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Last year: Sheesh, if I'd known that was all it would take, I'd have done it earlier! |
I'm trying to remember if they were like this last year, but I can't recall. Of course, last year they hadn't been living there for a full year, yet. But they had candles in their windows the day after Hallowe'en.
This morning, we came out of the house and saw that they had wreaths hanging in front of all their windows, and wicker-and-light reindeer grazing in their front yard. And one of those spiral trees (you know what I mean - if you were to take a circular piece of paper, and cut it in a spiral, and then lift the center up so the overall shape would be something like a cone - then strung with lights and topped with a star) along with the deer.
I'd teased Matt about a month ago that we'd have to have one of those trees indoors if we couldn't clear some space, but I didn't manage to describe the tree well enough. Matt said, "Yeah, sure!" - happy to have a solution that wouldn't involve moving furniture. When I pointed the tree out to him this morning, he suddenly looked uncomfortable. "That's not quite what I imagined," he confessed.
So we still need to figure out how we're going to fit a tree into our house. I think the best thing to do would be to take one of the chairs upstairs to the master bedroom for the duration, which would serve not one, but two purposes: It would clear enough space for a tree, and it would give me a place to retreat when I simply can't stand ESPN any longer. Right now, I'm enduring it in silence, but the other day I wanted nothing so much as silence and it was about all I could do not to drop the remote into the garbage disposal, rip the TV Guide into shreds, and fling the pieces pell mell all over the living room. If there was a chair comfortable enough to sit in upstairs, I could just leave the room.
Thank goodness the weekend is almost here. I'm ready to not be at work for a while. Not that anything specific has happened, but that it's been busy and hectic and I really need a rest. That silence I mentioned wanting is, in part, a result of having to keep my headphones on all day at work to discourage chatty visitors. Luckily, I have some good music to listen to at work, but I just can't handle nonstop noise, no matter how fun or pretty it is.
I did manage to win the approval of one of the senior members of our office yesterday. I looked up from my work at one point, realized it was almost lunchtime, and decided I couldn't stand to be sitting at my desk any longer, so I called my dad and invited myself to lunch. He usually goes to lunch with a friend of his, J, a crusty old ex-Marine who's probably going to retire in the next year. On the way to lunch, J and Dad were bantering about work. Dad was "threatening" to get J stuck with the Project Nobody Wants, and J was blustering. He turned to me and said, "You're not going to have a daddy much longer!"
"But if you kill him," I protested, "I'll have to help Mom pay off the mortgage! Why don't you just maim him a little. He can still do his job with only one leg!"
J burst out laughing. "You're all right!" he chortled.
Eight more hours until the weekend... I'll see you on the other side.
Word of the Day: pell mell - in mingled confusion or disorder; confused haste
News of the Weird: South African 'Noah's Ark' brings animals home
-- It was a modern-day version of Noah's Ark -- 22 giraffes and three rhinoceroses recently completed a sea voyage lasting 40 days and 40 nights.
The animals were captured in Africa and shipped to Spain, where they were supposed to live out their days in zoos and safari parks. But Spanish authorities refused to admit the animals, concerned they might be carrying hoof and mouth disease, which has been raging in South Africa.
So, the animals were sent home.
- between books
Current Projects:
- between projects
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