we spent a quaint nye at home with the family.  my dad was supposed to spend nye beside my grandfather and i'm glad to announce he was finally discharged from the hospital after more than 2 months!  30 minutes before midnight, dad calls us to let us know he's coming home...yay!

on new years day, we visited my grandfather at his home.  i haven't been to his place in years, mostly because there's no need for me to go when he has a caretaker at home, and i usually see him at restaurants for lunch and dinner.  it was nice to see that he can finally speak because he can't eat/drink by mouth because he has a g-tube that goes straight into his stomach for nutrition.  therefore, his throat was dry and wasn't able to speak when he was hospitalized.  i'm so happy to see him recovering and well .  it made my new years.

what topped it off was visiting my old neighborhood/home that i grew up in.  my parents bought the house back in 1977 for $40k and 31 years later, it's now for sale at more than 10x the price they originally bought it for.  anyway, we saw old neighbors, caught up with them and found out through conversation that the owner who purchased the house from us only lived there for a year.  the next owner rented it out to several different families.  the gate was opened, so we were able to walk onto the property and take peeks here 'n there from the outside.  it looks exactly the same, they did some minor things to it.  i joked about purchasing it back from the bank (it was repossessed by the last owner) for kicks.  my, how quickly those childhood memories flooded back.

i bought myself two watches for christmas/birthday.  i received the package today and haven't decided which one of the two to keep.  patent leather or mesh?

last night, i ordered a digicam with a gift card given to me by the company.  can't wait for it to arrive!  i've been thinking about getting a new one for a while, eversince my parents were about to leave for their trip to asia.  they took my old one with them, so i was left with none.  had i bought it earlier, i would've shelled out a couple of benjamins and had them take the new digicam;  good thing i held off on buying the new camera, especially because the company surprised us with these gift cards. 

i was doing research online about two months ago one night and found a device i could benefit from.  i talked to my physician about it and we recently got an approved referral for them.  i went in for a visit to get fitted/sized, so expect to have them in my possession soon!   

damn nausea kicked in last night and again tonight...