Well, the last few days have been a wee bit hectic with xmas and related stuff. I never mean to leave my shopping until the last minute, but it always seems to end up that way. Wednesday my mother and I went into New Orleans to try and seek out stuff that was not to be found in Slidell. I did manage to find a few presents, though my continuing search for a copy of Asimov's continued to be fruitless. We even went to the "big" bookstore in New Orleans--which had zero SF/F magazines. I was seriously aggravated. However, Kent informed me that he was going to get me a gift subscription, so I will no longer have this problem in the future (I've still been aggravated over the problems I previously had with Asimov's subscription department and so was stubbornly trying to find it on the newstands. I now know one can't be stubborn when living in a third world country.)

So anyway, there's now a sense of obscure relief that xmas is finally here, and will soon actually be over with. I had to work this morning, so that certainly didn't help my general lack of xmas cheer. I just have a hard time getting into it lately. Maybe it's because I don't have kids. I don't know.

My parents did give me one incredibly nifty-cool present that readers of this journal will appreciate. I haven't been able to justify the expense of a digital camera, yet it's been a pain waiting to finish up a roll of film before I could post pictures in my journal. So, I received a compromise in the form of a polaroid camera! I was delighted. Now I can go and take all sorts of pictures of my house and other things and not have to wait before posting them. (I'm writing this rather late though, for me, so I don't feel like scanning anything in right now. It's 3:30pm and past my bedtime. I'll put some pics up tomorrow.)

The weather is cold, wet, and generally yucky. It was down in the upper 30s this morning, which I know is toasty for my Alaskan readers, but is hellishly cold for us poor southerners. I've been turning the furnace in my house off when I leave for work, in an effort to save money, but I think I'm going to start just turning it down. When I got home this morning my house was positively frigid, and it was almost an hour before it was warm enough that I was willing to disrobe long enough to change out of my work clothes.

I hate cold weather. I put up with the heinous summers just so that I don't have to endure cold. Maybe I'm being punished for escaping most of the heat this summer by going to Seattle? I know, I know... winter is barely here and this is only the first taste of the cold. I still hate it though.