I feel a bit drained after all the plumbing, stress and waiting of the past week. Don't want to talk about the estimator and the other plumbing deal because it will only piss me off again. Am happy the week is over and now looking forward to having a subdued New Years celebration.

Have a good feeling that this coming year will be better. Will be more successful selling on eBay then I was this year. Also feel that maybe some things will o our way more then a few times this year. Will put up my predictions of the coming year up tomorrow.

Have a safe and Happy New Year.

Well that was some Christmas. It started off nice and went down hill from there. Opened gifts and had breakfast before we started doing other things. Mom started some rolls and forgot to take a plastic bowl she had left in the oven when it had been turned off while the dough was rising. So when we opened the warm oven to place the rolls in to bake them, we found a half melted bowl. Good thing was it was easy to get out.

At some point mom went back in to go to the bathroom and noticed her toilet wouldn't flush she began using the plunger on it. As she did that, I went into my bathroom and noticed the sewage back up in the tub and in my toilet. We called a plumbing company we have used many times before and in the afternoon a guy came out. He said it was either the septic tank (which was just pumped this past spring) or it was a clog. If it was a clog he would need to auger and that meant water in the laundry room. So we told we would think about it and have the company come out today.

This morning we were doing some cleaning while we waited to hear from the plumber. Midmorning a guy with a septic pumper arrived and less then a half hour later he was finished. The septic tank was fine, just had some water and no other problems. So we then had to wait for another guy to come out and auger the drain. It wasn't a long wait for him and he got started quickly and was done quickly too. There was a clog where the water goes to the septic tank. The pipe was warped or cracked, because of this toilet paper couldn't go through properly if it was a big wad. And what we had was a large wad of paper. The plumber patched one leaky pipe with some tape and told mom that the pipe leading to the septic tank needed to be fixed. So tomorrow an estimator will come out and check things out. Not sure how much that will cost but to fix the clog and drain the septic tank again cost over three hundred dollars.

We did have a botched Christmas dinner and figured we should get out the house and do something. So while it may not have been the Christmas we had in mind, I guess things could have been worse.

I just need to vent a little about eBay. I do like eBay and have for the seven years I have selling there. While it does have a lot of ups it does have a few downs. What irks me is how somebody can try and make you out to be the bad guy in the situation when you've done nothing. For example, I have a bidder who didn't pay for the item when it closed in October, I left neutral feedback (I save negative for something rather heinous) for her and filed to get my fees back. Well now here it is some two months after the close of auction and absolutely no response from her and she finally shows up to the party and she's seething. She claims she paid (She first said she paid with a check, then a money order and then with cash), but alas I did not get said payment. She says she's angry and that I am a liar and a cheat. Not once did she respond to any emails not did I get payment. I doubt she has any proof that she did ever send payment. So just to make the whole thing go away so we can all move on, I said I'd give her the bloody CD for free. And folks she's getting "angry" over a stupid $3.25 auction for a stupid Sugarhill Gang CD. Well I hope she cuts herself on Christmas with something sharp and rusty and then bleeds to death. I don't see how I am the bad guy when payment was never received and no contact from her at all during those two months but what-bloody-ever. Screw her and her nasty self. She'll probably gloat over it and then try and claim I didn't send it but I will have delivery confirmation to back me up. So screw her to the Nth degree and her stupid parents who didn't use a condom the night she was conceived.

Okay...I feel better now.

Got some more snow. It started sometime yesterday morning and ended early this morning. Just a light snow, but we did get about a couple inches. The sun is shining now.

Went to Crown Center yesterday. Almost decided not to go because of the weather, but since I had wanted to go last weekend and didn't I figured we might as well go ahead and do it. After we were finished we went to Manny's for lunch. We got groceries and then headed home. It was a little slow going in spots but it wasn't to bad getting out and about.

There were heavy snow flurries for about two minutes and then it let up. If it does manage to snow, I doubt it will amount to much.

Had a migraine yesterday and much of the day was wasted trying to get rid of it. It finally left when I was about to go to bed in the evening.

Neglected to mention Richard Pryors passing. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the trailblazing comedian, I did like some of his stuff.

Most of the snow has melted. Yesterday it got into the forties and now grass is poking through some spots in the snow. There are still large mounds of snow in parking lots though.

Had a migraine much of yesterday. Finally it left late in the afternoon.

Bought a tree yesterday, a nice five and a half foot Balsam. It looks really good in the living room where you can see it from the street. We wont be putting any expensive gifts under the tree (although I wish Santa would bring me the new xbox with a few games and some gamecube games), so no worry about theft. Will post a picture of the tree later.

We got a foot of snow out there. It is a light and fluffy type, but yikes none the less. Took me and mom about an hour to clear the driveway. When we were almost finished I looked up and saw a huge line of Snow Geese flying. They were really high up to. Had to be close to a hundred of them, long line which was doubled up at spots. We could barely hear over a neighbors snowplow, but we did manage to hear a faint honk. It was just a wonderful sight. I have a tendency to look up at the sky a lot during the day (and night too). Particularly when I am out and about. So glad I looked up when I did.

It is cold and lightly snowing out. Does the chant "Snow, snow go away, I want warm weather right today!" work? Or am I just wasting time and energy?

Kiska loves the weather. Of course she's only four months old and this is all new to her. She will be five months old on Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas. I just haven't been in a Christmas mood at all this year. I am not completely Bah Humbug about it though. Managed to get the final two things I had ordered for mom. It turns out one of the sub drivers had delivered that first package to a house two streets over and they had refused it. He shipped it back to Amazon and probably never looked at the address to see that he had screwed up. If he had made an attempt to deliver it to the right house we would have had ten days to claim it before it was shipped back. Glad I ask my regular carrier about it, otherwise I would have never known what really happened.

It has been bitterly cold the past week. Might dance in the front yard and scare the neighbors if we have a warm spell. Lets see, which would be more welcome right now, a heat wave or junk mail. I think a heat wave would be but junk mail is not without its merits ( one being that you can light the stuff on fire in the fireplace).

Have been keeping busy by culling out some things I have neglected. I used to have quite a collection of sports cards, but I found I wasn't really enjoying them. So I kept my Topps cards and kept cards of the teams I like and still follow. The rest of the cards I donated to Goodwill and I don't care what they do with them, I am just happy I finally thinned my collection. Not sure what I'm going to do with my concert t-shirts. I don't have a lot, but not sure if it really matters that I have a t-shirt from a concert I went to twenty-something years ago. Might keep my Queen "Hot Space" shirt and that's it. As much as I love music, I don't have a driving need to go to concerts.

Got a couple loads of laundry done. Finished watching the last disc of the "Family Guy" set three, including some of the extras and played the commentary on all the episodes that had commentary.

Am a little pissed at one of the sub. letter carriers that worked my street last week. I was anxiously awaiting a package from Amazon.com because it contained Christmas presents for mom. Well the idiot delivered it to the wrong house, never bothered to look and see if he had the right addy and then ships it back to Amazon saying I refused it. Ended up getting a refund and had to re order the gifts. The second order was split into two shipments. One shipment is coming via Airborne and the other is coming via the post office. I just hope there are no sub drivers next week or I'm gonna cry.