Happy New Year

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I can’t really post today, because house, cats, family, book. Nothing bad, just posting not happening. What I meant to post was best and worst of 2014.

Makes puppy dog eyes. Ya’ll could get started in comments!

116 thoughts on “Happy New Year”

  3. Telling the minions to go play with themselves never ends well, Sarah dear.
    But go ahead, shirk your duties as Evil Queen of Evil and spend your time with the family and book writing. We’ll just sit here in the room of infinite corners and sulk.
    Feeble attempts at sarcasm aside, have a very happy New Year, you and your men, and to twist a very old saying, write when you’ve done work.

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        2. If she leaves us alone too long, she’ll come back and find us beta testing a pizza delivery system that excludes drones in favor of rail guns or trebuchets.

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          2. I’m still in favor of modifying Doc’s (of The Whiteboard fame) instant pizza transporter with a touch of time machine so we can get all our pizza BEFORE we order it.

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              2. “You can’t eat it, it’s just a Potential pizza.”
                “What do we have to do in the future to make it materialize?”
                “I have no idea.”
                “Then you might as well wave a towel at it.”

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          4. I don’t know about rail guns or trebuchets for pizza (possibly calzones), but a modified skeet launcher might work.

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  4. *hack, hack, cough, hack*

    Best: I finally managed to catch up on my sleep.

    Worst: because I got a really nasty cold that knocked me flat on my back for most of the week before Christmas, and even now I’m so exhausted for No Good Reason that I keep falling asleep still holding the phone and setting up the streaming radio shortly after laying the last kid down. DearHusband thinks it’s kind of cute, since I usually manage to hit the sleep timer button so he doesn’t have Catholic radio running half the night and just don’t manage to set the phone back on the bedstand.

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  6. Have a very happy New Year, and may this year be better than the last.

    Thank you for providing hours of reading pleasure with your books, and even more here and at MGC with your thoughts. You are an ever-renewing source of entertainment, insight, and inspiration.

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    2. Hugs for you. After observing my my mother in law, I think my wife’s aunt was right; the first year appears to be the hardest. Wish we could make things easier for you and hurt less.

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    9. *hugs*

      You’re a fine person and a smart one, Cyn. Also, virtual distance-type hugs, too, because *everybody* but me seems to be gettin’ sick these days. I don’t want to take the chance that I am a carrier!

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  9. Best group of Loons on the Interwebs … The Huns and Hoydens here at ATH!!! (tied with the miffed group over at Mad Genius Club)
    Best Hostess is, of course, Milady Hoyt. (also tied with her cohorts over yonder at MGC)

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              1. ‘Cause the wife, when not telling me I’m like The Tick, tells me I look like the zoo’s gorilla that was named Goliath (he was about my age, but died a couple of years ago). Now, Goliath was a Silverback, and this is a Mountain gorilla, but close enough for grins.

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                2. former supervisor called me SilverBack because A: it was chilly in the warehouse wearing a grey sweatshirt over several layers of other clothes, and B: I can be a tad grumpy from time to time (okay.. most of the time) and my fuse is somewhat short (hey, it’s been years since I choked someone … and he’s lucky that was all I did as he hit me in the head with a fricken rock)

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                  1. At the YMCA camp where my dad worked, some idiot decided to start throwing rocks at me as I rowed a boat across the creek. Once I got to the other side, I engaged to prove to him the error of his ways, by proving that I had more range. Once I convinced him of this, he got outraged that I would be so crass as to throw rocks BACK at him.

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                    1. The guy thought it was really funny right up until I had him by the throat. Sorry, but you hit me unawares on the eyebrow with a rock a bit smaller than a golf ball and expect me to find it humorous? Be happy I didn’t rip your throat out.

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  11. *delurk*

    Puppy dog eyes? Count yourself lucky you have cats and not one of these to show you how puppy dog eyes really work:

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        2. My sweet Foxy gives me the look of — you were taught to share, I know you were taught to share, I would really like it if you would share with me… and so forth. She’ll eat her food and stare at mine politely. lol

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      1. Reminds me of when I was a kid and we moved from the hills to WAY up in the mountain. We spent the whole summer building a house to live in, which we barely got up in time for snow. We hadn’t had time to cut a supply of firewood, so we had to dig up fallen timber from under the snow to burn. We hadn’t had time to insulate the house. The place never got above about 50 degrees from the first fall of snow, so everyone except mom and dad would end up sleeping fully clothed in bed with at least one dog under the covers for warmth.

        I miss living in the high-up hills.

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  12. Well, I did more writing this year than any in recent memory. I didn’t get into the Baen Fantasy Award contest, but hopefully I can next time. Also, I finally attracted the ire of a Certain Troll, for better or for worse.

    Not bad.

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          1. Heck, all you need to do is google any big name Baen author and you’ll uncover angry lefties ranting about them.

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        2. You found the wholesaler he gets adjectives from? And then found that he stiffed the delivery driver the tip even after he carried all those big adjectives down into the basement and stacked them for him?

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  13. Best: no major family illnesses, and that all illnesses proved to be annoying but benign after testing.

    Worst: 2014 – The Year of the Dentist *doom laden sound effect here*

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  14. Happy New Year to all of you. I’m glad to be able to come here every day and see what you have to say.

    BTW, I’m insufficiently accomplished to be in the Evil League of Evil. Is there a Mischievous League of Mischief that I could join?

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  15. Best; the slow motion Marx Brothers train wreck of the Obama administration finally got so ludicrous that the mainstream media couldn’t totally ignore it any longer. This has caused my smug, Liberal in-laws to get VERY quiet around me.

    Worst; the certain knowledge that they have learned precisely NOTHING from this, and will vote for the next good-looking schlemiel with a nice Liberal patter who comes bouncing down the pike. Really, JFK has much to answer for. And that goes double for the Cult of St. Kennedy ™.

    *sigh*

    Best; My poor Father-in-law, whi was slowly losing himself to trama induced dementia, was freed in Jan of last year. He’s free. He isn’t trapped anymore.

    Worst; helping my Lady deal with the guilt of being RELIEVED.

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    1. Yes, the guilt of feeling relief is a tough one. Hope she gets through that soon, at least to the point that it’s bearable. I’m sure it will never go away entirely.

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    2. “Worst; helping my Lady deal with the guilt of being RELIEVED.”

      We went through this with my FIL. It was cancer, not dementia, but still slow and hard. The relief is not at the loss, but at the lifting of the mental and physical burden that rests on those who do the ongoing care of the infirm loved one. Nothing to feel guilty about there. It’s also a signal to get oneself checked out, as caregivers usually stint on self-care. Also a measure of relief knowing that the loved one is no longer in agony. Again, nothing shameful there, think of how relieved a parent feels when the child’s fever finally starts to come down, same principle only more so. If it helps.

      “This has caused my smug, Liberal in-laws to get VERY quiet around me.”

      And I hope you are heaping coals by being ever so kind to them whilst smiling toothily?

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    3. Both my mom’s parents had Alzheimer’s before they died. Yes, I’ll miss them, but I’m very glad they’re no longer being tortured by that horrendous disease. And I know they wouldn’t want us to beat ourselves up because our lives are a little easier too. They’d want us to get busy living a good life. What would trouble them is if we were wasting our lives on stupid selfish crap.

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  16. Best: baby baby baby!

    Worst: Huge load of stress from varying sources (some pregnancy-related) and a huge load of awful falling on the heads of friends who deserve better.

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  17. Happy New Year!

    Best: House on the Market for 8 years finally sold! vs Moved to a warm dry climate vs lost 30 pounds

    Worst: Cutting Umbilical Cord on 19 year old daughter vs First Turkey Day and Christmas without any family visitors vs watching my country decline even more

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  18. This was neither a great year, nor a bad one.

    I start 2015 employed, which is better than the last 2 years, but it’s a contract with Comcast.

    And I’ve got more money in the bank than last year, but the CC debt isn’t much better. At least we’ve got a plan on that going forward. Until the next crisis.

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  19. Kinda on-topic: The draft of _Language of the Land_, a steampunk-ish fantasy that stemmed in part from my post about place names, is done. *Sags back in chair, brain numb* So now I can get that WWI book done, and some history stuff that’s due in a week.

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    1. Shields up, Red Alert!

      Oh..ummm…

      She said “delurking” not “decloaking.” Stand down. Carry on. Happy New Year!

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  21. Worst: my heart forgetting how to work. Have to spend another couple months on a portable defibrillator (which I rigged to a shoulder holster harness to keep it from clotheslining me everywhere I went) before the doctors decide if I need a permanent one. (I probably will, and intend to go the full Chaney, eye lasers, the works). Of course I run the risk of randomly tasering myself with the damn thing but that beats falling over dead.

    Best, the Obama implosion and the GOP landslide (muted somewhat by the GOP quisling leadership but one thing at a time). My wife and new home, new Texan friends, finding this site. Adopting four cats with four separate psychoses.

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  22. Another nomination for Best; Despite involving us in every possible third world mess, Obama has not YET managed to fumble badly enough to get us into a large war, either by pissing off somebody serious (like China) or by failing to stop an really bug terror attach (thereby getting us hip deep in the sandbox for the next half century).

    Proving once again that God looks after fools and drunks.

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    1. I strongly suspect that after the next major terror attack the sandbox will become the glass parking lot. If a Democrat is in office due to a hissy fit. If a Republican is in, due to a rational assesment of our ability to conduct a multi-decade war.

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      1. Frankly, I doubt it, just because probably half of conservatives would even be very hesitant to use one. They’d be all for bombing a place into the stone age, but for nukes I think we’d have to have successful attacks killing tens of thousands each in at least half a dozen cities simultaneously before I see that happening. But that’s just my opinion.

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  23. Worst of 2014? Near death experiences, sudden debt overtime, one-two-three-*five* jobs makes Dan a dull boy (and tax returns interesting things), losing relatives, and most importantly, not enough time to read.

    Best of 2014? Books (good ones), friendships I will treasure, Death having poor aim, learning new things, warmth and safety, pasta, and low gas prices. Oh, and world-type things turning out better than I thought. Also, places like this that make me smile. *grin*

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  24. One o’ the reasons this place is so great … a “too busy … discuss among yeselves” post gets a “paltry” 100+ comments on a holiday when folks tend to be doing other things. I can’t see how you folks can C4C as my inbox would collapse from the volume of emails!

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  26. Worst: Mom with Alzheimer’s falls and breaks her hip. Tempered by the fact that she has very short and easy recovery. For the most part.

    Best: After 15 years of marriage, finally getting a honeymoon in Ireland and Brussels.

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