I'm sorry your friend was an asshat, Strix.

I had pie for breakfast, and my tree is up (if not decorated). So I'm calling today a success. Also, the green extension cord thing I got to plug my tree lights into (I can't plug one set into the next) has a hook on the end that fits my artificial tree limbs perfectly. I was planning on MacGyvering something with wire, and now I don't have to. I love it when commercial design actually makes things easier than expected. And I also love that my spell check accepts "MacGyvering" as a word.

Sparky, so sorry about your uncle. Sending all the hugs to everyone, esp. your mom.

Strix, what everyone said. The work you've done and the person you are now isn't hers to knock down.

Sick & exhausted here. Yuck.

I have ventured out for cold medicine and milk, and just had a slice of apple pie, so sick day Black Friday is going well.

Funny story: my mother has an old TV, so it's square, which means things get cut off the sides sometimes. The other night, she asked me what was up with the ads for LACK FRIDA.

Ugh, I have a headache that won't quit. Today I have already done 30 minutes of work (blech) and now I need to finish dishes from yesterday, do some homework, start switching decorations over from fall to Christmas, and do a bit of online shopping. Over the weekend I plan to start on addressing holiday cards, do more crafting for Kelly's wedding, and sleep as much as possible.

Made agreement with family that we are only doing $30 gifts this year, except for mac.

I think I spent all I can for the next couple of weeks. car stereo & install was $361. Getting up early saved me enough to get it connected to the steering wheel controls which adds more safety for mac. Still, that's a chunk of change.

Seeing the everything 50% signs in Old Navy was too tempting, so I dropped over $100 there.

Then two little stops at BB&B for a new duvet cover, and B&N for Pops. Those two together came in under $50 since I also hit sales at both.

Done for the day/week.

Thanks to Black Friday, I got a baby shower gift for Tim's nephew's GF. And I will probably restock our razors because Dorco has 50% off everything. Land's End also has 50% off everything, but I don't really need anything Lands End-y.

I was surprised at how little I wanted from Lands End, that they had in my size, anyway.

My family decided to do all books, no drawing names, which is fine but I really only know what to get for a couple of people, and now there are 10 to buy for.

Strix, your 'friend' is being a jerk.

In other news, I had a very Buffista moment at Thanksgiving yesterday. The conversation at the table turned to grammar and (im)proper word usage.

A family friend who was sitting next to me talked about how when he was young, he had a teacher who insisted that you should never use 'hopefully' to indicate that you were hoping for a certain outcome, and that you should instead say 'it is to be hoped that.' 'Hopefully' should be only be used if you are talking about doing things in a hopeful manner.

Before anyone else could chime in, I said: "Well, hopefully these days people aren't so pedantic about it."

Ha! Hopefully no one will count my hopefully abuses.

As usual, I am pretty awful at Christmas shopping. I just suck at it. I need to figure out a way of getting my MIL to do it for me because she rocks at shopping.

We're not doing gifts this year, since we're spending so much on the Africa trip. It's really quite relaxing.

Took the dog for a walk, and coming back into the house I realized that I was so tired last night, that I put my compost in the recycling bin. Woops!

Just had the mandatory first slice of leftover pie for breakfast. Tasty! It's apple-cranberry-cherry, just tart enough.

Now I should get off my ass and see if I can get a massage somewhere...