Thursday 13: 13 Random Things

Thanks to Liz’s comment on one of my random posts during the summer, I learned about Thursday 13.  That seems like a great way to catch up since I didn’t blog for a few months.

1.  I always seem to take lots of pictures, so there will be random pictures scattered throughout this post.

2.  Our neighbors gave us this adorable rug for Christmas.  The cats even look like ours.  They took care of the cats for us over Christmas when we went to my sister’s and this was the first thing we saw when we got home from our trip.

3.  I’m back to working in the office.  We went back on November 1^st.  This time I’ve opted for the two telework days a week. 

4.  Caroline has not outgrown her habit of climbing the Christmas tree. She was in it before we even put the lights on.

5.  I received Christmas cards from both of my chemo buddies and my senior buddy.  They’re all doing well at the moment.  I love hearing from them.

6.  Words With Friends is seriously addictive.  I resisted playing it for years because I knew I’d get hooked.  But, at the end of 2020, my dad was struggling with all of the isolation from COVID, so I downloaded it to play with him.

7.  The reason I finally downloaded it was because my sister Gabby, who had been playing it with Dad for years, was finally fed up with what she called his heckling.  Dad’s side of the family has always taken Scrabble very seriously.  As teenagers, we had to pass a spelling and vocabulary test to be allowed to play with Dad, our grandmother, and our great uncle.  When we play Words With Friends with Dad he texts and/or messages us in the app if our words aren’t up to his standards and/or if he thinks we’re taking too long.  Gabby was finally fed up with that. 

8.  A few months after I downloaded Words With Friends and became addicted to it, my Dad decided to take a break from playing.  He still hasn’t started back, which seems very unfair since I downloaded it because of him in the first place.

9.  One of my goals for 2022 is to limit the time I spend playing Words With Friends.  My loophole is that “limit” is fairly vague.

10.  Nick and I have both had our COVID vaccine boosters.  I had Pfizer and he had Moderna.  We both had incredibly mild side effects that were almost entirely gone the next day.  My only side effect was a rash that lasted for a few days, but it was milder than the rash after the first andsecond doses.  Not a bad tradeoff for the extra layer of protection.

11.  We’ve had our first snow for the year.  It snowed on Monday and was mostly melted by Tuesday morning, with some snow still lingering in shady areas.  I’m hoping that will be the last of the snow for us.

12. Thanksgiving was a little closer to normal in 2021.  We were able to take the meal to the hospice house for lunch, which always makes me happy.  As usual, everyone was incredibly nice.  We also hosted Thanksgiving but opted to have it at a covered picnic shelter at a local park.  Our guest list included children too young to be vaccinated at the time and elderly people at high risk.  Our house is too small to allow for any distancing, so we opted for the outdoor shelter. It was a little weird, but definitely better than 2020 when we weren’t able to host Thanksgiving.  As usual, I managed to take pictures of the desserts but totally forgot about taking pictures of the food.

13.  A planner for a new year is incredibly promising.  It’s so blank and pristine; full of possibilities.