"She" meaning me, that is...

Online shopping is sooooo effortless. I dropped $114 on a set of 84" long, double-wide insulated curtains (color: linen) from Plow & Hearth. And I used my AAA membership to get a 15% discount, which basically came out to mean I got free shipping. They're double-wide, not cus i live in a trailer (ha ha), but becus they're intended for the set of French doors separating my living room from my family room. (I close off the family room in winter and all that cold, cold air is surely infiltrating thru the single pane glass.)

I ordered the expandable tension rod for said curtains from Umbra.com. The tension rod was a friend's idea, which was a really good one as i'd been worrying about doing conventional curtain rods which would require that i nail brackets in and possibly look wierd as the rod would have to go over some molding i have above the doors, and how would that look in summer when the curtains were down?

A tension rod was the perfect solution. I saw one i liked, first at JC Penney at $30 + shipping. I thought about going there in person. It's a 20-minute ride (I measure every trip now by the cost of gas), and I didn't feel confident this exact item in my color and the right length could be found after the Xmas hordes have already been unleashed. So i went to the manufacturer's website and was surprised to see that not only was the same item cheaper there by $4, but they charged nothing for shipping. So i placed the order right away at $26.50.

My Xmas shopping has been very modest, but that's what we've done the past few years. Now, to my surprise, when my mom asked my sister at Thanksgiving what she wanted for Xmas, she replied, "a digital camera." So the past few years, she practically didn't want to spend ANY $$ on Xmas becus she couldn't afford it. Understandable. So we scaled everything waaaay down. Now becus she wants the camera, does that mean we all have to "ramp up" the holiday purchases? I kind of like how we've been doing it of late. To be honest, i'm not planning on spending much more, and when i asked my mother if she wanted to go in with me on the camera, she didnt sound like she wanted to.

For my mother, who likes doing crossword puzzles, i got a simon & schuster crossword puzzle book. Also a sheet of real US postage stamps with her own art on them (zazzle.com if anyone's interested). For my sis thus far i got her a soapstone mortar & pestle for her to grind her homegrown herbs (nothing illegal, she's a farmer).Also got her a book on native american indians (free, at the library) which i think she'll find interesting. I don't usually exchange gifts with my dad and his GF, mainly becus we don't always see each other at the holiday. But i noticed when i saw him T-giving that he was doing crossword puzzles, too, so i'm tempted to get the exact same book for my dad that i got for my mother. But then that means i would need to get something for K. and i should, as she got me a very nice bracelet at T-giving for really no reason at all. Not sure what, but now she's got that dachsund puppy. Maybe something related to that. She's already got a closetful of doggie coats and vests. For my friend H. I am giving the fax machine from my office; they don't want or need it at my company, and since we're closing this office as of this Friday, i'm cleaning everything out. She had asked for it, cus she needs one, but i never let on that i'd be able to get it.

This Friday's my last day at this job. I've been surprised all along that no one is really monitoring what i'm doing. When we moved here 3 years ago, we hired a moving company to move all our stuff; this time, i have single handedly packed and managed it myself, hiring an odd jobs guy in town to help me move the stuff to the garage of the person i report to in a neighboring town. Wierd, i know, but no storage room in HQ. Odd jobs guy is delighted for the work. I feel somehwat unappreciated, though, and no one in the company seems to care much what's going on. Amazing. I've been laid off, and a more disgruntled employee could wreak havoc, i suppose, but i'm really not taking it personally as i already have a new job lined up. I'm taking a kind of philosophical approach to the whole thing. I enjoyed it while i could here, but now it's ending and a new chapter of my life is just about to start. Who knows what awaits?