Sunday Afternoon -

[kyburg]

I had to make a special run just for a box of Band-aids.

Two on one heel, one on the other and one under an arm where a skin tag was removed yesterday. Yes, I found a dermatologist who would see both of us yesterday and so we did.

I have to get some of my money out of my medical savings account, dammit. January 1st, it all goes bye-bye and who knows who gets the unspent cash - I don't.

I ain't doing that again. I've had too many instances of needing every bit of preparation for medical disaster - and in this case, over-prepared. We're disgustingly healthy - and didn't spend anything on health care until last Q of this year.

Why a dermatologist - one, I have a facefull of rosacea, two, I have a badly scarred lower lip that is going to need reconstructive work done one day - and this skin tag under one arm. Bah. Gone in 60 seconds - no local or anything. Clip, cauterize, band-aid, see ya. Jim has to be followed, much as I have to, because we're blonds who are at heightened risk for skin cancer. It didn't hurt that the dermatologist closely resembled Dr. Basheer. Mmm.

That was yesterday. Jim decided to work another shift to cover the day we went to dentist - and I can't fault him, we need the cash - but it turned our weekend into a snoozefest, and I'm just not motivated to care much.

I remember saying I didn't think I needed to worry about my job until the company closed or unless I screwed up totally. One, I didn't screw up totally - but the company now, I wonder - but I should wonder about any right now. After talking to my BIL, who works for Nestle, it seems to be everywhere. It's the economy, stupid.

I remember days like these. Before Clinton - sad, to say. Reagan years. Bush years. Many years. Not that I can't do them again - I just don't want to. Dammit, I was happy and work was good - so forgive me if I'm a little bitter. Now, it's Dilbertisms and general weirdness. I was so done with that. Was.

I love Christmas letters, but most of them have been bittersweet - one friend related getting laid off two weeks ago from a job she'd had for 11 years, and her mother was battling liver cancer. Another related how tough the job market was looking for a college graduate after leaving the Air Force some years ago - and how they were staying in St. Louis (reannon, I may have to get you two hooked up - this is my cousin with two little girls in Fenton....) and how he was planning to use his management dual major instead of going into teaching.

I went out last night and bought some little things for folks coming by Christmas Eve. I want a bag of candy canes - and I need something for the spots in the rug.

I am deathly tired of picking up, straightening up and cleaning up alone. And there is no time capsule like Christmas decorations, folks. You add an ornament every year, but you revisit that year every time you unpack the buggers. Trust me.

I have no desire to bake cookies - so I bought some. I need some beverages for Wednesday night.

Let me remain serene. I refuse to be depressed. Or angry. Gah, nobody deserves my anger -

Anyone want to come over Christmas Eve? Let me know - no, I'm serious. You're in Los Angeles, you can get here. Come by, eat a cookie and chug a Coke - that's what open houses are for.

TECHIES - can anyone tell me if I need to get a DVD burner to copy DVDs or can I use a regular CD burner and software? Cheap-ass me wants to know. Thanks.

Comments

[exedore.livejournal.com]

It depends on how much time you want to spend. There's programs that will take a DVD9 and either recompress it or split it so it goes across two DVD5s, so that's one way to go.

The other is to grab a copy of Gordian Knot Does It Fast For You (GKIF4Y) which is an all-in-one DVD to CD ripping package that includes subtitle support. You do have to know a little about playing with settings and codecs going in, but it does all the nasty stuff for you.

Or you could buy a set-top recorder and a macrovision killer and use the DVD burner like a VCR =P

Wish I lived closer...

[murphymom.livejournal.com]

...I'd drop by - we could chug a Coke, chomp a cookie or two, and listen to Barry Manilow sing Christmas songs (this is an album for a nice Jewish boy?). Next time I'm in Los Angeles visiting what family I have left there, I'll try to hook up with you, too. I'd really like to meet you - you and Uncle Jimbo both seem like my kind of people.

Same feeling here

[turandot.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely love to drop by to wish you a Merry Christmas in person, but doing it here will probably have to suffice.

And I hear you about the whole hearing of bad news from friends. It bums you almost as much as finding yourself in their circumstances would. My husband has a few friends in the Austin tech industry, and when we moved back there, we heard sad tales of layoffs and job searches. Though I'm fervently wishing maybe your recent work woes will be shortly swept away along with this year, and the next one will bring renewed security and satisfaction.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Anything with a name like that has to be interesting - got a website for it?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I just emailed you some Barry Christmas - enjoy!

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

One can only hope - I know my company is sound, I know the product is good - but like all retail-related industries, it's been a tough two years. That's all.

[exedore.livejournal.com]

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64266

It's been renamed "Auto Gordian Knot".

Good luck with all the eugh going on, and stay strong.

Our holidays, and the changes to our household

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

We got your card; thanks! It was a real day-brightener.

If we're lucky, today we'll go get the tree. I always and only get live trees, and I've got one picked out and paid for at the nursery, so all we have to do is get it.

For that, though, we need a vehicle capable of tree-hauling. Moss is no more - I had to let her go a month ago. I cannot afford to keep up the payments on her. I took about the last investment/savings I had, and bought a 1995 Toyota 4Runner in *very* nice condition, on Saturday. Now we have a car with which to get the tree. I need 4wd and I need something with room for dogs and crates. Now I have it again, and it's *paid off*.

Miriam, Charles' elder daughter, is moving out here to Paradux Hill. She's 19. She just (Thursday) went through a bad split with her boyfriend, with whom she'd been living; he cut off the electricity immediately (in Oklahoma, in the *winter*), and the phone, and she had no car...basically, he did everything he could to strand her. She called us yesterday late afternoon from her mother's house.

I had suggested that she move back in with her mother, but her mother is barely making it and is renting out Miriam's old room for cash. Miriam's mother wouldn't feel right about renting the room to Miriam, and Mom really *does* need the money - she's an Oklahoma schoolteacher, and you know what they earn. I'd invited Miriam here if she needed to come here, so here she comes - possibly in 4 months, when her lease is up (oh, yes, Boyfriend also broke his share of the lease, and stole some of the things she was given by her grandmother, and even stole her *shampoo*), if she can get a roommate, possibly within 3 weeks if she's able to get out of the lease cleanly under these conditions. She's going to talk to her landlords.

Which means I'll be supporting myself, Charles, and Miriam, until she's able to find a job locally and save up enough for an apartment of her own or a shared housing situation. Thank all the Gods I have a job. It's going to be *tight* as heck, but we'll make it.