Christmas went very well and exactly as hoped. I cannot ask for more.

Weasel and I had a wonderful anniversary. We went out to lunch for the first time in ages and ate way too much. We went to Ely Cathedral in the evening for their carol service, it was a lot of fun. The choir wasn’t as good as I was expecting, but they were better than okay. I was surprised that we got to sing too. There was a very mixed programme of choir only, brass band only, the two mixed and ones we sang too and others where we switched off verses. It was fun.

I’ve been battling minor sinus issue. I just feel like I need to sneeze all the time and my face feels tender in places. Annoying, but workable.

I have baked many delicious things over the last few days, Oreo Truffles, Peppermint Puffs and Pumpkin Pie [with home-made whipped cream!]… I feel very decadent.

We spent Christmas day with Weasel’s family, lovely as always. Very wonderful food, good conversation, a nice walk and very fun games.

I was very pleased with my presents too, even though we were all being careful with money. My Mom & Dad gave me a hand-held vacuum [so needed] and a heart rate monitor which will work with my gym equipment [very cool]. My sisters both got me Amazon vouchers, I’m not sure what I want yet! I also got a surprise £50 from work, no idea how I want to spend that. Weasel’s relatives got me another of the official Tori ‘bootlegs’ so I have half of them now, the latest Artemis Fowl book, Escape to Witch Mountain & Return from Witch Mountain on DVD, Raising Arizona DVD, Better Off Dead DVD and Silent Bob Speaks by Kevin Smith [woo!!]. Horatio gave me hundreds of Perplex City cards which I have already started on [the latest one was a scratch and sniff - awesome!].

Weasel very generously gave me the gift of being debt free. The last payment will go tomorrow and in a couple of weeks we’ll call and pay off any interest charges that might be remaining [less than £1, I'm sure] and then we’ll cancel the card and we are free!

We are going to plan out our budget tomorrow evening. It is very strange to think that all of our money is technically ‘available’. We are prioritising rent, bills, food and savings [minimum payment each month is 10% of our income]. We aren’t sure where we’ll be after that so we want to start planning now.

We are going to spent New Year’s Eve with Doodle, I expect there will be yummy nibbles, excellent films and fun all around.

All in all things are holding steady and comfortable.

Weasel and I are sending an e-card to many friends this year, so as a loyal reader you get it too!

You know that scene in Dodgeball when White says, “Add three pounds to the scales in the women’s locker room before you go home.”? Well, I think my gym might be doing that; or my doctor’s scales are off [hmm].

Since the great Weight-Gain-Christmas-2005 event the gym scales tell me that I have lost just over 4kg and the doctor’s scales tell me I have lost 7kg.

I weighed myself at the gym on Wednesday in Lycra shorts and a tee-shirt, today I got weighed in jeans… there is no way I managed to lose 3kg in less than two days.

I’m inclined to believe the doctor, but I’m not 100%… perhaps I was even heavier than I thought at the beginning of the year and the difference really is only 4kg.

Okay, that’s out of my system now, I am not giving it another thought.

On my way to the station on Thursday night to collect Horatio, I passed by the park as usual. A large white dog didn’t like that I was passing by. Thankfully I was on my bike and able to outrun it. I’ve never been on the receiving end of anger from a dog [other than play anger]. I love dogs and they usually love me. It was very scary I could hear him [her?] catching up with me, paws on the street, breathing heavy and the ineffectual owners calling to it. It was gone [or at least quiet] by the time I made the return trip with Horatio and the six or so times I’ve passed the park again have been fine. I wonder how long it’ll take before I can pass the park again without thinking of a big, scary white dog.

This actually got me thinking of my relationship with my sister. She’s like the park, I’m nervous of passing her in case she decides to attack [for no obvious reason].

Anyway, this weekend was excellent. Horatio and I had a lot of fun and I got loads of things done. All my US relatives are sorted for Christmas. I’ve posted parcels to my parents and my sister and cards to other relatives. I bought and posted my Secret Santa gift, sorted my work White Elephant gift and bought stamps. We also got Horatio’s Dad and step-Mum sorted too.

When I talked to my parents on Friday I finally remembered to mention Skype, I only pay 2p per minute to call them, but they have to get phone cards to get the best rate. Skype is obviously better since it is free. They were also delighted to spot the webcam mode of it and I got to ‘see’ my parents again. It has been a year so it was really nice. My webcam wasn’t behaving so I’m going to have Weasel help me, I might get my proper camera working as a webcam. I have a week to sort it all out, they need to get a new microphone anyway, but free calls will be great and being able to see them will be even better!

Saturday we went to the alterna-gym for the first time. My gym is very posh and to have a guest come in with you costs £10. So we found another local one that would only be £8 total for both of us. We had a nice workout, they didn’t have free weights [yet, she said they should have some soon] and it was strange using different machines [I've only used TechnoGym stuff before]. They didn’t have a ball so I finished early. I did my ball stuff at home and Horatio had a go too. I really appreciated how great my gym is now. I always wonder if the cost is too much, but compared to the alternative, it isn’t.

In the afternoon, we nipped up to the local health food co-operative, got a few things and stopped at Domino’s on the way home. God I miss being able to have Domino’s regularly. Weasel and I are still on line to getting out of debt this month. We’re very excited.

The rest of the weekend was spent snuggling, playing Settlers*, chatting, eating and generally enjoying our short time together.

* I gave Horatio Seafarers of Catan [the expansion for Settlers of Catan] for Christmas – he very sweetly wrapped my 180 PerplexCity cards in eight parcels, so I opened two and I’m saving the rest for Christmas Day.

Weasel is due home in about an hour and I feel better than I have in ages.

Apologies dear readers, I’ve had so much happening I haven’t been able to digest it and present it for general consumption.

I wrote this ages ago, probably the 27th of November or there about.

My hands are killing me. I think I’ve pulled my hand muscles.

On Saturday after Doodle left, Weasel and I went over the ways we could get our exercise and leave the house. A nice walk, a cycle ride up to Boots or work in the garden. We actually chose the garden. We worked for about two hours and got all the big stuff in the back. It looks very empty now. I was cutting brambles [bastard plants] and I cut up my arms in the process. Fun. It looks great. We’re hoping that because the brambles have lost all their leaves for absorbing sun that they’ll die over the winter. We live in hope.

Yesterday, after I got home from the gym we set to work in the library. We got rid of loads of boxes and the stuff that went in them and tidied away our memorabilia. I also have all my exercise stuff in one corner now and there is room for the air mattress if we need it.

Which explains what happened to the weekend before last. Last weekend, we went to Weasel’s parent’s house on Saturday and on Sunday we set-up Christmas [so pretty!] and cleaned the dressing room [finally!]. Then On Monday…

I feel like I just left here [work] and that last night was some strange dream. How do people maintain their work, home and social life like that?

I didn’t get my bag ready like I should have because I was out. I didn’t make dinner properly. I ate too late in the evening. I didn’t get to do the dishes. I didn’t get to catch up with Horatio. I barely had time to get home and catch my breath before I had to go out again. After the movie [Pan's Labyrinth - which is phenomenal BTW] I came home, had a quick shower, had coldish pizza and went to bed. It was after 11 and I was so wired from the adventure I didn’t get to calm down enough to sleep for ages. Then I woke up at 6:10 and missed out on 40 minutes of sleep.

I got rained on all the way to work and I was in autopilot and almost missed my turn.

I’m completely knackered.

On the plus side, I got to see an awesome film, I saw Roz [waitress at the Rainbow Cafe] who I haven’t seen since March or April and I got Dominos! Woo. I don’t think I want to do that again in hurry, but I don’t regret it.

My house looks awesome thanks to the last couple of weekends. Weasel has been a huge help. I’m very pleased. Weasel’s been working like crazy this week and has had loads happening. In fact, I haven’t seen her properly since yesterday morning. She had to go to London for meetings, I saw her for all of 15 minutes after I got home from work then she went back to London to go see the Mediaeval Babes with a friend who had a spare ticket [which is why I didn't go]. I know she made it home, she was in bed with me when I woke up at 3:30 this morning. Then I heard her get up when her alarm went off. She left before I got up. I’m not even sure where she is today actually.

I’ve been working on Christmas stuff in between, I decided to do cards for everyone this year. But since not much has happened this year I’m going to hand write messages instead of a newsletter. I have a few presents sorted, but I’m not finished yet.

Why is it in most ‘chick lit’ books the main character is completely unable to pleasure herself – let alone even talk about it? They’ll go through the book complaining about men and how they miss orgasms now that they’re single blah-blah-blah. Why the fuck don’t they take care of it themselves? But I’m one of those people who thinks everyone ought to at least have a go at fixing their problems before they start bitching about it.

Recently, the TV standard people decided the best way to combat child obesity would be to ban high sugar and high fat foods from being advertised during shows that children are likely to watch. The opposition think that this isn’t enough and these adverts should be behind the watershed. I think that parents need to start being parents and fucking control their children.

While growing up, I could have watched 1000 high fat candy adverts, but being a kid my source of food is my parent. If I’d gone to my Mom and said, ‘could I have this very-bad-for-me food please?’ She would have said no and that would have been the end of it. Parents now are so concerned about being friends with their kids that they can no longer say no.

So Weasel and I have come up with a solution. If your kid is grossly overweight then they get to join up with a physical form of social service, like gardening [very hard work] or collecting rubbish – something that makes them move and is really work. The parents get sent to parenting classes teaching them how to say no and how to cook properly for their children. Not unlike when you get caught drunk driving. You get sentenced, fined and then you have to go to insultingly remedial driving classes with stupid film strips. So parents get that. Once they prove they are capable of caring for their children properly they graduate. Win-win.

Of course it’ll never work.

The other thing that has been distracting me is PerplexCity – Weasel got me started for my birthday this year and I lost touch with it and I have now found it again. I’ve jumped from rank 10,000something to 5,000something so I’m pleased. Horatio has bought me 180 more cards for Christmas, which I should have in my hands tomorrow when he arrives so I’m very excited.

The other-other thing is that there is going to be a King’s Quest IX! Not from Sierra sadly, but from fans! They have a demo you can download and play which is pretty kickass. There is still some work to do with graphics [the flowers did not look like flowers] and there are some odd things like Graham would be ‘walking’ but his legs weren’t moving so it was kind of creepy looking. I love King’s Quest and IIX sucked so I’m very excited for this!

I really shouldn’t leave it so long between Debbies, sorry!