Leaving on a Jet Plane

This may be one of those non-entries I blog just so I can fulfill my Holidailies goal.

As usual, I have waited until the last day to clean my house, do my laundry, pack my bags, wrap up things to mail out, etc. etc. etc.  On a good note, I have 95-percent of my Christmas cards/letters mailed today!  But my house is not as clean as I would like it.  Normally, I like to leave a tidy house when I’m going to be gone for a while.  This time, I want to clean because my MIL will be on the island while I am gone.  She won’t be staying at our house, but I’m sure she and Aunt D. and Uncle W. will be around.  Feels strange that I will miss her visit.  She comes every year and I enjoy driving around with her, going to the beach, eating out, and just having company around the house.  But – I had already made my flight plans before she made hers so – drat.  I’ll be on the mainland missing all the fun!

Sweetie and I did a little Christmas shopping today.  Due to our dwindling paychecks this year, we are trying to keep on a very strict budget for Christmas.  I’m concentrating on the immediate family with just a couple of extra things for other people.  I was dreading walking around Lahaina on a Saturday but the tourist town was strangely quiet today.  Hardly any traffic on Front Street.  The sidewalks were not packed like normal.  I’m not sure what that means.  I don’t know if people are not buying anything for the holidays or if this is just an unusually slow period for Maui.

The only nice thing about hardly having any work right now is that I don’t have so many files to lug back and forth.  Hooray.  

I’m loving the idea of this Read Your Own Books challenge.  I’ve gone through my shelves and pulled off a pile of books I’ve been meaning to read for eons. 

And with that – I need to finish cleaning up around here.  Never-ending job, ain’t it?

Read Full Post »

Holidailies

It’s that time of year again – December. You know – eggnog (yuck), Christmas music (nice), good will and long lines, and – oh! Holidailies.

True to form, I crashed and burned on my NaNoWriMo attempt this year. The story took off like gangbusters in my head but sputtered out on the screen.  Someday I may return to it.  Although what I would really like to do is go back and properly edit my successful NaNo story and see if there is anything truly publishable from it.  Ahhh……goals.

I will try and stay a little more focused during Holidailies. Holidailies is based on a simple concept.  Participants try to update blogs every day from December 7 to January 6.  There is a Holidailies-equivalent for every month of the year so I’m not sure why I pick the December month to marathon blog. 

I’m sure I will have time most days this month to blog.  It’s only difficult when I factor in all the traveling Sweetie and I will be doing between now and January 6 – back to California, from my mom’s house to his mom’s house to friends’ homes to everywhere-in-between, and back to Maui again.  But then, blogging will probably be a good break from the Christmas activity.

You can check out all the fun over at Holidailies.   Oh – and by the way – for people who have wandered over from Holidailies, I should probably make the same admission here I did on Multiply – I am being a bit unfaithful to my blog.  For the last several years, my blog migrated from Yahoo to Multiply.  I’m re-starting some blogging over here on WordPress while I try and decide if I want to move here permanently or just keep flirting with this site.  If you want to see most of my recent blogs, you can mosey over here: http://stonegirlblog.multiply.com/.  I know.  It’s a pain and confusing, but what can I say? I’m fickle. 

For those of you ambling over from Holidailies, I suppose the question of the day is:  Just who exactly is this Stone Girl?

hmmmm…..good question.  I may have to steal from past introductions….

Who am I?  I am more than three names and less than the legacy of my four grandparents.  I am a world-traveling homebody.  I am an insomniac and vivid dreamer.  A wife to my Sweetie, daughter to my mom, Lil Sis to my Big Sibs, Aunty to my nephews, and you-gotta-love-me friend to my pals.  A recovering workaholic who has learned how to slack off while living in Maui.  Raised in small-town California.  Born in small-town Europe.  Technical writer.  Creative writer.  Blogging writer.  Laugher, crier, worker, player.  Hiker, music-lover, piano player, seeker, and student-of-life.   Environmental analyst, which means few people understand exactly what I do for a living.  I am comfortable in my own skin and always trying to grow a little more.   Loyal Aggie.  Lactose intolerant.  An open-minded Christian who counts the Dalai Lama as one of my only heroes.  Comic book collector.  Professional when I need to be, goofy by nature.   I believe in self-reliance for myself and helping others when I can.  

My cube was opaque and slightly iridescent. 

Who are You?

Read Full Post »