Noel Berg

Happy New Year!

Noel — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:54:58 +0000

Have you made any resolutions this year? I never do. That may sound egotistical to you, but I’m pretty satisfied with who I am. The things I can change I have changed, the things I can’t change, oh well! There really is no point for me to make any resolutions - I know that I’m not going to have the willpower to lose any weight or exercise any more than I do. I don’t have to give up any vice like smoking or drinking. I guess all I can resolve is to try to be the best person that I can be and leave it at that! I hope other people do the same thing!

Was a good Christmas

Noel — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:52:17 +0000

Well, it was a really good Christmas here; I hope yours was good as well. It is so much fun watching kids open presents! We made sure to hang their stockings on the fireplace mantel, and leave cookies for Santa on the mantel as well. They wanted to leave the cookies on the coffee table, but I told them that the dogs would eat the cookies before Santa got here, and that he would see them on the mantel beside the stockings, so that satisfied them enough to get them tucked into bed.

They were so excited that they didn’t get to sleep much before 11:30! And of course, they were awake by 4am and woke us all up so we could open gifts! Thank goodness I managed to sneak in a nap shortly after breakfast! My sister put the turkey in the oven and prepared the stuffing. Most of the food was prepared the day before so all we had to do was reheat most of it. All in all, it was a wonderful day, and I’m glad they came!

Company arrived

Noel — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:42:55 +0000

My sister arrived today, along with her hubby and kids. I haven’t seen them in a few months, they’ve been so busy moving into their new home that they haven’t had much time to come by and visit. They brought their dog with them, a lovable old keeshond that just loves everyone. They’re planning on spending the night and tomorrow here with me to have an old fashioned family Christmas together. I’m really glad to see them, and glad they came here instead of me going to their place. Their place isn’t set up enough yet to have a family Christmas. It should be fun having them here! They helped me to decorate the tree, and we played Christmas music and drank hot apple cider and hot chocolate while we decorated. We had a great time!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

The winter solstice

Noel — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:39:05 +0000

Today is the first day of winter, and the shortest daylight hours day for the season. I enjoy watching the beautiful snow blanketing the earth during the winter; it is so breathtaking beautiful when small amounts of ice cling to the branches of the trees and there is enough snow cover so that no grass is peeking through. Having said that, I have to say that I’m glad that I work at home and don’t have to travel in bad weather and can just enjoy the beauty of the snow through my window, or put on my cross country skis and go skiing right outside my door. I truly do love the life up here, and the distinct four seasons that I can enjoy so many different types of outdoor activities!

Got my Christmas tree

Noel — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:34:30 +0000

Well today I went out to the local nursery and bought a small live Christmas Tree. It has the root ball attached to it so that when spring comes I can plant the tree in the back yard. I’ve been doing it this way for years. I prefer to do this because I feel bad about chopping down a live tree just to decorate it for a brief time in the house and then throwing it away. I just prefer to sustain life instead of taking it! I had to arrange for the nursery to deliver it; I’m expecting them to deliver it tomorrow morning! It’s a nice looking blue spruce tree. Now I have to go dig out the ornaments!

Shopping for a gamer

Noel — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:04:41 +0000

My sister has asked me to help her find the best deals on a Playstation 3 console and accessories to buy for her gamer son. She told me that they already have most of the other game consoles, and they have been putting off buying this one for a while because they wanted to wait until the prices came down a little bit. Apparently the prices have come down a little bit since they were released two years ago, so they’ve decided now it a good time; especially since they want to start buying Blu-Ray movies and the Playstation 3 comes with a Blu-Ray player in it.

So I’ve started looking for the console and accessories on the ShopWiki.com website to help my sister to find the best price. I really like this website because it crawls and searches through all of the websites that sell the products, not just the few merchants that might have paid to show up as sponsored merchants.

Big ice storm

Noel — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:44:39 +0000

I was hoping to eat out tonight, but heard that there was a big ice storm coming, so we cancelled our plans. The bad weather has started, so I guess it was the smart thing to do. I’m glad I had re-stocked the pantry with food, and put studded snow tires on the car, and gassed up the chain saw. I think we’re going to need it! Thank goodness for our generator and our wood stove; I’m sure they will come in handy. I’m anticipating that if the power goes out, several of our neighbors will be coming over and staying with us, so I’ve made sure to have all of the guest accommodations ready - just in case. I hope we don’t lose the Internet connection!

He’s finally got jail time coming

Noel — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:41:36 +0000

Well, I guess the guy’s not made out of Teflon after all - he finally got jail time for one of his crimes! I was never convinced of his innocence in the murder of his wife - I thought that case was badly bungled. So I have to say that I was pleased that he finally got jail time for SOMETHING! I hope they don’t put him in one of those prisons that are really “cushy” prisons, and that he actually does some real soul-searching while he is in there.

Really nice weekend

Noel — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:36:32 +0000

Well several of my Thanksgiving dinner guests ended up staying over for the next two nights. That was a very pleasant surprise. It worked out kind of funny - they thought I had invited them for the weekend, and I don’t remember doing that, but it all worked out fine since I really didn’t have any “plans” for the weekend. It’s a good thing we had a lot of extra food from Thanksgiving dinner! And of course, I always have a lot of extra food in the pantry just in case of really bad weather, or really intense laziness hits me, so we had no problem eating. They left earlier this afternoon to head home, I was sorry to see them go. I really enjoyed their company, and I invited them to come back soon!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Noel — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:31:19 +0000

I’m having a few friends come over for Thanksgiving dinner this year. These are all friends who have no family in the area and would otherwise be spending the day alone. I expect about ten people to attend, so I have been spending the weekend getting the house as “company ready” as I can. Of course for me, that’s probably not as spic and span clean as a lot of other people’s homes - I’m a pretty casual person! But I did sweep down the cobwebs and wash the floors and vacuum the carpets and dust. And of course, made sure the bathroom was clean. I did the shopping and bought a fresh turkey - I plan to cook that the day before Thanksgiving so I don’t have to panic about exactly what time it will be ready to eat on Thursday. Everyone that was invited is supposed to bring a dish, so it will be less work-intensive for me. I do plan to bake some home-made bread Thursday morning! I love home-made bread!