Anyway, looking for something entertaining? A lot of people liked this. And this. What, not a cat person? How about this, then.

Aaaaand, I’m done. With November. Yay!

Nay, I say nay!

I shop online.

Plus I bought three things for each child. Three. Or close to three. Because we are transitioning out of Consumerist Mode into Time is the Gift Mode. And I bought tickets to Cirque du Soleil months ago and that counts as a present.

So I am all done and there are some boxes in my closet.

Yay.

And now I have to avoid being online or visiting Woot! anymore. Not that I have bought anything at Woot! but, you know, I could. One day the right deal will be there for me at Woot!, if I remember to visit it, which I hardly ever do.

So I will finish your shopping for you if you like, since I of course have all this time on my hands now for the entire month of December. I’m very good at it; just give me your list of whom to buy for and how much you want to spend and, oh, a list of their favorite 100 or so things in the universe and I will find just the right gifts for everyone and they will be amazed at your perfection and all you have to do is sit back and enjoy your eggnog because I will do it all for you.

Really! I can do this.

You know you want to.

Who else do you know who is DONE and it is not even December yet?

So here’s an Eric-anecdote for you! This happened this morning:

See this hat?

Well, what you can’t see is how far this hat will go down over Eric’s face. This morning, with his bus beeping outside in front of our house, Eric kept pulling his hat down so he couldn’t see. I kept adjusting it back upward. Then he’d pull it down again. Finally it became clear that he intended on walking to the bus this way, hat pulled down completely over his face. He condescended to hold my hand while we walked (as opposed to Tuesday when he insisted on not holding my hand and then ran and of course fell in the mud). I could feel his body adjust as we got closer to the bus. He could hear it idling there. We stepped off the curb and he thought the bus would be right there and lifted his foot high for that first step. Which wasn’t there. But finally the bus was right there and he stepped right up, two steps at a time, hat over face. And what’s funny is that I know that Eric is the only one of my kids who would have done this; all the others would have, at some point, raised the hat so they could see. But not Eric.

I wrote at Parentricity this week about how Serena’s changed lately. And how, as she approaches her eighth birthday, she’s become a huge delight to be with. Not that she wasn’t before, only there is more so now.

Which is in some contrast to this one, who is experimenting with anger and moodiness:

He has the bershon thing totally down.

I’m pretty sure the photo says it all.

Oh! New post and podcast up at Loving Awareness! You’ve heard of the Law of Attraction? Here’s a take on it that you may not have considered.

But see, the thing is, these past few days there’s been what we like to call a sitchooayshun. That’s what we got here. So I bin sorta bizzy.

But oh! My neighbor-across-the-way got a Christmas tree yesterday! And now there’s a wooden painted cutout of Charlie Brown standing amid the bushes in front of their door! With a flag stuck in the grass with a snowman on it! Or maybe a polar bear. A Santa? Who the hell knows.

And! My kitchen sink has been clogged for three days! Yay plumbing!

The dishwasher is full of unwashed dishes, and we can’t use the kitchen sink to wash them, so I am thinking about investing in a supply of paper plates. We may never wash dishes again! Or our hands!

Or…wash dishes in the bathroom sink! But that sounds kind of gross.

It’s all because I thought Serena would be uncomfortable pushing potato peelings (I know! should have composted them!) down the sink with a running garbage disposal, she of the tentative tender fingers. I have learned my lesson and my plunger salutes you for pointing this out.

But it also means I have not had to cook.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Oh hey, I have just run $43.07 worth of water down the kitchen sink drain and the sink hasn’t filled up with murky water, so I think the clog must have fixed itself! Good manifesting, internet! Way to go! Of course, this could just be an evil trick designed to get me to unsuspectingly run the dishwasher (filled with every dish we own, dirty), thereby causing all the used dishwasher water filled with chopped-up bits of cranberry sauce and Colcannon and bagel crumbs to then fill my sink and overflow all over the countertops and the floors. So maybe I will buy $16 worth of dangerous lye-filled chemical action and pour it down said sink, causing the Environmental Balance-O-Meter to tip from “almost disgustingly dirty” to “ruining the planet for our grandchildren.”

And then nobody would read my blog anymore.

Anyone want to take a dishwasher-load of dirty dishes off my hands, cheap? I wanted new dishes anyway.

Why, The Nassy Girls, of course.

Yes, Carley, Elde, and the ever-so-pc Chinesemens (Indy, Chiny, and Fetty, who owns a restaurant) play a variety of volleyball that includes celery throws and spikes.

And it’s played nightly right on my balcony.

I’m not sure what role Eric has in all this but I’m pretty sure it includes a lot of armwaving and chortling. And throwing random things off the balcony from time to time. And heading down for snacks on occasion. It must be snack time now.

[tags]point roberts washington, beach, driftwood, wood, vacation[/tags]

And! I just finished cleaning the sofa with a steam-producing machine and a white towel that is no longer white! Said machine used to be my cleaning method of choice to create eatable-offable hardwood floors, but I gave up custody of said machine when I moved to the Land of Carpeting, where it would have little use. But I borrowed said machine for the holiday to remove the various accumulated bodily fluids from said couch.

Which means it’s okay to come and visit me now. I will even show you where you may sit.

(However please don’t ask me if I also cleaned The Green Chair, which incidentally I did not, which needs it and because of that rarely is occupied by me, a person who knows better and remembers which bodily fluids have come in contact with it, whose fluids they were and when this occurred, and let’s just say that some things are better left unsaid, shall we?)

And! More writing! And let’s just pretend that’s an accomplishent, shall we?

And! Breathing! Likewise on the accomplishment thing.

And! Maybe cooking a couple things ahead for tomorrow’s dinner, which YOU SO CAN’T FOOL ME I know it will no longer be Thanksgiving, but for purposes of this house, child-free as they are this day, will be our Thanksgiving.

2. Sleeping, except for the two phone calls and the doorbell-ring and the cat licking my hair that occurred while said sleeping was scheduled.

3. Sick.

4. I have become a Bravo-ho. It started with Top Chef, and once the habit is there it’s apparently hard to break. So right this minute I am Not Working while Project Runway, muted, flickers at me silently from the other side of the room. The choice of which is ironic because even though I own a kick-ass sewing machine, I can barely sew a seam that’s straight. Plus I wear the same clothing every day.

5. Talking to my dad, who is recovering from having some 200-pound thing fall on him. I think it was a bundle of shingles or something. He’s 72. Not sure why he was roofing, but there you go.

6. Newish post up at Loving Awareness (and have a look at the Quote Rotator!).

7. New gig! Debuts next week! Plus! The Parentricity link works now! And I have some posts up there!