So, i'm over half way finished with a Christmas stocking that I'm stitching for someone else.  I have to have it finished this week.  I'm down to about 4 hours of work left on it and I just don't even want to pick it up.  I really hate this completion anxiety complex that I have.  I've just got to make myself work through it.

Did you brave the crowds today?

I'll confess to going out shopping today but no where near a mall.  I took advantage of coupons for JoAnn's to pick up 3 quilt kits and DH picked up ripcord nylon for photo screens.  Then we went looking for one of the items on DD's list and found a pretty good deal.  I have to admit that most of the presents this year are DVD's.  But they're ones that are on the kids lists.

So on Thanksgiving I'm cooking a 24 pound turkey which has to be in the oven starting at 5:30 am.  This is for 16 adults and 12 children.  I'm not sure that this will be enough meat.  At least there will be a ham too.
I'm also making stuffing, gravy and and broccoli.  I was going to do carrots too but decided that might be too much.
I've already finished the cranberry sauce.  I will kill my little brother if this year he dumps it down the drain and replaces it with the canned crap.
Cooking isn't that hard, it's the hauling everything down to Grandma's that's the pain.  At least this year I had the sense to buy tin foil pans to haul everything in.
And except for a trip to ultimate electronics and one to GAP for kids clothes, I'm done with Christmas shopping.  Now just to wait for the Amazon.com packages to come in.

So I’ve been pondering a comment made by a friend who discusses her madness.  “If your dishwasher bought a toaster…”  It got me thinking about what I learned about slavery in Ancient Rome too.  It was financially possible to buy freedom.  However, it meant living without spending anything for several years.  Most people didn’t have the discipline to do that.  I guess this thought came to a head for me as I was listening to a co-worker complain that she would never be able to buy a house.  The first thing that hit me was – she needs to quit being a dishwasher buying toasters. 

In this particular case, she’s opted to work part-time when we originally hired her for full time (no kids, health, or spouse issues, she just doesn’t want to work full time anymore), she spends at least $6 - $10 a day just on snack food or fast food around the office, and I don’t think I’ve seen the same outfit on her 2x and that thought is supplemented by her tales of mall trips on the weekend or in the mornings before she comes to work (sometimes with show and tell bags).  Then she moans to us how she never has any money.  If she were a Roman slave, she would be working for the family forever. 

It never ceases to amaze me how people waste their money on what they want right now when they know that they have a large bill or purchase coming up.  I see women complain about not being able to afford Christmas for their kids when they’re spending an average of $40 a week on eating out at lunch.  If they just brown bagged for 2 months think of what they could get their kid for Christmas!

Sometimes, I have to wonder about the sense of slaving for a boss and living paycheck to paycheck.  I realize that sometimes situations change and people have no choice.  However, how many of those living paycheck to paycheck are doing so because of stupid choices made daily?  I see a lot of people buying houses bigger than they can afford just so they can impress someone.  I’ve had several neighbors recently hit the credit wall.  Living above their means finally caught up and they’ve lost not only physical possessions but their relationships in the ensuing legal problems.  I keep thinking about what my Great-grandpa used to say – “The happy man never spends a penny more than he has earned.”  Sometimes he would add, “And never spends in anticipation of something he will receive.” 

Definitely a lesson for dishwashers and toasters to learn.

So DH made a really large eBay purchase through Paypal.  The morning after he made the purchase, Paypal called refused to speak to me (account's in his name) and just wanted to verify that he had indeed requested the amount that was entered and verified the person and email address to which it was sent. 

Gotta love customer service like that.  It's probably the first time I've ever had an internet pay service call to verify a strange transaction.

So I’m at Best Buy and this girl is holding Breakfast at Tiffany’s and just gushing about how wonderful and moral the older movies are and that Audrey Hepburn is such a good example of what an actress should be… So after listening to her spew to her companion for about 10 minutes, I couldn’t help but turn around and ask, “Funny, I always thought that movie was about an expensive call girl and a gigolo.”  

You should have seen how fast she put it back on the shelf.

As often as I do this, you would think I could remember....

DO NOT EAT TACOS WHILE DRIVING!!

It's a distraction, it is guaranteed to ruin whatever you're wearing, and it's especially dangerous when one gets in situations where both hands should be on the wheel.

I got a call from a friend in a bind.  She has her first grandchild and really wanted to give her a stocking for Christmas.   She started the stocking but only got about 200 stitches into it when her father became ill.  Could she pay me to finish the stocking?  Sure, I get paid .005 per stitch when working with the LNS's.  So posted on my homepage is the stocking after one week of stitching.  When I got it last Wednesday afternoon, only the white of the sleeve had been done. 
It's stitching up really quick and it's been a fun pattern to work on even though I usually can't stand pastels.

 Just so you know, it may surprise you that I'm not excited about the national election results, after all the party I usually vote for won big.  However, I'm a big supporter of Federal gridlock.  I don't like having a working Washington. I believe that the states should have more say on what happens in an area than the Feds.  After all, what works in CA won't necessarily work in UT and I really dislike the East coast forcing its will on the West.  The US is too big for "one size fits all" legislation.  More should be the responsibility of the states.  I agree that we need the Feds for things like air traffic control, the military, and foreign affairs.  I really wouldn’t want Florida working out a trade agreement with Cuba or even see the one that California works out with Mexico.  I’m pretty sure most of you wouldn’t like a lot of the trade laws that Utah would have with places so I can see the need for a Federal government to work out interstate trade disputes.  But I do feel that the Feds have gone too far and have demonstrated the adage “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

I mean really, when they declared the lynx an endangered species and started putting tracking collars on them in Montana they ran out of collars and then ordered more.  Finally, someone had the brains to check what was happening to the collared cats (EPA workers were convinced that ranchers were removing the collars).  Lo and behold, most of the collared cats were wandering around in Canada.  Seems that the brilliant ding-a-ling that convinced Congress lynx were endangered was sure that the animals didn’t cross the border and that her computer model showed that based on the number of cats in Canada, there should be more in Montana.  And don’t even get me started on the computer model that was the Mexican spotted owl - if they ever find that the computer was right and find one, I’m sure they’ll arrest more tractors.

I would feel better if the Democrats had won control of the Senate.  Although many of my military friends tell me that they’re glad to see Daschle go.  To be quite honest, I would have loved a tie and had the House declare Bush President and the Senate declare Edwards the Vice-President, which to me would have been perfect - Four years of accomplishing nothing.

I do feel better that it was a record number of voters.  I do believe in the Democratic Republic and feel that their should be a balance in representation between small and large states (thus not a true democracy of the individual voter), but it makes me feel better to know that more people came out in what are commonly referred to as "the fly over states."  As much as the coasts would like to forget us, we are the majority of the people affected by what is inflicted upon us by Washington (and Hollywood).  We may not be the most populous states but we do matter and we do vote and we do have the right to have our voices heard and not ignored.  I had one person in my precinct express that he was glad his neighbors hadn't come out to vote because he knew they were in a different party from him.  I was sorry that they hadn't (and I'm sure that the poll watcher did call them) I don't mind losing when everyone votes, I don't like it when there is an unfair advantage to one side or the other.  The Electoral College is not an unfair advantage; it's a leveling of the playing field and if you aren't able to inspire your party to come out and support you, then you don't deserve to win because you haven't demonstrated the leadership ability to have the office.