Well, 2000 started off (literally) with the worst case of flu I’ve ever had. Mr. Anachi had a nearly-fatal heart attack. Both of my parents passed away. My thyroid passed away. BUT, I had a lovely vacation in Italy that I will never forget spurring me to plan yet more trips. We put in our cement pond. And Isa (chihuahua) helped me fail Dog Foster 101.
It is gawdawful cold here this morning and we are supposed to have lows below freezing all week. Time to took at real estate in Belize.
yawn
Caffeinating. Woke up late because I forgot to reset my alarms after having them turned off for the 4-day weekend, 'cos I desperately needed to ring in the new year with enough sleep to survive it. Fortunately everyone’s cool here, if we’re late occasionally no one bitches and moans, shit happens, it’s all good.
Got to work and learned we’re carrying a new but small product line of tie-down and support straps for recreational vehicles. That in and of itself is about as mundane as it gets, but as a marketing point on the back of the catalog, it says:
Aside from their irksome use of “emphasis,” evidently there was an actual need for a governing body to have created written regulations with the force of law to ensure that the hooks holding boats being transported in an out of the water are designed to such exacting specifications that they not come lose.
Damn bureaucratic spoilsports. Next thing you know, they’ll be demanding that boats not have the front fall off.
MinDude don’t know about you, but I’d prefer the front of any boat I might happen to be on not fall off. 
It’s cold! I already mentioned that didn’t I? I don’t have anything that I really need to do today that involves leavin’ da cave, so Ima stay inside. Sloth is a good thing, right?
Happy belated New Year, everybody! 
I’ve been laying low the last few days - sleeping in, curling up with a book, doing some knitting, and trying out a few new recipes. After all that lazing around, waking up this morning was not pleasant.
Let’s see… in 2000, I was just finishing up my university degree, living in a teensy subterranean 1 bedroom with First Love (who I fully expected to marry someday and have kids with), working a crappy retail job for a crappy salary, and really not sure what the heck I wanted to be when I grew up. I liked to think I was a grown up, but looking back on it, I was still a kid in all the ways that counted.
In the ten years since, First Love and I broke up (he met an Aussie girl who’s now his fiance, and moved to Oz to be with her), and I met The Boy after a few disastrous and not-so-disastrous relationships. We bought a pretty little house in the same neighbourhood I grew up in, and are quite happily settled in with our two cats. I got out of retail and somehow stumbled my way into telecom, where I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up (or at least for the next 10-15 years).
Things are good. I’m not sure if I’m a grown up yet, though.
Oh, and it still blows my mind to think that my piddly little iPhone could totally whup my year 2000 computer’s ass in a cage match without breaking a sweat, that TVs are now thin enough to hang on your wall, and that you can actually receive email on your phone now. My friends, we really do live in the future.
The last decade has flown by! At the beginning of 2000, our son was a year and a half and our daughter was six months old. She had just learned to sit up and he was almost walking.
We’ve moved from Mississippi to Kentucky and back. They saw their first snowfall in Kentucky. Our son started kindergarten in Kentucky, but was only there for two weeks, and it was a good thing. I have seen him blossom from shy wallflower to an incredible young man. Our daughter is growing up entirely too fast: she’s never been a shy one, especially if you get her talking about animals.
Our children got to spend time with their grandfather before he passed. Our daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and my husband with type 2. We went from knowing nothing about type 1 to insulin shots, carb counting, and then the insulin pump. I have a fantastic job, and my husband takes care of his mom full time. After years of searching, we’re back in church, and it’s one where we feel needed and they actually like us. That’s a good thing.
Now, on to the next 10 years!
Despite all the doom-n-gloom that I’ve been hearing about in the decade review pieces on tv and the radio, the “aughts” or whatever were good for me. I finished college in 2001, got a job, quit the job, went to grad school, got a job, met KT, moved halfway across the country, got a new job that I love, got married, and bought a house. So it’s been a pretty busy decade for me and a really good one.
I often wonder if people who were in their 20s during the Great Depression felt similarly, as long as they had a job. My grandmother went to “normal school”, i.e. teacher college during the 30s, got a job teaching, and got married. For her, was it a pretty good decade, despite the Depression? I never asked her about it while she was cognizant enough to answer. But it seems that if you’re growing up, gaining independence, getting your first job, and getting married, the economic situation of the country really doesn’t make your life bad. (This certainly isn’t to suggest that the Depression wasn’t bad, just that there may have been some people in their 20s who were pretty happy during that time and wouldn’t consider it the worst decade of their lives.)
It’s been a busy 10 years. I’ve watched my kids grow up; I’ve progressively moved into higher paying jobs, bought a different house, and met new friends.
To list all the things that happened would take forever, but those are the highlights.
I can actually retire in the next 10 years and am looking forward to having that option. I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to do it, but I’m hoping I can.
I was rushing around at lunch trying to take care of a couple chores and trying to get out in time for an appointment. I shoved something back into the fridge in a hurry, and I shoved too hard and the bin in the door of the fridge fell. It broke. Two jars broke. Including Thai fish sauce. Which went everywhere.
I cleaned up what I could and think I got all the glass picked up, but the fish sauce, of course, seeped under the fridge. The smell of fish is emanating from the kitchen. And from me, although a coworker/friend said I smell ok from ~3 feet away. But the smell is definitely on my hands. I’ll have to avoid shaking anyone’s hand today. That stuff is foul is large quantities!
I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat Thai food for a while.
taxi there’s only one solution. KeithT and you will have to move and your house will be declared a toxic waste zone. The HazMat team will be out shortly to encase the place in 50 feet of steel and concrete.
I was gonna make dindin. I was gonna make a ham, mac & cheese casserole. It’s ham (duh!) mac & cheese (duh!) mushrooms, garlic and red bell peppers. So basically it’s mac & cheese with stuff thrown in it but it’s a goooooooooood cold weather casserole. Oh and a peach cobbler. However, I got a call from OYKW who reminded me that on Monday the good Eyetalian place has their “family” platters on for half price and suggested a big platter of their chicken bowtie pasta would be good. Thus, we shall dine out. I did make the peach cobbler, however. It’s good warmed over so it’ll get inhaled in a couple of nights I am sure.
Oh and it’s still cold!
taxi, ewwwwwwwwww!!! That reminds me of that story about the woman scorned who put shrimp tails in the hollow tubes of the curtain rods in the ex’s house. Took him quite a while and lots of money to figure out. 
swampy, I made another cold weather comfort food this weekend…a good ol beef stew. Ya can’t beat it. Except for a ham, mac and cheese casserole.
That’s grooooooss, taxi. I can’t stand the smell of fish sauce even in small quantities (though I love the taste, so I plug my nose and pour as quick as I can when I’m cooking)… I’d probably have to evacuate and call in a hazmat crew if I spilled a whole bottle. Ewwwwww.
So I’m thinking of making sopa de ajo for dinner tonight (that’s garlic soup, but it sounds yummier if you say it in Spanish). I have a shocking amount of chicken broth in the freezer and an equally shocking amount of peeled garlic in the fridge, and this seems like a good way to use both of those things up.
The question is… would it be overkill if I added croutons and a sprinkling of melted chive-onion Stilton cheese? There’s only so much allium one can (or should) cram into any one meal, right?
That may be the only solution. But it doesn’t help with the fact that my hands still reek. Where’s the pukey smiley when you need it?
The only possible drawback to that is that both of y’all should not have contact with the general public for about twelve hours afterwards. Other than that it sounds yum!
taxi stinky fish hands could make you the neighborhood crazy cat lady. Always look on the bright side I say!
puggy I have a supply of homemade beast stew, chicken noodle soup, beef veggie soup and chili in the freezer. Yet another reason I lurves my slow cookers.
Gotta nuke it from orbit.
It’s the only way to be sure!
I’ve always wanted to use this line!
I’ve been enjoying a relaxing day at home. Got a scarf designed to go with the weekend’s hat and have started it. Emptied the dishwasher. Didn’t freak when the little brother came through my front door. I hadn’t told him that I had today off, so he was surprised too. Watched a bunch of TV online while doing other stuff. Cut out coupons. I’m sure there was more.
Now I’ma go get some laundry done and put away and continue cleaning up various parts of the house.
Back to the topic: those of you who mentioned children reminded me. At the beginning of the decade, my niece was 5 and the nephew was 1. It’s been a hoot watching them grow, but also a bit alarming. My nephew’s feet are now larger than mine. My niece is in full-blown teen drama mode (I had to confiscate her cell phone the other day while we were playing games because I couldn’t stand the interruption; forced her to miss part of a meaningless drama and act like part of the family. I was kind of surprised that she didn’t protest when I told her to hand it over).
Off to find dinner.
GT
I’m not a normal MMP contributor, but I’ll jump in here anyway, as the title grabbed me.
Ten years ago, I was just starting to get used to life as a married man. Today, I’m just starting to get used to being unmarried. Oddly enough, both periods of time have come with a lot of trepidation, but also a lot of promise of better things to come.
I’ve changed an awful lot in these ten years. The knowledge gained from just living life is invaluable, of course. But I’ve also learned to appreciate who I am and what I have to offer the world in a way that I couldn’t have even fathomed back when I was 24 years old. Almost all of those folks with whom I was close back then are people I’m still close with now – often, having drifted apart for a while only to come back together. I’ve seen a lot more of the country now than I had back then, but it has only increased my yearning to see more of it still, and more of the world as a whole.
I’ve only changed jobs once in that time. I’ve become more and less of a geek at the same time. I watch far less television. I listen to far more NPR. I spend more time at baseball games. I welcome the opportunity to try new foods and new experiences that I never would have before. And I take fewer things and people for granted.
I don’t think there was anything quick about the last ten years. It went by steadily, no matter how much I might have wanted it to speed up or slow down at various times. And I’m not sad to see the book closed on the last decade. But I’m grateful for all that it gave me, and I’m happy to take that experience with me going forward.
KT said something similar, but our cat sort of looked askance at the weird stuff on the kitchen floor, looked at me with a “What did you do?” look on her face, gave a disgruntled MerrrrrOW, and fled the scene. So I don’t think fish sauce attracts cats. So much for the silver lining!
For anyone who has a Ravelry log-in, here’s my latest finished knitting project. I’ll try to find time to post the picture on Photobucket tonight for anyone without a Ravelry login. That’s one finished baby blanket. I’ve got another one half done - this second one needs to be finished by February. Then I have to start on the ones for the triplets, which are due in June but will probably come in May. A busy knitting time, but so far I’m staying quite focused and I’m enjoying it.
D’you think my boss would buy it if I called and told her I couldn’t come into the office because I’m too stinky for public consumption?
Asimovian, it sounds like you’re in a good place. I’m glad to hear that… it’s nice to see that even through crappy experiences, you’ve taken away only the positives.
OK, time to call it a day. It’s freakin’ cold outside, and it’s only going to get colder the longer I dilly-dally at the office. Brrrr.
Today is my daughter’s 20th birthday. It doesn’t seem possible. It seems like I just brought her tiny self home from the hospital. She was 5lb, 4 oz at birth and was just about eight weeks premature.
She’s grown into a bright, witty, and charming person. I miss her immensely when she’s not around. In fact, she’s still in Missouri and this is the first birthday we haven’t celebrated together. I know there will many more birthdays like that, but this is the first one and it’s a little hard.
She flies back home tomorrow, but I don’t know if she plans on coming straight home, or will be going to her boyfriend’s place.
I know I need to get used to her being gone, and I will, but it’s been a little difficult. You know, I thought I was looking forward to the kids growing up and leaving, just because I know they’re going to do well in life. They’ve got a lot going for them. I thought I was looking forward to having the house to myself and husband, but the truth is, I don’t know what to do with the silence.
Muppet I’m sure if you explain why you’re stinky she’ll understand and even pay you not to come in.
Taters turn her room into a sauna. Sure you’ll still miss her but you can miss her from a nice, steamy sauna. Oh wait, she’s not all the way moved out yet, right? Never mind. You can still draw up the plans though.
I’s back from eatin’ nummy Eyetalian food. I’d forgotten about the bday free dessert coupon OYKW had. If you sign up for it, you get emails from the place throughout the year with coupons for stuff like free appetizers, half-off entrees and such. Plus on your birthday, a coupon for a free dessert. We shared a hyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge tiramisu. YUM!!!
Now it’s cold and windy out. BRRRRRRRRRR…
How to all you first time posters! You are now officially Mumpers and cool kids. Come back and play.