I was just looking thorugh my Mom's Chicago '79 photos. Really amazing, entire trees wrapped in ice.

My brother once sent me email pics from an ice storm in Switzerland. They were so bizarre, but beautiful. I felt really sorry for some of the car owners, though.

California cheese

I also like Rouge et Noir cheese. I used to go out to The Cheese Factory (where they make it), and take the tour and hang out by the duck pond. Recently, I bought some cheese from Point Reyes for a party, and that turned out to be a mistake. The small store where I bought it listed brief descriptions, including that various cheeses were "pungent". They didn't say that about Red Hawk. OMG, it made the whole room stink. My backpack stunk from carrying it in to work. I don't say that it's not good, but it was more impressive than I was going for!

I seem to have purchased a car. I'm waiting for the dealer to finish detailing it now.

I am home. A nice outing with Mom today. She got a big hoot out of me wrapping my own gifts, and insisting I don't know what was in them as I shook them guessing. I even did some nice gift complimenting like "ooo, a cap rack. Awesome! You must have seen my pile of hats and thought there has to be something better". We also went bowling. We both had good outings. My new approach is working great. In my last 5 games, my average has gone up about 10-15 points. Anyhow. After bowling we did a road trip checking out some of the fire damage in Eastern SD county, then cruising looking at the neighborhood lights. On the whole, a real nice day. I don't think she suspected the multiple gift cards as reimbursement, thankfully for stuffing my sisters card. The remainder of the overage will go toward her birthday in February.

Now, I should be in bed.

{{{JZ}}} missed opportunities for holiday cheer and the comfort of old friends suck.

omnis, I'm glad that you found a way to make that gift card thing work.

"Good" morning...

So, I don't know if'n it was any of youse guys who cursed me, but for the third time Xmas has attempted to kill me with fire.

Last night, around 2 a.m., Aimee (who, btw, is a Big Damn Hero, ain't she just) woke me up because "the house [was] on fire".

Turned out not to be the whole house, thankfully, just a flower box on the front porch which we had been using for its obvious intended purpose of extinguishing cigarettes.

Aimee (Big Damn Hero), had already emptied two fire extinguishers on it and torn it from the wall. My job, after getting Emeline up and ready to dash for safety, was mop-up.

Natch, we were up til 2:30 - 3 a.m. with the jitters, half-convincing ourselves the fire was still extant behind the stucco and inside the wall.

The fact that we, and our home, is still here several hours later is testament to Aimee's mad firefighting skeelz.

Merry Fuckin' Xmas. And God damn it, everyone.

Oh, {{{JZ}}}. Honey. I'm sorry this is all so hard on you and wish there was something I could do.

MM! Aimee! Scary!

And now I must get back to work. On Friday I decided I was making my brother a quilt for Christmas. Must see if I can actually get the top done before leaving for mom and dad's tomorrow morning. Craziness! Oh, but sneak-peak here: [link] Yes. His bedroom is blue and orange. Don't ask.

Oh! And check out the nephew's wonderment of the Christmas Tree: [link]

Gronk. So much to do, but I'm watching Love Actually while I do it, so it's all good.

vw, your nephew continues to be the cutest little thing. Good luck finishing the quilt!

I'm so glad there is a happy ending to your yule-tide fire, MM and Aimee.

I knew I forgot to say something. I'm glad Aimee, MM, and Em are safe.

The Yule log goes in the fireplace and isn't lit till tomorrow, Miracleborns.

Damned over-achieving, first in our neighborhood types.

Congratulations to the Imperial House of Miracleborn on maintaining your state of cuddly rather than crispy.

I'm so glad there is a happy ending to your yule-tide fire, MM and Aimee.

Well, I'm not so sure about the "happy". "Acceptable", certainly.

Aimee and I have both had about four and a half minutes of sleep. Emeline a bit more, but she also has had a cough for a couple days now and was probably up and down half the night with that.

At last report, Aimee had shown up to work but nobody else had...including her asshat Scrooge McGrinch of a boss...and she doesn't have a key to get in. I'm about to call her back to see what's up with that.

And though rumors had it on Friday that we might be getting let go early, my supervisor seems to be one of those "workdays are for working" types. You know it's gonna be rough when she consistently talks about how much work she got done at home on the weekend on purpose without really having to. So gods only know if I'll get out in time to complete the last minute shopping Aims and I need to do for her parents.

I'm tired and disheartened and cranky. Happy Holidays my lily-white cold ass.