Hell’s Belles: 343
exercise: [snort] yeah, right

Oy. Even with all of the holiday festivities (or maybe in part because of them), it’s been a trying couple of days. Because of the computer problems, I’m behind on editing, writing, critiquing, e-mail, and everything else. Plus, we were gone all day yesterday, which neither of us expected. _And_ I was exhausted all day, because we didn’t get to bed until 2:30 or 3 a.m. To top it off, I ate badly. I was hungry when we came home, and got a weird craving for Velveeta-chili dip, make some, ate some, and promptly felt like throwing up. (And no, I wasn’t surprised by that whole chain of events).

It’s nearly 4:30 p.m. now, and I haven’t edited or written or anything today. I did finish the GP and get it to the printer, pick up some food and some bubble envelopes so I can get more prezzies in the mail, and pick up some food and pills. (I hate Blue Cross about as much as I hate Blue Shield. Which is an awful lot.) So I’d better get copy editing, because the only other option is to weep in despair about everything that needs to be done.

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Radio commercials are annoying me right now. They’re all about “didn’t get what you really wanted for Christmas?” and people complaining about stupid gifts and how somebody didn’t get them what was on their list. Grow the fuck up, people. This isn’t what the holidays is all about. Shut up before I smack some spirit of giving into you.

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I’m sorry this entry is such a downer. It will get better, I promise.

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Okay, here’s something to make it better: today’s Forgotten Word. Perjink. “Exact, precise, minutely accurate” (1808). “Hence, _on one’s perjinks_, on one’s good behavior; _perjinkity_, exact details, niceties, proprieties” (1909). It’s impossible to be grumpy when thinking about the word “perjinkity”. Say it out loud. Giggle with me.

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It’s now almost 5 p.m. I’ve been updating To Do lists. It’s strangely calming for me. Now, a potty break, and then to work.

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Ow. It’s 12:30 a.m. and I’m officially done copy editing for the evening. Ow ow ow. I’m going to treat myself to a glass of wine and move on to a little writing—I’ve come up with a new ending for “Hells Belle’s” based on two different critiquer’s comments, and I want to crit the new story that Teresa sent me.

And…success! Not a huge amount of words, but I think “Hell’s Belles” is better for it. Go, wicked bad debutante, go! And I critted Teresa’s story. I’ll work on our collaboration tomorrow or the next day. Tomorrow will be busy, so we’ll see.

The computer seems to be working well. I still need to find the right preferences for a few programs, and install a couple more. We have a daily backup to an external firewire drive, and a weekly backup online, and I can also back up to my iPod in a pinch. I’m still a little frustrated because way back when I got my first Mac (1989), I knew how to do all sorts of background stuff. But all computers have become much more complex, Macs included, and I don’t have the skills to deal with it all. I do need to be more hands-on about it, and I’m already doing that. Next step is to buy an “OS X for Dummies” or the like. :-)

Perjinkity perjinkity persnickety perjinkity.

Perjink is better than anal-retentive in so many ways.

Tomorrow I have a chiro appt at noon, and then we’re meeting folks at the House of Blues at 2. Because if you have an entrée before a show, you get in before the general rabble. And I want front and Larry-center!

Sunday, we’re going to try and hit the Return of the King costume exhibit, because it’s the last day of it. If the computer hadn’t cocked up, we would have gone today. Sunday afternoon, our friends from South Africa (who have been studying in San Francisco) arrive, and then we’ll promptly bail on them and head north to Agoura for a second Styx show (which I had tickets to before Tracy and Patrick said they’d be arriving on Sunday). Monday and Tuesday, we’ll be taking them sightseeing; Tracy has requested to be wowed, and we shall do our best.

We opened all of our presents on Christmas Eve, although because it was after midnight, it was really Christmas, and that made it okay. As it turned out, because we were gone all day Christmas Day (which we didn’t expect), it was good that we had that together time. I was rather cranky last night because we’d had no private together time (other than in the car, and at Jack-in-the-Box) all day. I’ll talk about presents soon, honest.

So we went to bed stupidly late on Christmas Eve (as I said at the beginning of this entry, which I started a long time ago, or so it feels), and got up earlier than we wanted to, and headed to Ken’s brother and sister-in-law’s (Steve and Joelle). We were supposed to bring fruit salad, but we were so busy on the 24th that we didn’t have time to go shopping, and the stores were closed when we were headed back from supper (we went to Hoff’s Hut because we were starving and neither of us had any inclination to cook). So I borrowed a couple of tangelos from Cat’s stash (er, thanks, honey!), and we stopped at a couple of liquor stores (the only things open) and got apples, and I ended up swiping a couple of S&J’s bananas. I am so impossibly lame.

Christmas morning at S&J’s is always a madhouse because they have three boys. Aidan’s less than a year old, and just standing. He seems to like me, which is unusual for babies; generally they realise we have nothing in common and move on. (I prefer children when they get to an age when I can communicate with them.) Austin and Mason apparently like me now; they were pretty shy when we first got back. Ken and I spent an inordinate amount of time putting together a toy castle for them. The directions, I want to make this clear, left out pieces entirely. Good thing Ken’s an engineer and I’m stubborn.

S&J gave us a blue-and-white teapot set, and some vanilla-scented bath products. Sadly, I hate the scent and taste of vanilla, but that’s okay. It’s the thought that counts, and I will pass them on to someone who will enjoy them. The teapot set is gorgeous. One can never have too many tea sets.

Joelle’s family is a trip. I got sucked into their whirlwind and sucked down two Bloody Marys that morning—and I was the slacker in the group. It was a good thing Ken and I had eaten breakfast before we showed up, or my nutritional intake would have been the drinks and some holiday M&Ms. Of course, Bloody Marys are pretty close to food, so I wasn’t hungry for muffins or eggs. But by the time we left, I was starving, so we stopped at Jack’s on the way to Ken’s mom’s. She’d been at S&J’s, but hadn’t brought our presents, and Dennis was sick and hadn’t come over.

We gave Dennis a promissory for the first season Charmed DVD when it comes out, and we gave Mom a copy of Deadly Advice. It’s only available in PAL format, so we dubbed her a copy. (She saw it when she visited us in Wales and absolutely loved it, and has been searching to no avail for an NTSC copy.) We’re also contributing to some major work on her Blazer: new tires, radiator work, etc.

She gave us sheets, sewing supplies, and a crock pot. I must be getting old—not only are these the gifts I’m receiving, but I’m excited about them! Oy.

We had an early supper there, then came home, regrouped, and headed to Ken’s dad’s. I called my folks, and talked to them en route. I’d actually talked to my parents a couple of days ago, but this also gave me the opportunity to talk to Debi and Baylee.

We ate cookies and chatted with Dad and Anita, and exchanged presents; we got them cookies and they gave us a mini crock pot for parties. Great minds think alike. This crock pot came with Velveeta and a can of chili, even. Which is why, as I mentioned above, I got that weird craving for the dip. And I was hungry/munchy on the way home, because the sugar in the cookie had made me nauseous (plus I was exhausted, and I thought I was coming down with a cold—so far today I’ve felt okay, though). So stupid. Never again.

And then we crashed, hard.

Right, so it’s almost 2:30 a.m., and I really need sleep, but there are no sheets on the bed and Ken’s still working on the bike, and all of this needs to be rectified. More soon, pets. Happy Boxing Day!