Merry Merry Quite Contrary

I spent today doing my Slacker Housewife Cleaning routine. Clean 20 minutes, goof off for 20 minutes. I did hit my highest score ever in Spape Shifter. (1,864,721) as a result of said goofing. I actually scrubbed my floors on my hands and knees, and cleaned out my fridge, two things I generally try to avoid doing more than once or twice a year.

That's the thing with housework: it's so mind numbingly boring. However, it's much easier to do half an hour every day rather than the house going to hell and only doing it once a week or so. Besides, it feels much better to have a clean house. Like Ikea says, Home is the most important place in the world.

I am still stunned about Britney Murphy dying. I liked her; I thought she was funny and cute. The rumors, of course, are swirling. I never would have put her on the list of young stars to die an early unexpected death. It sounds like it's going to end up being an accidental overdose of prescription meds, a la Heath Ledger. If it was Lindsay Lohan or Amy Winehouse, I wouldn't have been shocked at all. I would not want to be any sort of celebrity. It seems like the fame machine sucks a lot of people out far before their time.

It looks like we may be getting the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of a health care plan. It's a start; just like other programs, I'm sure there will be a plethora of changes once it's actually in place. I'm withholding my judgement for now and thinking that the glass is half full, and we will eventually fill it to the brim.

My father-in-law specifically requested a roasted chicken for Christmas dinner and I can do that. Much less complicated than my original idea of pork tenderloin with a sage cream sauce, which is wonderfully delicate and delicious but an enormous pain in the ass to cook. All I do to roast a chicken is rinse it out, soften butter and stir in seasonings and spread the butter mix between the skin and the meat and bake it. I like to do what I call the Simon & Garfunkel seasoning: Parsley, sage, romemary and thyme. Oh and I also throw a couple cloves of garlic in the cavity because garlic makes the world go round. Sort of a bistro style chicken.

We accomplished 90% of the Christmas shopping in one fell swoop; Thank you, Big K in the dicey area of town. They had a great selection of toys and other gift stuff and the prices were good as well. KMart has come a long way on their quality. Their Joe Boxer stuff is good; so is the Jaclyn Smith. (Side note: Last year, when we went there after Christmas, I got a black cashmere short sleeve JS sweater for $9.99)

These days, when there is only so much money you have to work with, you have to sometimes do things you never thought you would, like shop at KMart. I hated wearing KMart Trax shoes as a kid. They screamed KMart. Now, they carry Thom McCann and other brands you've actually heard of.

Martin and I going Christmas shopping for each other/ourselves, after Christmas. I don't have to have something to open Christmas morning and I'll get twice the stuff the day after.

Lest you think I've suddenly turned into total Debbie Downer, I did do some Christmas decorating. The tree is up, but shy on ornaments. I can't find my box of ornaments. I have the silver beads, and the lights are attached, and the deep purple ribbon in on, but the silver balls and all my good ornaments? Not a freaking clue. After I got what we have on, I turned on the lights, and said screw it, it's festive enough. I did, however, have no problem locating my holiday bears.

Anybody that knows me would never guess I have two big Totes full of Christmas Teddy Bears, with one Snowden snowman thrown in. They are various years, with the oldest being from 1998. I know I bought that one, myself, the first of the evil jolly little bastards. I'm sure this year, I will have two more. I do not believe Teddy Bears constitute decor. This is totally out of character for me. But they are cute and certainly festive, no?

Happy holidays to you, and yours.