Pink Thoughts

Changed my icon for the season. It's scanned from a card I got a few years ago. I think it describes the sharing of the seasons holidays very well.

I've put up my decorations. I have my Charlie Brown tree (4 foot 19.99 special from Zayres in the 1980's) and my menorah/chanuka collection. I really need to get a new tree, it's definitely tilting. I had to get new lights on Sunday - of the 3 strands I had, two were dead and one 1/2 blinked. Saved the 1/2 blinking one, toss the others (wish I could have freecycled them).

We have 4 menorahs. I have my electric one (the cheap white plastic one, now discolored to ivory - I've had this forever). I also have the one I got in college that takes candles. Last year I added the one Alan made in pre-k that uses gold glittered q-tips for candles and my husband got one for his birthday this year from friends.  I don't light the candle ones - my mother burned the curtain in the kitchen from a menorah fire after I left home and she had to deal with cleaning and insurance to fix things. I also have a few other items including the Fisher Price Chanuka set.

Last Saturday, we had a holiday party with the local mom's (I forgot if I posted about it or not). Alan had a good time. He hit it off with a 3 year old (they were play fighting a bit). Alan's used to younger kids from his classes - and this 3 year old thinks he's 5 like his brother - so I guess they meet in the middle. We put together amazing goody bags for the kids including pillowcases from here (a group member works for them). Alan's was a Diego one.

Sunday was a lazy day - I did get the .AVI file from Bit Torrent to DVD. For some reason, it has no sound (either on the AVI or DVD). But Alan loves the bear's antics. I also got my new DVD player hooked up and want to freecycle the old ones - one works but skips, one just says loading - but maybe someone would like to fix them. (We seem to take more from freecycle than give...would like to fix that.)

Work has been quiet with the reorg. And I have to get back to it.

Lately that's been my motto around the house. Last night I paid my bills and sorted a whole pile of snail mail and receipts. I also managed to write a long overdue complaint letter to Paypal, which resulted in my husband's account being reinstated and my account getting credited for a bad transaction (as a courtesy).

Still need to contact a psychologist for Alan as we still have control issue problems at home - not doing stuff on his own or using the potty for #2. Today he told us he was in time outs for both classes. In one class he took a book away from another student and then when his teacher spoke to him about it pushed the book across the table and hit the other student in the hand.  In his other class he called a classmate a bad name (stupidhead) (I had been worried he'd used a curseword) He's also gotten bossy and talks back to us. Hopefully I'll make those calls tommorrow. (We may just not be doing things the best way to work with him and need the guidance.)

A coworker brought in food for people today - two big trays of Biryani (made with turkey) and another tray of marinated cucumbers and onions. Even though I'm not a big Indian food fan, it was pretty good.

Stil figuring out the new matrix management structure at work. Not sure if it's bad or good in the long run.

Wrapped the presents I bought for the charity gifts through my office. The organization my co-workers work with (Stockings With Care) collects gifts for children in homeless shelters. There are 3 gifts for each child, which are given to the parents to give as they please. I chose a little 5 year old girl who asked for "Pretend n Play" cooking set, "Pretend n Play" dishes and "Pretend n Play" lunch food. I got cute stuff @ Target and CVS - but I think the ones asked for were from KB Toys - but I am sure she'll be happy just the same - the food I got had 117 pieces and I got Disney Princess dishes. Some of the older children ask for more elaborate things like Mp3 players and cameras (I think digital). I'm not sure those are good things to have in a shelter or even if they have easy computer access to use them.

I looked at the long range forecast for next week - it might snow. I'd like a little snow (I may regret this later).