Happy New Year

Welcome to 2012.  Jo and I had a rousing New Year's Eve in which we put a jigsaw puzzle together and then watched some of the televised happenings in Times Square.  Well Jo watched them since I seemed to have been watching the insides of my eyelids at that point.  We both were awake to watch the ball drop and share the traditional New Year's Eve kiss.  The rest of the day we spent taking down all of our Christmas decorations and packing them away for another year.  We also reviewed our annual predictions with Bruno and Sheri via Facetime (what cool technology) in which Jo took the honors for her guesses this last year and yours truly came in last with only 2.5 correct predictions (what was I thinking last December).  We once again foretold the coming year's series of celebrity divorces, deaths, changes at Pfizer, and world calamities - although given our overall skills I wouldn't change any plans or buy any stocks based on our choices.  

Our other big item for the week was that we had our pool table assembled on our third floor. It is great to have this together, both for the use of the table but also to clear out the basement clutter a little. While there are some challenging spots since the room isn't quite big enough it makes our third floor a nice entertainment space since our pin ball machine was also moved up there.

Jo took a few days of vacation this week and we used the extra time to do a little after Christmas shopping along with sorting through our books and clothes.  With the Christmas items put away, we realized that it is the first time since last June that everything in the house is back to where it is supposed to be.  The rest of the week was spent relaxing so we are both revved up for going back to work.  Jo at Northwestern Mutual and me to painting (next up is the master bedroom).  We worked on the afore-mentioned puzzle along with reading, computer games, and catching up on some sleep.  We had our nephew and fiance, Chris and Angela, over for a pizza dinner on Friday where we found out the exciting news that they have picked a wedding date for this coming September.  On a fun note, we received bird seed in the shape and color of a candy cane as a Christmas gift.  We put it out on a tree in our backyard and it didn't take long for the squirrels to figure out how to enjoy it - even if it meant hanging upside down from a little tiny branch.

We watched Illinois win the Kraft Fight the Hunger Bowl (what ever happened to keeping bowl names simple - Sugar, Cotton, Orange, etc.).  And of of course, tomorrow is the Rose Bowl where we will be rooting on our Badgers.