X...IX...VIII...

OK, so you may not know this about me, but I'm strange. I'd like to say quirky or eccentric, but really, I'm just strange. On New Year's Eve I heard a joke on the radio making fun of the tradition of getting drunk and trying to count backwards. The comic said he wondered if it dated back to the Romans. "X ...IX ...VIII ...VX ...Wait! Shit! I'm out." I got tickled and told Scott and he kids about it and of course we had to try it. (It's hard!) But Caly also wanted to say "Rabbit!" as her first word in 2009. Years ago I'd read in a Trixie Beldon book that if "Rabbit!" is the first thing you say in a month, the whole month will be lucky. When I told Caly about it, she decided that if it's the first thing you say in a new year then the whole year should be lucky. Of course this is difficult to do because even if you're watching on TV, there's some time lag. It's only a few seconds, but it's there. And if you're counting down, the first word you might say in the new year could be "Two!" or "One!" or in our case "II!" or "I!" So we ended up counting:
"X ...IX ...VIII ...VII ...VI ...V ...IV ...Rabbit! ...Rabbit! ...Rabbit! ...Rabbit!" I should say we tried to do it that way. It's harder than you'd think. I'm pretty sure we screwed it up because so far 2009 has sucked.

So far in 2009 we've lost a retainer, a Nintendo DS (which may have been stolen by a friend), and the game in the DS. This happened right in the middle of a major endevor to sort the off season clothes in our basement, so we had boxes all over the house, clothes everywhere, and barely room to walk. We stopped sorting that stuff and headed upstairs for a major cleaning to try and find the missing items. I've filled 2 entire 45 gallon trash cans with just plain trash from Zaven and Caly's room. Not stuff they no longer want, just trash. They both have trash cans... apparently under the bed is a more acceptable place for trash. Anyhow, we're more than half done but I had to stop because my allergies are going nuts. So we decided to wash all the dirty laundry that was under there, too. That will take a long while. There was a LOT. But at least the washer is working. The dishwasher quit this morning. And the bathroom doorknob broke. It won't lock anymore. I bought a new one guaranteed to fit all doors... except mine. And to make it fit would be a major undertaking because part of the old lock system (the part that inserts through the edge of the door) has a screw broken off in it. So I can't take it out, which I would need to do to drill the new hole. Did I mention that 2009 sucks?