So we may have lost some roof tiles this morning, but at least we didn't lose power or have a tree down. On my drive to work this morning, which is about 10 minutes down a major road with businesses and parks along it, I saw maybe 15 downed trees. Big trees. Torn up at the roots.

-t - I know you cut a lot of the length a while back...but my mental image of you with long hair persists.

I think I'm done shopping and am all wrapped except for stocking stuffers. I don't think I've been this organized in years. Now I'm just doing my best not to give into mindless consumerism and buy more stuff just cuz.

In Chez Suzi news, the boyfriend is back. He is still looking for work but is cleaning in liu of paying his way. I'll take it. We had a good talk today and things are better. Big test will be when Kelly wants to do something without him. Though, with the holidays fast approaching, everyone is so busy, that there probably won't be a test of that for a while.

Last time I saw a therapy dog, the nurses and orderlies were getting more use out of him than the patients.

At least they washed their hands.

And I got nothing against happy nurses, let's be clear. I'm really REALLY pro happy nurses. One of yesterday's nurses said it's God's call who gets cancer, and I immediately did not want her accessing my portacath.

The other nurse was the Jamaican one who helped you with Grace, Kat. She's still one of my favourites. So freaking nice. I can ask an airhead question like "did you flush the line?" and she doesn't get pissed or anything, and just flushes it again, in case. We had a pretty long convo of the relative ups and downs of our jobs.

And the final doc, the one who did nothing more than write up my discharge paperwork was one of my favourites. I don't care if it's "just" the ER. I think feeling they're on your side isn't going to make anyone heal any worse or more slowly. If it bothers you that much, go into research. Deep deep research. With no sapient (perhaps no live) research subjects.

Wow, Dana. I don't think it was so bad here--I mean, the wind woke me up around 5AM, but not like that!

Took kids to a local mall to shop for Xmas gifts (this year is the first year I've suggested they buy presents for others). I'm going to call it a success. They were thoughtful about what they picked out for others, and Franny esp got into it, buying her brother a bigger gift than she budgeted because it made him happy and buying a gift for her sitter too. And best of all, no tears!

Even so, I'm sipping wine and relaxing before contemplating dinner. I'm about 2/3 through gift purchases, and no where near finished with the holiday cleaning. Decorations and baking hasn't even started really. Not sure how my mom did it.

Gawker network often does a Twitter-cull of people who are offensive about any hot topic, and the Obama speech about the shooting that cut into football (OF ALL THINGS) was prime fodder. These [link] are not equivalent in assiness, but what I note is that people tracked a not-that-subtle link back on the second guy ("Obama you stupid sand nigger get off my tv. Your just making the families hurt and miss their kids more and I want to watch football") and mentioned his post and other online indiscretions (bragging about drunk driving) to his employer, and their FB page now says they're looking into it.

Now, I don't think your boss deserves the key to your social media accounts, but if you're going to show your dirty underpinnings in public, WITH YOUR NAME AND PHOTO, oh, so very sad for you. Good lord. (His tweets are protected now...)

and the employer says he does not work for them, so the info wash't good info.

Now, I don't think your boss deserves the key to your social media accounts, but if you're going to show your dirty underpinnings in public, WITH YOUR NAME AND PHOTO, oh, so very sad for you

Yeah, people are stupid. Also, he got the wrong slur!

Oh, that's frustrating. I want horrible things to happen to everyone who calls anyone a sand nigger as a consequence of having done so.

Personal responsibility, people! Read the Cracked article! (But not the comments)

I did find a site that archived people's tweets. I didn't stay around long enough to see if it was opt in or not, but good lord. Doesn't take much to be a business model, does it?

Which reminds me, I forgot to line up a week of provocateuse posts yesterday. Didn't even pick a theme...must ponder on the drive home...

I just did an image search in order to find a teacup pig on tumblr, and the first proper hit (there's a nude man tucking his jewels in that batch of *safe* results) was the good stuff tumblr.

Which I should totally have predicted, because apparently my reflex way of searching for teacup pigs is "poquito". Ahah.

I went to a new optometrist today. My eyes are healthy! Prescription hasn't changed! I have new contact lenses to try, and I spent a very large amount of money on two new pairs of eyeglasses. One set of frames is dark brown with funky gold highlights and tortoiseshell arms, and the other is purple with teal around the lenses.

Then I accidentally got myself some things while picking up a present for my brother-in-law at the fancy booze store.

Man, today all your conspicuous consumption are belong to me.