I'm glad the gabapentin is helping, sj.

I just did a thing on FB... I have a "friend" named Brenda _____-er, and it's her birthday today (we used to work retail together about a hundred years ago; I never see her posts). Anyway, in my mind, I processed it as our Brenda, but even as I was hitting post, I was like, "Wait, no. She bought that cool pumpkin dutch oven for herself for her birthday, like, a month ago..." So, anyway, Other Brenda now has a cheery birthday message from, essentially, a rando from her past.

Oh - I am sorry. I am behind on getting the spreadsheet done for the card exchange. I will work on it today and tonight and get it done asap.

My mother was a champion procrastinator, but she loved Christmas. Which is why she would be writing out cards on Christmas Eve and wrapping presents until the wee hours of Christmas morning. And she usually had my sister and I helping decorate the (12 dozen or so) butter cookies she HAD to make. This was after all the silver that was never used at any other time had been polished, holiday china unpacked and hand washed, tree decorated, etc., etc.

Is it too late to join the card exchange? I bought cards!

One of my favorite places on Haight Street, Love It To Death (Lots of gothic curiosities) closed.

Noooooo. Darn. Not that I have any free cash right now, but still.

Experienced bread bakers: Are silicone loaf pans okay, or should I go with something more traditional?

The Madwoman in the Attic (who is a professional baker) scoffs in derision at silicone loaf pans. She says they're too flimsy and will change shape, which will affect the bread baking evenly and the texture.

I agree with The Madwoman. I'm pretty anti-silicone pans for anything baked, even though there are some fun shapes.

Hey, check out the audiobook sample for my book.

My voiceover artist is SO good: [link]

I love her.

Grr argh...we've been fussing with JoCo Cruise for a bit trying to get a refund and they finally did refund our money. Rather than refunding the credit card they mailed a check. Not a registered check or anything, just a check in an envelope marked PAYMENT ENCLOSED with the check showing in the window.

The post office scanned it into their system on November 25th. And that's the last anyone's seen of it. You're supposed to give it a week before reporting mail lost, so since today was 7 days later, we tried to report it via the link and got a message that the "report missing mail" link is only good for 7 days.

JoCo Cruise has offered to paypal us the money, but I'm going to give it one more day as I noted there are a couple Christmas cards scanned in that we haven't received either. Hopefully everything will arrive tomorrow.

I'm on hold with our insurance, trying to find out why they denied my therapy claims (this insurance company is new as of September). My therapist told me there was a problem with the diagnosis code, but the representative I'm on hold with said it might be because telehealth visits are not covered. It's a goddamn pandemic, folks. You're not going to cover telehealth during a pandemic? Do you want to pay for my hospitalization instead?

Send reasonable-decision-making vibes my way. Or, I guess, send them in the direction of the insurance company.

Okay, the nice lady I talked to said she's going to resubmit the claims for review and ask for clarification on their telehealth policy. I guess that's better than just a flat denial. So, fingers crossed.

So, has everyone seen the new Match.com ad?