It is dark and windy outside, with rain occasionally making itself heard over the Tarantula Hawk cd I'm listening to.

The old year is not long for this world, but like all years it will live on in our imperfect memories. I'll remember this year as a difficult one, but it may also prove to be a year where the seeds of future prosperity first took root. It's too early to tell. We started the year off with Willow being diagnosed with anemia. She had a feeding tube in her nose for her first birthday. That was hard, but she got better and is now a laughing, happy almost-two-year-old. Losing the paper route was a mixed blessing. It was a struggle for several months, one that we're still not completely recovered from. It was during this time that we realized that the clawed fingers of debt really do have a firm hold on us. Unlike this nation we reside in, we plan to do something about this.
I left behind not only the paper route, which I had for sixteen years, but also my job at the museum, which I had for six and a half years. I still have two jobs, but they're two different jobs than the ones I started the year with. Both of the new ones are more interesting than the two I left behind, and one of them is a something that I would consider a "career" job - or at least a good stepping stone towards a career. For now I'm content with what I'm doing. We still don't have health coverage though. That gives us something to work on over the course of the new year.
We're also both on an organizing kick. I've been going through drawers and shelves in an attempt to neaten things up and make it less of a struggle to find things. I've found all sorts of things that I'd quite forgotten about. My favorite so far are these little stickers that can be affixed to the bottom of a drinking glass so that when the drinker looks down into it the words "you have just been poisoned" are visible. I'm also finding all sorts of anti bush/anti war material from the reign of Bush the first. It's a shame that after all this time it's still relevant.
At any rate, our lives will go much more smoothly if we get rid of lots of crap. Clutter really sneaks up on a person, squatting on shelves and lurking under beds. Tripping us in darkened hallways.

I just bought the extended version of Return of the King. We're still waiting for the boys to go to sleep so we can watch it.

I paid cash too. No more credit cards for us.