Bummer, sj. I'll be sending "treat my friend right" vibes to all the people who want to return something and who blame it on the sales clerk. As if you picked out the present! Hmph.

The best Christmas present? Having the day after Christmas off. Aaaah. Only thing ruining it is looking at the kitchen sink. Ugh.

Sending nice shopper vibes to sj's store--and any other places where Buffistas are having to work today.

It was wonderful to catch up and hear about all the terrific days yesterday. Ours was very nice. We did Christmas for the youngsters on Saturday, and yesterday was just adults at the MIL's. The BIL brought a friend he's been seeing for more than ten years, and she was lots of fun, fit in well. It was a really nice, easygoing day, finished by introducing StE to Firefly. No, he'd never seen it, and now he's been hooked, hee!

And today I'm off in a few to meet a friend I don't get to see often, and while I'm gone, (at least some of) the rest of Firefly may get viewed, and Serenity should be here sometime this week, so...

Wishing everyone wonderful days today.

I assured her that she would have her beef bourginon on my watch! She apologized, saying, "It's 2005, it's ridiculous that I don't know how to fix my own flat." I told her that we wouldn't revoke her feminist card, what with the new Mom credit, plus in the rain on Christmas/Hanukah. She was very charming and appreciative, and we both got covered in axel grease. But after turning the wheel this way and that four times, finally got the new one on.

You're so sweet, Hec. I find myself being grateful for my very progressive (especially considering he was born in '28) father, who taught me how to change a flat, check and top off the oil and other fluids, fill my gas tank, and jump start a dead battery, before I got my driver's license.

That said, I think you should declare that the TiVo is henceforth a whole-family gift, and offer DH something that's just for him -- a nice dinner for the two of you or the like. (Anyway, we all know he'll come around to the TiVo....)

Maidengurl, amych is both wise and way nicer than I am. I will not post the mocking faux-letter-to-your-dh I composed, when I first read your lj entry about his unhappiness. Suffice it say, dh and I couldn't even afford to exchange gifts this year, because of our totaled car.

Hec, you got a really big karma notch for changing the tire. The weekend before Christmas, my twin sister and I were out shopping on Friday night--it was rainy and freezing and when we came out of the toy store we found her right rear tire had gone flat.

DH was sitting at home with Owen, who was asleep at that point so I didn't want to wake him up and get him out in that kind of weather so my VERY TINY twin was doing her best to work the jack (she wasn't strong enough to get it open nor did she have the strength to loosen the lug nuts--she's only like 100 lbs.) and I'm standing there like a goof because she won't let me do anything because I'm pregnant (not that I could anyway because I was dead from walking around the stores).

Finally, a guy who was on his break from a sporting goods store beside the toy store came running up to us and pretty much saved the evening by finishing the job.

My sister made sure to call the store and tell them what a great employee they had (and to make sure he didn't get in any trouble in case he was late getting back from his break).

Adding my kindly-customers-and-least-stressful-possible-workday-ma to everyone else's for sj. I'm so sorry you got called in, but it sounds like everything preceding that call was perfect. And it still makes me so happy to remember having actually met you and Dave, so when you post about the cuddling and the coddling and the good loving Christmas I can actually see him being all good to you.

The Zmayhem Christmas was long, exhausting, and wet. Tragically, it was nighttime-dark and pouring rain by the time we got to my Aunt Judy's at 3:30, so the trip to the stables was canceled. However, she did offer us a literal raincheck: some weekend in the next couple of months, when good sunny weather is predicted, we'll go back out and spend a few hours at the stable with her and Schatzie, her exceptionally pretty chestnut quarter horse whom she's had since Schatzie was a wee small thing (she'd prearranged Schatzie's purchase with her dam's owner and first met her when she was a tiny fuzzy wobbly-legged foal; ARGH the cutietude of the pictures!).

Slowly clearing a path through the flotsam, jetsum, debris and detritus of Christmas Just-Past, I'm thinking that I need to postpone the sewing machine plan until my birthday; right now there's absolutely no space for one, and making space will take time, ruthless stuff-cullage, and substantial budget outlays (better nerd-hole furniture, more storage stuff for the closets, etc.). The thought of working even a tiny compact machine into the amount of space and discretionary spending we have right now just makes me giggle that verging-on-hysterical-tears giggle that's painful to hear.

Bev, that sounds like an utterly lovely day; Fay, huzzah Christmas pudding!; Beej, blergh on the bugsnacks; and MG, I am vibing hard for your DH to quit being such a tactless pill.

Sorry you have to work, sj. Hope everyone you interact with is on their best behavior and the day goes swiftly and painlessly.

I love your aunt and uncle's house, Kristin. Love love love. Every little thing about it is delightful.

Okay, i just have to tell y'all how very silly DH and I are. We haven't unpacked the wireless router (or the desktop computers) yet, so my laptop is plugged into the cable modem and sharing out the internet connection. Which means in order to use the web, I pretty much need to sit on the couch. DH is working from home, like he does, and sitting on the couch to do it, because at this point it's that or the bed.

Here's the silly part. We use GoogleTalk to tell each other stuff. While we are sitting next to each other on the couch. Just because we can, really.

Awww, -t, nothing's cute like geeks in lurve.

-t, that's unbearably cute...and I'm *so* happy you two have a home again.

sj, feh on having to work. Feh! If anyone's mean to you, give them Bitch business card and point meaningfully to the sword.

I'm about to fly home to LA. I can't wait! I had a nice visit with my family, but there's someone in need of some serious cheer waiting for me at the airport.

Timelies.

I got to see the Pharoah Tutankhamun exhibit. Disappointingly enough, there wasn't even one of his sarcophagus in public view during my visit. But there was the sacophagus of someone who may or may not have been his father's wife. Of course, they weren't certain if the guy was his father at all. It was extremely amusing, considering this was a meseum with big shiny poster saying things like:

This appears to be a chest, that has a picture of a pharoah that may have been Tut, which might have belonged to his mother, in the city they may have lived in, that has a groove inside that may have been to hold a statue, that could have been Osiris.

They have a pretty picture of (what may have been) his family tree. There were very few lines connecting people with with anyone else. It was like, oh I don't know, A Canada's Top Ten Most Wanted poster, with notes saying "this serial killing couple may be married" and "They are clearly related so, brothers? father and son? Cousins?"

The trinkets were lovely, and there seemed to be canopic jars every other room or so. I got into a snit fight with someone who couldn't read heiroglyphics, but then again, I can barely read them above a fifth grade level so he might have been right after all. Orf perhaps we were both wrong.

Was highly offended bythe Museum calling Osiris the High Lord of the Underworld. It was probably because of my deep and unhealthy love of Anubis. It's not that I get turned on by half-humans or anything, it's just there was thisone time, with a statue, and he looked really pretty and he does have the nicest fur, and I am heading towards dangerous territory so I am stopping.

The large statues were very touching and it provided the masses with lots of information about Egypt. If any of you head down towards us South Florida-istas, I really recommend you go to the exhibit AND cough up the seven dollars for the audio tour which is somewhere between 45 and 90 minutes long. The introduction is long and pretty. The enitre thing was beautiful.

Oh, and if you do go, BYOW, as that water cost $3 for a single bottle. Even Disney isn't that cruel.