Grover and I stayed up to watch the ball drop to usher in 2007. We lit some sparklers to pass the time until midnight, but that was short-lived since it was starting to rain. We also watched Green Bay pound da Bears, but Grover bored with that quickly. Her favorite part of the evening was watching 3 consecutive episodes of Ace of Cakes on Food Network. (She's weird like that.)



Happy New Year, Y'all!

Forget the cockroach afterlife, karma already got me. In fact, karma pretty much kicked my ass. My utter defiance of holiday spirit on Christmas Eve was rewarded/punished with a vicious stomach virus. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that I didn't eat for three days and didn't stray far from the bathroom for the same amount of time. The good news? I lost 3 pounds.

Well, either the fish buying clearly wasn't a result of Christmas spirit or it used all the Christmas spirit I had because by the time I went to the supermarket Sunday afternoon, I was completely devoid of any glad tidings whatsoever. Naturally, I waited until the last minute (Saturday) to make my Christmas cutout cookies and past the last minute (Sunday) to actually decorate them. Even more naturally, I didn't have a sufficient quantity of powdered sugar to make the icing so I had to make a run to the grocery store. It was a madhouse. Evidently, I had not cornered the market on last-minute shopping. I grumbled but waited patiently with my turn signal on to get into a parking space that was within a reasonable walking distance and just as I was pulling in, a woman in a truck pulled in through the parking space on the other side. I was SO pissed off. Like, what was wrong with the parking space she had to drive through to take mine??? I glared at her and called her an unkind name loudly through my open window as I peeled away to find another spot. She stayed in her car and pretended to look at something extremely interesting on the center console while I walked toward the store (I know this because I continued to glare at her as I walked). Maybe she was afraid of what else I might say or do, as well she should have been. Hey, Santa don't bring me no presents - I can be as naughty as I want! Karma, however, will probably bring me back as a cockroach.

I don't know if it was the spirit of Christmas or just plain clinical insanity, but Sunday I bought Grover a fish. Why? I don't know. We went to the pet store to buy Wondermutt a Christmas present and the girls wanted to look at the fish, hamsters, birds, etc. While we were standing in front of the goldfish tank, some uncontrollable force prompted me to say "Hey, you guys want a fish?". And of course, once it was out there, I couldn't take it back. Especially on Christmas Eve. I should have "SUCKER" tattooed in bright red on my forehead. Anyway, we got a white Comet Goldfish, a fish tank kit and some rawhide toys and headed home. The fish tank was properly prepared and the fish (thusly named "Comet", duh...) was thrust into his new home. Comet was the most exciting thing ever - including the 9000 gifts that were opened the next day - and the girls could hardly contain themselves. It was cute. Every 5 minutes, we'd hear "Let's go check on Comet!" and Grover and Ollie would go rushing up the stairs. They told everyone who called on the phone about their new pet and dragged my parents upstairs to see it when they arrived Christmas day. Who knew a little white fish could make a child so happy?

Who also knew Comet would go to the Big Goldfish Bowl in the Sky three days later?

Yep, back to the pet store today (they have a 14-day guarantee). We now have an orange Comet Goldfish named Rudolph.

(Thanks, National Geographic)