You people funny.

Also, K-bug-find-phone~ma!

No phone as yet. She had it on silent since she was at work, so calling it doesn't do much good. I did sent it a text with my phone number in case someone picks it up and doesn't think to turn it in at TJ's.

She is SO upset about this. My punkin.

Debet, congratulations on your mad skillz! you know, you might be able to turn that into a profitable venture - repairing small electronic appliances ... you know how some people get, um, ATTACHED to their gadgets.

Love the stories about seasonal decorations. Personally, I like when there are tiny white lights wrapped around trees and bushes - some of the buildings here have them up all winter. It's pretty ... and not obtrusive. I do hate that the stores start with the "Christmas" stuff so early - by the time Christmas actually arrives, I'm usually burned out on it.

My favorite non-Christian Christmas story - when I was a kid there was one Jewish family in town; almost everyone else was Catholic. One of the boys in the family had a teacher who wasn't in the least bit sensitive to non-Christians and she kept pushing him to take part in the festivities. One day he came home and said that she'd made him cut out stars for the class Christmas tree, but he did it his own way - he cut out six-pointed stars.

Oh, poor kid!

Debet, I am so impressed with your skillz.

In me news, I have a 2.5 lb creature inside me doing summersaults and it feels weird.

Well, he was quite proud of himself - felt he'd put one over on the obnoxious teacher. And, in justice to her, it was pretty much the attitude at the time - we still had prayer in the schools then.

I say you don't have enough lights until you have your own pad-mounted transformer and your house can be seen from space.

I love this when it's other people's houses/neighborhoods, and will happily drag my Jewish DH all over town to see the best (worst) ones.

In the same vein, Sox: Are you interested in coming down for ZooLights on the 15th? We have 4 tickets (because 4 were the same price as 2). As the DH put it: "They could sleep on our boxes!" (because we will be in the new house, but it is unlikely that we will be completely unpacked).

If any other localistas are interested, I have a zoo membership and would be happy to supply discount tickets.

Oh, I meant to say - Sox, they have the candle-operated angel chimes in BRASS ... which gets hot, but doesn't burn. Usually. Cass and Jilli might manage it ....

I need some college/school advice:

Basically, it boils down to I can't take classes at U of Phoenix again until I pay off the balance from the two classes I last took. I've tried fighting on the one and it's just no use. I have to pay in order to continue. Fine. Well, that's not going to happen until Joe gets a stable job that we know he'll be in for awhile. I'm pissed mostly because I was supposed to be halfway done by now. I haven't been in a classroom since May. I haven't done any school work since June. I've wasted all of this time. I want to finish. Maybe not at U of Phoenix, but somewhere. But I can't apply to a 4 year university until I have the transcripts from U of Phoenix which I can't get until I pay them off.

So.

Should I take some general education classes at the local community college so that when I finally get back into a four year school it's one less class I have to take? I've looked at the requirements for the program I was in and another program I'm interested in and could take transferrable classes. Taking the courses is considerably cheaper than doing them online and maybe it'll make me feel better.

Or.

Do I just wait it out until I can pay off the two classes and then go back?

It's precisely that kind of mixed up notion of what a religion is that does my head in, albeit this is the harmless thin end of the wedge, with things like this poor woman being over at the thicker edge.

I'd be happy to chip in toward hiring some reputatable mercs to go in and get her out.

I think it's healthy to recognise how few of the trappings of the holiday season actually have anything to do with Christianity.

I once got accused of not being a Christian by someone so stupidly pious that she thought I was hostile to the religion as a whole when I explained that because of the clues in the text of the Bible, Jesus was most probably born in autumn and that the whole December 25 thing was totally arbitrary and designed by the early church to give people something less pagan to do during pagan solstice festivals. I can't remember if I got snobby about ignorance not being a virtue demanded by Jesus, or if I decided to poke a few more holes in her cartoon version of religion by revealing that Easter is named after a fertility goddess, but I know I wasn't kind and gentle about it.