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POST-CHRISTMAS REPORT: Another Christmas come and gone. Hope everyone survived. I had lunch at my grandmother's house in Fayetteville with my parents. It was delicious. Turkey, pork roast, dressing, squash casserole, green beans, corn, potato salad and pound cake for dessert. I have a fridge full of leftovers, too. My presents amounted to cash and Target gifts cards, which is what I wanted. Since I bought myself a Macbook, the cash will come in handy for new accessories. After months of no rain, yesterday it poured and was mixed with sleet. Figures.

I was supposed to go over to BFF Tina's house last night, but I just could not manage it. I was tired and on the drive back started having that sicky feeling. It's hard to put into words, but it's just that internal feeling that all is not well in the body. This morning I woke up with sniffles and a sore throat. Everyone I know has had the flu, so it was really only a matter of time. Hopefully I can fight it off with lots of Vitamin C and fluids.

I'm back at work today, although it seems the rest of the world is still at home. It's been so quiet here -- no phone calls, no emails, zilch. Between cleaning up my desk and sorting files, I've managed to watch the Doctor Who holiday episode Voyage of the Damned. It's unclear when this will air in America, so go to your favorite bit torrent site and watch it before the BBC yanks it down. It's Boxing Day in the UK, so no one's paying much attention, but trust me, this episode will be gone in a few days. No matter what you think of Kylie Minogue as a singer, she is an outstanding actress in this episode.

Just to wrap up the dryer saga. BFF Brent and I got the old dryer to the recycling center and picked up the new(er) one my co-worker sold me. Once we got it back to the apartment, we realized it needed a four-blade plug-in cord to fit the outlet. This was last Tuesday afternoon and that evening I went to I'm Not There, so I didn't make it to Lowe's to pick up a new cord. I did that Wednesday, got it home and discovered I needed a tiny wrench to unhook the leads. My toolbox has two screwdrivers and some tape in it. I know, I know...totally useless, me.

BFF Brent returned on Friday evening and that's when a series of little disasters happened. Two of the electrical screws fell into the bowels of the dryer while Brent was trying to hook up the new cord. We decided to try and take the back of the dryer off. Brent took off every screw on the back of the dryer and we managed to take off the top, but the back would not budge. We also couldn't take off the front panel under the door. When Brent tried to put all the screws back into the dryer, something inside had shifted so none of them would line up. After several hours, we gave up and I thought about going to buy a new one.

On Saturday afternoon, Brent returned determined to find those lost screws and figure out what had shifted inside the dryer. After some Internet research, we figured out that all those screws Brent had removed went to the drum assembly, which had indeed slipped. We figured out how to take the bottom panel off (also thanks to a diagram on the Internet) and retrieve the cord screws. While I held up the drum assembly (quite heavy), Brent got all the screws back in, got the cord attached and, amazingly, it runs perfectly. Whew. I was so excited that we got it to work, I totally put out of my mind how completely stupid we were. Never hire us to be your handymen. On the other hand, Brent rocks. He saved me hundreds of dollars and my sanity.

As for the Macbook, it's so beautiful I want to take it to bed every night. One glitch: my old DSL modem wasn't compatible, but AT&T is kindly sending a new one (for free) this week. I also got a wireless Mighty Mouse from Apple and I've got my eyeball on a wi-fi printer.

Just as I suspected, I haven't written a single poem since my creative burst back in early November after returning from London. Hope to remedy that this weekend. I have some images knocking around my head.