2007 is in its final hours, and 2008 is looking to be a very exciting year. Looking back, this past year has felt like the laying of a foundation for things to come. We've gotten things in order so that we can buy a house, I started school again so that I can begin work as an accountant this summer.

Lucy has made her way through basic obedience, agility, rally, has successfully gotten her CGC and is now ready to enter some trials.

tigergladys is gearing up for some new things of her own, and I have to say I'm as excited about that as I am about my own things!

New Year's means resolutions, of course. I really only had one for last year, and that was to learn to play the piano. While I certainly can't claim I succeeded, I did put in some effort toward it. Especially at the beginning of the year. Once I went back to school, not so much. So now I'm thinking about 2008. My resolutions are:

• Buy a house


• Get a job as an accountant


• Qualify with Lucy in an agility event


• Read 50 books - This is a manageable number, though still a tough goal with everything else going on


• Make progress in playing the piano

While not a resolution, I'm also hoping that by the end of the year I'll have had a chance to unpack my Hirst Arts molds and begin working on something with them. I've missed it. There is a certain pleasure that I get from mixing up the plaster, pouring it into the mold, and then a little while later popping out bricks of different shapes and sizes. Even before I build anything with them, there is all the potential in that little pile of bricks.

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Christmas was interesting this year. tigergladys, Lucy and I went down to North Carolina to spend the holiday at Tigs' sisters house. One of the best parts was the fenced in back yard where we could take Lucy out to play any time that she started to feel overwhelmed by the excitement of the season. I'm so jealous of her house. Actually I am jealous of the whole housing market down there. We could afford way more down there then we will be able to here in Baltimore.

My big present this year was a 300 series dremel tool and extra attachments. This'll be useful both for my various hobby activities and also for doing stuff around our future house. Plus it's my first power tool.

We also went to see the Golden Compass. Not bad. Not great, and I can kinda see where religious people could be upset, but really, it's just a movie, and not even all that great a movie. Pretty! And with some really good actors, but probably not worth the $12 ticket price (plus snacks).

Taking some time out of my busy workday to write a little bit for good old El-Jay. First off, Happy New Year! So far it’s looking like it’ll continue the trend started last year and be a good one, though that’s really hard to judge from just a couple of days. Anyway, here’s hoping that it’s a good one.

On New Years Eve Tigs and I spent between 10 and 2 working up in the craft room. It had quickly become less of a “craft” room and far more of a “stick stuff in there that we aren’t currently using” room. We sorted through our comic collection, which freed up about a short box worth of space. As we put the books back into their boxes we also labeled the boxes, and put the ones with the inactive titles (all my crossgen titles) at the bottom of the pile.

We also did some other general cleaning and organizing. My craft table actually began to have some space where I could sit at it! In looking at what little actual surface space is available on it, we discussed getting a paint rack to put on it. Something that rotates, and holds all the different colors, or at least all the ones I use regularly. Then I can just take some time, even if it’s just 15 minutes to sit down and do some painting, rather then having to take the time to pull out all my paints and set up a place to work. It’ll already be set up so I can just sit and paint!

Even better then getting all the cleaning and sorting done was the fact that Lucy was so freaked out by the whole thing! You should have seen her when we had the comics all spread out and in piles. She had such worried ears.

Later we were invited to Elspeth’s for a party. It always amazes me how closely rural and urban areas can be to one another. Elspeth’s house definitely falls into the rural category, and was a little hard to find. We eventually made it, and then immediately left to go grab some food at a Mexican restaurant. It was good, if somewhat pricey. Utilizing our mad-powerful money skillz we shared a plate of chicken quesadillas, rice, and beans. Have to say it was really good! After that we returned to Elspeth’s house ate some more yummy food including some of Gaer’s famous apple bread, and then went and played Scene It and Karaoke Revolution. We flipped on Dick Clark at about 3 minutes before the ball dropped, and counted down the last 10 seconds, cheered, toasted I kissed Tigs, and then the game was back on! I sang a decent version of Red Red Wine, and sang backup on a number of other songs. We left around 1, and went straight to bed.

New Years Day itself was spent mostly relaxing on the couch, watching the first disk of Scrubs season 3 and the 4th & 5th disk of season 5 of The West Wing. I (while watching) sorted miniatures. Mostly this was unboxing the minis, bagging them in ziplock bags and putting them all in a box. It’s amazing how much space packaging takes up! This freed up even more space and gave me a good idea of what minis I actually have. Now if only I had somewhere to display the ones I finish! Next house… I found a book an Amazon about sculpting that I want to get. I feel like I need some more direction, I need projects, examples, step by step instructions. I need practice doing simpler things then 28mm Space Marines.

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End of the day. So close to being done with the files it hurts. I ran out of the colored files with the labels that I made. I’m short by 4 sets. I’ll be able to whip those up first thing in the morning though. I already have the labels, and the files, I just need to put them all together.

Tonight is puppy class. Actually tonight is the second to last puppy class. I think we find out what the final exam is. Doesn’t matter too much, she can do just about all of it, she just needs more practice doing it in front of the other puppies. On top of that, we start the basic class on the 16th so there isn’t even a week break between classes!