I awoke this morning with an incredible sense of sadness and an inability to go back to sleep despite it being only the wee hours of the morning. Then it struck me that today is the ninth anniversary of my father's sudden death. I got up, made coffee and stitched on Shimmering Mermaid for quite a while as my husband still slept. I have been in that funky fog all day. It is tough to get past this date as my dad was only 59 years old when an anneurism struck and coursed its way to his heart, killing him instantly, at home, in front of my mother. A depressing way to start my entry, but alas, how today really started....

It didn't help at all that when I checked my email this morning my laptop quit - the battery is dead and the AC Adapter broke down..... looks like a trip to Best Buy is in order for tomorrow to get that set up again. Very frustrating!

We took Mike's grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend out to dinner tonight as their Christmas gift. We took them to One Mill Street in Lawrence, Massachusetts - a fancy restaurant in one of the old historic mills in the area, and it is right down the street from their home. It was a nice meal, although finding something low carb on that menu just wasn't happening. It amazes me how Mike's grandfather turns 90 next month and has never really had any major illnesses. On top of that, he still smokes like a chimney - claims he has since he was 14 years old. He has turned into quite the cranky old curmudgeon, but he sure is pretty healthy for his age. It just amazes me.... quite a contradiction to what December 18th means to me....

But the day got better when I got home tonight to find an email from an ebay seller alerting me that she had Long Dog Samplers' Mouline Rouge up for sale - I am currently bidding on another of her auctions, and she was sweet enough to alert me that she listed this one today as well. She had it listed with a Buy It Now for only $10.99. I was thrilled! I have wanted that one for as long as it has been out on the market, and to get it for less than half price - my day sure brightened there, and I know you already guessed that I hit that Buy It Now button right away :-) So, today, I knock yet another chart off of my wish list!!!!!

Another bright light to the day was that the postman brought me mail from Biomed, a company which provides medical home study courses for licensure - I passed my little home study course on Fibromyalgia :-) That's 3 more credit hours to help to maintain my license, and I did a little happy dance in celebration!!

So to end this day I will go back to Shimmering Mermaid and pop in one of my new DVDs, perhaps Collateral, and enjoy someCelestial Seasonings Nutcracker Sweet tea.... and think about all the great memories of my dad.