Christmas was stressful.

RO has a sister with stage 4 cancer. Two days before Christmas she collapsed and was sent to the hospital. She has since recovered, but the family is very worried about her. RO and I visited her a couple times over the holidays.

We also took a Christmas morning hike around Cougar Mountain and by the Coal Creak falls with two of RO's Bear 411 friends.

Christmas evening we hung out at RO's sister's place.

The store... The store... It's doing ok. Not well enough to pay all our creditors, but enough for rent, utilities and few other bills. Better than the old location. But not enough for a pay check.

Not bad for being open three weeks.

Since we've opened, three stores in the mall have closed. It reminds us how hard the recession has hit small business and retail. RO and I hope that we can hold things together until things pick up. We are struggling. We have a few angry creditors. But we are holding on.

Fun weekend.

Saturday evening was holiday party for my day job. They put on an excellent party this year. The space was interesting. They had decent entertainment. They had great service this year.

The service made a big difference. In the past, you had to wait in lines for drinks and food. This year waiters were constantly circulating through the crowd so I could spend all my time talking to my co-workers instead of waiting in line.

There was a henna artist at the party. RO had a henna dragon drawn on his head. It looks great.

After the work party, we went to J&J's Christmas party. We didn't arrive till late. Still, there where many people there. We had a good time chatting with everyone.

Tuesday, Clem and Bates had the neighbors over for drinks. It was great to see them.

Bates kept the alcohol flowing. Too much so. RO and I were drinking scotch. Bates kept walking by and filling our glasses. We asked him to stop, but he responed, "Oh, I have a sure fire fix for hangovers. Just take two asprins while you are drinking!" Within minutes he returned with asprin for us.

RO and I both got sick. We both thew up before going to bed. No hangover though.

I'm too old to drink that much.

At my day job, Andie has quit. She probably wasn't fired. She was very smart about managing her money and she joined two years before I did; back when when Dot Com bubble was churning out new millionaires every day.

RO has been working very long and hard at the store. I worry about him. I hope he can keep up the pace.

The store is getting better looking every day.

My day job-- an old co-work is having problems. He's been a marginal performer for years. This was fine in a good economy, but now that times are rough, the marginal are being pruned. He's had an offical warning from his manager. Technically he may have enough time to turn his performance around. In practice, this is the kiss of dead. He is fairly high up the ladder, past the stage where he is learning and well into the part of his career where he should be a consistently strong performer.

He's manager and I talked about this. I'm going to give him a "I heard something bad through the grape vine. I think it's in your best interests to find another job. Your boss cares for you and is pulling for you, but people who think otherwise are paying attention and speaking up."