Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Library day, or Wow, posting two days in a row!

Library day statistics: Returned 3 books and a DVD, came home with 4 books. Spent $8.35 at the sale cart, for which I had to write a check, since I had a whole $5 and DH was off playing with El Burrito.

Current totals: 44 items out, 4 on the wait list, and 2 that are overdue enough that I need to watch/read and return them this week.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Reading for the year

So far, I've read 168 books in 2009, not counting the tons of books I read to El Burrito. I was kind of hoping to hit 200, or at least 175, but this is good enough.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas again

I probably said this last year, but I swear, I will not go through this again next year. We left the mall at 10:35 on the 23rd - in a drenching rain, I might add. And we still have three things to buy at the grocery store tomorrow before we're officially done with the Christmas shopping. That's right, once again we've put things off and are shopping on Christmas Eve. We had dinner at McDonald's, which is SOOOO not on my "Top 100 places to Eat" list. Meh.

Technically, we're not done, because DH and I aren't really done buying for each other. I gave up and told him I couldn't come up with anything good. He's getting 2 books, a video and his traditional Dilbert page-a-day calendar, even though last' years is still sitting in the box. We'll buy something for each other later. DH is mentioning a Blu-ray player, but I'm not in favor of the idea. No room for it on the TV stand, and we only have 3 Blu-ray discs (thanks to the new Blu-ray/DVD combo pack idea).

Lately I don't enjoy Christmas, I come close to hating the whole mess, and I think this is part of the reason. Spending Christmas week shopping means I don't have time to relax and actually appreciate the holiday. Plus there's travel issues. Christmas Eve at DH's family, plus midnight mass (technically 10:30 mass), means 2 hours of driving total, and we get home around 3:00 a.m. since they do gifts after mass. Then we haul out of bed Christmas morning and drive to my family, 2 hours one way. And I'm usually stressing because we're never early enough to suit my mom, and half the time they've opened all the other gifts before we get there.

So I'm putting a BIG note in my planner next Halloween, reminding me to start working on the holiday prep, or I'll have to kick my own butt.

On the up side (kind of), looks like we'll have a white christmas this year, even with the thunderstorm on Wednesday night.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Another trip to the library

Today's numbers: 45 items checked out (at least 15 of those are for El Burrito), 5 on hold. I've got 3 books ready to take back already.

El Burrito didn't have a lot of luck at the Friends sale. He tried to talk to two kids who were there. One pushed him away and skedaddled (twice!), the other (slightly older boy wearing a dinosaur shirt that got El B's attention) was too busy playing a Gameboy/PSP/whatever the "in" one is now, even after his mother told him to say hello. He's persistent though - wanted to follow the first kid and his Nemo backpack around until he talked, but I wouldn't let him. So he spent the rest of my sale time sulking under the tables. Poor kid.

Then, he didn't find any books on the childrens' cart, and his Buddy wasn't cashiering today. And after I talked him into drawing her a picture for Christmas. We left it with the other volunteer, who offered to mail it to his Buddy. At least he got to play the Clifford game he was waiting to play.

We stopped at Shelter Garden on the way home, since it was 60+ degrees and the weather forecast is calling for snow later this week. I thought we'd better take advantage of the sunshine while we could. El Burrito came home with a leaf, a rock, a fir cone, and what used to be a red flower. He also got to watch the groundskeepers raking leaves, and one woman let him have a couple of swipes with her leaf rake after she noticed him watching for a while.

Overall, he had a good day and wasn't too bothered by getting the cold shoulder from two boys. He saw 3 Volkswagens and a Mini, and got to say hi to our neighbor, the mailman, and the UPS guy. He even took a nap.

Oh, and how strange is our weather right now? November was within a degree or two of being as warm on average as October. Ninth warmest November on record, I think. My aunt's forsythia is blooming, the neighbor's daffodils are trying to sprout, and the Japanese cherry tree at the Garden had a couple of small limbs (twigs, actually) that were honestly in bloom.

It's supposed to get down into the 30s tonight, though, so everything will be reminded that Hey!, it's December! Fun.