out with the old, in with the new...

New Year's Eve was nice and mellow...small party and Cory joined Eric on guitar for a midnight rendition of Auld Lang Syne which, of course, made me all misty-eyed because I get sentimental everytime I hear the line "raise a cup of kindess dear."

It was just the right way to help 2005 shuffle its way into the past.

And 2006 started off with a fun and friendly wallop of rain and bluster and pumpkins and good friends. We started with a noon lunch at Los Jarritos (veggie burrito and veggie tostado) and then headed down to the swollen river for Launching Day 2006. This is the tradition, started by the Ghoulies and a few friends, wherein you launch your Halloween-era pumpkin into the river - after writing messages on it. You don't have to hold onto your Halloween pumpkin though. We didn't have one ourselves but managed to save a small slug-infested pumpkin from the side of our house. Others brought pumpkins and gourds and tiny lemons.

In all, about 2 dozen people showed up to officially launch 2006 - even Launching Day co-founder Eric B. made it at the last second. Our tiny, holey, "Little Buddy" pumpkin even floated and we walked along the bike path to follow its journey down the swollen Sacramento River.



Best of all, the rain did not start up until the exact moment that we got into our cars and closed the doors. We thought that maybe next year we should eat lunch at the Virgin Sturgeon, follow it with the launch and then drive over to the Sutterville Landing to track the progress.

After launching we headed over to Old Sac where we bought hot coffees and chewy taffy candy and perused all the half-off sales at the tacky shops.

Dinner was Zelda's and then back to watch "24 Hour Party People"

Really, as I've learned in life, it's not the new year without some extra-cheesy spinach pesto pizza. I hope the rest of this year is even half as nice - and filled with times spent with good friends - as yesterday turned out to be.

Today was more mellow - I never even left the house, but only listened to the rain pounding against the side of the house as I tackled various projects. I did pause long enough to finally watch Bring it On (I said brrr, it's cold in here ...), which was quite enjoyable.

Right now I'm listening to the new Kate Bush (love it) and thinking about how I have to get the coffee ready for the morning and wishing I had just a few more days off but then again happy that life will, once again, find a rhythm.....