DLand - Pants and Christmas Trees

Treeeeeee!I have a Christmas tree now! It's magnificent. We made it to the hardware store just in time to have them lock up the tree lot. But I batted my eyelashes a little and moaned a bit and he unlocked the door and turned the lights back on and let me drag pine needles all through his freshly swept store to take my tree home. Mom and Daddy came to help in the festivities. I suppose my parents really are a bit like a sitcom. As if my dad would slide in the front door like Kramer. The tree was done by 12:30 and I hope to go home to revel in the festiveness of it soon. The highlight of the tree escapade was when there were approximately six tree stands in my living room. You never know what kind of tree stand will suit the tree best. Needless to say, my tree construction involved a cardboard box, some veneer plywood, a white glitter stand, some green wire and a coat hanger. Mom was hoping to find a use for the rubber mat she had brought, but I was stalwart. Mom: “That's okay, I'll just take it home. I use it for putting on pants.” Me: “You what?” Mom: “You know, when you put your pants on and they drag across the carpet when you're putting them on. Well, they get Lady fur on them so I stand on this mat to put my pants on.” (Incidentally, the dog has been dead over a year and there is still Lady fur in the house everywhere.) Me: “You have a mat just for putting on pants? Amazing.” Mom: “Well, pants and Christmas tree stands.”

DLand - Safety First ...

A Boring Update It's been a long while. Let's try to recap as best as we can. This may be boring, but at this point I just have to spew out what's rolling around in my head.Thanksgiving was good if a little odd. I'm used to spending Thanksgiving on the road and in the company of a large group of family and friends. It was one of those holidays where Jeremy and I both had time off but neither of our parents were despondent if we travelled and only showed up for Christmas. But this year, Turkey Day was at my house. Dinner was at 6 and my family showed up at 5:45. Yes, this means most of my Thanksgiving day was spent with my pets. But once my perennially tardy family got there, we had a good time. I even got my parents to come back Saturday for leftovers and to check out the Dance Dance Revolution game (no, none of them danced - only watched). My father has figured out where/how to mount the new microwave in my kitchen and I think I've convinced him to replace the fridge as well. That's really all I want for Christmas. And I even own the appliances. I just want them installed. Right now I am living the life of two fridges (the old one in the kitchen and the high tech one in the dining room). It's a little decadent and a lot of fridge space for just little old me. So if you need to store any food for the year 2003, just let me know. My house also hosted a menagerie of dogs. Casey and Connor both came to visit over the holidays and I came to appreciate the life of only having one dog. Mostly there's a lot more fur with three dogs than one and when the new dogs are black, they don't really match my carpet. But they had a grand time frolicking in the yard and barking at trucks and generally being rowdy mutts. It was a good holiday for them as well. I'm officially not ready for Christmas. I have only small inklings of what I want to get folks and have yet to buy a single thing. I also hope to get my Christmas tree this weekend to help put me in the mood. Mom says she has tons of decorations and lights and garland, but as always the hard part is finding it. I'm not holding my breath, but she is going to look for me all the same. I also have a new toy at work - one of those Compaq Tablet PCs. I must admit, I am pretty impressed with the handwriting recognition built into it. And who could ask for more than a laptop that you can doodle on. It just rocks. I've been trying to learn more about my new digital camera and become a little more skilled at action photos. But so far any decent photos I take are dumb luck. I can tell a steady improvement, though, in the clarity of them. Maybe by the end of the season, the hockey players won't look like blobs. Ah, and the neatest thing I saw today was on my package of string cheese I had for lunch. (Mmm. String cheese and chocolate mousse cake ... the lunch of champions.) At one end it declared: Safety first! Open with your hands - not with your teeth. Um what other sorts of products/people should have this warning, I wonder?

DLand - Well Played Thing ... You're Really On the Ball

Ball I'm wearing socks with Birkenstocks today. I'm one step away from patchouli and sculpy beads. But I was very tired this morning and decent footwear was not high on my list of things to accomplish.This weekend was spent updating and maintaining servers at the office. It's a glorious life that I lead, I tell you what. But we did take a small break to work on the pinball machine. Man, I never knew these things were so much work. The main problem was that I was convinced for all the world that the machine itself was causing my failures in play. Obviously the bumpers were off. Obviously the playfield was not level. There is no other reason for my pitiful scores. So I convinced my co-workers to assist me in rectifying the sitation. Unfortunately, since I was the one who wanted the Addams' Family to be on the level so badly, I'm the one who got to crawl around on the floor. And of course, the easiest way to level a pinball machine is to get on your hands and knees under it and lift up with your back so that the weight of the machine is on you and the legs swing free. That's what they tell me at least. I'm thinking they just wanted incriminating photos of my ass. All I know is the game is a lot more close to level and my back didn't suffer any permanent damage from the escapade. And my game has improved so it's well worth it. Not much else going on in the world of Genie. But I'm doing great overall. I almost feel like I'm getting jipped when I go to the therapist in such a fabulous mood. He asks how things have been and I cheerfully babble about my week and how my boss is so nice and my soon to be ex is so nice and my family is so nice and my pets are doing well and everything's coming up roses. It's as if he doesn't really know what to say. So we have this sort of psychological ass slapping session of “keep up the good work” and “go team” and then I pay my copay and leave. Anticlimatic? Yes. Much preferred over dramatic angsty foo and wah? Most definitely.