Sorted gift bags, gift boxes, wrapping paper, earrings

Re-setting the dressertop will have to wait until after I've collected the linen from the dry cleaner. (Cross your fingers it comes back intact.)


Today's earrings: moose, wood rounds

Bedtime reading: Hundred Dollar Baby, Robert B. Parker

Lolcat poetry

im in ur handfull of dust, showing ur fear.


Today's earrings: moose, wood rounds

Bedtime reading: Above Suspicion, Helen MacInnes

Today I lay in bed way late

And it was great, but then I finally got up and rushrushrush firsttwopairofmatchingearrings outthedoor.

Time to sort out the earring array.
And box the china.


Today's earrings: moose, zodiacs

Bedtime reading: "Fortune's Smile," James McManus

Periodic table

- - Andrew Plotkin

Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Reflex, Dick Francis

Today's vocabulary words

Ad valorem
In practical usage, a percentage.

Provisions
In practical usage, pretzels.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: The Abbess of Crewe, Muriel Spark

My eye

It's a little swollen, like maybe from a bug bite or something? Anyway, people have been looking at me funny all day. It's making me paranoid. I desperately want to spend tomorrow curled up with a hot compress, but to work I must go...


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman

Still two stockings short

One's going to be pretty easy to fill, but the other one...


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Hare Sitting Up, Michael Innes

Fine night

b2 and I met as usual to drink wine and discuss Survivor. (Excellent episode last night, by the way. A bad person met his comeuppance. It was marvelous.) I had with me a 1,000 piece puzzle of Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom, borrowed from a coworker for a Thanksgiving puzzle, and she had a cake box of food from that afternoon's office party. She suggested stopping by her office later and collecting more of the leftovers after drinks. A lot of food, she said. So we did.

She wasn't exaggerating - even figuring in the entire office's lunch on Monday, there was a hell of a lot of extra food. Mixed veg, mashed potatoes, rice, ham, even pumpkin pie. And also plastic clamshells. Inspired, we assembled some meals from the leftovers and added plastic forks, napkins, and sodas. We gave away three on the way from b2's office to her parking garage, and I gave away the rest near my place after she dropped me off.

Nothing like the warm glow of being generous with someone else's food.


Today's earrings: moose, chocolate molecules

Bedtime reading: Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy L. Sayers

Volunteers only

Today, we
- went to the farm to admire the John Deere tractors and their flock of fluffy chickens, and incidentally acquired a lot of vegetables
- went to the post office
- went to the library and got a bunch of books, mostly concerning things with wheels
- got a muffin for Tiger and a cheese danish for me
- napped
- melted frozen chili
- tried to do some crosswording (I'm way out of practice)
- made pumpkin muffins
- went to the farm's Gala End-of-Season Potluck. We brought chili and pumpkin muffins. The greenhouse was all done up with fairy lights and candles and was very festive. I got my first taste of parsnip; I think it'd go well in casserole with yams, K's not so sure. By the time they got to the speeches, Tiger was doing laps of the table with Farmer Dave's boys. The first round of applause startled them into momentary immobility. Then they got back to business. After the second course, we packed up and took off.

And now, it's time for me to stop monopolizing the kitchen computer so K can place her Fresh Direct order already.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: One on One, Tabitha King

Jimson Weed Gazette

This dude is giving out prizes for making donations to Obama:
http://jimsonweed.blogspot.com/2008/09/ill-send-you-free-photo.html

Personally I prefer House (West L.A.) from last October, but the one he's giving away is nice, too.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

Closing Ceremonies

This evening we ate Ethiopian, in honor of M's birthday. It was most yummy.



Lenny the Chocolate Moose, wishing M many happy returns of the day.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

Eternal Summer Slacking

I'm a gonna raise a fuss
I'm a gonna raise a holler
about a workin' all summer
just to try to earn a dollar

- Eddie Cochran

Or, in the case of today, getting very little done just to try to earn a dollar.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell

Packing up

It turns out I have a red overnight bag. Neat, huh?


Today's earrings: moose, teaspoons

Bedtime reading: The Franchise Affair, Josephine Tey

Sweet

R came and mowed the lawn this morning, driving Tiger into a worshipful tizzy. K and I dragged the poor thing off to the store. We got books and stickers, but all he wanted was to see R, so we came home without going to the library. S took Tiger and R off to the zoo. Happiness!

They came back and R & Tiger played on the jungle gym while K&S worked on stuff and I lay on the living room couch and read about L. Frank Baum. I had just got to the part where the biographer talks sneeringly about the Populist Parable theory of _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ when I dozed off. Naps = good. (Though K did tell me later that I'd been snoring.)

The boys made apple crisp and chocolate chip cookies, consuming a fair amount of raw sugar in the process. R's father joined us for dinner. We ate; Tiger oscillated.

Now I'm going to go read the part of _Witches Abroad_ where someone drops a house on Nanny Ogg.


Today's earrings: moose, chocolate molecules

Bedtime reading: _Witches Abroad_, Terry Pratchett

Full Day

Sudden staff meeting called to announce that one of the outside salesguys had a heart attack last week and died on Saturday. Poor guy. I barely knew him. Still put a pall over the rest of the day.

Showed the new hire the supply closet.

Turkey 2008 in English showed up, and I took the opportunity to hand off it all off. The recipient was a picture of ingratitude until I told him that I got the big update done two months ago, and mostly he just ought to proofread it all, which put him in a much better mood.

Soup for lunch.

Forgot to copy & mail tax return before leaving work.

Between the bus stop and my front door, I had a chat with the rug guy. He's looking to spend less time in the shop, he says, so he wants to shift to less high-end stuff that an assistant can sell. So, excellent deals on the good stuff, he says. He showed me some rugs.

In my mailbox was a note from Tiger, as dictated to his dad. I gather he likes his birthday present. And the number "3." I feel all warm and glowy. :)

S/W the Angry Lemming, partly to plot brunch, but mostly about the Bandicoot.

Watched Medium, blogged, off to bed.


Today's earrings: moose, chocolate

Bedtime reading: The Truth, Terry Pratchett

Dicrostonyx vinogradovi suggests

for the new water heater. I think maybe a McCarroll-March food-inspired appliance skirt would be more fabulous.
On second thought, I don't think I could cope with that much fabulousness first thing in the morning.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: In Search of Dracula, Raymond T. McNally & Radu Florescu

Striped Maple

Image from http://mareltrout.net/gardens/Plants2.cfm?PlantID=22


Today's earrings: Moose, wood rounds

Bedtime reading: The Atlantic, January/February 2008

Trample

Trample: 1382, "to walk heavily," frequentative form of tramp. Transitive sense is first found 1530.

Today's earrings: moose, rhinoceroses

Bedtime reading: Longshot, Dick Francis

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dude, excellent feasting.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

Friday.

I'm for it.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman