Happy December! I suppose it's time to dust off my Christmas icon. I should have made my Thanksgiving icon earlier than Thanksgiving Day, so I could have enjoyed it longer. I sat around all November, wishing I had an appropriately seasonal icon. Too bad it didn't occurr to me until the day was practically over that Duke could easily be t-day'd with just a little clipart.

Hm, since it's the holidays, maybe I should make "holiday rice krispy treats" next week. I seem to remember them selling red and green rice krispies last year. Or maybe the year before. The years all blur together, when you're as old as I am. Interestingly enough, rice krispy treats are in fact one of the few food items which I am qualified to make (I have even done it before!).

Speaking of abilities (watch out, this is a really poor transition), I seem to be losing my ability to remember words. I do (mostly) okay when writing, because I can take the time to search through my brain for the right word. Or I can look it up if things get desperate. On the fly though? My vocabularly can be less than impressive.

For example -- I was conducting a meeting to gather specifications today, and I wrote on the whiteboard, "list all non-closed claims belonging to the user". It looked a little strange to me, then I realized: "I suppose I could just call them 'open'."

Also, earlier this week, I told my sister that I needed to take my car to "the car-fixing place". It especially amuses me that she didn't even bat an eye... apparently she also felt that was a perfectly acceptable name. Of course, she is just two years younger than I, so maybe her memory has started going too.

And speaking of broken cars (this transition works a tiny bit better), I still need to get mine fixed. At a...whatever you call those places. Oh yeah, the dealership! It currently has the following ailments: (1) the right back turn-signal doesn't work, (2) when you use the left turn-signal it switches off the cruise control, and (3) there is an annoying buzz coming from the front-right heat vent. I'm hoping that some or all of those are covered under warrenty. It also has a cracked rear-view mirror, but I know that's not under warrenty.