With Three You Get New Year

I apologize for the lack of updates, but the days following the Christmas holiday have been quite full for the Carroll household. Tomorrow, we will have to get back into whatever will compose the 'swing of things' for this brave new year.

In a much-welcomed snub of our longstanding New Year's traditions, we had company. Joyce and our niece Haley traveled up here from North Carolina, along with B.J., to celebrate the dawn of an arbitrarily-assigned new orbital period for planet Earth. The arrival of guests meant, of course, that I spent the first half of the week straightening up the house for the occasion. Our little house was quite full from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday morning, when the sojourners returned home. Despite the fact that Joyce and Haley were here for almost three full days, I find myself at a loss for writing material in hindsight. Perhaps Tolkien was right when he wrote in The Hobbit that "things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to." We loved having them stay here and look forward to their next visit.

We spent this afternoon changing the feet of our new loveseat. I always do enjoy ham; I would eat it on a tram -- wait, where was I again? Anyway, the thing originally came with these skinny spindle feet that we knew would frown on our constant sliding of furniture. Yesterday evening, one of them finally had enough and walked out on the rest of the piece. At this juncture, we decided we might as well get some completely new feet made of sterner stuff. Other than that, the day has been fairly quiet. Sandi awakened to an upset stomach, while rainy weather has stranded Ranger inside to build up massive stockpiles of energy; a walk will most likely be in order tomorrow afternoon.

Happy New Year, everybody!