Happy New Year!

Welcome back to all of you who were away for the holidays. Hello again to those of you who didn't travel, but may have noticed little activity on our little blog over the past couple months. Now we can all exhale.

We had our usual stack of Christmas, New Year's and holiday cards from family and friends to read through. This is probably my favorite part of this time of year. To be able to see pictures of friends' children and read about the past year. One of my high school teachers who I have kept in touch with is always good for a few witty phrases and comments from the past year. Here are a few that she passed on this year:

On the subject of weather - weather to give a person the weary dismals; the breeze had some little cold teeth in it; the heavy sky sagged with drizzle.

A native addressing a totem pole - "Don't be so proud. I know you from a plum tree."

On vocabulary - "sociopath" The trouble with words like that is that if you can pronounce them you think you know what they mean.

On faces - His face was fat and smooth, full of water and cities; a fellow with a face he'd gotten a lot of mileage out of.

On voices - If Tom talked any slower, he'd talk backward; a stained glass voice.

On principles - By definition, a prejudice is a principle that the owner does not intend to examine.

Father Earth? - the mountains where the earth pulled off its shirt and displayed its naked massive limestone shoulders, bulging lava pectorals, powerful granite biceps.

On time - Some things take longer to be a long time ago; just when is history anyway?

On religion - Atheism is a nonprophet organization.

On people - certain things among the shadows of a person's life do not have to be remembered -- they remember themselves; the chances we take getting born so accidentally; if you don't get smarter, getting older is more trouble than it's worth.

In case you haven't guessed, Mrs. C. is a retired English teacher.

Stats Redux - January 3, 2006

Here is an update on our stats from November:

Price of Gas: $1.95 per gallon and holding steady (can't believe that the price of gas is higher in Seattle and Portland)
Price of Milk: still $3.79 for hormone free milk at Trader Joe's
Bridge Toll: still $3 on nearly all Bay Area bridges, although they will go going up to pay for overruns on bridge replacements/repairs
Today's High Temperature: 57 degrees F (with rain)
Dow Jones Average: 10,847.41 (up 129.91 on the 1st trading day of the new year)
Shopping Days to Christmas: only the department stores know this one now
Dinner Tonight: Salmon Pie (also now known as Ethan's Super Salmon Pie in the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church Cookbook, but originally Mom's recipe)
Average Commute Time: still over an hour (in a 3-person carpool)
Cost of Area Homes: still over $600,000 but unchanged
Movie Ticket: assume that it's still around $9, although it's been some time since we've watched anything but NetFlix rentals
Vacation with My Kids: an Adventure

By the way, Happy New Year!