So, yesterday I left work early to pick up a sickly child from school...I arrived in time to be there when the repairmen arrived to work on the heat pump. 15 years ago we replaced it and apparently the mooring for the motor wore out and it vibrated until the fan axel bent and one of the blades sheared off. Pretty noisy when it happened. Well, here we are before Christmas but after multiple purchases and thankfully living in SC where cold is relative to those who live farther North. Still one expects the warmth of the season to be in more than just your heart.

We could either spend 5-6 thousand on a new one or replace the motor and fan for $1200. What would be left we asked? He said compressor...which is another $1000. So we are taking the risk knowing likely in the heat of the summer it will be a new compressor.

Life as a homeowner...

While the repairmen worked and Christie sipped sprite, I wrote out about 100 Christmas cards. I had been avoiding the task like the rest of the Christmas things...but I can no longer stand the guilt as the cards arrive. Still have several to do for friends but I think I have made headway on the SCA ones. Quirky card this year and perhaps unexpected from me as it is not sentimental. Somehow it fits the mood this year though. Ran out despite six boxes but I had prepared by picking up a couple boxes of a different kind so I could send Les off to the PO with a full bag to mail.

Finished my first eBay purchase...looking forward to seeing it. I guess the process is easier if you do it alot but it seemed a bit cumbersome to me. Too much like bartering with the folks in Cancun for my taste.

This weekend I am going to a small intimate local SCA meeting. Hope it will have the relaxed flavor of the old times when we first joined. Likely it will be one of those, "You can never go home again" moments.

Still need to get on 12th night garb. At this point I would settle for not having beastie wear and just having something new. Gonna keep things simple I think as I will plan something better for the girls for the event in June.

Missing friends and woman time. Missed several calls this week from Cym and Sue. Nia is off at the beach watching folks recreate first flight and trying not to convert to pneumonia. Looking forward to next week just to be off work a bit and try to reconnect.

I have been invited to a great weekend at the beach with friends in Jan. I have been so busy this fall that I was thrilled they want to include me. I will really enjoy that.

Semester finals were this week...also Kate and Chris had several school projects. I am beginning to realize how much my mom must have disliked them with five of us to help. The most fun was a scrapbooking project for child dev. Only had to do four pages (2 singles and 1 double page spread). Kate did an SCA page about growing up in the SCA, a 4-legged family page about her pets and the spread was about her and her sister. She made the background black and white with the Yin and Yang wavy line down the middle. The title was "Sisters...but really different" because they have lived with "Are you twins?" their whole lives. Anyway cute pictures with funny captions and on each page one of their names with words to describe them. Looked really good and they had a good time with the project. Not finished though til 11pm! It is so hard to get her to realize how much time something takes to not throw it together. Her artist side wants to be totally detail oriented while her teen side wants to be fly by the seat of your pants...so lovely parenting teenagers!

Well, I have policy books to write/revise so I better get to it.