Mozzie! Yikes!!

Merry merry, everyone. I Zoomed with friends from Minneapolis (the host's birthday is today, so he moved his usual bar celebration to Zoom), we went down to see Lee and give her presents from 6 feet away, and now we're going to have the Trader Joe's Beef en Croute, for the novel experience of not really cooking on Xmas Day. (Heating things up from frozen does not count.)

Hi juliana! That all sounds excellent

Merry Xmas, all. ~ma to all that needs it - I started a mental Meara but was too much.

Shir, I’m so sorry about Batcat.

I had planned to get Thai food (there’s no good Chinese here and the Vietnamese are all Catholic) and watch WW84 but couldn’t find a Thai place open and I ended up trying to validate/comfort my sister via text which totally drained me so I had oatmeal for dinner and don’t care. Currently drinking bourbon hot cocoa, will finish Muppets Xmas Carol (had never seen it before, believe it or not), and then to bed.

Highlights of the day were Xmas dance party complete with disco lights while doing dishes with roommates (got apt bombed for roaches Weds so we are having to wash every. fucking. dish) and reading books via Zoom with family.

Lowlights: methheads upstairs sounding like hippos playing DDR simultaneously with pickup sticks made of old school tent poles and being very worried about my sister. They had to put one cat to sleep one Tuesday (expected) and the other on Weds (not expected) and she is furious at my parents for not noticing her cat was sick and herself for going off to house/petsit.

And I have to work tomorrow through NYE and I am just done with it all. I haven’t even lined up the next job, I’ve been so 24/7 trying to finish this one and just get through the day.

Anyway. Blah.

We’ve rolled with the punches and dropped what needed dropping and it’s been real good.

That's how to do it!

Mozzie, no! That's not how to do it.

Wishing you Thai food soon, smonster.

As Matilda articulated, Xmas Eve is where it's at, and Xmas Day more of an anticlimax after the prezzies. I'm overstuffed and ready to get to running again tomorrow.

Kind of missing our friends' Open House on Boxing Day which was just the right amount of low key mingling with others to taper off the holiday.

Xmas Shows Watched This Year:
Grinch
Charlie Brown Xmas
Holiday (Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn)
Elf

Traditionally Watched But Not Watched This Year:
Rudolph (where we jeer at Santa and other reindeer for being assholes)
Olive, the Other Reindeer
A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott version favored here)
It's a Wonderful Life
Invader Zim Xmas

Bonus Watching:
Matilda and I have been re-watching the Harry Potter movies, and I think I have to move Half-Blood Prince into second place after Prisoner of Azkaban. It's got Rupert Grint's best comic scene (love potion), Daniel Radcliffe's best comic scene (luck serum), second best guest teacher (Broadbent as Slughorn), Michael Gambon's best scene (drinking the poison), and best scene by Kloves that wasn't in the books (Lily's fish gift to Slughorn). Also, the SPFX with the ink-in-water Pensieve scenes were so inventive and beautiful.

Confession: I watched Olive with my the due South fanartist mom of my deceased friend, who is now my friend in her own right, and we will probably watch either It's A Wonderful Life or the GC Scott Christmas Carol sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Sorry to hear about the kitty, Shir.

Aurelia, best wishes for your uncle - and your dad!

Roommate made lasagna and we watched Moonstruck. I’m still feeling the Chianti.

Merry day everyone. My life continues to go appallingly smoothly. Took time off work to come down to do Christmas with the folks - we've both been isolating so we're almost in the same bubble. I got what I wanted, which at this age mostly means cookware and clothes. The presents I was most worried about went over great:

Me: Mom, I got you a book about organized crime in the town you grew up in.

Mom: Oh, this is terrific! I just wish I could show your grandfather....

Then we did a Zoom with Mom's brother and my sister and her kids, then a dinner with spiral-cut honey ham, topped off with watching Soul with the folks.

So some parts of the world are still going OK, but all the -ma to those who need it. Good night, all.

{{{smonster}}}

Oh, smonster, I'm sorry. Much ~ma.

Brenda, yicks! about Mozzie. Such a scare.

Happy holidays, and so much ~ma to those who need it, especially in this time of year.

Thank you for all of your ~mas. This week, and yesterday especially were a nightmare. We came back home from the vet, cleaned it thoroughly, I cooked, and basically did whatever house chores we could to get ourselves really exhausted to sleep. At night we watched Die Hard - my roommate has a Christmas tradition of watching it - it was the first time for me (movies aren't my forte). Getting ourselves exhausted worked, and I finally slept through a night for the first time in a week. We also lit a candle and had calls and a friend coming over, first time since February (within covid-saftey conditions, her being two meters apart and next to two open windows). It really helped. Another friend might be coming later tonight too. My parents sent food (half of it went to the freezer), and we lit a candle. So it was a mini-shiva for her. Well, mostly for us.

I am 1000% sure we did the right thing. I'm just missing her terribly and wish I had more time with her.

{{{Shir}}} It's always that way for good cat-parents.

San Francisco won Christmas with their own "mysterious monolith"...except theirs is made out of gingerbread and frosting. And there was a rainbow over the city!