Yesterday I discovered when I woke up that "Drat! It's St. Nicholas Day!" I didn't get the coal I was expecting. In fact, I got a very nice clip booklight I've been wanting. The drat because I completely forgot! Poor Rich didn't get anything from me.

It was 36 years since I got my engagement ring. Rich had introduced me to the concept of St. Nicholas Day the year before. On the 5th we went to a basketball game and he had my ring, a third-carat solitaire in a Tiffany setting, which is still beautiful. (Oh, I believe Wyoming won, too, but I really don't remember. I spent the rest of the evening looking at my left hand twinkling away.)
Then on the 8th we had a "formal betrothal", a promise in Church that we would work toward getting married, would take it seriously, etc. The ring was blessed. Some friends stood up for us. It was a beautiful ceremony, being tried out (something like the Jews of Jesus' time), and apparently was dropped. But WE got to do it, anyway. Rich left at the end of January after he graduated, and was only able to visit once, in the spring, before our September wedding.

Roni pointed me at this. My initial thought was that I needed a bigger one, but now I think maybe one is being used against me.

Last Friday Santa's helpers came to Sam's school and gave out lovely presents, so when I went over to tutor on Monday I asked where they had come from. The school seems to be the special Christmas project of the McGeorge School of Law. What a wonderful thing. I hope they also participate the rest of the year with mentoring, etc. When I sign in, there's usually a guy who's come by to mentor during lunch. The more community involvement, the better.

It's amazing what a day and night out in the weather does to a popcorn string! They certainly look better on the first day! I have two out now. Last night Rich was finally shelling the walnuts I brought home from the monastery, and I was sitting there stringing popcorn while football raged in the background. Very companionable.
I finally refilled the hummingbird feeder. Since it had been three weeks or so, I thought perhaps they'd have abandoned me, but I saw some when I went out on some errands.

We've had a couple of terrorists planning to blow up some propane tanks in Elk Grove and disrupt the Government. You know, I'm not as afraid of Y2K per se as I am of the apocalyptic people around it. It turns out we know one of these guys. He was an assistant Scout leader for our troop when our older son was in it, when we had a couple of other weirdos also in leadership positions. (I'm trying to miss Websearchers. Suffice it to say these other guys ended up in jail for child abuse, that they belong to a group that has criminally weird ideas about what young children want, and that they should never have been anywhere near any children's group.) Our Council wised up after that and started imposing much stricter rules on leaders, and the troop was saved by some really dedicated adults, including Rich. Anyway, this guy wasn't involved with that, but he disappeared for awhile when it happened. I see now that he may have been worried about his parole. Rich says he's not very bright and a follower, but I don't see Tim McVeigh winning any IQ prizes, either.
I figure to know some interesting people when working with the homeless or the abused children, but with Boy Scouts??

Speaking of Millenial panic: how 'bout Seattle? Wally was on the spot and took a lot of great pictures.

Leave it to Bill Clinton and his crew of masterminds to make Pat Buchanan
                  look like a statesman. That television entertainer and sporadic presidential
                  candidate sounds like a far-seeing prophet when he denounces this
                  administration for trading with the enemy of freedom--and on the enemy's
                  terms.
                      Even a blind hog will find an acorn now and then, and this time Mr.
                  Buchanan's vitriolic rhetoric reads like a simple recitation of the facts when
                  he says this bunch in the White House is selling out freedom.
                                    ----Paul Greenberg, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 12/3