and now, for 2005

The Tom, Laur, and Helcat Visit of 2004:

Number of full days off Anna had: 2 (woHOOOO!!!)
Number of rooms which housed 4 people for a week: 1
Number of trips to HEB during the week: 10
Number of trips to HEB if you count the times Anna went to work: 14
Liters of Dr. Pepper consumed: 6
Meals Tom cooked for us: 5 (breakfast tacos twice, tacos, quesadillas, and fried chicken)
Amount of broccoli purchased for one week: 1 pound
Amount of broccoli consumed: None. Nada. Zilch. As in, I have a pound of broccoli in my fridge.
Number of channels my previously lifeless television now receives thanks to Tom sticking a paper clip in the antenna hole: 5 (Do you see a MVP of the week emerging here?)

I had such a good time with you guys, like, poetry. Let's go climb trees in Zilker Park at midnight again soon.

Should I take you down like Christmas lights at the end of December--
It was cold last week, and now it's warm again, and the season of my grief for you is over.
My lungs and my palms and the arches of my feet were howling at me, but they've quieted down:
ENOUGH! Enough. enough, enough.
There was a strange spell on this past year:
Anything you think you lost will come back to you again.