Welcome To 2008!

Happy New Year, everybody--I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday season!

Yeah, I know, I haven't written in about five days or so, but I've been working my ass off all week, and when I wasn't doing that, I was lying in bed, sick. Yep, that head cold has upgraded itself from tropical depression to a full-on tropical storm, and it has taken damn near all my strength. And on New Year's Eve, I forgot to bring any medicine with me to work, so by 11:00 pm or so, I was just flat-out miserable. Not only was I feeling poorly, I spent the evening dealing low-limit blackjack to a table full of lonely losers who had no place to go or anything to do that night. It was so bad--every time one of my co-workers would walk by my table, they'd shake their head in pity and empathy, secretly giving thanks that all the morons had gravitated to me that night instead of them.

But we weren't nearly as busy as expected on NYE, so the bosses were slamming lids on the tables as early as 12:30. Since I was feeling like crap, I scooted out at 1:00 am, dodged all the drunks on the road, and went straight to bed. It was probably my lamest New Years Eve ever.

I set my alarm for 7:40 in the morning, giving me enough time to make a pot of coffee and take a shower before the Tournament of Roses Parade started at 8:00. I love watching the Rose Parade--no matter how stupid drunk I get or how late I work, I always get up to watch it live. The last time I missed it was in 1996, but I was doing the 'drive of shame' that morning--having to catch a cab back to the bar, fetch my car, and come home...

Anyhow, for whatever reason, I was wide awake a half-hour before the alarm, so I just got out of bed and kickstarted my day off. The first score of the day was finding out that the parade was being broadcast commercial-free on the Discovery HD Theater channel. Nice! So I basically didn't get out of the chair except to refill my coffee cup. I then spent the rest of the day absolutely vegging out in front of an endless stream of bowl games, finally throwing in the towel during the Sugar Bowl, once it was an obvious blow out.

Not a bad way to spend New Years Day, if I do say so myself. At some point, I got hungry, so I got up out of the chair and made a batch of lemon-poppy seed muffins, breaking in my new muffin tins. Yep, they work great! I think, however, that our gas oven runs a bit hot, and even using a timer and following the directions, baked stuff comes out just a *hint* overdone. Not burned or anything like that, just the "skin" of the muffins was a little too elasticky. But now I know, so future baking projects should turn out fine.

Having gotten plenty of sleep last night, my plan for today is to be completely productive. Once I get a shower and some medicine into my system, I'll tackle some much-needed housecleaning (my room is a mess and the laundry is never done) before settling down with either a book or a movie, depending on my mood.

Mikey