Christmas letter

As a remedy for the bragfest letters your family will be sending you, here's a little something from La Casa de la Overlord. Dear You, 2006 is coming to a close and so I find it's time to sum it up painfully in a month by month letter that no one really wants to read but feels obligated to anyway. January found me trying to write a serial that I only ever posted a few chapters of before the obligation bogged me down and I quit. I quit a lot of things in January. That was the theme. While others were resolving to make their lives better and brighter I wallowed in the failure of never completing anything. Then I threw away all my shoes and unfinished objects and got over myself. In February I resolved to lose some poundage. I lost 10 lbs this year (I gained 12). It was a month of mixed emotion as I finally finished a few projects and then (in an unrelated incident) almost died. Yeah, that blew. March roared in like a lion (as the saying goes), an old friend visited us, I made an adorable stuffed alien for his kid, and much SP goodness was to be had. Oh yeah, and I tricked Tonka into eating marmite flavored crackers. I know some of love that Marmite but for me it's just a great practical joke. The face he made when the swell of flavor rose from the back of his throat (which is where you really start to taste the marmite) was just priceless. I'll treasure the memory always. My birthday rolled around in April, as it seems to do every year around that time, and I was flustered by Crumpets, the pattern from hell. I spent most of the month fighting with it before finally giving up and giving the yarn away. I started my first pair of adult sized socks that month too. May saw me finish my Jaywalkers which I don't think my MIL has ever worn. I also threw Miss Beans a birthday party that she slept through because she was sick. Oh, and I accidently pinched a nerve in my hand that left my thumb numb for well over a month. I did have some success with a really cute Kate variation that Miss Beans actually plays with now and again. Summer vacation came to vex me in June but I coped. I decided to make cloth diapers to help get Miss Beans ready to use the potty embarking on a months long journey into dispair. We had some fun that month taking Darth to his first county faire. My sister graduated from college. I completely fell off of the diet wagon. I slacked off like summer always sees me do. July was a hard month, I found out a good friend from my youth had died of cancer a year before and no one had told me. The diaper making process really got on a roll and I was feeling like I worked in a sweatshop. I dove into cooking and started thinking of going to the local culinary acadamey (see, there are things about me you don't know). I cut off all my hair after growing it out for three years. RTK and I had some troubles but got through. In August I was really ephing busy. I got the diapers finished. I learned to crocet an edging. I gave up and enrolled Darth in the local school's kindergarten even though we were supposed to be moving any second. September was the start of my baby boy's first year of real school. Also I started writing erotica and realized my writing style is more informative than flowery. I dropped the erotica pretty completely by November. October is always one of my favorite months but this year I was pretty down. I cheered myself up with a new tattoo and later elevated my masochism to new heights with cake decorations. I discovered there was a travesty worse than the Overalls of Shame. Last month I started my Christmas projects fully expecting not to finish even half of what I planned but somehow I surprised myself and actually hunkered down and got it ALL done. I'm actually doing a bit of extra now since it's all gravy from here. When all is said and done this year was mostly pretty bad. It was a hard year emotionally and a lot of really bad things happened. I'm glad it's nearly over both literally and figuratively. As Lewis Black said, there really isn't any such thing as years, time is something we made up so it really doesn't matter, it's all basically the same thing over and over. But I'm hopeful that next year is going to be better. I've learned in this year full of crap that I can put up with a lot more than I thought. That I can be more patient. That I can let things go. I generally don't do any of that but I can and next year I'm going to. I've also seen that I can finish what I start and I intend to do more of that. It really won't take much effort to have a better year than 2006 and I'm ready to make a minimal effort! Woo-hoo for minimal effort! Merry Solstichramadahanukwanzaa and a Happy New Year (and a belated one to our Jewish friends), Sarah