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halfway point
15/30 November 14, 2007
halfway point
Yay! This makes 15 out of the thirty posts I promised myself for November! Not as hard as I thought, so far.
Probably not fair of me to make up the first few days with a book meme-a-thon, but all I committed to was 30 entries in thirty days, and that�s what I�m delivering (so far).
I am an idiot a drama queen. After all that kvetching yesterday, I called my sis-in-law to check what they needed for a room, called my folks for a list of pet-friendly motel chains, and looked up one phone number. One phone call later, I had four doubles, non-smoking, 1-pet friendly, at a very lovely hotel. For $79.99 apiece.
That was waaay easy.
And since I don�t insist on lugging my dog everywhere I go, I called the kennel right away and got Mr. B�s reservation squared away. I was a little worried, because they don�t do pick-ups on Sundays, and the following Monday is Christmas Eve, etc. But they are open till noon on the 24th, so I�ll be able to pick him up.
No way would I board my puppster over his first Christmas!
Despite the ease of getting the reservations, I managed to blow the whole evening on that project, what with calling each sister-in-law once, and my parents (twice). But I still managed to do a little extra-curricular giftery. My mom and my niece are both really into Isabel Bloom. So I ordered my mom a small nativity cr�che, because this is a time of year where she always needs a pick-me-up, especially this year.
And I ordered my niece a little plaque thingy with an Isabel Bloom sailboat, and one of my favorite Louisa May Alcott quotes��I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship�. Fitting for someone leaving the parental harbor and sailing out into the world on her own.
With gift message, wrapping, and delivery, mom�s came out to around $30, and Niece�s was about $20. They aren�t expensive little gew-gaws, really, so I can afford to be thoughtful.
In further gifty news, I am trying to get my brothers on board with a plan to get my mom and dad a Sears gift cert from all of us for them to put towards a new stove. They really, really need a new stove. I can�t take credit for the idea�that would be my SIL �S�. But I�ll feel free to get pushy about it, since S is too shy and retiring and un-self-confident to push her (usually great) ideas through.
And since we decided to have a name draw that includes me, my 2 brothers, our spouses, and the four grandkids, that leave only one other gift to get for my side of the family.
And puts me in 2 name-draws, a grab-bag, and a card exchange, so far.
And I still have no clue what is going on over on Spouse�s side of things, giftwise. My great idea of paying library fines for Nephew and his mom kind of fizzled. When I called, they said I could do it�but it turned out that Nephew doesn�t have any fines at all! He must have been granted an amnesty at some point, but didn�t know it. And his mom owes a whole $10.20 on hers. Not even close to a good gift.
I need to stop spending money like a drunken sailor, though. I still need new clothes, shoes, and eyeglasses. Funny how I can order little gifties for my family with no big whup, but have difficulty justifying new work pants for myself.
I wish I didn�t hate shopping for myself so damn much. It�s bad enough at any time, but we are rapidly approaching the time of year where the mere thought gets me positively phobic.
I've been trolling through lists of DVDs in case anyone asks me what I want for Christmas. I looked into the 20th Anniversary Edition of "The Princess Bride", but it looks as though it isn't worth getting. Pretty much the same as the special edition in terms of the audio and video quality, and crap when it comes to the extras.
There are only a couple of extras on it; they are only featurettes. And they didn't retain any of the old ones! What a wasted opportunity for Reiner and Goldman to record new commentaries from a perspective of two decades' remove. Not to mention getting some actors in on it this time! Oh, well. I'll just stick to the SE and not ask anyone to waste their money on the new one.
I haven't heard any buzz one way or the other on the new Futurama DVD, "Bender's Big Score". I'm hoping it's genuinely good, and not just a case of "Sweet Zombie DVD!". I�ll ask Alex for it; it�s right up his alley.
Reading: �The Rottweiler�, by Ruth Rendell. Slow going, but not because it�s bad. I just haven�t had much time to read.
Beading: Also sacrificed to the time crunch.
Listening: �The Producers�, OCR.
At Random: click here
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