Yes, It's Been Some Time...

Hello!  Anyone out there?  Do I even have any more regulars?  Other than my dear, dear Meleah, I don't know if there is anyone who comes here regularly anymore.  Although, I have quite a few people coming to this site lately, but that mostly is a result of searching for 'Santa Claus.'  And so, as soon as the season is done, I will have much fewer visitors.  This, of course, makes me realize that I need to update things a lot more often if this little corner of the interwebs is going to survive for much longer.  I am here today to do an update.

--For anyone who knows me, you will be surprised to find out that I am NOT doing a 'Scrinchy' Christmas post this year.  There have been some changes in my life lately--and I WILL be writing about them in due time--and my mood is much better than has been in a long, long time.  I pretty much am completely done with my shopping--and, actually, have been almost done for close to a month already.  I don't really buy that much, or for that many people, and that helps get the shopping out of the way quite easily.  We only get books for the grandkids--and THEY provide the list of what they want--so there is none of that wondering 'what piece of crap is popular this year and how much will it cost me?' dilemma that so many people have.  For our girls and their husbands, we give money as their main gift, so anything else that we get them is on a smaller scale.  We only exchange gifts with one of our neighbors--and have for years and years--and with two sets of close friends, so we don't do a lot of gift buying.  I cut our list to the bare-bones minimum a few years ago and have only added a couple of names to that since.  And I am a much happier person because of it!

--A number of people have been coming to this site after searching for how to get the shingles vaccine while on Enbrel.  While most people who come here aren't all that interested in the subject, I will be doing a post to wrap up my experiences with the whole process.  This will give anyone who is considering the vaccine one more place to get some information--even if it is only anecdotal.  I certainly know there is very little info on the subject and it always helps to have one more viewpoint.

--We should have quite a bit of snow here already--and we don't.  As a matter of fact, it has been raining today and pretty much all of what we DID have has melted.  The forecast for the next ten days is calling for temperatures to slowly fall to the mid-20s, but there is no big-time snow called for.  It will be very interesting to see what we get in January and February--our, historically, worst months for snow and cold.

--Our youngest and her husband will be here again for Christmas.  They will get here on the 22nd and will leave sometime on the 26th.  K will come home this Wednesday after his last night shift and not have to go back to work until the 3rd.  It is always great to have people around to do last minute running around.  ;)

--For anyone who isn't aware, there has been no hockey for me this year.  The contract ended between the NHL and the players and the owners/NHL decided to lockout the players while the 'negotiations' proceeded.  I write the word negotiations the way I did because the entire process has been pretty much a farce.  When one side says "Do it OUR way or there is no deal--no ifs, and, or buts about it." the negotiation process is really not going very well.  So far, only games through the end of this month have been canceled, but I really don't see them salvaging even part of a season.  From what it sounds like, if a deal can't be made by the 15th of January, the entire season will be canceled.  It's really too bad, because this is not good in any way for the league.  Many people--even quite a few die-hard, fanatic fans--are promising to not go back to the NHL when this is all over with.  Surprisingly, I haven't really missed the NHL all that much--although I DO miss watching the game itself.  As for me?  I probably will go back to being as fanatic and obsessed with the Red Wings as I ever was--I won't lie.  But I DO wonder how exactly this will affect me in the long run.

--Another thing that is different in my life right now is the fact that we have NO concerts, plays, events on our calendar to attend.  We did so many events this past spring and summer, but there really hasn't been anything that we felt was 'must see' coming up in the near future.  Fleetwood Mac and Foreigner are going to be performing close to us, but with K having to work for both concerts, I don't see where he will take time off so that we can go.  I have no problem missing Foreigner--they DO have a new lead singer--but I am a bit bummed about missing Fleetwood Mac.  I'm not sure we will ever have the opportunity to see them again.  But, they will be in St Paul and that isn't a leisurely drive for us.  Eric Clapton has announced a new North American tour, but so far there are no dates that are close to us.  I am assuming--hopefully I am correct--that he will have a second leg of the tour and come to St Paul or Minneapolis later in 2013.  And I WILL do my best to get to see him again.  I may have my work cut out for me trying to convince K, though.  After all, I am the HUGE Clapton fan, not him.

--So, what has everyone else been up to?  If you haven't updated YOUR blog in a while, let me know how your life is going.  While I won't promise, I do hope to be here more often for a while...