seesaw day

Up and down, up and down...

Elf worked me hard in PT today, increasing my resistance on all my exercises (Down, just because it was hard!), but then she "graduated" me: no more PT! Well, I have to do the exercises at home but that's a lot easier to schedule, and it's free! (Up)

Took the van over to have someone look at the stereo. It's toast (Down). The technician retrieved my U2 CD (Up). He then installed a new one in less than 5 minutes (Up: tunes in the car again! Down: $$$) Merry Christmas to me!

Christmas shopping at Toys'r'Us. I found just the right things (Up) and spent another fortune (Down).

Driving the van, I noticed vibrations at highway speeds,(!!!) so I took it back to the service center. They test drove it and noticed the vibration, too. They rotated the wheels back to their original locations and the vibrations disappeared. They suggested taking the van back to the tire store and having them re-balanced. I'm still scratching my head over that one, but I'll call the tire store and ask the manager about it. There's something weird going on there. (stuck in the middle)

Back home, my older sister has sent a HUGE box with Christmas presents. We open the box and the kids put the presents under the tree. (Up, up, up) Then they start fighting over the box! (Down) I put the box out in the garage, with the usual "if you can't play nicely and share, you won't get to play at all" naggage. (Down)

DS2 and DS1 are at logger-heads over something, and DS2 is crying and screaming about it. (Down, down, down) I investigate and discover that the little one is upset because the big one will not do what he says. I review the Rules of Control: The only person you control is yourself. If someone else is trying to control you, let me know and I'll put a stop to it. Doesn't work. I end up yelling at DS2 just to be heard over his caterwauling: It's NOT important. Do what you want! (Down, with a sore throat now)

There was a tin of gingerbread cookies in the package my sister sent. They are fantastic! (Up)

I'm trying to stay on top of things today, and clear the decks of things that I could have, should done, but haven't been doing. So, I finally stuffed and sealed the Christmas cards, and I defrosted something for dinner, and sorted the laundry. (Up)

When I opened the washing machine, there was a load of damp (slightly stinky) clothes in there. (Down) DH left them there from Sunday when he washed his jeans before going to the football game. I had no idea they were there, obviously, or I would have taken caren of them... on Sunday. Now I have four loads of laundry to do, with a very cantankerous dryer. (Down) I start up the machine again, adding new detergent.

When the cycle is complete, I transfer the re-clean clothes into the dryer and see that DH didn't check the pockets: there are bits of tissue all over everything. Ick. I locate the remains of the tissue in one of DS1's pockets, and hope everything else spins off in the dryer, and I start it up.

So far, the dryer has not stopped at all. (Up)

Did I mention the gingerbread cookies are fantastic? (Up) The tin is very pretty, too.