Monday, November 26, 2007

First Volley

I've sent the first volley of Christmas letters. I'm not doing it in the usual way this year and I can already see the error of my way, but - too late now - I'll just have to make do because I'm not going to reprint the envelopes.

Yes, I print the envelopes. I know - it's not as personal. But I send about 300 cards each year and stopped hand addressing them some years ago. I just can't quite work that into my world anymore.

Well, I suppose I could, but I run my life with a constant ROI assessment going, and that is just not something I'm getting a good return on investment with. Investment can be time or energy or money - and in this case it's time. Although when I'm fighting with the printer I'm not sure that's exactly true. I desperately want a printer that will actually print a stack of envelopes without jamming constantly. I've never seen one. My $80 printer does as good a job of it as the $1800 one I used to use at work.  They both suck at it.

Julie is coming over tomorrow night to work on cards so hopefully I'll finish the majority of them then. Of course, there will be a few dozen more that I need to update addresses for, or that got eaten in the printer and I need to redo, or that I had the wrong code in the computer for and will only catch when I go through it again. I try desperately to not miss someone and sometimes do. It's never intentional - just an accident that happens when someone who's not good with details is juggling this much detail.


End of the Weekend

Well, the weekend has ended - it's now officially Monday. I could use one more weekend day. My tree is almost finished. I've got maybe another hour on it and it will be done. I think this is becoming a bit ridiculous - the number of hours I spend on the tree. So, who knows, maybe this will be the last mega-tree I do for awhile. Of course, it's entirely possible that next year I'll be just as enthused about it as usual and do it all over again. It does take many, many. many hours to assemble it. But it's so darned pretty and sparkly when it's done.

Tomorrow I will finish the tree and start doing some of the other decorating - and the cleaning. By this time next week the homes tour will be over. Obviously, getting the house done is a necessity. I also need to bake for the refreshments. It will be a busy week.

I have so enjoyed the last few days of just being still. I have barely left the house for the last four days. Yesterday I went to Roys and did a couple of errands. Friday I did the early morning shopping and then ran to the post office to ask a question in the afternoon. Today I went out on the porch and hung a wreath on the door. I haven't even been in the yard. I needed some days like that.

But, I'm ready to rejoin the world tomorrow. I'm starting to want to see friends for lunch and dinner again. And I've eaten most of the leftovers from the cooking I've done the last few days, so the timing on that works out well. By and large I think I still need some quiet time, but some excursions to interact with the world will be good.