spoiled

an example of my mom's charming eccentricity...

on the way out the door yesterday evening, despite the fact that i've just come through and mooched laundry, a weekend's worth of food, a few audiobooks, and a pair of socks (forgot to put a pair on before packing up), mom asks, "do you need anything?"

nope, i don't, not really. after turning down a list ranging from extra blankets to laundry detergent to paper towels, i finally manage to shrug out that i keep forgetting to buy myself a new toothbrush.

i kid you not, she runs upstairs, two minutes later she's back with a brand new toothbrush... and not one of the free-from-the-dentist's-office basics, either; this one has full claims to special bristle action or whatever it is that's hot in toothbrush technology these days.

amazing. mystifying.

thanks, mom.

monster cat

mom's cat ramona, who's normally pretty cute, caught mid-yawn.

i'm not an engineer...

uploading some old photos that've been hanging out on the laptop. this one's from halloween... the latch on my car door got stuck... just after i'd opened the door. i was leaving work a little late, wearing slippers and pajamas (my friend alice's awesome idea for a "costume" -- when, days before halloween, we decided we didn't have a hope of winning the group costume contest, we went for comfy...), hoping to get to a dance in knoxville, and didn't want to wait around for help... after ten or fifteen times closing the door and being disappointed when it once again fell open, i went back in the office and started scavenging for tools... car keys, a flashlight, a screwdriver... none of them made the door shuttable. i called my dad, because that's what i do when i get stuck. he, being an engineer, had a brilliant idea:

duct tape to the rescue!

(fortunately, once i got to the dance, my friend mark was able to show me how to unstick the latch.)

greetings from albany!

i'm here for xmas weekend. the plan was to go to nyc yesterday, but the boyfriend has to work -- i'm learning not to bet on the military's planned time off. still, it's good to be here for evenings together. and i find plenty of ways to keep myself busy.

i just got back from my "if i stay here inside any longer, i'm going to go a little nuts" walk. the leftovers from about a foot of snow that a nor'easter dropped here early last week are still on the ground. as a southerner--climate-wise if not cultural--it's a little strange for me to see large amounts of snow on the ground that don't stop the world. it's probably just as well that it's week-old and visibly dirty, because i don't have waterproof shoes along and i still have to fight the inner seven-year-old who wants to dive into the biggest snowbanks just for fun.

the latest xkcd made me a teensy bit homesick for xmas with the parents... less incompatible sleep schedules, but 11 a.m. as lunchtime has been a minor point of contention ever since i moved out; moving to the eastern time zone has ameliorated it. i'm planning to go visit in a few weeks.

the boyfriend is now on his way home, so signing off. merry christmas, everyone!