Another reason as to why my husband should be sainted and other tales of Christmas.

I've shared with you in the past that I do not have good CD etiquette.  It has been a forever syndrome.  It drives my husband absolutely batty because he is the exact, extreme opposite.

It should be noted that I'm not intentionally uncaring about the CDs.  I don't put them on the dashboard to slide back and forth.  I do, however, have them in all of the wrong cases.  Sometimes they are not in cases, but in a stack.  Sometimes the stack is really tall.  Sometimes that stack gets referred to as the "leaning tower."

For Christmas, my husband did some rather lovely things for me.  It was very Pearl Jam themed, which is my love.  He bought me a stack of CDs from his favorite resale CD store including PJ Twenty (documentary and soundtrack), PJ Live on 2 Legs, PJ Live at the Garden, PJ Lightning Bolt (new for that one), Fugazi (The Argument),  the Lumineers, The Raconteurs (Broken Boy Soldier), Rush (Retrospective), Linkin Park (Minutes to Midnight and yes-- a guilty pleasure), but the very best thing-- he spent two days cataloging all of my CDs into binders.

I had stacks in the bedroom.

I had stacks in the studio in the three CD organizing racks he has purchased for me and on the top of my long glass organizing bin.

I had them on the movie shelf in the living room.

I had them in a variety of places in my car including in the door pockets, the front of the center console, under my seat (in a binder!) with another binder tucked into a back seat pocket.

He said that he has reacquainted himself with my full library (rather extensive, but not nearly as bad as his) and there were practically no savable jewel cases from any of them.  Some CDs come in the paperboard books like all of PJ except for Vs. and Ten, Cake and NIN.  All others that he could, he included the interior paper "guts" to the accompanying CD pocket.  He said that he now knows absolutely everything that I own in CDs.  Since he is a bit of a Rain Man about it, I don't doubt that he knows it even better than me.

K said, "MOM!  The entire bed was covered in CDs!"  I don't doubt it.

He even included his copy of Temple of the Dog in my collection for me to have.  That right there is a gift in itself.  He doesn't share his CDs with anyone, much less his wife who has had a sad history of CD abuse.  I've promised to keep up his organizational system.  I still haven't lived down the Faith No More cassette incident of 1994.  :(

I should also note that though we set a budget every Christmas, Hubs never stays within the budget because he says that I don't buy myself anything throughout the year.  (He doesn't count general clothing, underwear, socks and shoes as frivolous.)  He tried to be reasonable.  Our budget was $50 each and though we didn't exactly stick to that, Santa and I were at about $65 each for K and for Hubs.  I think Hubs topped out about about $100, thanks to sticking with mostly used CDs.  My love for music produced by independent labels does hike the cost up a bit, but I'd rather feed the little guy.

As for the little guy, I bought Hubs' wish list from Nuclear Blast, an independent heavy-metal label.  I even managed to find a Blu-Ray Stallone movie that he didn't own.  (I earned extra credit for that.)

K's gifts supported the not-so-little guy.  She received a sewing basket (a prettier print than this, though and a super Black Friday sale with extra off with a super early shopper coupon) and an AG sewing kit.  Santa left a balloon bending kit and extra balloons.  Her big gift was purchased by my in-law's (and K has promised to never tell Grandma and Santa the same gift again), but Santa was able to triumph with the entire movie collection of Harry Potter on Blu-Ray.  (Black Friday sale.)  Santa left some delightful items in her stocking, including a bin to gather up those blasted little rubber bands for the Rainbow Loom, yoga socks, an Angry Birds notebook that she longed for a while ago, more of the blasted rubber bands for the Rainbow Loom, sniffy erasers, puffy puppy stickers and letter stencils.

I made my in-law's a poster photo collage frame with a rubbing that we made when we visited the National Policeman's memorial. Uncle John's name is below with a collage of photos I took of Hubs, his sister and the girls.  My BIL and I kind of hung back, but I did have one photo of each of us that I included.  It was kind of a family project, with everyone hanging out and putting up with me as I turn into the tourist with a camera.  (They know this by now and just press on as if I'm not there.)

My mom gave me a list of kitcheny kind of things she needed and I granted her wish.  Sink mats, a set of "cheap" plastic bowls (I didn't buy cheap ones) and a silverware organizer is what she requested.  Hubs bought a suet feeder and some energy cakes for it for my dad, as well as a jar of this corn salsa stuff that he loves that we get at Bass Pro.

We gave more games and craft kits to nieces, nephews and cousins.  It was a great Christmas Eve with my cousins and their kids.  The White Elephant netted us a farting butt bank and a big pack of AA batteries and a bag of "chocolate" coal.  The White Elephant is as it is and unfortunately, my people thought that the bank was the greatest thing.  I banished it to basement to exist for the rest of eternity in my house.  It is to live on my husband's work bench.  It was on my kitchen table and I gave a giant veto to that.

We're spending a quiet day at home.  We didn't get out of our pajamas until noon.  K, thanks to a bit of loss of self-control, lost screen time today.  She is, however, having a grand time making a Barbie village in the basement.  I'm all for that.

To a quiet day in the neighborhood.  Ahh.  We all needed it.

Have a great day!

A very Merry Christmas to all!

Steps toward completion.

Christmas isn't meant to be viewed as a marathon.  I do, however, feel like I'm at mile 23.  My mom called this evening to say that they would be by to pick chairs up that we had borrowed.  I decided that I would dash through and bag up all of the presents I had to send to their house.  I had the Christmas Eve bag with 6 gifts.  I had two large bags and two gifts of overflow for Christmas Day.  I was able to give a quick evaluation, re-wrap one that got the front punched out somehow, wrap two more (and add batteries to the one) and get those dropped into the sack, too.  I was just finishing the last package when my parents came in.

I'm waiting for K to go to sleep so that I can make some earrings for her for her special gift from me. I'm just making some really tiny drop earrings, but I have to get them done.

K's baby arrived today.  K got her baby hamster.  Yes, I'll take photos later.  I can tell you that he is charcoal with a white racing stripe on his underside.  Miss Stephanie gave her good instructions, have changed what we typically feed. (We fed H exactly what they told us.)  K is so very excited and Miss Stephanie was thrilled that K is so very caring and is completely responsible for every aspect of care of the hamster.  He is a baby.  He is very squealy.  He's keeping her awake, but I told her that she needs to get used to him and he needs to get used to her.  The wheel rides again!

Off I go to check to see if Sleeping Beauty is sleeping so that I can make her gift.

Thoughts and ramblings about things of little importance.

I was just doing a Google search on something and noticed that someone searched in text-speak.  They used "r" and "ppl" in their search.  Hmmm.  I honestly don't use text-speak (generally) unless I'm so close to 160 characters.  I certainly wouldn't consider using it in a search.

I'm making taco soup today.  I knew that you'd like to know.  Since I don't use Twitter, that is my Twitter-like comment.  Also, I changed my socks last night and they have flip flops on them.  I found them new at the thrift a few years ago.  I knew that was of utmost importance and that you needed to know that.

I'm also having cold pizza for breakfast just because I can.  There.  More Twitter/FB-like information.

I had a Christmas party for 30 children at the school yesterday.  We decorated ornaments and I have to tell you, not only did it go well, but it took us to the end of the party time-- just like I needed!  I had great helpers and the kiddos did well.  Thank goodness for ideas on Pinterest!

I had a birthday party for my kiddo last night.  It was a family party and the usual suspects showed up.  We had two sets of grandparents and the boys from across the street.  My sister was feeling a bit under-the-weather and my brothers, well-- who knows?  Although I was feeling a bit hit-by-a-semi myself, I managed to clean the house, run the school party, make and decorate the tie dye birthday cake and take the kiddo to get her ears pierced.  I exhaustively dropped into bed, never waking except to turn the alarm off for Hubs to go to work.

Happy first day of break for us!  Our goals are to have a Brady Bunch marathon and to bust out some bracelets on the rainbow loom.

I've had people get mad at me lately because we don't have boxes for about 90% of the merchandise that we have at work.  A lady yelled at me, then her mom yelled at me because I didn't have a box for a small, under $5 ornament that she was purchasing.  I had a man mad at me last week because he wanted a box and INSISTED that he get a box, "It doesn't matter if it doesn't fit exactly."  Well, he got the box from Poopouri. He was also the very same customer who, despite the holiday music we had going, decided to pull up Pandora on his phone and play some gawd awful Mariah Carey or Beyonce Christmas stuff really loud.  Then he couldn't figure out how to make it shut off.  Why is it that people have to have a continual soundtrack to their life playing at every minute regardless to the humans that they may have surrounding them?

It's crap like that where my hatred for some human behavior make me writhe behind the counter.  (Probably visually.  So sad to say.)

Let me clarify a fact for everyone.  Not everything comes in boxes.  Not everything will come in boxes and it is this time of year where I really hate the idea of people and their addiction to THE BOX!

:deep breath:

And then there's Target.  I've called Discover, talked with that gentleman and called my bank.  By mutual agreement, the bank and I have decided to reissue a new debit.  What's sad is that my bank pin is the same I've had since I started the account in 1994.  :(  I have no fraud going on thus far and admit that I'm ever grateful that I have everything locked down with Equifax.  Despite my best efforts to keep everything secure, I've had my accounts compromised twice this year (once with the city tax site being hacked by a Turkish group and now the Target incident.)  My Federal Reserve friend is right-- must keep monitoring on forever.

In other news, our work lottery pool didn't win the latest big jackpot.  Just thought I'd let you know.

K was gifted a box of Legos yesterday.  The neighbor brought them over.  The child hasn't stopped playing with them.  I love Legos.

Must shuttle to soak some beans.  Must get my morning can of Coke.  (My coffee.)  Must make my bed.  A hair brush is currently optional.  So are pants that have snaps, buttons and zippers.  Yoga pants today.  :)

Double Digits!

K is officially 10, earning her the right to get her ears pierced for her birthday.  We'll be doing that today after school.

She is so excited!

Happy birthday, doll!

Of tires, warranties and silver linings.

Tires are a problem for me.  Truly.  They are round.  They are rubber.  They are supposed to hold air.  I swear that every single tire on the RAV has an inner magnetic field that pulls every hunk of metal (including nails, screws, shards and chunks) toward the roundness that allows said vehicle to roll.

I was on my merry way home from work last night when 1 block up, I noticed that the tire pressure sensor light came on.  I admit that I am completely aware of exactly which light this is.  I work in not a terribly good section of town.  I decided to pull off to the local Thai restaurant, run around the car to see if all tires were round and if getting home without assistance was possible.  I went on the car roundabout and saw that my back passenger tire was low.  Visibly low.  The good news is that I didn't hear whistling of air pouring from the tire, so I thought that I could go and top off the air in the tire.  It was 26 F and perhaps it was a cold weather thing.

I went to the gas station where I thought there was a free air pump and it was not free.  It had a Visa or MC logo on the front, so I gassed up the 1/4 tank with the $2.88 in gas/gallon and used my handy-dandy tire gauge to assess the situation.

10 PSI.  That's not good.

I called Hubs and told him that I was certain that I picked something up and that I'd be parked in the neighbor's drive.  I then called Mike, who wasn't home at the time, but he told me his garage code and told us to help ourselves to tools.  In the change of 22 F, the zipper on the spare was frozen shut, so I ran back home, got a measuring cup of warmish but not hot water to loosen the zipper up.  Of course, I had no gloves on because I had to deal with water and by the time we got the tire changed, my hands were blocks of ice.  We did, however, find said metallic substance.

I could see into my tire.  I could see into the interior of my tire.  Hubs has no idea how I made it home.

God.  It's all God at work.  There is no other answer.

On his way to work, Hubs took the RAV to the fine, fine folks at NTB.  "Sir, we can't fix that."  They showed him that I picked up a 1" x 5-6" hunk of metal in my tire.  A bigger concern that they addressed with him was that my 70,000 mile tires had only 35,000 miles (ETA 31,000 miles) on them, but were essentially bald.  Hubs called and told me that NTB offered to switch the tires out with new 50,000 for $100 each as a part of the warranty.  Shoot, we've paid more than that for a single tire for the RAV, so I told him to go ahead and do it.  We also have road hazard (not an option) and an alignment for the bargain price of $530 ish right after giving a huge deposit towards phase one of braces.  HOORAY!  :S  We consider it a blessing to have an opportunity to replace crappy tires that were so very loud (the salesman asked if loudness was a problem) with tires that will hopefully be much better.  We are blessed to have an NTB on the way to Hubs' work and how fortunate for me to be off so that I could run out, drop Hubs off at work (a few minutes late, but they were okay with that) and run back out to do the family car shuffle tonight.

Bonus number two is that I was able to fill Hubs' tank before gas went from $2.86 to $3.29 right before my eyes.  I was sitting in line for gas and the price changed on the sign.  I got to the pump and it was still the previously stated price and I absolutely couldn't scan the credit card in fast enough to secure that price.  I got it, then right after I was done, they shut down my pump.  Wow.

We're fortunate to have the ability to replace tires and get gas for our cars.  The tires weren't built into the budget for now, but we have a savings and I'm glad to have it though we ignore it.  How fortunate we are to have them offer a warranty deal, even though I've been a bit remiss on rotation lately.  How lucky I'll be to have a car that isn't sliding anymore.  (Hubs said, "You were sliding, weren't you."  "Yes, but I didn't want to say anything right now.")  How great it is that Hubs could go to take care of this for me.  I don't pull the girl card often, but I was fearful that I might get the dumb girl run-around if I took the truck and gave a warranty complaint.  They brought it up to Hubs and all is well.  I've never had a problem with NTB.  They've always stood behind the products that they sell and they've always given great service.  Still, I'm glad that Hubs could handle this one for me.

An awesome teacher that goes the extra mile.

Last week, you read about K's hamster dying.  She was very sad and had every right to be.  She took excellent care of H.  Today at school, Mrs. S handed her a paper lunch sack.  She told her not to tell.  Here was what was inside:

Mrs. S made K a hamster out of one of her favorite socks.  :tears:  How incredibly sweet is that?