Videos of the munchkins

Hi everyone,

Here are a few videos of Lauren and Kyla (AKA Munchkin and Pipsqueak) from Christmas and from my visit to Cary last weekend. Enjoy!

- A.C.

Debt Clock

I added a link to the US Debt clock the other day.

When I added the link, our debt was $9.1 trillion.

I felt comfortable at that time "hard-coding" my name for the link as "$9.1 TRILLION +++".

Today I had to change the name of the link.

It's amazing to me, too, because I was talking to a guy at work the other day and he really does not believe that this debt belongs to him. He feels like he didn't sign a paper to borrow it, so it isn't his. That kind of blows me away, because if you use the Census Bureau's number for the population of the United States, every individual in the country owes $30,000. That's $100,000 per family.

Am I the only one who thinks this is scary?

MLK Jr. Weekend

I had a nice, relaxing weekend. On Friday my friend Padma came down to introduce her dog Audrey to my brother's dog, Sydney. Padma embarks on a Volunteer trip to Nepal in a couple of weeks, and during the 8 weeks that she'll be gone, I will be watching Audrey at my house in February for 3. We wanted to make sure the dogs knew each other. Actually, Padma wanted to introduce them. Now I know why.

Things might have gone better. :) Oh well! We have a plan for getting through it. I'll probably have to be careful to keep the dogs apart most of the time, but we'll make it through! Since I'm not an animal lover by nature, this won't exactly be Shangri-La, but I'm happy to help out because this trip Padma is taking is going to be INCREDIBLE.

Aunt Crazy, Jackie and Cezarina

Yesterday I went up to Northern VA for the afternoon and had lunch with some ladies I worked with at the Census Bureau 12 years ago! (The gentlemen were supposed to show up, but Keith has 2 children under 3 and Rufus has a daughter who is a Wizards cheerleader, so he bailed on us and headed to the game!) It was great catching up with Jackie and Cezarina.

Flourless Chocolate Waffle ... yum

Last night was my first of 6 Adobe Photoshop classes at the Hand Workshop. I loved it! The instructor was fantastic, and I have learned a lot already. This is going to be FUN.

Sooo busy!

I really pride myself in having gotten out of the rat race alive and settled into a more stable, predictable job. This job, however, has NOT been stable and predictable lately! And I have learned that when you are spoiled with a stable and predictable occupation, you tend to plan a LOT during your off hours! So when said stable and predictable job becomes busy and unpredictable, boy, things get WACKY!!

So anyway, I am working through something called "yearend close" in the Tax Department at the Electric Company. It's when they take they close the books on the billions and billions of dollars throughout the year. Unfortunately, the Electric Company doesn't use TurboTax, so here I am.

I do have some pictures, however, from when I took over the gifts given by my friend Mo, her office, our other friends (as substitutes for her birthday gifts!) and my family. Here they are!

Yay and Big Awut (background) watch Deng, Duk, and Adeng celebrate Sudanese-style.

Peter is very happy about the Target gift card from my sister!

Nyabol looks very pretty with her new hairdo (compliments of her uncles) and her new clothes.

Ayak holds up her new pajamas while little Awut balances Muloh on one knee and checks out her new jacket.

Twins Anger and Achan watch their Mom look through pictures that I brought, taken of the family over the previous 2 years.