Weirdnesses tag

I've been tagged. I'm always happy to respond to chain questionnaires, so here are my six weirdnesses (or six of my weirdnesses, I should say), in no particular order.

1) I get a little freaky over the amount of tape that gets used when wrapping a present. "Not so much! Not so much!" The only thing that kept me sane when the girls were tape-happy toddlers was buying each of them her own roll. Then I could be as anal as I wanted with *my* roll.

2) No matter how tired I am, I turn bright-eyed and chatty when I go to bed. Frank has long since learned to wait it out: I chat, chat, chat, chat, chat, then pretty much fall asleep mid-sentence, just like that.

3) I eat marshmallow creme by the spoonful.

4) I *really* have a one-track mind. I have trouble carrying on a conversation if the radio is playing, and people generally have to grab my face to get my attention if I'm reading.

5) I save my tax returns for decades. I probably still have the first one I ever filed back in 1984.

6) I pace. Frank says I'm a shark: If I stop moving, I'll die.

I won't tag other people in turn. If you're reading this and you've got a blog, feel free to join the game with a weirdness post of your own. Or chime in with a comment here.

I'm back!

Here I am, returned both home and to blogging. Last week, I finished up my latest contract at the Velvet Sweatshop and immediately flew off to Georgia for a few days visiting my best pal, Stephanie. (She and her husband, Rick, moved to Athens last summer, having had enough of Northwest weather. Seems like they got out in the nick of time.) We did some sightseeing and shopping, but the highlights were a bunch of time spent having complete conversations, a fab multicourse dinner at a restaurant near their house, and their introducing me to Firefly, an excellent TV series that should never have been canceled -- check it out on DVD!

Now, I am settling into life at home. I have to be away from Microsoft for 100 days (required after every 365 days worked there as a temp, ever since a certain lawsuit filed against the company). My Big Plan is to enjoy some time with my kids. Frank's work continues, so I get to revel in my time off, knowing we still have income. Pretty cool.

I am very tardy in announcing the birth of Molly Eileen Lewis to proud parents Jerry and Cori. She arrived January 19th, a few weeks ahead of schedule. She weighed in at just under 6 pounds and had to spend a few extra days at the hospital to finish "cooking," but mother and baby are both doing well. J-man gets out of the Marines late February (not late March as I previously told you, Jorene, yay!), then the family is moving home. They'll stay at Grandma Judy's while they get settled. Grand-aunt-ma Ronnie is very excited to get her hands on that baby, but we're not sure when that will happen.

Our other item of news is a sad one: We said good-bye today to Snowball the rat. She died in her cage this morning after living several months with a large tumor and showing distinct signs of old age. MJ and Chloe are pretty sad -- Snowy has been with us through a lot of adventures -- but they find distraction in a couple of comedians called Rodney and Lestat.

Anyway, we're all doing well. I'll try to fill in more details of the past few months in subsequent posts.

Happy New Year!