bl(ip)og

Having used all of my vacation days earlier this year, I’m one of like 25 people at work today (vs. the usual 500). And since none of those 25 are from our network architecture group, I can stream music today without worries of getting a “bat visit”. File that under “Oh Snap”. heh

This Christmas weekend has been fun:

K-Mart pissed me off. After standing in line 25 minutes to buy a gift card (and a Christmas card to put it in) for my grandma, we finally get to register — only to have the cashier point at a small paper sign that says “K-MART GIFT CARDS CAN ONLY BE PAID FOR WITH CASH. NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!” WTF? A - Like I had $50 in cash on me B - Think telling people this before they wait 25 minutes in line might be a good idea????  In 25 minutes, I could have easily WALKED to the freaking bank and back.  I ended up buying the Christmas card using my debit card, getting $50 cash back, and using that $50 to buy the gift card with.  On top of that, the cashier kid was cracking himself up because he had to say “Would you like to buy a K-Mart gift card?” at the beginning of each of our transaction — even though he saw we were trying to buy one — otherwise we got a free bottle of Pepsi.  Remind me to bitch-slap Martha the next time she’s in town. 
Our friend Bob came over on Friday. He and Jason swapped out three light fixtures while I ran around the house swapping the previous owners choice of blue metal light switch/electrical outlet covers back to “blah” almond. It’s not that the blue metal was bad, but they didn’t change the switches/outlets themselves, so the blue metal + almond combo was driving me batshit.

Jason’s mom arrived Friday, driving from Chicago via North Carolina. It was very good to see here again and to be able to show her our new house!

Saturday was a whole lot of last minute shopping, getting the dogs’ picture with Santa at Walgreen’s (drop it .. I will not respond to any comments about that ;)), walking the dogs (it was sunny in the mid 70’s!), and trying a new Indian place for dinner.

Christmas Eve day was all about sleeping in, some grocery shopping, going to the cul-de-sac’s Christmas Eve party (we have some great neighbors), and opening presents. My loot = a cool print for the dining room, a book about Apple+iPod that I’ve been wanting, a kick-ass windchime (drop that too), a yoga kit and a book about digital photography.

Christmas was pretty relaxed. We had Carla (our neighbor) over for a great dinner that Jason and his mom whipped up. After dinner we all vegged out on the couch, half paying attention to the Dog Whisperer marathon that was on, half doing stuff on the computers. (I’m trying to learn Aperture, although learning it PLUS learning the new camera is a bit overwhelming!)