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.

Dear family, why just be late for dinner when you can be an hour and a half late? Or, actually, two hours based on the fake time we told you.

Last year, when they were three hours late because they decided to visit someone else, HPF was a little upset. The year before, she was just confused.

Nothing near what others are dealing with.

Pix & ND that's so hard. Sheryl, I hope Gary's leg is ok.

Dillo is obsessed with his trebuchet.

He's also singing "Mary did you know" but he keeps wandering off the lyrics and mentioning Zeus, Cronos devouring his children, etc. His most common line is, "Mary did you know that your baby boy is the LORD OF ALL CREATION?" In a sort of sinister way. #oops #raisedbyatheists