Notes

Our holiday party was both successful and a bit of a let down. We had more people than normal -- about twenty -- but many of them arrived and left all at once, so there wasn't the lingering sense of 'celebration'. Doesn't matter, we're glad we did it. And next year, when we make the invitations, we'll check to ensure that the day on the invitation is the same as the date on the invitation.

Also next year, we're going to do more decorating. Not as much as our friend, whose home amazed us, but still: one or two slender artificial trees, more tinsel and ornaments throughout the house. And we'll explore ways to decommercialize the Event, while still reveling in it.

I've started thinking about retirement -- not in the 'won't it be nice to chuck this' (though I still do that) mode, but thinking 'what do I want to do' (photography, bake, mentor, more or less formally, with preteen and early teen kids, encourage girls to grow outside the commercial box, work for a local political organization), 'what financial assumptions have we made and are they valid, what haven't we thought of'. To that end, we picked up a copy of The Number.

The guinea pig is, on the plus side, eating somewhat; on the decidedly minus, it's now blind in one eye; the result of a ruptured cornea, itself the result of ... something. Possibly the infection, possibly a tumor behind the eye. We don't know if we're past the worst part or heading toward it. At this point, we're really reaching for a Good Sign.

Happy double oh seven, y'all.