addendum to "of course"

A few hours after the aforementioned email message, Sis3 sent me an email expressing her thanks for going above and beyond to provide a homey, generous setting for our family Christmas gathering. She also expressed gratitude for the gifts we gave her. I suspect that if I could check my husband's "sent" email, I'd find one to her, sent shortly after her first email arrived. Maybe not, but the possibility is strong.

Yesterday was one of those days containing several appointments, one after the other, and they each turned out to be positive in some way. The cable guy showed up on time and left us a new cable/dvr box, and he gave me instructions for what I can try if the problem we've had recurs. At this point, 24 hours later, the problem with the audio has not recurred, so we're very happy about that. Next, the financial planner revealed that we are better off in our investments than many others through this financial instability, and we may turn out okay by the end of 12-18 months. (Of course he's going to say that, but his track record on such predictions is good, so I'm optimistic.) Finally, at the projected 5-hour meeting of the Tech Council (which lasted about 4.5 hours), Josh the tech/data guy informed us of what computers exist in the school district, including platform, age, location, and level of software installed so we could begin to make recommendations to the IT director about how to proceed. The only unfortunate part was the attack on the superintendent by one townsperson who had demanded information back in April and who felt that he'd been ignored, denied information, and then given only part of it which he was able to decode (because of his clever professional skills) and find that some information had been left out. This guy, a former student whose son was also a complaining student of mine a couple of years ago, has made noise in the district for a while, but now that he's on a committee of folks who have as much or more expertise than he does and data to back it up, his ability to toss around computer jargon doesn't balance out his inadequate view of the big picture. I hope for all concerned that he's now satisfied that no one is hiding anything, and that he can't expect as a private citizen to micromanage the software and hardware choices, location, and purchases made throughout the school district. The overall accomplishment of the meeting was to recommend that the current IT director research what other nearby and similar schools use for software to accomplish state standards and course requirements, and to approach various vendors with "wish lists" of warranty, loaner/replacement, and hardware requests for possible extended contracts so we can get some very much needed laptops into the high school ASAP. (laptops in a cart can be moved to classrooms and shared among classes which is more efficient use of technology and means less need for space required for a lab of desktops) Hooray! We did take a light dinner break, ordering pizzas from a fairly new seafood and pizza place in town, and the pleasant surprise for me was that their veggie pizza includes sizable chunks of artichoke hearts. Yum! This one's worth ordering again sometime.

The Emergency Weather email system just sent the winter weather advisory message that we're in for some snow, 5 inches or more, and that the wind will pick up, making driving hazardous tonight. Hmmmm. Our tentative plans were to go to the movies to see "Marley and Me" because the mister loved the book and then go out to dinner (or vice versa, depending on our mood), and then back home to watch the New Year's Rockin' Eve on tv as the ball in Times Square falls. It may still happen since my husband has his honkin' big truck and he adores bulling around in bad weather. More on that soon.