I don't have enough cheese for tomorrow! The grocery store was closed by the time I got there after work. I will have to snack on other things during my hermitage tomorrow. Cue the 1st world problem pout.

First, sending love and peace and calm to those struggling with grief or anxiety or depression or even just general meh this holiday season. We love you. You're never alone.

ND and I are just happy we didn't have another ER visit this Christmas. With his mom's poor health, it's happened many times--including last year. But it's so difficult to see his mom at this point; she's lost the person she used to be, the person I'm lucky I knew at least for a few years before she began to lose her mental faculties along with her physical ones. So no ER visit, but a difficult couple of days regardless. I don't know if she knew who we were most of the time. I wish I could do anything to make it easier.

So now we are slowly working our way through holiday traffic to LAX to catch a red eye to Florida. We will be there for about a week visiting my dad and my cousin L, who also lives in south Florida. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

For those in earlier time zones, Merry Christmas! And Merry Christmas Eve to the rest. I wish you all happiness, regardless of whether you celebrate.

I got the car charged last night so I could drive to get a blood test today. It showed me severely low on red cells, so I got to tear over to the infusion center to get bloodwork before everyone left for Christmas Eve. Tomorrow I go over the river and through the woods to an 8 a.m. transfusion that will last most of the day.

You're never too old to ruin Christmas.

At least you're getting some shiny new red cells out of it, right? (Or do they count as 'gently used'? Vintage blood?)

Reception improves here a lot at night, so I can pop on when everyone is headed to, or already in bed. Merry Xmas (Or Happy Thursday) to all!

But it's so difficult to see his mom at this point; she's lost the person she used to be, the person I'm lucky I knew at least for a few years before she began to lose her mental faculties along with her physical ones. So no ER visit, but a difficult couple of days regardless. I don't know if she knew who we were most of the time. I wish I could do anything to make it easier.

I'm so sorry, Pix. I went through this with Tom and his mother, and it's awful. Love to you and ND.

I got dragged to church this afternoon and was highly amused by the small child sitting behind us shouting "Yeezus!" at random intervals.

Tomorrow, movies! Though we haven't digured out what yet--probably Into the Woods?

That's what we're seeing. We bought tickets a few days ago -- there were only two showings that still had tickets available, so we're planning on getting there early to get seats.

We have tickets for Into the Woods at our local Alamo (reserved seats).

Timelies all!

In Florida, piggybacking on someone's wifi.

Yesterday was one of those days. Gary did something to his leg and for a moment we weren't sure if we'd be better off going to the hospital or catching our plane. I found out my debit card was frozen due to potential data theft.(They canceled the card and are sending me a new one) I managed to leave my cell phone at home. And to top it all off, my suitcase(which was gate checked) didn't come out on the baggage claim belt. Turns out it ended up in a back room because someone had written Orlando on the tag.

All of which is pretty minor compared to what others are dealing with, but I needed to vent

I'm sorry, Pix and ND. That's what happened to my mom, too. It's so horrible. My thoughts are with you, very much.