Today is the last day of 2003. As I sit here in Las Vegas writing this, I am thinking of all the many things that have changed not only my little speck of the world but the entire world. This year is really showing its age. I'm sure that it will be glad when it can finally retire. It would be nice if 2003 can finish its limited time for this world in a quiet and peaceful manner but that isn't the way things look like they're going to happen. I look forward to a bright and shiny New Year, 2004. I recall that I had similar feelings at about this time last year. I watched the ball fall at Time's Square last year here in Las Vegas. I watched the fireworks on the Las Vegas Strip from my window at Sam's Town. I never imagined all the changes this world would experience. Some good changes, some bad. I toasted the New Year in 2003. My oldest daughter taught me how to blog. My youngest daughter got married. I'm building a new house. My son has applied to go to a college in Minnesota. I plan to toast the New Year in 2004. Do you have any idea what will happen in 2004? I'm not sure I care to know at this point but I do know from experience that I'll be surprised. Surprises aren't always bad and they aren't always good but I prefer to be surprised. My good surprises outweighed my bad surprises in 2003. I prefer to greet this shiny New Year with hope and positive expectation rather then dwell in the negative.

From Times Square to the Las Vegas Strip and California's Rose Parade, police were rolling out unprecedented security measures triggered by a hike in the national terrorism alert to orange, its second-highest level. Officials nationwide said there were no specific threats to traditional gatherings and urged people to go forward with celebrations.

In New York, workers sealed manhole Happy New Year everyone! At the midnight hour here in Las Vegas, I will raise my glass and drink a toast not only to the New Year but to the past. One can do nothing to change the past. One can only do what they are willing to do to affect the future.

Today's Little Bit of Trivia will be deferred until I get back to Arizona and home. Instead I thought I'd share some quotes that I've read that seem to fit for this last day of 2003. You may note that these quotes are all from women. I make no apologies for this and none are necessary. My book just fell open to this page titled Wise Women. If the book had fallen open to a page titled Wise Men...?

"You can have it all. You just can't have it all at once." Oprah Winfrey

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that would not have a single talent left and could say, 'I used everything that you gave me.' Erma Bombeck

"The only time a woman really changes a man is when he is a baby." Natalie Wood

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right." Mary Kay Ash

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." Beverly Sills

"I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door--or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter what." Joan Rivers

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." Maya Angelou

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." Eleanor Roosevelt

"The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not our circumstances." Martha Washington

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you till it seems you could not hold on a minute longer, never give it up--for that is just the place and the time that the tide will turn." Harriet Beecher Stowe

"Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever." Isak Dinesen