Taking stock

Some holiday highlights: My son's excitement over the bike that Santa got him "from Wal-Mart" (that he now shows zero interest in actually riding). The toy that came with pictures for the assembly instructions and no text. NOT having to run around like mad to visit two families, and being able to take our time opening gifts. My brother-in-law showing up to Christmas dinner with his girlfriend and her two kids when the night before he'd said they would be there for dessert...and not bringing presents for anyone (they did bring cookies, but they were inedible). A wonderful dinner. My son freaking out over a lizard. Pecan pie as pecan soup. A dancing penguin that sings "Ice Ice Baby". Duplicate gifts. Gift receipts. Finishing Neverwhere between dinner and dessert. Having to work the next day...

...and Christmas chickens.


What I got for Christmas, thus far:

• Bladerunner two-disc special edition and The Princess Bride anniversary edition on DVD



• The new Jimmy Eat World CD (which I forgot to take with me to work this morning)



• Stress Management for Dummies...with a B&N gift card inside!



• A new photo album



• The exact same Monty Python desk calendar that I bought for my husband (great minds...?)



• Wall mounted candle holders in a style that will go with the decor in my bedroom whenever I redecorate my bedroom (I got something like this last year as well)



• A huge wall-mounted photo collage frame along with a comment about how there's nothing on the walls in my house so, hint-hint



• gift cards for restaurants



• A sweater I will be returning, probably



• A book by Mitch Albom I will probably never read and can't trade because it has an inscription in the front cover



• A tabletop fountain almost exactly like I got last year for Christmas (and the year before, I believe), and that will also sit in my closet because I don't have the space - or the inclination - to display a fountain, even though no on in my husband's family seems to have noticed this...I'm sure I'll get another one next year and somehow collecting them will become my unintentional hobby/compulsion...so at least it's fountains instead of, say, cats...

...and as of tonight, I have a broken couch. So, I guess you could say I got a new couch for Christmas. Even though I didn't want one.

We didn't get to see my parents yet, so we'll see them this weekend to exchange gifts. And we still have a couple of friends to exchange gifts with, also.

I'm currently going through Neverwhere withdrawals. It honestly was one of the better quasi-fantasy stories I've ever read, and I'm more of a straight sci-fi fan rather than fantasy, but I didn't want the book to end. I'm disappointed to find that there are no other books on my shelves that I want to read right now. I do have $40 worth of B&N gift cards, so I'm sure it's a situation I can rectify, if I need to. Neverwhere and Stardust are now tied for my favorite Gaiman stories. I'll have to ask for the miniseries for my birthday. Along with the Fizzgig plushie. For those who might need reminders of those things...

On a slightly related note, for fans of Pratchett's Discworld series, the miniseries adaptation is available at Borders right now, and then a general retail release is also anticipated for March.

It's also being posted on YouTube in installments. This is installment 1 of 22:


Remember how I was saying we had three resignations, and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop? This morning we had resignation number three. I actually laughed. I think I scared some people. I also found out this afternoon that one of that department's part-time employees had the wrong hourly rate information entered into the payroll system and the employee has been paid almost four times what he was owed over the course of the last several months. And never said a word to his supervisor, who also never caught the discrepancy while approving the payroll. That was when I pretty much threw up my hands. Thankfully I have the next week off to regain some semblance of sanity. I'll just be reading my Stress Management for Dummies book and teaching my son to ride his new bike without falling off and breaking a bone.