Slacker!

***Yikes, I've really been a blogging slacker. I keep saying...someday, I'm going to have time to blog every day! Ain't happened yet, obviously. My business has been incredibly busy - not uncommon for early December. People have their deductibles paid and try to get their procedures done before the end of the year. This next week things should start to slow down a bit...and boy am I ready!

***Found a really interesting site that has some great gadgets, check it out:

I like this one:

http://lifedailyinfo.com/techie/?utm_campaign=&utm_source=&utm_content=&s1=

***My annivesary gift (along with Starbucks cards and dinner at Olive Garden!):




He done good! 33 years and counting.

***Mark and I are seriously looking into the possibility of opening a Chick-fil-A in Richmond (or nearby, depends on the franchise owners). We made it past the first application and are now working on the comprehensive one. Not a done deal, but we are really hoping to be able to do this. I am losing a huge contract in March. I don't want to shut down my transcription business, but we have to consider other avenues. Mark's business is still going well, so we have to make some decisions in the next few months. One step at a time!

***

Noel: Christmas Eve 1913

Robert Bridges, 1844 - 1930

Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

A frosty Christmas Eve 
   when the stars were shining
Fared I forth alone 
   where westward falls the hill,
And from many a village 
   in the water’d valley
Distant music reach’d me 
   peals of bells aringing:
The constellated sounds 
   ran sprinkling on earth’s floor
As the dark vault above 
   with stars was spangled o’er.
Then sped my thoughts to keep 
   that first Christmas of all
When the shepherds watching 
   by their folds ere the dawn
Heard music in the fields 
   and marveling could not tell
Whether it were angels 
   or the bright stars singing.

Now blessed be the tow’rs 
   that crown England so fair
That stand up strong in prayer 
   unto God for our souls
Blessed be their founders 
   (said I) an’ our country folk
Who are ringing for Christ 
   in the belfries to-night
With arms lifted to clutch 
   the rattling ropes that race
Into the dark above 
   and the mad romping din.

But to me heard afar 
   it was starry music
Angels’ song, comforting 
   as the comfort of Christ
When he spake tenderly 
   to his sorrowful flock:
The old words came to me 
   by the riches of time
Mellow’d and transfigured 
   as I stood on the hill
Heark’ning in the aspect 
   of th’ eternal silence.

***
He looks thrilled, doesn't he?



***"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." -- Calvin Coolidge