Merry Christmas Eve! Actually, it’s after midnight, so it’s officially Christmas. Ken’s currently wrapping my presents. We’ll open one or two tonight, and the rest tomorrow. Or, who knows, we may go wild tonight.

We had a present-opening celebration with Cat before she headed north again. She and I gave Ken a promissory for a board game called Princes of Florence (which I read about in Jenn’s journal)—as soon as we saw it, we knew he had to have it. We tried to buy it at the mall today, but the games store didn’t have it. I’ve already ordered it. She got Ken one of those kid’s treasure boxes of Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance, which looks fun and silly. I put a CD of the latest Queensryche album in his stocking, too.

We gave Cat some cool computer pushpins and a promissory for a Persian mouse rug, because we weren’t sure which exact one she wanted.

Meanwhile, Ken had found me a copy of the movie Ride a Wild Pony. There’s a whole story with this one. It’s a kid’s movie that I saw in the theatre with my best-friend-at-the-time Sharyl back in about 1973. However, my parents dragged me out of the theatre (I think my dad was expecting a phone call or something) right before the ending—and it was a cliffhanger (would the horse choose the poor boy or the rich wheelchair-bound girl?). My mother tried to soothe me by saying that it would come on TV in a few years. I scoured the TV Guide for _years_, to no avail. A few years ago, I sat with the Videohound Guide and cross-referenced every damn horse movie until I found it (by this time, I had no idea what it was called). It’s Australian, and Anwyn has also searched for it there since moving back, also to no avail. Ken apparently found it on eBay. I haven’t watched it yet. I should, so when I call my mother tomorrow…

I got to open that tonight because when it was shipped here, the seller shipped the wrong video, and the guy who was supposed to get the video that was shipped here was throwing a major bitch hissy fit. So Cat had to check what it was, ship it to the guy, etc. Since she was in on it, she had to be here when I opened it.

The funny thing was, when it first arrived, I was joking to Ken on the phone about whether it was breakable, could I shake it, etc. He said it wasn’t hugely breakable, but to be careful because he “searched for it for a long time”. I confess I guessed right then and there what it was. It was either that, or a Styx Crystal Ball paperweight, and the latter wouldn’t’ve fit in that shape box. Later, Cat let slip that it was a tape, and earlier today, Ken clearly called it a video. Cat was sneaky and wrapped it in bubblewrap, and as I opened it I did have a brief moment of doubt…

Ken gave Cat and I pens that light up so you can write in the dark. Cat gave me a wine bottle stopper, a thing to stick on the computer monitor that holds notes (in purple, natch), heart-shaped Post-Its, and a hair clip (which is another story, for later). Oh, and she couldn’t find another Forgotten Words Page-a-Day calendar, so she got me one of Playboy Playmates in Lingerie. So we can both enjoy it. Hee hee! We actually did look at them through the 15th, since that’s how long Ken and I will be on vacation.

On a less happy note, the new hard drive on the G4 crashed last night. I know. Fuuuck. Today Ken bought two new drives plus an external box for a drive, and he’s spent the day putting everything back together (none of my files were lost this time, although we’re still working on my Internet prefs and stuff like that). So, I’ve gotten no writing done (although I started a short romance story on the Palm last night), no copy editing, etc. I checked e-mail via the web just to keep it to a dull roar. However, I’ve been keeping myself busy, catching up on my reading. I read the premiere issue of Arabella, a romance short-story magazine, an issue of Black Gate (and started another), and a Scheherazade. I don’t spend enough time reading.

Right, I’m off to open a few prezzies. I’ll post the last few journal entries once I have access to the G4 again.

The merriest and happiest of holidays to you all.