Happy New Year, everyone! My BFF and I managed to stay awake to see the big ball fall down and then we went to bed. Exciting lives!

Man, poor Dick Clark looks like a marionette. They had some serious makeup on him. I'm glad he's still able to ring in the NY for us though.

Today I plan to wash the bed linens, go see a movie, and try again to get my frakkin' wireless router to work.

Hubby is making scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. My Hubby, I think I'll keep him.

ugh, ita ! I'm so sorry. Catching up now. I hope you get your movie/ER wish.

HPF is going to a friends for loud playing and DH and I are going to nap. Black eyed peas, check. Greens, check. 2011 drummed out of existence with pots and pans and lots and lots of noise? check, check checkity check.

Hard dough bread and nutella. It's sort of a shortcut to my childhood mainstay of Milo and bread and butter. Apparently when I showed up at other people's houses in the family, they'd ask what I wanted, and I'd ask for bread and butter first, Milo second, and then go steal a book which they might never give back. Constant pattern through age 13.

My grandmother died thinking of me as the bread and butter girl. My mother's older sister still goes straight back to that when reminiscing about me. Every year.

Every year certain patterns play out with the extended family. Aunt G (christened Gillette, doesn't go by that) talks about the pudgy little girl with the death grip on the bread that ignored everyone else. Aunt C remarks on how great I look *this year* (every year). However, 2011, she actually checked my finger for a ring, because she needed an explanation. And cousin M gets irritated that I won't keep trying to pry her out of the closet. (She sleeps with women. I need her to admit she's bi. It is not appropriate, my asking. But it's for her own good), but less so each year.

This year, however, is the first year that Aunt C and cousin K didn't try and preach Herbalife at us. Remarkable. But we still had the standard "Oh, those Jehovah's Witnesses..." conversation, since her older daughter is one, and therefore never comes over for dinner. In fact, she does remarkably little this time of year, because everything's tainted with too much celebration for her.

Completely unrelated (to everything but my breakfast), I only ever keep 2.5 cups max of water in my (large) kettle. I don't want to waste electricity boiling a bunch of water I'm not going to use. My sister battles with me on this when she's here, so I spend a fair amount of time pouring water down the drain when she's not looking.

I have no idea if it's significant, but I feel comfortable that as long as I'm boiling it dry every time, it's some small amount more efficient not to boil extra water. Throwing it away once it's been poured is probably a stupid waste, but I can't help it. I feel more for the electricity than the water here. Which means I'm not used to semi-desert yet.

Right. Tea's brewed.

Happy 2012, everybody. Let's hope it's a little kinder than 2011.

We went to the neighbor's last night, which was fun. They had another couple over, and the kids watched their three-year-old while the grownups went to dinner (we joined the party when they got back). M., the little one's stepmom, was incredibly sweet, and at the end of the night handed me a few rolled up bills to give to Sara, in thanks for her part keeping Ella occupied and happy all evening.

I didn't unroll it in front of her, because that seems rude, but I assumed it was a couple of dollars. M. said she'd given some to each of the girls for their help, although the neighbor's oldest, Isabel, was ostensibly the official babysitter.

I got it out of my pocket to give Sara this morning, and it's twenty freaking dollars. Of course, they're long gone, and I don't know them, so I don't have a way to protest that it's way too much, but wow. That's a lot of money to give an eight-year-old you just met for playing Barbies with your kid for a little while.

Woot! Looks like I'll be starting the new year out right with a movie date this evening.

Good job, Matt! Beginning as you hope to go on.

(I'm going to my knitting group.)

Also - Billytea - Ryan is just lovely. Can't tell you how much I enjoy seeing pictures of Ryan.

Well, and all the Buffista babies. How they grow! And how funny, smart and amazing they are.

Also - Juliet Landau tweeted this:

julietlandau Juliet Landau
Best lead performances for Matt and I, Best Production + Best Star Making Performance for me. :)

julietlandau Juliet Landau
Found out at midnight that DANNY won 3 awards from Broadwayworld. com

Don't know what that award is - but good for her and the rest of the production.

Matt,

what movie?

It looks like she's doing John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at a theater in L.A.

So presumably an L.A. theater award.

Focus, LeN, focus.

Hey, Amy, is this Sara's first outside-the-family earnings? It's much more easy to justify framing it if it's got a *good* president's face on it. It was sweet, though. Happy holidays! And who knows, maybe she rolled it up just so that you wouldn't be able to try and give it back right there. Time to work on hooker tricks of telling what any bill is from a sliver of it. Amongst other hooker tricks, obvs.