12/29/06: Preparations for the New Year

First of all, Happy Fifth Day of Christmas!

Well, we made my annual trek to beloved Barnes and Noble to purchase new journals, calendars, etc.

My new journal is a Shakespeare Journal! His face is embossed in gold on a burgundy leather book -- lovely! I also had to purchase "Much Ado About Nothings: Shakespearean Sticky Notes." Inside are a rainbow of small tab stickies, then medium-sized stickies with Shakespeare's signature and a dip pen, and on the other side of this mini-book are larger stickies with Shakespeare's face, signature, and dip pen. Perfect! (Question: Must I use my dip pen to write journal entries? Answer: I'll see if the ink dries sufficiently well first; then I'll decide.)

[Note to self: Remind children that the wonderful Shakespeare canvas bag at B&N was only $10 and that my birthday is in early March.]

I also nabbed the very LAST copy of the precise calendar I wanted: The Reading Woman Calendar. Nothing like beautiful paintings of women reading, especially when the art is from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston! (I shall go there some day -- I shall!)

I also bought my traditional Farmer's Alamanac Gardening calendar that we use for school. Gardening reminders are a handy-dandy thing to have on one's wall, even if it's mostly used for keeping attendance for our home school.

We trekked all over East County before locating E's Harry Potter calendar, even though we found her a beautiful antique-look red leather journal at B&N. We found a gorgeous Castles calendar for Keith's office (he is tired of Escher), and the boys discovered a hilarious calendar for their room with ferrets dressed to represent different TV shows (Lone Ranger, Miami Vice, Gilligan's Island, etc.). We are all amused.

Since Keith bought me my New Yorker 2007 Desk Diary for Christmas, I spent much time yesterday transferring all my birthday reminders for family and friends from this year's B&N Desk Diary to the 2007 New Yorker Diary. So now I am OFFICIALLY ready for the New Year, sly cartoons included.

Come, 2007! We're ready for ya!