Sick today. I woke up with a 102 degree fever. Not fun. I felt a bit woozy and didn’t think I should be on the road, so I stayed home from work and slept it off. Now, with medicine, it’s down to 99.8, which is much better. (Without medicine it’s 100.9)

So. I came home from work yesterday totally wiped out for no good reason other than I’m sick. I literally couldn’t even knit. My fingers wouldn’t work. I went to bed around 8pm and had really odd dreams all night long.

Needless to say, I didn’t write last night. And I’m not sure I’ll finish CtS today… we shall see. It depends on how I feel. (I really don’t have much left to write.)

Got two things in my email today: an invitation to Balticon and a $25 gift certificate to Amazon. Yay! On Bryn’s recommendation, I purchased Sunshine by Robin McKinley (after reading the excerpt on her website), and two Kathy Reichs books. I think I have enough reading material now.

I should mention that I’ve read two of the books I bought with my previous gift certificates: The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene DuBois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman was a very engaging read, but a bit slow in the beginning. Since I’ve always been a bit of a rockhound, I really enjoyed DuBois’ search for the missing link, and especially the photos of his fossils, which ended up taking over an entire veranda of his house. I like nonfiction books that read like fiction, and this was no exception.

The other one I’ve finished was The Mythic Journey: The Meaning of Myth as a Guide for Life by Liz Greene and Juliet Sharman-Burke. This one was interesting, if only because it gave parallels into modern day life and relationships using stories from all kinds of mythologies. Not sure if I’ll read it again, but it wasn’t bad. (And definitely worth $3.98.

And I did finish Charles DeLint’s new book, Spirits in the Wires, which might become one of my perennial reads. Not only was it a good book, it also gave me great insight as to why I write what I write. Definitely a must-have for DeLint fans.

And that will be all from me. I’m going upstairs, I think, to write a bit, now that I’m feeling a little better.

Can you imagine? Man Trapped Under Books, Papers…

Finally, someone at Ebay shows some intelligence. I got a very nice and informative reply to my reply. Payment will be sent off shortly. Yay!

It’s raining today, and I just wanted to post for posterity that it got up to at least 56 yesterday. Which is NOT end-of-December weather at all. And it’s warm again today, which doesn’t bode well for me feeding the animals. I almost feel like I should put on wading boots just to slog through all the mud. Ugh.

It took me three tries to find Halls Spearmint cough drops today. First, I tried Kroger, since I had planned on getting a salad for lunch. No go. Next, I tried Target, thinking I had seen some there last night. Again, no go. Thirdly, I called the New Richmond IGA on my way home from work to see if they had any–and they had one bag left. Thank goodness the nice service desk lady offered to hold it for me and I slogged through the puddles (in my too-long pants, even) to get them. Sheesh. If they’re that popular during flu and cold season, wouldn’t you think the stores would stock a larger quantity?

(The reason why I like Halls Spearmint cough drops is that they don’t taste so much like cough drops. They’re not candy, mind you; they still have the menthol, etc., but they aren’t too gross to suck on.)

I achieved novel last night. Stopped exactly at 40k and wrote more today at lunch. Will write more this evening… I really want to finish this.

For the most part, my room is clean. I’ve learned how to use circular knitting needles, and I had an epiphany about CtS that ended up with Matthieu in a most undesirable position (get your minds out of the gutters!) I’m still going to try to finish it by Dec. 31, which is my goal-date. And as of last night, I was a couple hundred words away from achieving novel.

Today, we went down the road a bit to spend gift certificates and check out the after-Christmas sales. Didn’t get much: the soundtrack to Chicago with my b-day gift certificate because Target had NOTHING else(I was looking for Dido’s new CD or the soundtrack for ROTK); a pair of gray-green thin-wale corduroy pants, a long sleeved v-neck gray shirt and two necklaces from Lazarus.

Yesterday, though, I used my Hairitage gift certificate to get my hair permed again! So I’m curly again. Yay. I like my hair better this way anyway. And I think all the color is finally gone, so now I just have gray and brown hair. (The gray is stripey.) Which works for me.

And I don’t want to go to work tomorrow, either. Just thought I’d throw that out… But it’s nice that I only have to work two hours from home on Wednesday, and then I’m off Thursday too. So I get time off during the week. Mom and I might make some sort of candy on New Year’s Day.

Working on the goal list still, and although I haven’t done much on it these past two weeks, I think I can create a list of New Year’s Resolutions out of what I have.

Now I have to go feed the animals, who really shouldn’t be hungry because Dad gave the cats a whole bowl full of leftover Honeybaked Ham stuff (what was not fit for the bean soup he’s been making all day) so they should still be stuffed. But I’ll be nice and feed them anyway.

Oh, and I’ve caught a cold or something. Started the day after Christmas, and it hasn’t really gotten any worse. Just a really scratchy throat and occassionally an unbearable desire to cough. I think I got it from Ethan.

Mom and Dad are currently in the bathroom attempting to make Mom’s home spa present work. We had to take the first one back ’cause we have an old bathtub and it wouldn’t fit. Hopefully this one (it’s like a bath mat that bubbles or something) will work. We shall see.

Oh, Christmas was fun. Unfortunately, Ethan woke up with a fever and a cough this morning, so we’re canceling tonight’s Christmas. But that’s ok… we’d rather Ethan feel better. So, if you have any spare good thoughts, send them to my favorite nephew.

This is what I found for Jessica on Monday. Em and Bekah went in on it with me, and I devised a sneaky way to surprise Jess when she opened that present.

I put a note in the rather large box it came in that said “OMAGOSH! (her car license plate) Your next gift is on the front seat of your car.” She opened that first, and Em kept watch as she went outside and found a copy of her Christmas list on the front seat with the “life-sized poster of Legolas” underlined. While she was occupied, I ran upstairs and liberated Legolas from my bathroom closet. Then I carried him downstairs, stuck him over where the TV is kept, and put a big bow over one of his shoulders.

Jess walked in going, “I don’t get it.” She would have screamed, I think, when she saw Legolas standing there, but her voice isn’t back to normal yet. So she let out a yelp, Bekah took a picture, and Jess proceeded to pretend (I think) to faint.

And then she started crying. After that, the rest of the day was a bit anti-climactic.

Among the cool stuff I got yesterday was Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD (which we watched last night), Charles DeLint’s newest book, some green tea with rice (!!! My sis says it’s the big thing in Japan nowadays. It tastes… nutty), a robe, a Very Interesting porcelain fountain, some NBC figures done by a Japanese designer (they look like Lego figures!), and a bunch of other stuff. It was a blast, everyone liked my gifts, and that’s what counts most of all.

Today… well, since our guests aren’t coming, I think I’ll make a concentrated effort to clean up my room. It would be nice to have Saturday and Sunday to write, crochet, and basically do what I want.

Just in case I don’t get to post today or tomorrow, I want to wish everyone who reads this a very Merry Christmas, no matter what you celebrate. Enjoy!

Ohhhh, a new King Arthur movie!!

It feels more like Christmas now. I wrapped most of my presents last night. Without any papercuts, even. Yay.

I still have Christmas presents to finish up, but only one or two… maybe three. Hopefully I will get finished. If not, I’ll definitely be up late on Christmas Eve.

CtS is still not finished. I didn’t write much over the weekend, and I didn’t get much written yesterday either.

Got my last shipment of knitting needles from Canada–they are COOL! I gave Em some knitting stuff for Christmas, and gave her the cool green knitting needles (on the outside of the package, even–very Christmasy.) I also stuck some in her stocking.

The only problem I see (and it’s not *really* a problem) is that the sizes aren’t American. But luckily they came with a gauge so I can tell what’s what.

And got a survey from ebay to fill out asking me how their customer service response worked. hahahahahaha. Don’t make me laugh. I’m going to fill it out, if only to let them know how badly their response did not help. But I’m waiting until after Christmas.

Let’s see. I got the best peanut butter fudge from my supervisor yesterday, and I have a plate of cookies from one of the counselors today. I only gave coworkers (except for my fellow support staff) Christmas Cards, since I was a bit overbudget this year. But that’s ok. I brought cookies and candy to share, so that works.

Let’s see. Anything else? Thanks to Tee Morris for a quick reply to a difficult marketing question. Now I think I know what I’m doing.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas.

On my way to work today, I tried to figure out why, and the only thing I can come up with is the fact that I used to be in choir. We started practicing Christmas music when choir practice started up after the summer break, and I got to sing my favorite songs, culminating with the midnight Mass on Christmas Day.

Christmas is usually one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it will feel more like Christmas when Em gets here; I’m not sure. My messy room might be part of the problem; I have stuff everywhere, and…

Wait! I know what it is.

I haven’t wrapped any Christmas presents yet. Ha. Maybe by the time I fight with the wrapping paper, run out of ribbon, and can’t find the gift tags, it will feel like Christmas again.

Got an email from Ebay, replying to my second email message.

In essence, it said that they couldn’t reinstate my acocunt until I took care of the outstanding fees.

Well, duh.

I didn’t ask them to reinstate my account. I asked for a total so I could pay the outstanding fees, and then I had intended to ask them to reinstate me.

Don’t people read?!?! Argh.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

A reply was sent that said, in essence, “I didn’t ask you to reinstate my account. I asked you to send me a total owed, so I could take care of the outstanding fees. Only after I paid did I intend to ask to be reinstated.”

Duh. Maybe, just maybe they’ll read my reply. Although I’m not holding out much hope. Sheesh.