I won at LDB too, without even trying to avoid it. Hmmm.

I fell from my bike today and mangled my knees. That was dumb. Much icing, several hours, and a couple naproxen later and they feel OK, a bit stiff and scraped up is all. Dumb.

Ooh no burrell!

I am thinking it won't be too bad, mostly a bit of deep bruising. But good thing we had one of those Tegaderm bandages lying around. One knee is pretty scraped up.

Oh and Liese, I meant to say I totally feel you on the house-cleaning driven panic attacks. That was me ALL last week, and the house is still a disaster area, as Kat can attest. But it looked nice enough when the tree was lit up and the gifts were beneath it. But continued cleaning and rose pruning is that plan for next week.

Wishing calm for Liese and knee-healing for Burrell.

Not quite sure how I'm going to keep my kids entertained through their holiday vacations.

Shotgunned Community and The Inbetweeners with Emmett tonight and feel like I'm running out of television.

For the most part it's been advantageous to have a ten year gap between Emmett and Matilda, but it's trickier keeping them both having fun at the same time now. Well, we'll start with pancakes tomorrow and maybe an outing to Japantown.

I also need desperately to clean the house (the monthly maid is coming Friday, too, so I have to have things out away! Deadlines are good, but that will also mean a certain amount of just shoving stuff in closets.

The cat is glad a human is back but has been meowing outside my bedroom for hours. And it's 230am and I woke up thinking I heard someone in the house (im thinking it eas either the cat or my imagination) and now I'm too awake to sleep. Also afraid I might be getting the sore throat the girl I was kissing warned me she had. Oops.

It could not be a better day to stay inside -- POURING rain out. Alas, I have to go to work. That was a mistake.

Hey, all! Glad most people had good holidays, and sorries to the peeps with frustrations.

We traveled a LOT and although it was very cold, the weather was clear and our highways were in great shape so WHEW!

Our friends who normally watch Arthur over Xmas were in CT for the holidays -- first time my friend M has been home to his fam there for 7 years -- so we took the dog with us and he was SO GOOD. I was very pleasantly surprised. He has really grown on me, with my training. I just wish I'd gotten to him before he was 5 years.

We had a splendid Xmas. LOTS of family, since M has 3 sets of grandparents on our front alone to visit, but I like all my in-laws and their families for the most part -- a couple of subtly racist things inferred from the Iowa relative contingent with I quietly pointed out as racist and that I was uncomfortable with intolerant statements, as it sets a bad example for the way I wish to raise my child, and it was quietly dropped. But that was it.

D got a Blu-Ray player from my folks, which I had NO idea he was getting and his face was just fucking geekily ecstatic and priceless with the glee/shock.

From my family, M got (among, good Lord, so much stuff, le sigh) Skylanders Giants and the Granite Crusher guy, which is A Thing akin, to a 10 y.o. boy, to winning an all expenses paid trip to an Italian villa.

Me? Some more fucking CUTE AS HELL owl stuff, Smashbox stuff (my precccioussss) and...oh, mom...another Coach purse. Which I love and I am TRULY SO GRATEFUL but... in all honesty, I would rather have had the money to apply toward a new laptop, but I do love it, and it is lovely.

I did get some money for my Laptop Fund, so it is a wee seed that will hopefuly grow, barring yet another emergency. *knock wood...NAY, a forest!*

All in all, fantastic. But now it is back to work for me. My depression is lifted from a the morass I have been in in late November and most of December and I am hauling ass on stuff this week and weekend.

Our friends who normally watch Arthur over Xmas

It is incredible how long it took me to read that as referring to anything other than this: [link]

Strix, I too know the wonder that is Skylander unto a 10 year old boy. I swear, he disappeared after openIng his bday gifts.

Heh, Jesse.

sarameg, oh gawd, yes. He is immersed in them now. He slept with the new ones last night.