I am alone.

It's a slick and rainy night and, to make matters worse, I'm watching a scary movie.

What??!?

Uhhhh.......... What's that noise?

It's coming from the....... fireplace!!!?!!

Oh, no, something's scratching metal with little razor-sharp nails trying to claw its way out of our fireplace!!

Thank heavens the flue is closed --- tightly, I hope --- I pray. I had planned on having a roaring fire to kill the chill ................... Can you imagine if I had innocently opened up that portal to our messy living room? A room now littered with Christmas storage boxes and a bare tree! And little old me............ thankfully, not bare.

Holy moly, Batman! It could be a bat. Or an owl, or a blue-black raven, or a crazed squirrel! Whatever it is, it sounds big and mad. Really big.

The hubby's going to have fun in the morning. Yes, sir, when he gets back into town we're going to have some fun chasing something dirty around the living room. Much more fun than I'm having tonight as I jump with every thump coming from the darken fireplace.

Oh, lordy .................. I pray those glass doors will hold through morning........ Amen.

Over the holidays I watched the TV commercials with interest.  if you read me often you know I'm a fan of the reasoning behind some of the commercials. To me, this year's easy winner was the Pampers commercial with the sleeping babies!!! How could anyone not resist the beautiful pudgy little faces in slumber while that lovely female voice softly sang "Silent Night?"

Can you even remember any other holiday-oriented TV commercials and, better yet, what they were selling??? I laugh at the complaining Cavemen, but --- come on --- who can resist sleeping babies?

On another commercial note, I've seen the first ads enticing lovers to buy the KY Touch Body Warming Massage Oil and Personal Lubricant for their sweet Valentines!!! I was hoping I'd be first to say --- Happy Valentine's Day! --- but this sexy marketing department beat me to it.

Have you noticed recently how President Bush is starting to look like Clinton by the time Clinton left office? Six years of the presidency has given poor Bush puffy eyes, mostly gray hair, a depressed tenor in his voice, and much, much more! And he hasn't even been impeached!

It's sad to watch how being President of the free world eats away at a healthy human being. I'm sure I don't want that job ---- one of universal fame and lack of beauty sleep --- but I'm glad someone is willing to do it and make the tough decisions about the life and death of strangers.

As the presidential hopefuls have started lining up to run for office, I keep wondering what the winner will face and how that smiling face will change by the end of the first four-year term. The weight of the presidency crushes even the strongest jawline.

The day after Christmas, my husband and I celebrated another wedding anniversary. Forty-one years ago we were young and inexperienced in commitment, but we still stepped into a very good marriage that has endured. Marriage is blindly agreeing to face the unknown together --- no matter what lies ahead --- fortunately, we have enjoyed more joys than sorrows.

I've always thought that marriage was an unbelievably brave thing for people to do. Swearing to the world that you will love someone forever seems like an impossible task, yet it is done every day. Some survive and some don't --- for whatever reason. We have survived the ups and downs, sometimes laughing at our mutual pack of whoever asked for a divorce first got the kids! Now that the daughters and grown and gone that threat has no meaning, so now we smile at ourselves trying to gracefully survive in an aging body. Marriage AND old age is not for sissies!!!

Each year my husband and I celebrate our brave decision made at the beginning of our adulthood. These days we quietly celebrate and look forward to whatever plans God hopefully has made for us in 2007.

Our song:

UNCHAINED MELODY

Righteous Brothers