the Monday yackety-yak
December 19, 2005,

The Saturday Christmas shopping failed to happen. I couldn�t get Spouse out of bed, and frankly, I figured that we�d both be more in a mood for it if we went Sunday morning, after he got off of work. So while he slept Saturday afternoon, I did some laundry, puttered around the house, and ran to the bead store, then came home and did a little beading.

YEP! I actually got a little bit of beading done this weekend. I finished up the request gift. It�s for SRCW. I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and she indicated that she would really like one of my pieces, in pink. I had some opalescent pink fire polish ovals, so I alternated them with clear fire polish ovals in a ladder stitch stretchy bracelet. The edging beads are #8 seeds in pale pink with an AB finish. Took me about an hour to make it, once I figured out what I wanted to do. It turned out very pretty and sparkly, so I think SRCW will like it.

Now I�m making a copy of my �pink ice� necklace, but the teardrops have a metallic purple lining to the drill. It�s for me; I need something to wear with my purple sweaters.

We had to run to Mayfair to satisfy E�s need for a Pottery Barn card. That was an evil nightmare of mobitude. BUT--They had a See�s Candies!. Not a whole candy store�just a temporary holiday-season kiosk. But I was able to fulfill one of my family traditions, because according to my Arizona relatives, �Christmas isn�t Christmas without a box of See�s�.

Even thought they didn�t have a proper shop, they had everything else right. The plump, middle-aged lady in the 1930�s�style white uniform, the wonderful friendly service�and the big handful of free goodies thrown into your bag! I got Latte Crisps and a couple of butterscotch pops, on top of the 1 pound box of assorted chocolates I actually bought. That particular purchase really made my day.

We escaped from the Mayfair mobs pretty quickly, and headed back south, to the Big Box O Rama in Racine�Barnes & Noble, Circuit City, and Best Buy all in one lot. Best buy for his mom; we got her the Warner Brothers Gangsters box set, and we picked up �The Grumpies� ("Grumpy Old Men" and "Grumpier Old Men" )as an extra for Papa. Spouse found a DVD of U2 for P, and I just gave up on W&T, caved in, and bought them a gift cert. Then we went to B&N to get some books for JR. We stopped at Woody�s for some booze and groceries, and at Famous Dave�s for a gift card for A&J, and finally we got to come home and relax slightly, our most pressing Christmas shopping complete.

Spouse requested Cream of Chicken�Rice soup for dinner, which is a bit of work even when you cut corners. Which I did. I used Kitchen Basics chicken stock, and baked off some split breasts in the oven. MUCH easier than making stock from scratch, with no drop in the quality.

But one still has to make the roux, and bake/cool/pick/chop the breast meat, and pre-cook the rice, and put it all together�time and work. So I didn�t get to relax all that much. Plus, I was still trying to get all the laundry done.

Spouse crashed right after dinner, and as soon as I got the kitchen cleaned up, I was ready to sit down, bead, and watch �Family Guy�. So of course, right then, the POTUS AHOTU decides that we are going to bygod show him some ATTENTION!

Now, I try not to be too conspiracy minded. But I think it is highly odd that my Sat signal went out as soon as he started talking, and stayed out till he was finished, then came back on. Not that I cared�the local indie channel was showing an uninterrupted �Wizard of OZ�, so I watched that for a few minutes. But since that evil, evil man gives me a migraine, my precious few minutes of relaxation were ruined anyway. And even though I didn�t watch him, I know what he said, because the news guy stood in front of the White house before the actual address, and told me what was going to be said.

Which was, of course, that he does what he wants, no matter the cost, and he will continue to do so. Big friggin� whoop. Like we didn�t KNOW THAT?!

I win. At least till they replace her with someone even less qualified. Or more emotional.

And oh, yeah�a promotion is involved. She�s failing upward.