Bang Bang

I never intended to take such a long break after November ended. I was hoping to coast through December on leftover NaBloPoMo motivation, but clearly things did not work out. Oh, well. I was going to post about the best piece of mail I've received this year, but I left it in the other room and the cat is asleep on my lap (and left arm), so it'll have to wait until another time. Instead, here's a handy bulleted list of things that are kicking around in my head right now:

>> Two days after I got the Christmas tree up and decorated (which took several hours), the top string of lights stopped working. Oh, I was pissy. PISS-AY. I sulked about it for a few days, and then this afternoon I managed to put a new string of lights onto the tree without having to take the ornaments and garland off first. WIN! I started to take the dead string off, but then my dad pointed out that I might as well not bother, which was a damn fine point. Thanks, Dad!

>> Indy went to the "salon" today (I appreciate your grooming services, Petsmart, but I still refuse to call it a "salon" with a straight face) to get a bath and a brush-out. When I picked him up, the "stylist" said that he was good. "There's just one thing," she said apologetically. "There's a bit of a campfire smell? We tried every shampoo we had, and nothing worked." I told her it was fine, though I should've told her that we had smoked the dog to preserve his delicious flavor. (The chimney's getting inspected and cleaned next week, so hopefully next time we use the fireplace it won't make the whole family smell like we live in a smokehouse.)

>> After I picked Indy up at Petsmart, we went to the crunchy hippie pet store to get some stuff we needed. They were having a holiday open house with free treat bags and a pet photographer on hand. They were offering 5x7 photos for only $6 and some of the profits went to a pet-related charity, so I figured we'd give it a shot. And wouldn't you know it, Indy acted like a fashion model. He hopped right up on the little bench and did perfect "Abuh?" head tilts for the camera. Perhaps he was paying attention during all those episodes of America's Next Top Model that I watched. Congratulations, Indy. You're still in the running towards becoming America's Next Top Dogmodel.

>> Remember that book that I accidentally gave back to the library before I was finished with it? I found it in my bag two days later. Yeah. So apparently I put it in there so I wouldn't take it back by mistake, and promptly forgot that I'd done that and became convinced that I'd taken it back by mistake. FAIL.

>> It was a really good book, though, and I'm glad I hadn't actually returned it.

>> I have barely started our Christmas shopping, and I'm beginning to feel low-level panic when I think about it. Mostly I try not to think about it, because that's clearly the best way to deal with the problem.

>> I'm thinking about chopping my hair off this month for Locks of Love and change of pace. I'd super hugely appreciate ideas for a new 'do, with the following kept in mind: I have naturally curly hair, and don't want to have to use a straightening iron to make it behave. I'd prefer not to have to use a bunch of product. Being able to put my hair in a ponytail in a pinch is an absolute must. Edited to add:  Also, absolutely NO bangs.


Time for bed, finally! xo!