So here it is New Year’s Eve… I’m going to visit with some friends until probably about 1:00 AM. We’re going to watch the (classic version) Wicker Man with Christopher Lee. Excellent movie. Should be fun.

I’m a geek. First one to admit it. I’ve had bosses who haven’t known what to do with me because I am so into technology. I think gadgets are fun and amazing. I am an early adopter of technology. Maybe it’s the science fiction writer in me that loves the gadgets. One of my bosses even called me ‘Gadget Girl’ — always thought it sounded like a great comic strip character. Our heroine peruses the great electronics show convention floors finding the best gadgets…

Like this one, Kohjinsha SA1F00B. Under 1 kg, this compact portable comes with either a 40 or 80 gig hard drive and a nice keyboard. It’s larger than the Zaurus C3200 (which is also lust worthy), but is a nice machine considering it’s less than $900 from Conics.net. The comparably sized Sony model runs almost three times that.

One of the technical writing mailing lists I’m on posted a link to a site with freeware/open source software listings. This site, NGO-In-a-Box, provides a list of open source or freeware software geared towards a specific purpose: audio/video editing, desktop publishing, etc.

The Audio/Video site looks excellent. Unfortunately the desktop publishing portion appears to be suffering from PHP and MySQL errors.

It had been nearly two weeks since my last visit out to see the kids. I finally went out to see them on Sunday. Man, I had been going through withdrawal. It’s hard to explain what it is like. Visiting my horses has always been my sanity check, especially when I’m under a lot of stress. (And if I am not under stress my body seems to try to create enough stress… something about addicted to levels in the brain or something).

I was really too sick to go out to the barn still. Too sick to spend much time at least. It was so pretty out. Nice and warm. Not a cloud in the sky… So I bundled up and went into their field. Isis and Rajiyyah both nickered when they saw me. Isis lowered her head and butted me a few times, asking me to take the grazing muzzle off of her. (Of course once the muzzle was off she was focused on grazing.)

Rajiyyah was very sociable. She followed me around and was happy to have her ears and face scratched. She has been wearing a blue Hug turnout rug (by Rider International from Dover Saddlery). It fits her well — not easy to do on a dainty Arabian. She was wearing it and seemed warm and toasty under it. It’s a medium weight turnout rug. It is supposed to breathe and prevent the horse from sweating too much. It seems to be doing a very good job. The blanket still looks brand new, even though she has been wearing it for months. It helps that she doesn’t roll.

I left the kids in the field and picked out their feet. It felt so good to just be out with them. Isis still look ribby and still has a pot belly. I will be so glad when I can really get back to working her.

I really hated being sick during a week that was perfect riding weather.

I’ve been really sick for the past 10 days or so. A good percentage of my office mates have had the current plague (sinus infection or kidney stones seems like) since Thanksgiving. I came down with the sinus infection stuff a week and a half ago. It culiminated on a drive back from picking up a friend in Raleigh. This was supposed to have been my week off. Instead I’ve spent it curled up in bed with my friend taking care of me.

I hate vacations like this.

I’m feeling better, thanks to time and antibioitics. I seem to get some nasty head cold every few years. Seems a waste to have taken a week of vacation when it should have been a week of sick leave.

I haven’t been out to the barn in two weeks. Withdrawal!

The party was fun. I got to see a bunch of people I haven’t seen I a few months. You know when most of your friends have kids because they think 9:00 PM is late. Overall, a nice stress free evening at the party.

Because I was at this party, I had to skip my company’s Yule party. I might have known maybe 5% of the people there. I think I’m glad I got roped into helping with the other party.

Today is NUTS:

• Horse sitting at 8:00 AM.
• Plumber at 10:00 AM to fix the toilet.
• House cleaning/laundry until 1:00 PM.
• Cat-sitting for another friend at about 3:00 PM.
• Shopping for last-minute items for Christmas party.
• Co-hostessing a party starting at 5:00 PM.
• Cleaning up after said party.
• Driving home and collapsing in bed.

It is goign to be a very long day.

According to an article in Wired: “Like Capt. Mal Reynolds stumbling in after a bar fight, the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi series Firefly will soon make an unexpected return, not as a TV show, but as a massively multiplayer online game.”

The game is being developed by Multiverse (whose Web site has been slashdotted, so don’t expect to be able to access it any time today). Could be very interesting, depending upon what they do with it.

A friend of mine emailed me this. I giggled a lot.

Q: “Let us pray for understanding and for compassion.”
Picard: “Let us do no such damn thing.”

Edward Gorey has a store, including the Gashleycrumb Tinies poster — the first Gorey artwork I ever saw. “A is for Anabelle who fell down a well…”