love and joy come to you...

Ok, thank god that's over-ish.

First off, at Eviljob there is a kitten with a birth defect -- it has no back right leg past the knee area therebouts. Don't worry, Little One is fine, and staying at a co-worker's home until the Holiday stuff is over. It is a black cat, and since black cats are usually names 'Lucky' or somesuch, this one has been christened 'Not-So-Lucky'.

Not-So-Lucky will be just fine. We thought he had been hit by a car. :-) It took forever to catch it, but at least I did not have to do it this time. I guess Not-So-Lucky has been hiding out. Can't say as how I blame him. If I had known I was getting suckered into tending a team at Eviljob on Xmas Eve, I would have hid, too. Good going, Not-So-Lucky.

Butsoanyway. Because I was working for a goodly chunk of Christmas Eve, Meg and I are going to go look at Christmas lights on Thursday. Yay.

Meg missed some tournament 'cos Mom pitched a fit, and so we've had her here the whole time. My brother has actually been nice to me, which is weird; first, I got three huge boxes from Bath and Body Works delivered to me -- B&BW was the return address, so I did not know they were presents, and I opened them. He had to have bought fricking EVERYTHING. I am *serious*. I have every freaking product known to Man, including some I have never seen, like the Japanese Cherry Blossom Shimmer Duster. Very cool.

On a related, if trivial, note, I am in love with B&BW's Chocolate Amber and Blackberry (?) Amber stuff; it smells wonderful!

So those came on (I think) Saturday, or Friday. And I phoned him to say thanks, and he went on and on about how he hoped I did not think what he got me was less then what he got Meg (a leather briefcase-thingy). I told him that it was great, because I love that stuff. Meg already has somewhere around six leather briefcases -- everyone gets her one (and usually with the engraved plate (plus-sized) proudly declaring her to be Dr Megadocious Anastasia Regine Elizabeth Chiquita Banana Hannah Montana Benedek bat Yakov von Weltschmerz -- okay, I am exaggerating, but ours are names which are a tad unwieldy, and much to my parents' irritation, Meg and I have abbreviated somewhat (and each differently), both of us around the time that we started getting asked if we were registered with the AKC -- and Meg *hates* that; she just wants to be called 'Meg'. But this is what happens when two people who should have never been wedded in the first place try to 'compromise' on the names of their children to make each other, as well as their respective families, happy), although this is a nice briefcase. It's burgundy, which is a colour she didn't have, and it has a zip-opening thing for her carry-on handle. And no nameplate, because my brother feels somewhat the same way as we, though he cut out all Mummers' contributions to his name. For some reason, when people think of Meg, they think of leather briefcases. No Big Deal -- I would rather the B&BW bonanza, anyway!

And, for what it's worth, I would not have minded being named Pop Tart's Momentary Lapse of Reason in the slightest.

But back to my brother, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt of Ulm Benedek ben Yakov von Weltschmerz:

Then, he phoned again for no reason when he was waiting for National Treasure to start (at the theatre) with two of his kids, as he'd let his wife go do personal shopping and gadding about whilst a sitter (hopefully heavily-armed or -sedated) took on their youngest two; I told him he must be missing me to go see a movie about me, and he did not start in with his usual acid-tongued crap. :-) He's been sending me IMs on gmail (which shows up as regular mail if I'm not logged in), and after he again apologised via IM for the B&BW and I assured him (also via IM) that it was Just Wonderful, then I got this IM:

Glad you like it. Interestingly, you were not featured in any part of the movie. I lodged a complaint with the theater manager explaining the true value, in fact treasure, that you represented to this nation. He told me to bugger off and threatened to ring the police as he had become suspicious about my activities, being alone at a theater with two small boys and all. Anyway, Merrry Christmas! Will phone you later today or tomorrow.

Ok, so why is he being nice? Is he terminal with something? Am I? Maybe he was visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future? Meg and I have long thought he was the inspiration for Bill Murray's character in Scrooged, so I guess anything is possible... Gosh, I wonder what happens to me in the future? Do I end up looking like Joan Rivers?

Butsoanyway.

So I cooked Christmas Din-Din-turned-late-lunch ('cos I'm all about not timing a damn thing) at Mummers', and it all came out in spite of her near-constant criticisms; everyone loved it. I usually step away from Holiday Stuffs, or try to, but this year feels so extremely un-like a Holiday Season that I am in distress enough to do damn near anything to pick it up a little; I will be trying to make spiced apple cider later in the week, so stay tuned. I ended up going to both jobs' main holiday parties this year, and they were both ok -- not Christmassy, though. I had a date for one, and went staggish for the other, but the Holiday Feeling was low, period. At least, not high enough for my tastes. One person at Job 2-sub-1 I think has a drinking problem; they got completely roasted (like Bad Santa roasted), and this particular party was The Big One (there are other, smaller group ones that I didn't do) at J2-s-1, the one with both the academics and the military, so any way one turned, a paycheck-signing hand could be seen. Very bad choice of drinking times. Tres-way bad. I don't do it, 'cos I plan to hit them up for items that are on my Christmas list shortly, so I am on teh good behaves; I may not be leaving in January after all...which means that I will STILL HAVE THREE JOBS, butsoanyway. Plus, I do not like crying in public; I would probably like it even less if I were doing it and I were a boy.

Butsoanyway.

Romeo is doing really well -- he came and slept with me about a week ago, and he kissed me. He has done neither since before the exploding kidney, so that is cool. The Val syrup stuff with the extra crap in it seems to really be working! Though I still am not sure what Val syrup actually is; Meg somehow got the idea that it had blood in it, but she is just kooky that way sometimes. I know the base is Val (or VAL, rather), but Doc puts other stuff in it for anaemic patients, like potassium and stuff. He also compounded cyproheptadine and the two antibiotics into VAL, so Rome is on a *lot* of VAL, but...it's working. Can't fault that.

I am currently, despite having overeaten all day today, having a massive craving for something steak-y with something salad-y. I'm not going to so anything about it, but wow; one would think I would be over food; we had to compromise and have turkey this year, and the damned thing was *huge*.

Oh! Cutest thing! I brought home turkey for my cats, and they went completely crazy-happy. Especially the left-over giblet part; Romeo particularly liked that.

I have to go to sleep (we are *still* tying up a project at J2-s-1), because I have to be in early. Bwaah. And we all know that's unlikely to occur.

Merry Christmas!

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