I have a date in about an hour. I repeat, a date.

Whoot!

I have always put up a tree even with kittens. It does get tied to the wall though. The one year I put non-breakables on because Clio was still tiny and full of mischief, she almost too the tree down with her love of the raffia garland.

Frankly, I am the great destroyer of ornaments in my house. I've probably got a 3:1 ratio to the cats.

Yikes, Beverly! Good luck to both of you.

Kitchen? Actually 100% done! Counters wiped and everything. Oh, except for the contents of the fridge, which I can't deal with until the morning. (I have sorted out the stuff I didn't want to move already.)

What we're both concerned about is functionality once it's healed.

He can do some PT exercises once it's healed, and that should help with range of motion and strength. I am sending all my healing vibes his way.

Healing~ma to H, Beverly.

I have my bird-themed tree up, and Leifur--who is quite happy to stalk and kill many animate and inanimate things--pretty much leaves it alone. He checked it out, but the only time he tried to kill any part of it was when I knocked a wee, round owl ornament (with real feathers) onto his head. Which was totally justified on Leifur's part, I think.

Go, Jesse, woo! Having the kitchen 100% done is fantastic!

Hooray National Parks! And state parks and regional parks and city parks. I like parks.

As much as I enjoy my neighbors Xmas decorations and lights, and I do, I am relieved to feel no need to put up any myself.

Jesse, with packing, it always seems well in hand, but there's always random stuff that just get tossed in boxes at the last minute. (Also often the stuff that never comes out of the boxes.)

Yikes, Beverly. I'm glad he's okay! I worry about my BIL every time he goes up on the roof to clear out the gutters, even though I loved doing it when I was younger (on a much higher roof!).

I concur with flea: that guy on the plane was an asshole. She was too, but he was more of an asshole, for elevating it, and then tweeting about it so she was subject to international mockery.

Me, I now have gold/silver hair, appropriate to the season. Very short. Not platinum, because my stylist refused to bleach out the color: instead she used a color-lift and then cut off most of what was left. So it's kind of ... pale gold and silver, in a pixie-cut. My dark eyebrows look a little odd, but what the heck.

All my stuff comes out of the boxes! Actually, this could be the first time that's not true, as I will have access to the basement and attic....

I think every moving experience has one box 's random.

but if someone was sending me notes saying "Eat a dick" twice on a plane

Okay, that lady was incredibly and horribly self centered and the guy was clearly poking at the bear wanting to show her not only that she was awful but that he was poking to aggravate her as well. But I read nothing sexually aggressive or violent in that. I went back to reread and check. He suggested if her mouth was busy drinking the wine, she couldn't talk but no where did a see any "eat a dick" or even implied sexual aggression. Where did I miss that?

...and the boxes in other boxes that you just can't find, she says, *years* later. It sounds like you're doing great, Jesse.

When the kids were little, we kept H's family tradition of putting up the tree and wrapping presents *on Christmas Eve*, and leaving the decorations up till Old Christmas. He still would like to do it that way, but I really do enjoy anticipating Christmas Day, and I feel slovenly for having the decorations up long after everyone else. Over the weekend I'll probably put the candles in the front windows, take the harvest decorations and ribbons off the door broom and replace them with pine and holly branches, cones, and berries, and Christmas ribbon. Indoors can wait, including the tree. Thank goodness there are *stairs* to the loft where the boxed tree lives most of the year. No ladders! (/edna mode)