that day... it was the most amazing riding I've ever done (I'm a snowboarder)... That's what I went out-west expecting. It was great. Barry hurt his knee on the first day, which made it difficult for him to enjoy his time, but we managed to go out around the town one day and go out to eat a couple times. He also cooked a big spaghetti dinner for a group of 10 of us the one night. All-in-all it was a fun time. I'm not sure if I would go out-West for skiing again and may just stick to Vermont for my "big snow"... but who knows... perhaps another ski trip is in my future.

Back to work today... and it's actually been a rather slow day... I caught up on my emails, and thankfully nothing pressing or urgent came-up while I was away. Nothing was planned for today so that I could use the day to catch-up... so I actually had some time to post this. YEAH!

One final note: Barry left his job this afternoon... they really dicked him over -- for the last time! I'm so glad he walked... They gave him a bad annual review... and he works SO DAMN hard for them... they had no right to do that. He stood his ground and told them it was unacceptable to get that kind of rating. They really dicked him over about a raise and promotion several months ago... and things have been going so bad for him there since then... and I've told him several times that the stress of that place isn't worth it... But he kept giving them his best and giving them more chances... today was the final straw, and I'm glad he stood his ground... it's the principle of the whole thing... he handed them an immediate resignation and walked out. On one hand, yes, I'm nervous... with only one salary we're going to have to tighten our belts a little and live a bit less extravagantly... but on the other hand, I'm really happy because perhaps it's a blessing in disguise... A chance for him to start new and fresh somewhere and not have this horrible stress that place was giving him. And also... haven't you always wanted to say "take this job and shove it"? Imagine: he actually got to do that today. *cool*

So that's a wrap-up of the last three months... ending on a pretty big note...
Over the next couple days I'll catch-up on some of my LJ friend's journals... so don't be surprised if you get a response to a post from months ago. :)
*hugs everyone*

Christmas Eve was spent wrapping gifts all day... Barry worked on putting the Bowflex together. (or "Blowfex" as we call it now because of how hard it was to put together. I could hear cursing and banging coming from the room... so I stayed far out of Barry's way while he worked on it.) I ran and did a tiny bit of last-minute shopping too... but not much.

Christmas Eve evening we went to Barry's mom's house for a gathering there. Ken and Don went with us... met some more of Barry's family (aunts/uncles) that I had never met before and everyone ate, drank, and was merry. It was very nice... she had a big buffet spread of all kinds of foods and we drank and played liar's dice late into the evening. I even got a gift from his mom... I didn't expect anything... it was very sweet of her. It was a very different "Christmas Eve" dinner than I'm used too... I grew up with a traditional Polish / Catholic dinner at Grandmom's (no meat: fish, potatoes, & pierogies) followed by midnight mass. Quite different, eh? LOL!

After we all had plenty of Christmas "cheer" (aka Barry was in no shape to drive), Ken, Don, Barry, and I went to Diamonz on our way home to toast to Christmas. We got there at 11:55 and they closed at Midnight... luckily Barry knew the bartender and sweet-talked him into letting us get one round. (I tipped him well... :) Then we came home and all exchanged gifts. It was fun... unwrapped each other too -- a little teasing / flirting going on -- nothing "happened", just fun. Finally all passed out into bed around 2 or so. (New icon is from a picture we took that night... "me as drunk santa" I think I'll call it.)

Christmas morning I awoke at 7:30ish eager to get to my sister's to open presents. Barry wasn't moving though and was grumpy... I tried to be very gentle (figuring he had a hangover) but he wouldn't budge. I was afraid Christmas was going to be cancelled... but he finally started moving when my sister called at 8:45 to see where we were. We finally made it over at about 10:30... my poor sister and mom -- I'm sure it was just eating them up that they had to wait so long to open gifts. *giggle* *sigh*

Gift exchange with my family was great -- lots and lots of presents all around. We have a tradition of going around one gift at a time, youngest to oldest. It takes a lot of time, but lets everyone enjoy the gifts. I don't remember all the gifts... the first few that come to mind: a power-hand-sander, omaha steaks, phaltzgraff dishes, and madonna's new CD. I think Barry was a little shocked at how many gifts he had... I had warned him that my mom and dad make sure that everyone has an equal amount of gifts (so no one gets jealous). :)

After the gift exchange, we sat around and played with our new toys... including setting up my mom's portable printer that we got her. Then we watched a movie and almost fell asleep on the couch when Chris' parents arrived and there was another round of gifts, then my Aunt Maureen arrived and there was another round of gifts. Then we all ate huge dinner of lasagna, ham, mac-and-cheese, potatoes, etc. Yum! Followed by desert. Barry and I barely were able to roll out the door after all that... but managed to make our way home to collapse.

Quite a holiday it was! And although the major holiday stuff is over, there still seems to be a lot to do -- mainly getting the house ready now that we will be able to concentrate on it. Monday, Barry spent the entire day with the Blowfex and almost got it all together. I went shopping with Ken to find a "pantry" for our kitchen so that Barry and I can get food... we also got some shelves for the closet and other things for the house... I think that within the next two weeks we are really going to be able to concentrate on getting this house "unpacked"... Which we really need to do, since the 14th is the big party. A quick glance at the calendar shows nothing for the next two weeks -- so that's a good thing... Barry and I need to calm down a bit and really spend some time on "us".

This morning, Chubby arrived and started work on the basement bathroom. He's down there now banging and sawing away. I can't wait for that to be done... Don't know what we're going to do with all the stuff in the house... but things are getting there slowly. It'll be great once the bathroom is finished so we have one less thing to worry about... at least we don't have to actually do any "work" to build the bathroom.