Last Day of Vacation

Churned out my long-distance Christmas cards except for the one to my friend Lance. I usually write him a longish note with the card.

I also paid bills. And resubscribed to the digital edition of the The New York Times.

I opened up the package with the alpaca socks for my uncle and yeah, they're really nice. That reminds me that I want to get a pair for myself. They would be nice to sleep in or wear outside when it gets really cold.

Did my normal morning routine. Tried again to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal (they're having a $4 a month sale), but they still are not letting me create an account. Bummer. Printed off directions to the library at which I'm returning books.

Mom called. She talked to my uncle in the hospital and said that he was in good spirits. He wished me good luck on the new job.

Napped and ate. Threw myself together and set off. First stop was Walmart to get almond extract and wax paper. They had some gold and silver sprinkles that I'll use for my star cookies. They also had some sparkly white spray that I could use for the snowman cookies, but I've decided to make it easy and just do star cookies.

Then it was off to Normal (about 35 minutes away) to return books after successfully overriding a case of the "don't wannas". Went around in circles a little trying to find the parking lot. I had to carry the books about a half-block up several flights of stairs, so I had to make two trips in the Arctic wind. But I did it. When I got back to Lincoln, I got gas, returned books to the public library, and mailed Christmas cards. I discovered that you can get flat rate shipping boxes at any time at the post office, but I need to assemble my gifts to figure how how big boxes I need.

Now the cats and I have eaten, and I'm feeling beat. I was going to mix up some cookie dough to chill, but I'm seriously thinking of going to bed. Maybe I'll wrap some presents first.

I bought the alpaca socks for myself. All they had was blue in my size, but if I'm going to wear them to bed, who cares if they match. Maybe I'll get a second pair when they're back in stock.

I have a cat (Zara) on my shoulders. This is a little disconcerting.