Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Are you insane?

I've had a tough couple of weeks. Every day it seems I'm supposed to be in at least 2 places at the same time, and it's been challenging juggling it all. Plus the Boy's basketball team is having a tournament this week, so I never know until the night before what time their game is going to be. I've been flaking out all over the place, but I'm doing the best I can. That's all I can say.

Did I mention that the van went down with both a bad starter and head gasket? It's been hard juggling these things with only one vehicle, too. Did I mention that these repairs will be expensive?

I got upset with my Boss last week, when I found out something he'd withheld from me. I thought it over, and ultimately decided that I withold things from him too.

Our workplace had their company party last week at the Atheneaum, which was v. delicious. Steak over polenta and broccoli rabe with a little blue cheese. Sat by Moreanne, my favorite. Let my Boss off hook, told him he's still my second most favorite boss ever (sadly, this is true). Text messaging the Boy over forgotten jersey crisis. Left a little early to take it to him. Missed dessert, but was v. full from steak (& wine!)

The Girl's class had their party next day (Thurs) and played present game. Very cute kids. The Girl likes techy things, so she ended up with a voice changer thing, even tho she already has one.

Friday I played tennis finished present packing with K. We loaded the presents into boxes, and he was helping me get the boxes ready to go out. On one box, he covered the addresses already on the box with 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper, which looked a little tacky, but he didn't want to wait for me to find labels. Then he wrote the address, and he has terrible handwriting anyway. But the marker he was using ran out, so he went over it again with a darker marker, but you could still see where he'd written with the lighter marker. All together, it looked like an insane person had done it!

I didn't know what to do. He wanted to send it, of course, but it was to HIS parents, who have their doubts about us already! It was just going to make us look bad. I told him I didn't think the Post Office would even deliver it! They'd all say, "I'm not touching THAT package. It looks like an insane person did it!" Plus we've had packages he addressed never show up, I think due to confusion over his handwriting.

K got a little frustrated with me. He didn't want to hear about repacking the contents into another box, so I had few options. Eventually I put labels over his writing and wrote it again myself. But I made a mistake and put CA instead of CO, so I had to color in the O, which looked kind of funny. I told K, "I fixed it."

We laughed about it later. He kept saying, "Are you insane?"

Our tree is a small one - the same small one I've had for years. This year the Girl pressured me to get a tree topper, so I went and bought one. I got the lightest looking star I could find (didn't see any angels), but it still makes the tree lean in a way that suggests that it may fall over. The Girl said it reminded her of a Dr. Suess tree, she said, "It looks ready to take off!"

We went to a friend's party Friday night. We had some great conversations and the food was excellent. There was a good dip that was simply cream cheese spread all over a plate, then covered with raspberry chipotle sauce. She also made bacon-wrapped chicken appetizers that were very good.

At first the Boy was only hanging around his sister, which was an amazing and welcome outcome of making him go to the party. She asked him what he thought was in a big safe that was in the garage, and he told her a story that reminded me of the old days, when he used to make up stories all the time. This one began with Juan Ponce de Leon, and by the end also involved Col. Sanders, Ronald McDonald, and Uncle Sam. It was quite a story.

Later, he was hanging out with the few teenage girls that were there. I asked him later how he made that transition, he said it was easy. I asked him how again, and he said, "Does a magician reveal his techniques?"

He can be so funny.

Some interesting articles this week:

Independent America

Nuggests vs. Knicks

Colorado Christmas! Guess they're done shopping!

Brokeback bullshit

The other day I watched "Brokeback Mountain" because it was free on HBO or one of the MAX stations. When it was over, I felt like, huh? That was Brokeback bullshit!

It really (REALLY) bothered me that Heath Ledger's wife had that whole scene about "I wondered why you never brought back any fish!" when know perfectly well that she saw them kissing before they ever went anywhere! Don't you think she'd say, "Why were you kissing that guy?" instead of "why didn't you ever bring back any fish?" I thought that was very poor scene planning and story telling.

And then the end where Jake Gyllenhaal's wife (Anne Hathaway!) explains things one way and then we see a flash of an alternate ending... I just didn't like that. That was strange storytelling too, in my opinion. And why didn't the mom even ask why he was taking the shirt away?

But the scenery was beautiful and the cinematography awesome. The acting was very, very good. It's just that the story had problems, if you ask me. But you didn't, so please feel free to disregard above opinion of a critical moviegoer.

Authority Issues

My bad luck with authority continues, evidently. The other day I went to pick up the daughter at school, and stopped at a curb to see if I could see her before I proceeded into the pickup line. A policeman drove by, but I wasn't too worried because my car was still running. But he pulled up beside me! So I waved at him, like OK, OK, and I went ahead and pulled forward and into the pickup spot. Luckily the Girl WAS right there, which was good because he still stopped right beside me. So she got into the car he let me go home.

Whew!

Then yesterday I parked in a 20-minute spot in Shoppers Row, behind some shops at Lake and Del Mar in Pasadena. I was going to the Sansai Grill, which is so delicious. Then I noticed that Tower Records was having a going-out-of-business sale, so I went over to have a look. I never saw so many CDs and DVDs that I DIDN'T want. Or know anyone who wanted. I mean, even at $10, you want it to be something a person actually WANTS. (I did manage to find a Ben Harper CD, but I totally took a chance because I only think I might like it.)

Anyway, you know how this story must end. I went and got my food, went back to the car, and found a $36 ticket on it.

Boo hoo. My reign as a parking bandit has come to an end!

Or has it...?

I can't afford my life!

I've been thinking about getting another job, as I feel we're running out of money and it would be nice to have some extra for Christmas. Then came the expensive ND game, which was more expensive than we'd planned.

Then K took my car in to check a tire, and they said I need new tires. Of course, and 4 of them too. My car is a nice one, so I dread anything ever going wrong on that car, as everything is so damn expensive on it. And these are especially big tires, that look really nice, but are expensive. So he told me it would be $750, and I about had a heart attack! I finally convinced him to just replace the front tires for now.

Then, the microwave tried to catch on fire! So we have to buy a new one, but meanwhile, we have to boil water on the stove for coffee. How archaic! And it's hard to heat up leftovers. Plus, that was our only clock in the kitchen, so we keep looking at it, forgetting that it won't tell us the time anymore.

Then there's a looming dentist appointment, where they're trying to soak me for at least $300 I'm sure. And I need new printer cartridges.

Oh, I almost forgot about the text messaging! I upgraded my service and told the Boy he had unlimited text messaging. Then I got the bill and there were $98 in text messaging charges! So I called them and found out that it's not UNLIMITED, but up to 500 free a month. So thinking that should be enough, I asked what the problem was. The problem turned out to be 1112 text messages! I think that sounds excessive, but the woman at Verizon said she's seen as many as 6000 per month!

Sigh

Anyway, I'm off to Best Buy to shop for Christmas. And a new microwave.