Unintentional silence

I must be experiencing hold-over NaBloPoMo guilt or something, because I can't go more than a day or two without posting before I start to feel like a terrible slacker. This isn't a bad thing when I have a few ideas for short entries available, but on nights like last night, when I sit staring blankly at the screen with nothing to say and a half-panicked thought running through my head (Have I taken any cute cat pictures this week? Seen any funny You Tube videos? No? Shit!)...well, those nights I kind of have to ignore the guilt and slink off to bed.

Then I wake up in the morning and realize I'd better post something (anything!) before I surface again on Sunday with six days of nothing driving what few readers I have to wordier pastures.

So! What have you all been up to this week? We're getting to that stage around here where nearly everything is about Christmas or avoiding Christmas. On Tuesday we went to my work Christmas party. Only about half the staff ended up going, and had I known ahead of time, we probably wouldn't have signed up to go. But in the end it was a lot more fun than I expected, the food was pretty fabulous, and MB was handed an almost-full bottle of wine to take home at the close of the evening, so I'm glad we went after all. Once we got home, we indulged in our newest obsession and watched two episodes from season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My friend Tam sent us season 1 for Christmas, and we finished it last weekend. Having had our self-control destroyed by witty banter, campy special effects, and the hotness that is Willow, we went out shopping for gifts for MB's family on Monday and ended up going to three different stores in search of a copy of season 2. We finally found it at Barnes & Noble, where a sale + my members' discount + a 10% off coupon allayed most of my guilt.

Yesterday I came home sick from work for the second time pretty much ever, with one of those dull nagging headaches that just won't stop. I slept for about five hours, and MB was a complete champ. He stopped off at the store for bread and milk on the way home, cooked dinner, and woke me up in time to watch ANTM even though he hates it. My hero!

Today is a day off, so I have a list of errands about a mile long to attend to, all before MB gets off work at 3:00 and we drive down to visit his parents for an early Christmas sort of thing and dinner for his birthday (Happy Birthday!). And the house is a bit of a disaster, again. I feel like Mr. Incredible...didn't I just clean up this mess? To make the morning extra special, I was stupid nice enough to let the cat drink out of my cereal bowl when I was done, and the poor thing has been horking up little puddles of milk ever since. I finally shut him in the bathroom out of concern for the carpets and a need to finish this entry without having to stop every five minutes to trail him around the apartment with a handful of paper towels. Unlike the hairball-prone cats of my childhood, Kitters almost never barfs, so when he does he always seems sort of horrified. I'm pretty horrified when I puke, too, so I have to say that I sympathize.

Now that I've talked about mundane errands AND cat puke (Hey, where are you going?), I should probably continue to ignore the almost 500 posts in my feed reader so I can tidy up the house and get started on this ridiculous to-do list.

Tell me, if by some miracle you're still reading, what do you still have to do to get ready for Christmas?