Happy New Year!

The gorgeous buffet. This doesn't even show the homemade eggnog, cheesecake, and other stuff that was on other tables. The food was so fabulous that I gave Kimbley and Laura "honorary fag status".

The lovely Christina and Jennifer partaking of said food. I have a bit of a crush on Christina. She has the long curly hair and soft eyes of a Byzantine Madonna. Isn't she lovely?

The smoking porch. Left to right: JB is making a picture of Rick and this girl I didn't know. Next Kimbely and Laura (cigarette in her mouth), then Christina, and Lacy on the far right with bun #2 in the oven.

A beautiful picture of Donnie (aka D'relda D'remus) and Kimbley. This was made with my crappy camera, and I really wish it had come out more clearly. I love them both so much!

I lay around the house all afternoon and really didn't feel like doing anything. But I got in a wee nappie, and got up and got myself going. I didn't want to miss this party, because I adore Kimbely and Laura, and because there would be a bunch of people I wanted to see. Plus I knew it would be a fun party.

I got there about 7:30, and was one of the first to arrive. The food was gorgeous, delicious, and plentiful. The proverbial groaning board. Even though we ate and ate, it just seemed like nothing got gone. K&L had some guests staying who were really working on the food. They cooked all evening. One manned the grill, turning out a luscious smoked salmon, chicken skewers, etc; while the other stayed in the kitchen working up a batch of incredibly rich homemade eggnog that packed quite a wallop.

But I was just over-frolicked from all that I have been doing. There was a football game going in the den that I know very little about. The smoking porch was really smoky, because the wood had gotten wet or something, and the straight guys kept playing in the fire. I stayed out there a while and talked to Kimbely, and when Cindy got there, I talked to her until she left. I just love her, and don't see her that often. Karen and Bobby where there, and I really like them. Karen was feeling no pain, and had quite a time. James was tore down, and was dancing with her, or indeed just by himself. I didn't want to get that drunk, because driving on NYE scares me - my friend Bernadette always says "that's when the amateur drunks drive", and that seems to be right.

Nicole got there, and I spent some time talking to her on the porch too. I really like her, and she's fun to talk to. She's almost as bitchy as I am, but she's more vocal. JD was wearing an Alexander Julian shirt tonight - in rainbow colors no less, which was funny because he is so incredibly straight. Nicole called him on the shirt, and when he bragged about the designer wear, she much clocked him on the fact that the shirt had to be at least 20 years old. It was pretty fucking funny, I have to say. She's great.

I finally retreated to the living room for a bit, just for a bit of peace, and to look at the tree for a while. Jennifer and Christina joined me out there, and I talked to them for a while. They are both really sweet, and I really like them a lot, but I only seem to see them at Kimbley and Laura's. But more people started coming in as it got closer to midnight, and it got really noisy in there too.

By that time, it was getting close to the ball drop, and they changed the TV over to Times Square. NBC had pulled poor old Dick Clark out of the oxygen tank, or wherever they keep him, and we counted down the year with him. The ball dropped, and Nicole and I kissed each other, just to see how fucked up a precedent that would set in our love lives for the next year. NYE 2006 I kissed Michael, and spent that year (and some more really) getting over him. NYE 2007 I kissed some guy that immediately left after midnight, and pretty much have had every guy I liked be un-obtainable this year. I figure after kissing Nicole for NYE 2008, I'll probably be dating a Japanese quadriplegic or something next year. Her love life is as fucked up as mine is. I loathe the song "Aud Lany Sine". I've never cared for New Years. It always depresses me, and makes me think about spending another year alone. But being at Kimbley and Laura's party surrounded by people I love makes it better.

I was really pretty much partied out though. James was still raring to go, and I stayed for a bit, but by 12:30 I had just had enough. I made my way carefully home, and gratefully got into my bed. I had a lovely time, but it was good to be home.

The Pickens Flea Market

I woke up about 8:30 this morning. I was in a glassing mood. I decided to go on to Pickens even though that is known to be an early flea market. It used to start about 4:30am. But they have all moved later as they started catering more to the "brunch" crowd. I hadn't been down there in years, but looked it up on the internet, and then got out my new GPS system. I put in the address, and it took me right there - no problem at all. What a neat little thing.

The first piece of glass I found was a platter that I thought the guy had priced too high, but it was right. I went back to apologize to him and to buy it, but he had already sold it, which was fine. I did the whole thing, and then decided which pieces I wanted to go back and buy.

There was quite a bit of glass to be seen, but some of it was pretty pricey, and some it just plain wasn't stuff I was interested in. I did find two tables with glass "specialists" selling off part of their stuff. One guy had a perfect butter dish in my Florentine pattern, but he wanted a $130 for it. The book value on it was only $110, but I would probably still have bought it if I had the money, just because I have only seen one other for my pattern in real life. He also had a Sharon candy dish. I like this pattern in pink, but usually see it only in amber. The candy dish grew on me, and he had it priced fairly well. The book value on it is $45, and he had it priced at $35. More than I usually like to pay, but it is a really nice piece, and in perfect condition. The other problem with this pattern is that it has been reproduced. But I checked it out with the other depression glass guy there, and looked it up in the book when I got home, and this is the real deal. I'm really happy with it.

Sharon "Cabbage Rose" lidded candy dish in pink by Federal Glass Company, circa 1935-1939

I went back to the other guy's table to get a little Manhattan candy dish that had caught my eye. It was just a cute piece, and he had it priced OK. The book value on it is $12, and he sold it to me for $8.

Manhattan 3-legged candy dish in pink by Anchor Hocking Glass Company, circa 1938-1943

At that point, I had $5 in my pocket, and thought I was pretty much done. I thought I had done all the yard sale part, and decided to stroll through the sheds as much for the walk as anything else. It was almost noon, and a lot of the vendors were packing up to leave. There were a few more outside tables, and I decided to just see what was there.

I wasn't done yet. I found a "junk" table where two college-age guys were trying to get a bit of money. On the table was a crystal Windsor large berry bowl in perfect condition, marked $2. I was really torn. On the one hand, I keep telling myself not to buy any more clear glass. On the other hand, there was this piece in perfect condition, thrown in with a bunch of junk. They had no idea what it was. Plus it was hella cheap. Apparently, the crystal isn't worth much. I know the friendly antique guy told me he can't give the stuff away, and the prices for the crystal Windsor aren't even in the pocket guide. But I just couldn't bear to leave it there. The guy offered it to me for a dollar, and I bought it. It really is a pretty thing. They also invited me to some party at a bar that night, which made me feel kinda young and sassy. When I got home and looked it up, the book value was $10 - but I take that with a grain of salt considering the market.

Windsor 8 1/2" large berry bowl in crystal by Jeannette Glass Company, 1936-1946 (I took this pic with my crappy camera, but this is the actual one I bought)

I shopped my way back through Easley, going in the thrift stores and some antique stores I hadn't been in. It was a nice day, although Easley stops up like a baby full of cheese at mid-day. That was frustrating. I saw some glass, and saw some OK prices on things, but most of it was priced too high, and I am spoiled for flea market pricing now.

I did find some harp end-tables that went with Miss Kat's coffee table, but they needed to be re-finished. They were at a really good price though. By the time I was able to reach her, determine that she wanted them, and find a cash machine (the Jesus Saves Thrift Store only takes cash), they had already been sold. I was pretty disappointed about that.

I still hadn't eaten anything, so I came on home and had broccoli soup and crackers. I put my peas on to cook in the crock pot, and rested up for a while. I knew tonight was going to be a big night.

The day to rest*

Today was the day I needed to rest. Tomorrow is NYE, and I'm going to a party. I also wanted to turn in early because I have the chance to go to the Pickens Flea Market tomorrow. I never get to go since it's on a Wednesday.

I didn't do much today. I hung out, straightened up the house a bit. I put my black-eyed peas in to soak so I could cook them tomorrow.

It was a quiet day.

I slept in, fooled around on the computer, and turned in early. I washed some clothes. I'm really drug out from all the partying I've been doing.

Really intending to rest today**

But I kept getting distracted by guys.

I fooled around a good bit of the day.

But Justin called me about 3pm in a panic. He had gotten all his Christmas presents home (including yet another set of dishes) and couldn't make them all fit in his apartment in a way that pleased him. Justin lives in a one bedroom apartment that is getting distinctly crowded. It is charming, and works for him, but he is rapidly running out of room for even a layered look to be gracefully done.

I took an interrupted nap, cleaned up, and headed for Spartanburg to see if I could help. When I got there, as I suspected, he was just a bit over-wrought. He needed someone to focus him more than anything else, and I proceeded to do that. In his distraction, he had boiled cheese dip out all over the stove, and his stove top doesn't lift up for cleaning. I put him to work re-arranging a set of shelves, and started cleaning up the kitchen - my specialty.

By the time I got done with that, he was more calm, and putting things away. I made helpful suggestions, most of which he shot down, but by doing the opposite of what I suggested, he figured out what it was he wanted to do. Some people are like that.

He managed to get everything back in and arranged, and we were eating tomato soup and sandwiches (his meal of choice for all time now, apparently) when the phone rang. It was James, and after much discussion about smoking privileges he invited us down to his apartment. I met his new boyfriend Jeff, who I like, and who is very sexy.

We laughed and talked and smoked. They were greatly amused at some of the bon mots I was issuing. I was in rare form. I described a woman who I was decorating for, who went on a rogue fabric expedition without me. In the middle of her Waverly Cabbage rose living room we were working on, she covered a sofa with leftover teal diamond fabric with mauve streaks in it (circa 1982). I said it looked like Andy Warhol had taken a dump in the middle of the room. I don't remember the other one, but Justin was writing stuff down.

Eventually he got smoked out and left. The next thing I knew it was 1am. I packed up the car (I have taken on making curtains for James's bedroom for some reason) and made my way home.

More partying

Unfortunately, I was up pretty early this morning. About 6:45 or so. But since I was awake, we got on up and stirred around. A bit. Robert made Indian Red tea and cinnamon bagels for breakfast, since he Must Not Partake of My Food.

We laid around in the living room. Since I hadn't seen the Lawrence Welk Christmas Special, which I watch every year, we put it in and watched part of that. We watched the manic appearance kd lang made on the PeeWee Christmas Special, which is pretty fricking funny. It was fairly early in her career, and apparently they told her since she couldn't dance, she should just be perky. So they put her in light blue cowgirl drag, and she jerked all over the place like a marionette being puppeted by someone with epilepsy. As much as I hate to see a dignified butch subjected to such disrespect, it is pretty damn funny. Since he hadn't seen Drop Dead Gorgeous, we put that in and watched it. I just wasn't up for doing much.

After that, we did scamper out to get some lunch. I finally went to the Sunday brunch at Gourmet Pizza on Augusta Road, and it was really good. The pizza and pasta were great, but they also did a killer macaroni pie. I was impressed. After we ate til we couldn't move, we came home and I collapsed and took a nap while Robert wended his merry way homeward - leaving the whole bag of red tea and the wolf tea pot he got as a gift from the dirty Santa at the bear party in his wake. Yeah, I was pretty hot about that. I called him, but he just laughed and said I could take it to the party next year. I was pretty hot about that too. He's on his way to Charleston to see some guy.

I laid around for a while, and really intended to have a recovery day - all the partying is really catching up with me. But Russ and Billy called and said they were having a game night with David and Brian, and invited me over. David said I could come as long as I brought the remains of the cheese ball with me. I had intended to melt the leftover cheese ball into a pot of soup as usual, but a) I can't resist someone who loves my cooking; and b) I asked myself - do I really need yet more cheese in my diet? Plus I love game night.

So washed the platter, re-molded the cheese ball, and hied myself hence.

We had a really nice evening. We went out for Mexican, then played Farkle, a new dice game Russ and Billy have that is a lot of fun. We also played Taboo, one of my very favorites. I got to call for both teams since we were uneven numbers, but that is my favorite part. So it was another late night, but I had a really good time.

The bear Christmas party

I had planned on taking things a bit easy today, since I have been doing a good bit of partying. I had planned on straightening up the house some since Robert is coming tonight. But Justin called this morning and wanted to go to the flea market and my good intentions pretty much vanished. I had planned on going over to White Horse anyway, and reasoned that a trip to Anderson wouldn't take that much longer. I wasn't expecting there to be anyone there anyway. The weather today was drizzly and overcast.

My prediction for the yard sale part proved to be true. Most everyone was leaving. Still, we walked around and looked at what was there, which was precious little. Since we were already down there, we decided to do the inside. There was no glass, but I managed to fill my backpack with a bunch of crap anyway: ribbon on sale after Christmas, mouthwash, some new hand towels (I am low on cleaning rags), stuff like that.

We didn't find much we wanted to buy, but we found lots to make fun of...

Ceramic music box with black and white unicorns that cycle around through that tunnel thing when it is wound up. I want to know who owned this originally??

"Ornamental" painted potty chair. Too small for flowers, too big for a doll house. I can only assume this was meant as some "quaint" bathroom decor thing. Awful.

After we did the whole outside, Justin wanted to go back and do White Horse, but because of the weather I knew there would be no one there. We compromised by going to see the friendly antique man on Exit 39. We did that place, and didn't find anything we really wanted there either. We did find this bizarrely ugly purse though:

Hideous and apparently once expensive clown purse. All those designs are colored leather patches, sewn on. The close flap has a honky horn on it, not a "P" as we initially thought.

By the time we left that store we were both pretty hungry. After brushing aside Justin's soup and sandwich obsession, we went to get Mexican at Corona's, which I love. They made Chilaquiles for me today with no meat, which they won't always do. Fortunately for me they weren't really busy, and the surly waiter was exceptionally nice to us for some reason.

After lunch, Justin said that he still hadn't had his fill of antique stores. By this time it was 2:30, and Robert was due at 4. But I had seen a new antique place over off Poinsett Highway I wanted to go in, and I had actually thought about Justin when I saw it was open. When we got over there it was closed. We ended up going to Taylors. I hadn't been in there in a while. The woman that runs the place is really nice. Justin got a cool little print, and I got a Windsor pointed bowl I had been admiring in the book. According to Gene Florence, the price on this bowl has decreased significantly due to supply greater than demand, but they still had this one priced at the old price. I talked her into cutting the price in half, matching the new book price, and got it for $15. More than I really wanted to pay, especially since it had a small chip, but it is a really cool piece.

Windsor 7" x 11 3/4" "boat-shape" bowl in pink by Jeannette Glass Company, circa 1936-1946

By the time we got out of there, it was after 3:30 and we had to get home. We got to the house just before Robert did. After I tried unsuccessfully to give away some yucky tea I bought to Justin, he took his leave.

Robert came in like Persephone. He brought his own tea and his own bagels for breakfast in the morning. We talked for a bit, and he wrapped the presents for the bear party while the cats tag-teamed to see who could get the most cat hair on him. He was already in his party outfit - a burgundy knit shirt and corduroy pants that just were picking up cat hair from the next state, let alone my living room. We had to get moving though. The party started at 6pm, and Miss Kat had called to ask me to help her move some furniture. They had been painting, and she was having some new stuff delivered. So it was off to Miss Kat's where we moved a TV and a sofa.

By the time we got back to the house it was 6:14. I ran through the shower while Robert ran to the store. We put our food trays together and left. Unbelievably, he had purchased a plastic Wal-Mart tray and brought it to my house. Needless to say, that wasn't going to work, so I pulled out a coordinating Waterford platter to the one I was using.

The Bear Party

Well I can say I've had better times at a bear party. It was me. I was over-partied, over smoked (I found my lungs on the bed the next morning, trying to make a break for it), and just generally over companied. I can be an extrovert, but I re-charge from my time alone.

It was just one of those evenings where nothing seemed to go my way. I was discombobulated by going in late, but found my stride for a bit and went to the patio to wax eloquent for a while. Apparently with limited success. I did the usual opener, a few stories, then announced I was going to tell a tasteless joke. I waited a bit for protests, and since there were none, proceeded. As I started, one of the guys at the table leaned to another and said "Well I guess we don't have any choice, he's just going to tell it any way." Yeah, I was pretty over that.

There was some guy there from the Spartanburg Gay Men's Supper club who was running neck-and-neck with "Buzz Killington" from Family Guy for sheer un-standability. He was camped out on the patio. When I went inside, he went inside. When I came back out, he came back out. I was wearing my kilt, and mistakenly sat down beside him at first. He made some lascivious remark, and started digging around under my kilt. Now I'm pretty open-minded, and don't begrudge someone a flash if they want one, but 10 minutes later, he was still crabbing around under there trying to get it lifted up. It got to the point of ridiculousness. I finally just put a stop to it.

There was a young guy there who basically cut me off at the knees for being flirty with him. He ensconced himself in the garage, where there were people he deemed hot enough to talk to him, being loudly obnoxious.

There was another nerve-eater ensconced in the living room playing a video game on the Wii. It was good that he had something to do besides bug the shit out of everyone, but it left the living room off limits.

After a while, I just stood in the kitchen, with two guys I like, but I got tired of being in exile - not to mention standing up. I eventually collected Robert and we left.

To top things off, a man said something so insulting to me on the way out that I'm not even going to repeat it here. He then told me he was just "making a joke". But in my experience, jokes are funny. Needless to say, I was uber-over it at that point.

We were home in bed by 11:04pm. I don't think I have ever left a bear party that early. As I say though, it was most likely me. Everyone else seemed to be having a fine time. I am just over-frolicked. At least my cheese ball went over well. It was 2.5lbs though, so there was a good bit left.

Aftermath, a pleasant afternoon**

When I cracked an eye this morning, it was 8am. I just never sleep that late. I was still kind of hung over and drug out, but I had to get the cats to the vet at 10am, so I went ahead and got up.

I played on line for a bit, brushed my teeth, and then got down the carriers and trapped the cats. I was going to get Jinx first, since she's the roadrunner, but she knows what the carriers are, and took off as soon as she saw me. I managed to get her rounded up without too much trouble. Crooner is really too fat to run, plus he's a bit slow on the uptake, so grabbing him wasn't hard. Getting him in the box is the problem, but I had everything laid out, and he was pretty much in before he fully realized what was going on.

I got them their shots, and found to my relief that Crooner doesn't have to have a hernia operation. He's apparently just lop-sided. Which is fine with me. But his teeth are bad, which is why he has nasty breath, so I'm going to have to take him in to have some stuff done on his mouth. Still, cheaper than I was afraid it would be.

When I got home, I had an email waiting from a couple of buddies who wanted to see me yesterday, but I just didn't end up with the time to get over there. They are a really nice couple, both cute guys, and I really like both of them. Fortunately, they were free today, so I went over and just kind of spent the afternoon. We watched movies, got some pizza, and had a really great, very intimate, visit. It was lovely.

I left there and went by the grocery store, since I have a Pat's Faboo Holiday Cheese Ball to make for the bear party tomorrow, and it has to sit overnight.

I left the cheese out to warm up (the cream cheese has to soften in order to assemble), and went out for Thai with Russ, Billy, and Ben. By this time I was dragging. It had been another long and lovely day, but I was worn out. Chip, a really sweet guy I know from Columbia, called and we caught up on the way home. His cat is apparently in poor health, unfortunately, and he told me about that.

I came home, assembled the body of the cheese ball, cleaned up the kitchen (the worst part of making it), and went to bed. I need to rest up. Robert comes tomorrow, which will require some cleaning up, and the bear party is tomorrow night. I need to dry out a bit and be rested up and refreshed for that.

Merry Christmas!

I ran all day today. I had so much to do!

I was up at 7, and after having coffee, put in my DVD of A Christmas Story, and started in on Miss Helen's pound cake. While that was in the oven I ironed and wrapped BB's shirts. I also cut up a Claxton Fruit Cake for her (bleah) that she wanted. At least it was easy to arrange. I put it out on a plate and it kind of glued itself to the plate. It was still arranged when I got it to her. She apparently loves that stuff. She and my father are the only people I know who actually eat them, as opposed to using them for doorstops as the rest of us do.

Then I did my morning stuff, made some breakfast, and got myself cleaned up and dressed. I got to the nursing home just in time to interrupt BB's lunch, but she was glad to see me. We talked for a while, and I gave her one of my new pictures for her bulletin board she keeps in her room. She opened her gifts, and seemed happy with them. We talked about family stuff for a while, and then I took off.

I dropped by the house, got the gifts for Miss Kat and dana, wrapped up Miss Helen's pound cake, and headed for their house. I visited with Miss Kat and dana for a while. Miss Kat had gotten these delicious gourmet caramels for Christmas, and I ate like a half pound of them. Russ and Billy said they were coming over, but they ended up not having time. It got to be 4, and we were supposed to be heading for Spartanburg for Rick Shaw's card party at 5.

So I ran by the house again for Russ and Billy's presents and headed to their place. Russ got a big kick out of his present, as I hoped he would, and Billy liked his gift card. He is just so hard to buy for. They got me a GPS system for the car!!! I was pretty much blown away. That was the last thing I was expecting. I told them they spent too much money, but they said they got it on sale. I was still pretty vaclempt.

We went on to Rick's and had a great time. He always gives such a great party. It's the "anti-Christmas" party. No gifts, no RSVP's, no specific time to get there, no fancy dress, and no covered dish to tote. Billy did take a baked Brie that was appreciated but not required. We had punch, and he made homemade soup. He nicely made some veggie soup for me - a mushroom barley that was delicious - and there was an array of desserts that grateful families had given him for Christmas (Rick runs a nice home health care business).

We played cards, with many breaks for talking and smoking on the porch, and generally just had a lovely time as usual. It was great.

Then I came home and dragged myself to bed. It was a really nice Christmas.

Christmas Eve

They tried to kill me at work today. I haven't worked a Christmas Eve in years, but didn't have enough time to take off this year. Terry, who sits behind me, assured me that it would be an easy day, and we got to go home early.

Then I got in to the office this morning.

My boss, who was out of town last week, finally got around to signing the write-offs that were on his desk when he got back, and gave me those to process, get approved in California, and get through accounting services in one day when we were at about half staff. He kept the Wednesday meeting on schedule, so I had to prepare all the slides for that, plus whip everyone into getting me their info today, plus tell everyone YES we are having the meeting today. He also dumped a month's worth of invoices on my desk to process, and when I finished those, dumped some more from the Canadian office for me to process.

I ate lunch at my desk, stressed to the max. He finally came around at about 3:10pm going "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas! Everyone can go home." I thought, "You dick." And I usually like my boss. The whole rest of the company had already left.

I decided it would be better to try to buy a DVD player today (from a less-craziness perspective, not a price perspective), rather than wait until Friday AND go without movies at bedtime for two nights. So when I got out of the office, I went over to Circuit City, which has just filed bankruptcy. The deals weren't as rock-bottom as I expected, but I got a Sony DVD player for $42, which I thought was pretty damn good.

When I got home, I had it hooked up in just a few minutes. For some reason, even though I got my Mom's 70's era TV working with her cable, VCR, and DVD player, even though there was only on coaxial cable jack on the back (involving a trip to Radio Shack, adapters, etc), I was worried I wouldn't be able to do this. I haven't messed with any of the electronics since Michael left, and kind of had some kind of block about it, I guess. For whatever reason, I was disproportionately thrilled that I got it hooked up with little problem and no cursing. I immediately settled down with a movie for a celebratory nap.

Which I needed. The last week has just been exhausting.

I woke up feeling a bit better, and got ready to go to dinner with Dick and Eve.

We went to Carrabba's tonight. It was pretty good. I sat there and watched my dad salt his food like four times. I just don't think he cares anymore. He told me that he went to the doctor again because his PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) level was going up. He had a radical prostatectomy five years ago. The doctor told him that he probably did have a few cancer cells in his body, but that the level he had wouldn't have been detectable 5 years ago, and that his overall health was so bad that something else would kill him before the cancer could. He is severely overweight, has diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, and asthma.

They gave me tickets to see Koko Taylor at the Peace Center, which I was very excited about getting. I gave them their gift certificate for The Peppermill, which I give them every year now, mainly because I just refuse to shop for my dad anymore. I did get a little surprise for Dad this year. A little thing that he wanted, and wasn't expecting. That was fun. He got a kick out of it.

I visited with them for a while, and then came home and went to bed. I was just tuckered out.

Crawling towards Christmas

I was so tired last night when I went to bed that it never crossed my mind that I would have a problem sleeping, but lo and behold I was up at 4:30am. I got up, ate something, and chatted a bit online, fully intending to go back to bed. When I next looked at the clock, though, it was 5:37. I decided to give it a shot anyway, but no dice. I just got up and resignedly started the day.

I drug into the office feeling, and pretty much looking, like roadkill. The morning at work was pretty brisk, but by the afternoon things had started to quiet down fortunately. The girls in the office are staging a rebellion for tomorrow and wearing jeans despite the fact that it's only going to be Wednesday (gasp!) But seriously, some HR stuff is just so dildonic. Power to the people!

I left work, profoundly grateful that I could go HOME tonight! Well almost directly anyway. I had to wrap gifts tonight for at least Dad and Eve for tomorrow night. Knowing my penchant for seizing upon any excuse not to, I went ahead and stopped at CVS on the way in and got boxes, tape, tissue, etc. I also picked up BB's little Claxton fruit cake. She was put out with Eve for forgetting to take her one. I can't imagine anyone using them for anything but a doorstop or maybe a large paperweight, but hey, if that makes her happy its a small enough thing.

When I got home Lance was outside on his front porch, so I went ahead and ordered some more 5x7s from him, since there is this one picture that seems to be the one everyone wants. He showed me some paintings he is working on. He can paint as well. He and Frankie are both so amazingly talented it makes me feel like a slug. I did get the decor arts of my people, and I can cook, but I'm not terribly creative just from scratch.

I ate, changed the sheets, switched out a load of laundry, then made myself start wrapping gifts. I'm trying to use ribbon and stuff too. Part of getting a gift is the presentation, and showing that you cared enough to make a good effort. So I'm following my own advice and Acting Like Somebody. If I'm going to give a gift, I'm going to try to make it half-way attractive. I ended up getting into a groove and wrapping for about an hour and a half. I'm really looking forward to giving Russ and dana their gifts this year - I think I got them both pretty good. I have five more to wrap, but one of them is just going in a bag, so no sweat there.

A Moment of Silence is in order.

By that time it was nine, and I decided to chat online a bit as I got ready for bed. So I'm going through my night-time routine when it happened. My faithful Emerson DVD player, my bedtime companion for lo these many years, started making strange chugging and scrubbing noises, and breathed its last. I tried to resurrect it for a bit, trying different discs and plugging and unplugging it, but finally had to accept the fact that it is dead. Couldn't happen at a worse time either. Not only will I have to brave the Christmas craziness tomorrow if I want to get a new one, I'll have to deal with wiring electronics on Christmas! Blick.

Sadly, I dug out an old VHS tape and turned in.

Bedraggled, drug-out, and just plain exhausted

Well so much for the romantic notion of sleeping with someone. It has been a long time since anyone stayed the night. Sadly, Chip is a bed hog. He's used to sleeping in the middle, and so that's where he was. I spent much of the night hanging on to the edge of the bed, or asking him to scooch over. Of course, since I kept waking up in floortal peril, eventually insomnia reared its ugly head. I finally got up and took some sleeping pills, which meant it was hard to wake up this morning. Like most homosexuals, Chip is not a morning person. Going through the "surfacing" routine (that non-morning people seem to need) really took me back to the Michael days. I was pretty tired, but see no point in lying around bemoaning the fact. I get up and get on with it.

Work was brisk. I was leaving early for the dentist, and had an ambitious call list for today. Regardless of Christmas, the month-end account dump goes on regardless of the season, so I was trying to process new clients as well. Of course at the time I needed to leave, I got caught in a call with a guy who wanted to pay (so I couldn't get off the call), but was very belligerent and was calling from the bathroom. That was a first for me. The guy was literally on the throne. I conferenced him in from the can with our credit services department and got him squared away, then listened to him bitch for about 20 minutes before I could dis-entangle myself.

I left the office a bit late and ran to the dentist. I love my dental hygienist. She is really nice and seems to really like me. If she doesn't, she does a damn good impersonation. I think it helps that I really do floss daily. They still use the old rubber cups and polish at my dentist. Getting my teeth cleaned was the most relaxing part of my day.

I left the dentist and ran to the post office to get there before they closed. I squeaked in ahead of the people who had just gotten off work. I hurried in ahead of an old man with an armful of packages, but since I only had one card I didn't' feel too badly about it. I got Bernadette's card on the way to France. She won't get it in time, but she'll at least she'll get a card this year.

After that, I headed toward Cherrydale, thinking I'd get BB's other shirt while heading toward Dick and Eve's at the same time. I was going to see Dad tonight to give him the picture he wanted for his birthday. Anyway. It never crossed my mind it would be so hard to find a women's t-shirt. I had already looked at Kmart, but unless BB was prepared to become a Miley Cyrus fan and lose down to a size 2, that was out. There is no active wear section for women in Ross's Dress For Less, amazingly. I confirmed this from the store with the shopping expert, my mother, via cell. Since there was a Catherine's nearby, I decided just to go in there. I figured there had to be somewhere that ample women found comfy clothes. Bingo. Although most of them were more comfy than pretty. I wanted something feminine, but giant glitter butterflies weren't working for me. Eventually I found a really pretty slightly longer knit shirt with 3/4 sleeves. Prettier than a t-shirt, but still comfortable. Its a soft blue, done in a kind of repeating fleur de lis design, a bit like wallpaper, but classy looking. And if I know BB, she still wants something pretty to wear every now and again, bed-ridden or not. So much for cheap. But it was really pretty, so I got it.

I had some time to kill before I met Dick and Eve, so I wandered over and bought a couple of pairs of shoes. One pair of tennies, since I have been in mine for two years and they are bit worse for wear (my main wardrobe indulgence is new sneakers every year). I found some Filas that were on markdown, and with the "one and one half off" sale, I got them for $15. From $55. I also got a new pair of brown dress shoes. The ones I had were big chunky GBX's that I got about 5 years ago. They are not only unfashionable now, the lining is coming out of them. The problem for me is that all the new (non-nerd) shoes have big square toes on them. With feet my size, they just look like a ridiculous cross between clown and duck feet. Plus I think they are too young for me. But I found a pair with smaller only squarish toes that I think I can get away with. I don't know if I'll wear them or not, but they feel comfortable, so maybe I will.

That done, I went on to the restaurant to meet Dick and Eve. We had dinner, and Dad gave me a brief third degree about Cindy and Paul. I gave him his picture, which he actually seemed very pleased with. He then tried to guilt me into going to Catholic mass with them Christmas Eve. I don't think so. Of course that still served to put out the good feeling I got from his pleasure over the picture.

On the way home, I remembered that I was supposed to go through the grocery store. There were things I had to buy for lunches this week, plus just stuff I was out of. So I stopped. As I walked through the store, I was so fatigued it was hard to concentrate. I just really wanted to just lie down. But I finished up the shopping like a zombie. At least I didn't put any pork brains in the cart (yes, they sell them here - in a can, yet).

Then I passed a gas station, reminding me that I needed gas. I have a lot of running around to do this week and was down to a quarter-tank. So I went ahead and did that.

I was SO glad to be home. I got all the stuff out of the car, put away groceries, and started a load of wash. I have to get BB's clothes washed before I give them to her, since I didn't want her to have to wait to wear them. Also, my work khakis had to go through. The dress code will not be relaxed at work on Christmas Eve.

Just as I was thinking about sitting down, I remembered that I hadn't picked up my prescriptions from the pharmacy, so I had to get dressed and go back out.

The sheets need changing, but I decided that could wait another day. I put the clothes in the dryer and crawled into bed on ragged knees.

Company from Florida*

I woke up much too early this morning. I'm not getting enough sleep, but I have so much to do I've kind of been soldiering on and catching sleep when I can. When I woke up this morning, I decided to go ahead and get up and breakfast and stuff. I knew I needed to straighten up the house, but the call of the flea market was just too strong. There was hardly anyone at White Horse today. On the Sunday before Christmas, I'm sure they were all in church. Plus I already bought glass yesterday, and I have it sitting all over the house now. Still, I did the walk-through and came home.

When I got back, I had breakfast and a nap. I talked a bit online. I was trying to get motivated to clean, and Robert was trying to help me, but I loathe to clean the bathroom, and it had to be done. I started the day right by throwing the shower curtain in the washer - that was the dirtiest part - but I knew it all needed to be done. I'm bad to clean the dirtiest place and then go "Meh, I'll get the rest later." But I really needed to do some serious stuff today. Even if Chip didn't care, Robert is coming to stay next weekend, I reminded myself. I really should be able to clean without company as a motivation, but whatever works.

I eventually started cleaning, in between texting back and forth to Chip, my friend from Florida. I told myself I only had so long, because he was supposed to be here in the afternoon, but then I found out he wouldn't be here until 7. Good thing. When I really stopped to look at the house as a stranger would, I was horrified. No one really comes over. Since I'm the single one, I go visit everyone else. It's so easy just to let a little bit go, and then a bit more when you live by yourself. The cats don't care; and I mainly stop at the house to eat, sleep, and change clothes these days. It's so easy to say "I'll put that away later." In a house as small as mine, those 'put away laters' pile up pretty quickly. I really needed to de-junk. I cleaned straight through until he got here at about 6:30. I had just stepped out of the shower when he knocked on the door. The house was pretty much presentable, except for the junk room, where I just abandoned all pretense.

It's a Christmas Miracle - the bathroom is clean.

Chip was drug out. He had been driving since 1am. But we sat and talked for a bit. He showered up, and we visited for a while. We talked a good bit. He is a conservative (surprisingly to me) but not a fundie. Plus he's very smart and funny. I really do enjoy talking to him, even if we don't agree on everything. There is enough we can agree on. But eventually the subject of food came up. There are lots of good places around here. The last time he was here, we went to Pita House and had Middle Eastern food. Zero atmosphere, but the food is excellent. Of course they were closed today, as were most of the cool little funky restaurants. They seem to have all reached an agreement to close on Sunday, I guess because so many people have Sunday dinner with their families. I intended to take him over to Stax Omega for cool Greek diner food, but when I got in the car, the Chinese food he had for lunch smelled so good we ended up eating Chinese buffet. The one near my house could use the business anyway. They are watching food costs very closely, apparently, because there wasn't much on the bar. They weren't very busy, so I can understand that. They were really nice about cooking whatever we wanted to order though, and we had plenty to eat.

After that, he told me that he wanted to run through Kmart. Apparently he is still Christmas shopping, and has just kind of been shopping along for gifts as he goes up the road, but needed some wrapping stuff. Surprisingly, Kmart was still open. It was about 9pm at this point, but apparently they are working longer hours for Christmas. I needed some boxes anyway, so that was perfect. We goofed around in there for a while. Apparently he is a serious present wrapper, but they were out of ribbon, so he got big wreath ribbon to use on his packages. This involved a lot of mental coordination of colors and digging through the little that was left.

The young woman who checked us out was very pleasant. As we were finishing up, I said "You have been really nice to us - especially since you are having to work so late on a Sunday." She replied "Yes I have." I got a huge kick out of that, and told her I hoped she got some rest after Christmas was over. Fortunately, she doesn't have to work returns.

We had planned a serious Aviance night for later, but by the time we got back to the house, the driving, the earlier visiting, the heavy meal, and my cleaning had pretty much piled on and we were both fading. We decided to go ahead and turn in.

Partying with Russ and Billy

When I woke up from my nap, the last thing I felt like doing was going to a party. The weather did not help this feeling any. It was drizzly rainy yuck outside. Going and eating lunch didn't make me feel any more party-y. It just made me feel full and lazy.

But I had promised to go, and I wanted to see Russ and Billy. I had already begged off of doing gifts with them tonight because I have to get a box to wrap Russ's and I keep putting off getting the box. And the wrapping, of course. I drug myself through the shower and into clothes. I was fresh out of gay apparel. Well Christmas gay apparel anyway. I did wear Christmas underwear. You just never know.

When I got to Russ and Billy's they weren't really any more festive than I was. We were all tired. They go even harder than I do. But the posse started assembling. Ted and Kirkland showed up. Russ and Billy know them better than I do - it takes me longer to warm up to stunningly attractive couples. Long association with the gay world makes me associate beautiful people with a general air of star-bellied sneetch superiority. Most gorgeous gay couples kind of live in a World of Two where others are not welcome. But Ted and Kirkland really don't seem to be like that. I hadn't spent a lot of time with them in close quarters before. Generally we're at a party with the bear group, and I kind of hang with people I know better and let their admirers surround them. But they are nice guys. Ted was in a really good mood, and very talkative. Kirkland is the quiet one. It's easy to read a lot of negative things onto someone who isn't saying much, and I had kind of projected the "quiet, possessive, watching lover" thing onto Kirkand. Since I'm a flirty type, that makes me as nervous as a dog that doesn't bark. I'm always halfway expecting to get bitten. But it apparently was totally not fair for me to project that onto Kirkland. Lord knows Michael was quiet as a mouse, and I should know better. I should have known better than to think Russ and Billy would hang out with people like that also. Kirkland did speak up enough later in the evening to make me suspect that he has a sense of humor, and is probably a very different person when it's just the two of them, or maybe once he gets to know you.

Anyway, by the time we all gathered and spent a bit of time on the porch, we were in a much better mood. I was all comfy and prepared to stay there, but of course we had to go on to the actual party, which was a bit discombobulating.

It was at Dean and Scott's house. They are nice guys. A bit cream cheese for me, and what I would term Aggressive Holiday Decorators, but nice. Their parties are always an interesting mix. There are a lot of older, MCC people there. And some straight couples. And then there's us - the party people. Generally, I just go out onto the porch and say the most outrageous thing I can think of. Half the MCC people are secretly thrilled to hear someone without a stick up their ass, and the other half can be horrified and get to feel superior, so its kind of a win/win. Generally by halfway through the party, its kind of split in half, with the vanilla people in the house and the wilder people on the smoking porch, and so it was tonight. Rick Shaw was there, and it's just always good to see him. There were bear group people there too.

Things got wild enough on the porch that the Gladys Kravitz next door came out on her back porch to spy on us. Dean and Scott live in a suburb where the houses are like about eight feet apart. That put a damper on things for a bit, but eventually she went in the house.

When I was there the last time, I declined the tour of the house, which seemed to miff Dean a bit. But the house is all in white and beige, and I figured "seen one room, seen them all" frankly. But tonight I decided to take the tour. Partially to keep the peace, partially out of curiosity, and partially because Ted was going and I figured I could maneuver so that he went up the stairs in front of me. He has what I would term an Inspiring Ass. And there are a lot of stairs in that house. MC Escher would feel quite at home. Three floors and a basement, and bathrooms everywhere. The house is really deceptively large - over 5,000 sq feet, according to Dean. It is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. And I counted 5 full-sized Christmas trees. There were smaller ones too, and a lot of other decorations, plus another tree in the basement that wasn't even decorated. Plus the outside of the house. Too much work for me, but hey, good for them.

There was much smoking and talking. Billy got tore down, and Ted and I took turns getting him tickled, which is always fun. But the party started winding down. This is a fairly early crowd, so by 12:30 or so, it was pretty much all over. Russ started making noises about going to another party, but I begged off. I had had enough. Plus I had company coming tomorrow. So they dropped me at the house and went on. Billy was already lit, and Russ just hates to miss anything. They are just indefatigable. More power to them, but I learned long ago not to try to keep up.

A fascinating (if wet) morning at the Anderson Jockey Lot

Well as usual when I can get some rest, I fail to get any. The elixir let me down. I woke back up at 3:30, and after some internal debate, took another half teaspoon. I was back up at 7:30. But I figured I had gotten some sleep.

I knew going to the flea market today wasn't a good idea. I've been nursing a cold all week. Plus it was yucky this morning. Overcast, gray and damp. But I figured I could stand a run through White Horse Road. I didn't get to go at all last week. But there was almost no one at White Horse Road. Against my better judgment, I decided to go to Anderson.

The weather got worse on the drive down. It was misting rain by the time I got there, and I figured there would be no one there. But I was wrong! Usually at the first spit of rain, everyone leaves. But I guess because it is the weekend before Christmas there were a LOT of people shopping. People just put up their umbrellas and shopped on, as did I. It was just a mist. But the sellers were leaving. I have never seen the sellers packing up with that many people shopping before.

I was out there til the last though, peeking under tarps and just watching the people. $3 was the magic price today. Everything I bought was $3. I bought what I thought was a "Raindrops" sherbet/champagne, but there is no such piece listed in the book. Which means I may have a rare piece, or a piece of crap. There is a stress crack in it anyway that I didn't see until later. I couldn't feel it, since it isn't a chip, and you only see it when the light catches it. That's what I get for buying glass in a hurry. I did, however, pick up a lovely Waterford sandwich tray that I have long desired. I have two of the big trays, but the smaller handled one has lovely lines that I have long admired. I saw one at D'relda's Christmas party last weekend. That settles what I'm taking to the bear party anyway. A homemade cheese ball will look simply divoon upon it.

Waterford 12" handled cake plate in crystal by Anchor Hocking, circa 1938-1944

It was fascinating watching people today. There were all these little dramas going on around me. I saw lovely redneck boys out with their closeted friends, brothers and fathers and sons out shopping together for Christmas, and many families. The one that broke my heart, though, was the closeted lesbian out shopping with her married friend, with whom she was clearly in love. She had that goofy "boy in love" grin on her face that only butches and adolescent teen-age boys can achieve, bounding along delightedly next to her oblivious companion. The damp hair hanging in her face and her air of adoration gave the impression an excited Labrador Retriever. I watched them until I creeped myself out.

Of course there were the usual numbers of opportunists out trying to make a quick buck for Christmas. One table had bunches of fir tree trimmings, clearly pruned off Christmas trees, gathered into bunches and tied with bright red bows, for sale.

For Sale: Redneck stadium seating. I got a huge kick out of this.

As it started getting wetter though, everyone just moved inside and kept shopping from the inside tables.

What do you do with a shipment of odd coffee table tops that came with no legs? Why create Art, of course!

It was crowded and damp inside, since everyone was crammed in there. I saw many Christmas puppies being carried around by various ages of boys. One baby lab had a tiny Santa hat on it, which was just adorable. Unfortunately there were also an inordinate amount of ginormous strollers violating the rules, which started to get on my nerves. But I did the whole inside. I was looking for a t-shirt for BB, but oddly enough, I had a lot of trouble finding any. I didn't want sleep shirts, since she's in diapers now, and they would get in the way. But there was only one t-shirt seller I could find that was appropriate. I got her one from them, but they didn't have a very good selection. I guess I'll have to pay retail for another. The horror!

A display of size extra-humongous novelty (I hope to God) panties.

Eventually, I decided it was time to hie myself hence. By that time it was Seriously Raining. I had already seen a traffic jam in front of the Jockey Lot, a first for me, but it wasn't too bad. By the time I got to the car though, I was soaked. By the time I got home, I was chilled. I just stripped down, hung everything in the shower, and crawled back into bed. I snuggled up in my flannel sheets and slept for about two hours, after which I felt much better. And very hungry.

I had a lot to do today. I really needed to get over to Miss Kat's, I had books to return at the library, and I had to get some lunch. There was nothing in the house to eat but bologna that I was saving for lunches next week and leftover uninspired salad. I had my grandmother's Christmas check to deposit too, since I know what I'm going to buy with it and wanted to go ahead and order it.

I loaded up the car with stuff I needed to take to Miss Kat, and went on to lunch. I went to the Mexican place close to my house. I like their food, but they always screw up my order. They just can't seem to conceive of the fact that I would want food with no meat in it. True to form, I got nachos today, and they didn't have any meat on them, but they had also left off the beans. I'm going to a party tonight and need a good protein base on my stomach since I'm going to be drinking. I didn't kick up a fuss, just ordered a side of beans. The waiter there is so cute though. I used to think there might be something in his attentiveness, but now I think he's just a good waiter. Sadly.

After lunch I called Miss Kat's, but they were out. I went by the bank and came on home to get ready for the party. I renewed the books online and just figured I'd return them next week. I spent some time on the phone with a very nice but completely unhelpful Amazon.com rep in India, trying to get my Christmas thing from my grandmother straightened out, but no dice. As I was getting ready, Miss Kat called, but it was too late to get by there today. I'm going to shoot for tomorrow. I was cutting my nails. For some reason, I never need to cut my nails until I'm going someplace with Russ and Billy. Then I look down and suddenly I am Mu Shu the dragon lady, and it's either paint them or cut them. Anyway....

A quiet enough day

Work was quiet enough. I got my write-offs all prepared for Monday.

I was SO glad when I got off I didn't have a damn thing to do. The plan was to go home, dig out some of my "magic elixir" cough syrup from when I had the flu this Spring, and go to BED.

This cough medicine is strong stuff. Usually, I could go to my doctor with my head in a basket and she'd tell me to take a Tylenol. But last Spring she really came through for me. When I went to get my prescriptions filled, the pharmacist came out and said "Mr. Shumate, we have a problem with this prescription. I think your doctor's dosage listed is too high. I'm going to call her about it." I was like whatever. Well my doctor is a very assertive woman who is not used to being Contravened. I guess when he called her she let him hold it. When he came back, he said he was leaving the prescription as written, but he still thought the dosage was too high, and advised me to take less. The prescription was for 1-2 teaspoons every 12 hours! He advised me to take only 1/2 a teaspoon, since this medicine could cause respiratory suppression in too high a dose. Frankly I was skeptical. I'm a big guy, and 1/2 a teaspoon didn't seem like much. Besides the fact that my ribs were sore from coughing at the time. So I took a teaspoonful, laid down, and woke up like 11 hours later, thinking "Wow, I must have really been wiped out." I took my medicines again, and slept for another 10 or so hours. I didn't make the connection until the third dose, when I woke up actually catching my breath. The penny eventually dropped, and I was like "Hmmmm, maybe I better cut back on this stuff for a bit." So basically, this is like the anti-Jim-Croce medicine. Instead of time in a bottle, it's time eaten by a bottle. But it sounded just like what I needed tonight.

But I had to eat something first. Between the food day at work yesterday and the Lipton cup-o-noodles I had eaten for dinner last night (at Olive Garden), I felt like I had been eating crap all week. What I wanted was a nice big healthy, innovative, crunchy salad. And what better place to get it than Whole Foods, right? I thought they had built one closer to my house, but when I got there it was a Fresh Market. Which is fine. Unfortunately what I wanted was a really cool salad, like the ones they make at Publix. I was thinking they'd have something even better at the Fresh Market, but I was wrong. Their salad selection was actually kind of pitiful. I kind of wandered aimlessly around the store for a while, but really couldn't find anything I wanted. So I picked up a rather unimaginative Garden Salad (figuring if it wasn't spring greens with walnuts, it was at least vegetables), and an over-priced bottle of salad dressing (I was at the Fresh Market). I was really pissed when the fog in my head cleared enough as I was pulling out of the parking lot to realize that I was passing TWO Publixes on the way home. Dammit.

Still from the "Miser Brothers Christmas", the craptastic new Christmas special from ABC Family Channel - almost but not quite completely unwatchable

When I got home, I remembered that they were running the new "Miser Brothers Christmas" tonight on ABC Family Channel. Miss Kat and I both LOVE the old "Year Without a Santa Claus" just because you get to see Heat Miser and Snow Miser do their stuff. I also love how Mother Nature goes "Buh-OYS, PUH-leeyas!" Anyway. I missed the first broadcast of the new one because it aired while I was at D'relda's party last weekend. So I thought I'd just catch that while I was eating, then go to bed.

Sigh. It was pretty craptastic. The problem was that they were taking two two-dimensional characters and trying to pad them to an hour special on their own. The style of animation was lovingly like the original. They even dug out the original Heat Miser to reprise his role (sadly, the Cold Miser passed away in 1987).

The problem was the story, which just frankly sucked. Someone was trying to steal Christmas (ala Nightmare Before Christmas), and Santa was hurt and confined to bed (ala the original Year Without a Santa Claus), and the Miser Brothers were going to have to learn how to work together to save Christmas. OK, that retread came over on the Mayflower. The other chief characters were a lackluster ego maniacal villain loosely based on Kelsey Grammer, and a chief elf named Tinsel, who was trying to re-design Santa's sleigh (following in is father's footsteps), but feeling that he fails after the sleigh crashes due to sabotage (kind of a composite of Rudolph and Herbie from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer).

I think Christmas has been saved more than that woman on the railroad tracks. But charming characters could have saved this special. Sadly, the Miser Brothers spent most of the hour in distinctly tiresome quarrelling. Wisely, the producers didn't change their theme-song, leaving it the same as in the original (since new songs were pretty damn bad), and in the interest of Giving the People What They Want they even padded out the song with more choruses, more backup lil heat and cold dudes, and even a reprise close to the end after they tried to get along. But really, the first one is the one you remember, and why not just watch the original?

The other Characters were pretty much charm free. Santa was pretty dull, and the Mrs. Claus cast had a distinctly irritating voice. I think they were trying for a Shirley Booth novelty voice, as in the original, but failed. Likewise the voice cast as Mother Nature was trying for the original, but majorly missed the mark. Tinsel is the character you're supposed to feel sorry for, but he's such a wuss he isn't very sympathetic. Honestly I almost went and washed dishes rather than finish watching it. It was that bad. But at the end, of course Christmas is saved, and the Miser Brothers learn to love and value each other, and I got a little misty, just cause I am so EASY at the holidays. But seriously, it was a lotta garbage for very little pay-off.

I did sign on to the computer and got a good surprise. An old beau was coming to town on his way to Virginia to see his family, and asked if he could stop and see me. Of course I said sure. He is a super-nice guy and I really like him, but he's a restless spirit. He was living in Charleston when we met, then moved to Atlanta. He lives in Florida now. It will be really good to see him though. I'm really looking forward to it.

After that, I took my elixir and went to bed. Justin called and we talked for a little bit, but I was asleep by about 8:30.

The rush continues

It was one of those days at work today. Since I had planned what I was going to do, naturally a thousand other little niggly things had to be taken care of.

The food spread. Justin's pound cake is under the Tupperware dome immediately to the left of the red cups in the foreground.

It was food day at work today. Justin's pound cake was served to rave reviews. But the spread just wasn't up to the usual standard this year. So many people don't cook. It amazes me. But Lillian brought a lovely homemade cheese ball with sun-dried tomatoes. I love sun-dried tomatoes. They taste like bits of summer that have been pressed in a book. There were lots of cookies, and someone brought a shrimp tray, but overall the pickings were a bit slim. Probably just as well. I don't really need to be eating all that junk. I ate enough as it was. I gave some of the pound cake to Anna to take home to her family with my holiday wishes, and Christie took home the rest. That girl just loves pound cake.

She told me she could still taste the love in it, and that she liked the new recipe. Justin said he spent most of the time making it thinking about Heath, and I teased him about that. I really shouldn't, but it's so easy to get a rise out of him it's just irresistible. He has no sense of humor about that situation at all. So I was naughty today. I'm sure Santa was too busy to be watching little ole me though. I hope so anyway.

When I got off work, I ran by Ross's Dress For Less to pick up a picture frame for the picture I'm going to give my dad for his birthday tomorrow. They have tons of frames, but most of them have been picked through and mangled at this point. I called Eve and asked her what I should look for, at which point she told me they had plans for dinner tomorrow night. Of course. So much for my just coming by with the picture. She invited me for tonight, but I had dinner with H. She also invited me for tomorrow, but I am just so tired. Plus, I didn't feel comfortable horning in on a nice dinner they had planned with their friends. I guess I'll just see him Sunday or something.

Meanwhile, I had to get out of Ross's. That is the big problem with shopping there. Of course the woman in front of me had a cart mounded full of stuff, all of which had security tags that had to be removed. And of course the checker in that lane was moving with the speed of a thousand slugs. I waited in line with my one picture frame for as long as I had been in the store shopping.

I called D'relda, and asked him to please take my regrets to Amy tomorrow night. I'm just not up for her party. I also called Brad since I hadn't talked to him in a while, and left a message. He texted me back to tell me he's home sick as well, and apparently sounds like Brenda Vaccaro after throat surgery. I'd kind of like to hear that.

When I finally got home, it was about 6:45. H was going to be at the house at 7 for us to go to dinner. We had talked about getting takeout, which would have been heaven, but he took a wrong turn and the whole thing just was getting very complicated. I just told him to come on to the house, and resignedly dressed to go back out. Incredibly, I have eaten so much Indian food and sushi recently that I have had my fill of both.

We ended up going to Olive Garden, just because of a sheer dearth of inspiration. The last time I was there, they had this really great stuff on the menu, but it was one of their seasonal specials or something, so they didn't have it any more. I always feel kind of like I'm going to spontaneously immolate when I walk into Olive Garden. It makes me feel vaguely obscene to be around so many heterosexual vanilla people with mini-vans all at once. Oddly enough, I don't feel that way at the cafeteria among the old people. It's just in places like the Olive Garden where they manufacture and aggressively advertise a Wholesome Family Atmosphere that I feel kind of like a whore in church. Anyway, the food was fine.

We talked about the holidays, and I caught him up on my family drama and the parties I had been to. He's getting his daughter for Christmas, which is nice.

When he got to the house, he brought in tea for me. Now he had told me he bought too much tea, and asked if I would like some. I told him to bring me a little bit, so I could taste it. A little bit turned out to be two full canisters of Sri Lankan tea. So I figured he got me there. I had kind of agreed to that. When we got back from dinner, he got out a friendship tree and gave it to me. He told me he takes them to his parishioners in the nursing home, and had an extra one. I was pretty much OK with that. Then he goes back to the boot, and pulls out a huge Christmas present on top of everything else. At that point, I was pretty embarrassed. He is a sweet and generous guy, but I have asked him to stop buying me things. It makes me very uncomfortable. If I take it I feel like a goober (of course I didn't have a gift for him - I just met him a little over a month ago, and we have had the "stop buying stuff" talk before) and if I refuse I feel like an ungrateful jerk. Sigh. Apparently we are going to have to address this again.

He came in for a bit, and we talked before he left. He has stuff on his mind, and I want to be a good friend. But I was soooooo drug out. Nursing this cold is killing me. Eventually I just had to throw him out and go to bed.

Things got better

I stayed all day at work today. I was feeling a bit better and it's getting more quiet as we get closer to the holidays. Except for a holiday screamer, next week should be a breeze. I got all my reconciliations done today, so I can work on write-offs tomorrow and Friday, as planned.

Still, I was tired, and wishing I could just go on home tonight. But I had to get my hair cut, and there was no way I could move the appointment. Russ is booked solid through the holidays. I also had to bake a pound cake when I got home, for the pot luck at work tomorrow. I just can't bear to disappoint Christie. She is a girl I work with who just loves my pound cake.

Justin got in touch today. I had emailed him that I had his Christmas present, but wasn't going to have time to get back up there until after he got back from the holidays. He and James were down here shopping today, so decided to run by and see me tonight. Since they were done shopping before I got to the house, I told them just to go on in. I also told Justin that, should he feel motivated, there were the ingredients laid out to make a pound cake....

I wasn't really expecting him to do it, but to my surprise and delight, he did. I was very VERY grateful it was done when I came home. I was so tired, and hadn't gotten out from Russ's shop until about 7.

Unfortunately James wasn't feeling well. He was asleep, but I woke him up because I was ordering pizza for dinner. He didn't eat anything. I felt it was the least I could do, though, to feed Justin, after he had done me such a huge favor. He was gratifyingly excited about his gift, a set of Depression Glass sherberts I knew he wanted. I love giving gifts that people really want.

They hung out for a while and watched the end of "You Got Mail", which James really seems to like.

After the movie was over though, poor James was all in, and Justin took pity on him and took him home. I was pretty much done myself, and just finished cleaning up the kitchen and went to bed.

Yuck part II

I did get some sleep last night anyway, but woke up still feeling bad. Being out of the office today was not an option though. I have to prepare the slides for the Thursday meeting today, and browbeat everyone into giving me their stuff to complete them. I also have to reconcile accounts today so I can do write-offs Thursday and Friday.

I walked in to a face-full of audit hell. My boss hadn't completed some of the audit and is on the road this week. He dumped the incomplete in a co-workers lap to finish, and she was in full panic mode. Additionally, one of the auditors who hadn't gotten back with me on details they wanted decided that they would have to have it today, since it was due last week. I managed to get that calmed down.

But it's a pretty sucky day here.

Yuck

Woke up sick this morning. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Everyone in the office has been trailing various forms of pestilence through for weeks, and of course I have been running myself ragged. My resistance was bound to be down. My company takes the same view of illness that the Catholic church does on homosexuality. It's OK to be sick, as long as you don't act sick. Or miss work. If I missed work today, I would have had to take vacation time too, which would have screwed up the time I'm taking off for Christmas (8 days! if only I can make it).

I took some cold medicine and went on in, feeling like crap. I did what I had to do and left work early, something I very rarely do. I'm trying to clear things out on the schedule. I may be able to get H to have dinner here Thursday night. I still have to get my hair cut Wednesday night, and have to bake the cake for the work potluck or there will be a riot. The party Friday night is out. The paty Saturday night may be out too if I don't feel better. I wasn't directly invited to that one anyway, I was going with Russ and Billy. Sunday I have off this week, blessedly.

I went through the grocery store, since there were a couple of things I had to have and I wanted some soup. When I got home, I just couldn't face the yucky bed. I hadn't had time to change the sheets this weekend. They weren't really dirty or anything, I just didn't like the thoughts of it. So I stuck them in the washer and collapsed on the couch for a couple of hours. I wanted the flannel sheets back on the bed, so when I woke up, I stuck them in the dryer and had some soup and cheese toast for dinner.

Mary Poppins was on tonight.

Lunch with Fran*

One of my reps was here from the mid-west today. I haven't seen her since we started doing business together, but we talk on the phone all the time. Fran is from this area, but moved away. After hearing about what she went through when she got home, I understand why. She was combining a visit to her family with some client calls in the area. Despite it all though, she is a terrifically positive and wonderful person, and it was really good to spend some time with her.

We went out for a lovely lunch at Saffron, and then did a bit of shopping before coming back to the office. After a brief tour of the newly-expanded facility, I got a conference room and we caught up on what was going on.

All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend a Monday.

When I got off work, I went by to pick up one of the two gifts I had left to buy. Since there was residual moisture on the roads from rain at lunch-time, traffic was all snarled up, complicated by holiday shopping traffic, but I managed to get home without really horrible trouble.

I was supposed to be out with Fran for dinner tonight, but her schedule changed. Actually that really suited me fine, since I had something to do every night this week except for tomorrow. I'm going to work on carving out more time at the house this week. But in the meantime, there is lots of laundry to do.

A day at Biltmore

The alarm went off brutally early this morning. I didn't get to bed until 2:30am this morning. But duty called, so I went and made a huge cup of coffee, had cigarettes, and talked to Robert for a bit for dramatic renewal of purpose. After that I crawled through the shower and headed out.

The portrait from the first floor, since they just Don't Miss a Trick up there any more. From left to right: My Dad, My step-mom Eve (aka Mom), me in the back in the navy t, and in front of me Carl's daughter Reagan. Cole is beside her in the striped shirt, and Carl is behind him holding baby Ava in her Uncle Steve cha-cha coat. Lisa is on the far right, difinitively de-bunking her claim that she doesn't show up on film. That girl is harder to photograph than a wild Asian Tapir.

The front entrance. I didn't have anyone pose, though I should have. To the right of the lion, Lisa is holding Ava over her face. Cole is at the bottom of the steps.

We went inside and did the main floor, and kind of ran through one of the upper floors. We didn't get there until quarter after eleven, and had to fight the traffic to get in. That place is really busy this time of year. We had lunch reservations at 12:30 at the Grove Park Inn, and had to get back down to catch the shuttle over there at 12:15.

Lunch at the Grove Park Inn. I didn't take pictures of the family eating, but I did catch the guy at lower left shoveling it in!

Lunch was good. We took our time and enjoyed. Lisa and Dad fought over the check. Dad had intended lunch to be part of the Christmas present. This trip was a gift from him to us, and a chance to spend some time together.

We got back to the house and did some more of the upper floors, but we had to move through them fairly quickly. I was fascinated by the fabric and wallpaper restorations they have done - they literally took scraps of original fabrics and had them re-woven, and took scraps of wallpaper from under the edges of windows and under outlet covers to have the wallpaper re-printed by a custom block printing process in France, just as the original paper was made. I could have spent a long time just looking at that stuff, be we had to get back downstairs. We had a below-stairs tour at 3pm.

The woman who did the below-stairs tour was super nice, and very knowledgeable. Also, we were the only people for that tour today, so it was like we had our own personal tour guide. She took us through the servants' access and stairways behind the scenes, though the bachelors quarters, and discussed the color coding of the servants areas. We also went into the basement, where she talked about how the mansion was powered and heated. In it's day, the Biltmore was a real cutting-edge Bill Gates type of place. It was fascinating.

By this point, though, Dad was flagging. All the walking, the heavy meal, and him carrying Ava around were taking their toll on him. He skipped the below-stairs tour, and by the time we got back from that he was ready to go. We ran through the gift shop, where Lisa sneakily paid for my wine. I wanted some of the white cabernet they make, but there was none on offer. When we got done there, we caught the shuttle back to the car. We ended up doing gifts in the parking lot, but it was fine.

I have a strict rule that I buy people things they want, not things that I want, or want them to have. But I broke that rule this year. When I was little, I had a stuffed zebra that went everywhere with me named Zeebee. I still have Zeebee. I saw a stuffed zebra this year, and just couldn't resist getting it for Ava. They are trying to wean her off a cheap little stuffed dog that Cole won at a fair that is falling apart. She was holding the zebra and hugging it when she got it (butt up to her face - no comment), but the true test will be when they get it home and it goes up against the real sleep puppy, or her new penguin that she likes. But she has her own Zeebee now, for what its worth.

Ava with her little stuffed zebra I got her for Christmas. She was actually much more interested in blowing the horn and driving Dad's car at that point.

Lisa got me a new David Attenborough DVD - Yay! I could really use it the way I have been not sleeping lately.

The view of the house from the end of the lawn as we left.

On the way out, Mom and Dad stopped, as did Lisa and Carl, to upgrade their tickets to season passes. Dad was hinting around that I should too, but since I haven't been to Asheville since Michael and I were dating, I didn't really think I needed to do that.

By this point, frankly, I was Uncled and Son'd out for the day. We ran through McDonald's for dinner and headed home, finally. I was really worn out.

I had conducted a poll during the day with various people about whether or not I should tell Donnie about the shennanigans at the Dirty Santa thing last night, and consensus seemed to be that I should tell him. I figured someone else would have spilled the beans by now, but when I texted him, he said he didn't know anything about it. So I called him and we talked for a bit. Apparetly we will just have to go over the rules for the end of the game also next year. He already has to be very specific about going through the number of steals.

I texted back and forth with Brad a bit on the way home. Things have been so nuts lately that I haven't talked to him much. But there is just only so much to go around. This was the busiest weekend though. I have Sundays off for the rest of December, which will be nice. I'm tired.