My bedroom curtains billow out in long, white tails in the soft breeze coming in the windows. The air is warm, but not overly so; and not humid. I go outside in my new-on-my-birthday fleecy flip flops with no jacket or sweater. The grass is green. The sun is shining and its rays are warm. I glance over at our pool and think about taking a swim.

But…WAIT!

There is something not quite right about this picture I am painting. The pool is still closed up for winter and the trees are bare of leaves. Even though at 67 degrees it feels like Spring, it isn’t. It’s only January. My neighbor told me her spring bulbs are coming up and her forsythia bush has a bloom on it.

My mother-in-law called yesterday morning to, as she put it, rub salt in an already sore wound. It was snowing at her house. Big, fat, fluffly flakes. It had covered the ground and the bushes. However, they live in Las Cruces, New Mexico! They hardly ever get any snow. Has the whole world turned upside down?

My new flag looks kind of silly now.

From Atari’s PONG to Nintendo’s Wii. That’s our video game history together. Do you remember when Pong first came out back in the late 70s? The very first video game of our time to become widely popular, it entertained us with its simple table tennis premise. We had one. I think Rick had it before we were even married. If not for him I would probably never have started down the video game addiction road.

We got our first Nintendo while living in France. We didn’t have much in the way of television to watch that was in English, so we played lots of video games. It was something we could do together; either playing against each other or watching the other person play out a game. It really is almost as much fun watching as playing yourself. I can still remember one of our favorites: Star Tropics. Later, back in the States, we bought the Nintendo 64. About two years ago we upgraded to the Nintendo Game Cube since games were not being made for the 64 anymore. We spent many cozy hours in our cabin while the wind raged outside and the snow fell while we played video games.

Our friends, mostly all with children, thought we were a bit juvenile. After all, video games were what their children were playing! It’s pretty bad when you go over to a friend’s house and end up having a conversation with their kids about how to beat the big boss in SuperMario. Almost embarrassing. But it didn’t stop us. We liked the game formats that Nintendo offered [Mario, Zelda]. We tried getting a PlayStation one year and just weren’t happy with it. We got an XBox the year after they came out and still have it today. There are a lot of violent shoot-em-up games for both of the other formats. But we don’t play those kinds of games. We tend to play the adventure, puzzle solving kind. Sure, I get to wield my sword and kill bad guys as a dungeon-going elf, but I also have to solve some pretty ingenious puzzles along the way.

Our newest and latest venture has been into a whole new world. The one of truly interactive game play of the Nintendo Wii. Now when I wield my sword as Link I have to make sure there aren’t any objects in my way that I can knock over. I have to make sure my control is firmly attached to my wrist via a safety strap, otherwise I might get too, uhm…shall we say…carried away and accidentally throw my remote through our new tv. Why you ask? Because instead of just pushing a control stick, now Link mimics my hand actions. What I do; he does. I swing my arm as if to slash with my sword; so does he. It’s magic. When Rick and I bowl we go through all the motions of real bowling. Amazingly enough, I have the same habits of how and where the ball meets the alley as I do in real life. The golf game is so much fun! And yes, you’ve got the idea now, you have to really stand there and swing your remote as if it were a golf club. When Rick and I play doubles in tennis the dogs all stay out of our way. It’s a wonder we don’t whack each other with our ‘rackets.’ But, again, it’s great fun and we’re getting exercise at the same time. We had sore arms and shoulders for days when we first started playing. We even had to open windows to cool down our sweat-soaked bodies. Over Christmas we even got my sister to bowl with us and I don’t think she’s ever played a video game in her life. She beat me! My mother, although we couldn’t entice her into playing with us, was thoroughly entertained by our antics.

I am now heavily immersed in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I think I’ve played around four different Zelda games over the years, but this one is the best. Getting used to new controls is a bit tricky and I don’t always make the jumps. But I’m getting the hang of it. Rick has different strengths, so he’s helped me over a few rough spots by taking over the controls for me. He plays along with me and we solve the puzzles together. It’s a together time. We are eagerly anticipating the new Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 to be released soon.

Video games are not just for kids. They improve your hand-to-eye coordination, keep your brain sharp through problem solving and lend a healthy dose of fantasy to your life. If you’ve never indulged, I highly recommend it. Go ahead, what have you got to lose?

The sunrise this morning was gorgeous. Above are three separate photos stitched together in Photo Elements as a panorama.

One year ago we were still living in Colorado and waiting to find out if Rick had gotten the job here in New Jersey. We really didn’t know quite what the future had in store for us. Our plans were to sell our house in Ft. Collins and semi-retire to our mountain cabin. We had already installed satellite internet service and had contracted with a company to build a garage in the spring. If we had moved to the cabin we would be pretty snowed in right now under about 4 feet of snow! Instead, this year finds us comfortably settled in New Jersey with unseasonably warm temperatures.

One day we will live out our dream of spending a few years at the cabin. But for now we are just enjoying the newest chapter in our lives.

From the time we found out in early January that we really were moving, to house-hunting in mid-February, to our move in mid-April, the first part of last year is just a blur of packing and planning. It all happened so fast, and before we knew it we were here. It was a good year. My only regrets are the loss of two dogs, Milli and Bode, and the fact that our house is still not sold.

We love living here. Rick loves his new job and I love the small town atmosphere. And how many people can say that bears are daily visitors to their yard? Just this morning while the dogs were out I heard frantic barking. I looked out the window to see two black forms running away from our fence. For a moment I thought the dogs had somehow gotten out. No…it was the cubs…wait…there goes Ursa right behind them. Ho hum, just the bears.

People are friendly and welcoming. Why do people in the Midwest and West think that Easterners are cold and unfriendly? I don’t know how many times we heard that when we told people we were moving East. Not true at all! In fact, we’ve found people to be so much more friendly than in Colorado.

In the year ahead I would like to see us finding a sitter or kennel for the dogs so that we can take more small trips. I would like our house to sell SOON! We want to do some small things to our house here, such as add a decent closet, change the kitchen countertops, maintain all the decks, and rip out carpeting and tile and put in wood floors instead. We can’t go ahead with any of that until we are free of our other house. I would like to expand on my knitting skills and learn the Tarot better. I feel the urge to do something creative, but as yet I don’t know exactly what.

This blog is something I didn’t plan on. It just happened. Blogging has added new dimensions to my life, as well as many new blogger friends. Thank you all for your support! Reading your blogs have made me think, reflect, and take note of many things. So thank you all for your blogs! I wish blogs had existed back when we lived in Europe. So much to write about then. I still have some old newsletters that we sent out to family and friends when we lived in France and I’ve thought about resurrecting them here. What do you think? It would be something different anyway and make me scrounge for past photos to scan in. No digital images back in the early 90s! I could take you on a European tour! Anyone interested in joining me?

I know I’m supposed to be writing something profound to start off the New Year with. Words would not come today, sorry.

I’ve retired Bode as my blog header for now and am starting fresh. I took this photo of this red leaf today while out for a walk. I think somehow it got left behind. Notice that the shadow of its own branch is visible through the leaf itself.