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Anyone want anything?
Dec. 14th, 2025 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lannamichaelsAnyone want anything? Drabble, meta, rant, ridiculous lyrics that scan to I Had A Little Driedel, complete bullshit about a topic I know nothing about, etc? ;)
(These posts don't expire.)
lannamichaelsAnyone want anything? Drabble, meta, rant, ridiculous lyrics that scan to I Had A Little Driedel, complete bullshit about a topic I know nothing about, etc? ;)
(These posts don't expire.)
Bush vs. Gore vid
Dec. 14th, 2025 05:59 ambrainwaneHappened across this Bluesky post embedding a TikTok of a vid about Al Gore "losing" the 2000 election to George W. Bush, set to a Sabrina Carpenter song. Enjoyed and wanted to share.
Get That AI Outta Here!
Dec. 10th, 2025 05:33 pmyourlibrarian1) In another sign of AI run amok, I do the AARP Trivia quiz each day. I swear they have delegated its creation to AI. There have often been errors in the past, usually spelling ones, though sometimes also offering the same answer twice (out of 4 choices) -- which if it happens to be the right answer means you have a 50/50 chance of being wrong even when you're right.
Last weekend there were two. An "explainer" or "further info" box usually pops up after you finish a question. One of them just said "nar."But my favorite was the question "What is the name of dish where beef is cooked in wine." The answer? Coq au Vin. To boot the explainer mentioned that though the name meant rooster it was often made with chicken. Which is, as we know, beef. ( Read more... )
2) This is the first I've heard that Friday Night Lights is getting a sequel, or maybe a reboot depending on how you look at it.
3) Back in October my Garmin tracker just stopped working as I was biking. It didn't do anything the rest of the day and I figured its (unchargeable) battery was dying, since it was guaranteed for a year and it was almost exactly that. Since Garmin seems to be moving away from selling trackers, I decided to try a Fitbit as my partner was satisfied with his. However the next day, the Garmin was working again, so I hadn't opened or set up the Fitbit yet.
Cut to last weekend when it went out again while I was exercising. The Garmin came back after an hour but I'm suspecting that the battery is dying and so it's particularly stressed during continuous activity. It's probably been cutting out for some time, as I've noticed odd differences in step reports during days that are functionally the same.
Skipping over all the things I already don't like about the Fitbit, I decided to start using it alongside the Garmin. The first morning, before I even started exercising, there was already a 200 step difference between what the Fitbit showed and what the Garmin reported. ( Read more... )
3) Saw the last Mission Impossible movie and have to say I was pretty unimpressed. Of course, they were never my favorites to start with. I thought I'd done a review of an earlier film but if so, I can't find it. So this will have to do. ( Read more... )
4) As if people who need groceries delivered (likely those with disabilities or lack of transport) weren't already paying more, now there's dynamic food pricing in action. "hundreds of volunteers shopped on Instacart for identical baskets of goods from Safeway and Target. Of the 437 participants, every single one was exposed to algorithmic price experiments, according to the report. The investigation also found evidence of price experimentation at Albertsons, Costco, Kroger and Sprouts Farmers Market." " All told, the price variations could cost families $1,200 a year, based on how much Instacart says the typical household of four spends on groceries."
"Customers were also shown different "original" prices, making some savings appear larger, the report found, a concept known as "fictitious pricing." Amazon was sued this October for allegedly using this tactic during its summer Prime Day sale."
Also a shout out to Consumer Reports for being one of the few sources that can be counted on in this time of media greed, kowtowing, and chasing squirrels.
5) While I've noticed my grocery has these errors all the time, perhaps they're just a new business practice. The attorney general's office said its investigation revealed that during 2019 and 2023, Dollar General failed more than 40 percent of pricing accuracy inspections.
"The settlement also requires Dollar General to modify its business practices to prevent future violations of Pennsylvania's consumer protection law, the attorney general's office said. The changes include training employees, maintaining enough staffing to update shelf tags weekly and posting notices at registers saying the lowest posted price will be honored." "We are hopeful the corporation takes this settlement very seriously as Pennsylvanians expect to pay the price that is on stickers and labels.""
Last weekend there were two. An "explainer" or "further info" box usually pops up after you finish a question. One of them just said "nar."But my favorite was the question "What is the name of dish where beef is cooked in wine." The answer? Coq au Vin. To boot the explainer mentioned that though the name meant rooster it was often made with chicken. Which is, as we know, beef. ( Read more... )
2) This is the first I've heard that Friday Night Lights is getting a sequel, or maybe a reboot depending on how you look at it.
3) Back in October my Garmin tracker just stopped working as I was biking. It didn't do anything the rest of the day and I figured its (unchargeable) battery was dying, since it was guaranteed for a year and it was almost exactly that. Since Garmin seems to be moving away from selling trackers, I decided to try a Fitbit as my partner was satisfied with his. However the next day, the Garmin was working again, so I hadn't opened or set up the Fitbit yet.
Cut to last weekend when it went out again while I was exercising. The Garmin came back after an hour but I'm suspecting that the battery is dying and so it's particularly stressed during continuous activity. It's probably been cutting out for some time, as I've noticed odd differences in step reports during days that are functionally the same.
Skipping over all the things I already don't like about the Fitbit, I decided to start using it alongside the Garmin. The first morning, before I even started exercising, there was already a 200 step difference between what the Fitbit showed and what the Garmin reported. ( Read more... )
3) Saw the last Mission Impossible movie and have to say I was pretty unimpressed. Of course, they were never my favorites to start with. I thought I'd done a review of an earlier film but if so, I can't find it. So this will have to do. ( Read more... )
4) As if people who need groceries delivered (likely those with disabilities or lack of transport) weren't already paying more, now there's dynamic food pricing in action. "hundreds of volunteers shopped on Instacart for identical baskets of goods from Safeway and Target. Of the 437 participants, every single one was exposed to algorithmic price experiments, according to the report. The investigation also found evidence of price experimentation at Albertsons, Costco, Kroger and Sprouts Farmers Market." " All told, the price variations could cost families $1,200 a year, based on how much Instacart says the typical household of four spends on groceries."
"Customers were also shown different "original" prices, making some savings appear larger, the report found, a concept known as "fictitious pricing." Amazon was sued this October for allegedly using this tactic during its summer Prime Day sale."
Also a shout out to Consumer Reports for being one of the few sources that can be counted on in this time of media greed, kowtowing, and chasing squirrels.
5) While I've noticed my grocery has these errors all the time, perhaps they're just a new business practice. The attorney general's office said its investigation revealed that during 2019 and 2023, Dollar General failed more than 40 percent of pricing accuracy inspections.
"The settlement also requires Dollar General to modify its business practices to prevent future violations of Pennsylvania's consumer protection law, the attorney general's office said. The changes include training employees, maintaining enough staffing to update shelf tags weekly and posting notices at registers saying the lowest posted price will be honored." "We are hopeful the corporation takes this settlement very seriously as Pennsylvanians expect to pay the price that is on stickers and labels.""
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Update on my life
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:51 pmsasha_featherI realized today that a lot of my friends don't know about what I've gone through this year.
Last year in June I moved back to Minnesota to look after my dad. My mom was in the hospital for a month and then moved to a nursing home with sudden-onset dementia (B1 deficiency) secondary to cancer.
I intended to support them temporarily but decided to make it a more permanent move to support them and their many animals. I struggled and kept expecting other family members to step up, but they did not.
I was hospitalized in May 2025 after a seizure. (Two seizures in 3 years means a new diagnosis of epilepsy.) I am missing about a week or 2 of memories from directly after that experience, so I don't know for sure what happened. I was busy looking after my dad and the animals, and then coordinating a move for my parents into assisted living, which I mostly did myself, While recovering from a seizure, with a broken rib.
I don't know why-- again, I don't remember (likely from medication side effects), but no one from the family came to help me directly after the seizure. My dad (who has dementia) and I did it alone. I'm angry about it and need people to know.
I supported my family for a year and half and did not receive any funds, no salary, very little emotional or logistical help from my brother, his wife, or his 4 healthy teenage kids. There is a wider extended family and they didn't show up either. We got some occasional visits but it wasn't enough.
Since moving my parents into assisted living, I have continued to support them in many ways, including looking after their farm and animals, again with no funds.
This week I asked my brother to help me advocate with my dad, to get me some money. He said no. He believes we should sell the farm (where I am now living). He made no mention of any provisions for me.
I'm obviously very upset, but the anger is at least helping me communicate about what is happening. I am reaching out to friends and various family members and trying to raise the alarm to protect myself.
I am safe for the time being but it is not the best idea for me to be living alone. I had intended to find roommates to come live here with me, but there are some barriers, including me not being the property owner, and the house being a bit of a mess. My next step is to directly talk to my parents about this situation. They both have dementia but I think they are capable of understanding my position.
I am currently unsure what the best course of action is moving forward. But I at least want folks to know what is going on. It's been very helpful to talk on the phone with friends who are affirming to me that this is a fucked up way to be treated. It's been a bitter pill to swallow, realizing that my family is exploiting me.
Warm thoughts, mail, messages are all helpful.
Last year in June I moved back to Minnesota to look after my dad. My mom was in the hospital for a month and then moved to a nursing home with sudden-onset dementia (B1 deficiency) secondary to cancer.
I intended to support them temporarily but decided to make it a more permanent move to support them and their many animals. I struggled and kept expecting other family members to step up, but they did not.
I was hospitalized in May 2025 after a seizure. (Two seizures in 3 years means a new diagnosis of epilepsy.) I am missing about a week or 2 of memories from directly after that experience, so I don't know for sure what happened. I was busy looking after my dad and the animals, and then coordinating a move for my parents into assisted living, which I mostly did myself, While recovering from a seizure, with a broken rib.
I don't know why-- again, I don't remember (likely from medication side effects), but no one from the family came to help me directly after the seizure. My dad (who has dementia) and I did it alone. I'm angry about it and need people to know.
I supported my family for a year and half and did not receive any funds, no salary, very little emotional or logistical help from my brother, his wife, or his 4 healthy teenage kids. There is a wider extended family and they didn't show up either. We got some occasional visits but it wasn't enough.
Since moving my parents into assisted living, I have continued to support them in many ways, including looking after their farm and animals, again with no funds.
This week I asked my brother to help me advocate with my dad, to get me some money. He said no. He believes we should sell the farm (where I am now living). He made no mention of any provisions for me.
I'm obviously very upset, but the anger is at least helping me communicate about what is happening. I am reaching out to friends and various family members and trying to raise the alarm to protect myself.
I am safe for the time being but it is not the best idea for me to be living alone. I had intended to find roommates to come live here with me, but there are some barriers, including me not being the property owner, and the house being a bit of a mess. My next step is to directly talk to my parents about this situation. They both have dementia but I think they are capable of understanding my position.
I am currently unsure what the best course of action is moving forward. But I at least want folks to know what is going on. It's been very helpful to talk on the phone with friends who are affirming to me that this is a fucked up way to be treated. It's been a bitter pill to swallow, realizing that my family is exploiting me.
Warm thoughts, mail, messages are all helpful.
late in time behold him come
Dec. 9th, 2025 02:04 pmwychwoodI made an automation flow that actually works!! I did realise afterwards that I need to add more error handling into it, but I am fully into celebrating the initial success right now.
Particularly because work is otherwise not as rich in successes as I would like. My inbox is a disaster area (everything in there requires action; I aim to keep it under 100 items and right now I'm running at 125 on a good day), the last report I actually completed in full was for July and I have a cumulative 2800 items to review in case they need moving, 900 duplicate records that need cleaning up, three test plans to write, an entire component that is supposed to go live before Christmas but which isn't with me for testing yet... and none of those things are even on the action tracker Boss Lady and I go through in my weekly 121.
But I did cross off one of my ten KANBAN items this morning and deleted two or three to-do list items. I'm hoping that tonight I will sleep instead of going for a series of one-hour naps all night, and maybe tomorrow I'll have the energy to tackle Power Automate...
Particularly because work is otherwise not as rich in successes as I would like. My inbox is a disaster area (everything in there requires action; I aim to keep it under 100 items and right now I'm running at 125 on a good day), the last report I actually completed in full was for July and I have a cumulative 2800 items to review in case they need moving, 900 duplicate records that need cleaning up, three test plans to write, an entire component that is supposed to go live before Christmas but which isn't with me for testing yet... and none of those things are even on the action tracker Boss Lady and I go through in my weekly 121.
But I did cross off one of my ten KANBAN items this morning and deleted two or three to-do list items. I'm hoping that tonight I will sleep instead of going for a series of one-hour naps all night, and maybe tomorrow I'll have the energy to tackle Power Automate...
Like congrats on being unpleasant I guess
Dec. 7th, 2025 05:04 amnikkiscarletYou know what? I’m beyond tired of “snark.” If a book is marketed at me as having “snarky” MCs or banter, I’m skipping it. There’s so much mean-spiritedness in snark.
Give me “goofy” characters instead. Give me “witty” characters. But above all, just please give me “kind” characters.
Give me “goofy” characters instead. Give me “witty” characters. But above all, just please give me “kind” characters.
Seeking recommendations for puberty books that are fat-positive
Dec. 6th, 2025 07:35 pmlannamichaelsI just read The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls by Valorie Lee Schaefer for content, focusing on a few things, but primarily ovulation and eating disorders. It doesn't mention ovulation, and while the eating disorder section itself is fine, I wasn't impressed with the overall section on food, and there were other parts of this book that really rubbed me wrong, especially the emphasis on smiling. It's weirdly anti-salt and doesn't seem to believe that insomnia exists.
This book kept making me think "this would be great to use in some kind of dissertation on a very specific culture that this came out of, telling the young girls in this culture how best to grow up to be women." The examples alone of what concerns they thought the girls had about their bodies and their social interactions (they all seem to have very mean friends and want larger breasts, except for the one girl with large breasts, whose friends all dropped her for being ugly and fat. No one is actually fat in this book. Also their bra size chart doesn't go above 36D; people thinking that breasts can't possibly be beyond that was the source of a great many problems in my life, and I kept thinking, while reading this book, that this book would have been negatively helpful to me in my actual experience of puberty.)
So.
Does anyone have recommendations for "what to expect when you're expecting to go through puberty" that are fat-positive? You know, something like "it's very genetic and it's not because you ate too much junk food"?
And is more honest about period pain, and mentions -- at the very least -- ovulation. And that you can get back pain from your breasts.
And also -- okay, there were a bunch of things in this book that made me go "this is the opposite of helpful, I understand why you think it's helpful, but trust me, while you're not contributing to the problem, you're also not helping."
But really, the fat-positive thing would be helpful, and also more realistic about numbers on scales, please and thank you.
(And maybe ones that don't assume everyone has a mom???? I'm just. I'm just. This book is so oddly heteronormative for a book that has nothing in it about dating.)
[Daf Yomi] Zevachim perek 6-8
Dec. 6th, 2025 05:40 pmlannamichaelsMy notes on these. Still not much to say but it's been, quite frankly, better than Nashim.
( Read more... )
resisting entropy
Dec. 6th, 2025 11:47 amwychwoodMy boss gave me a Christmas present, which is very nice of her! It's... a coffee mug (I only drink cold water) with snowy London landmarks on it (why).
In other puzzling news, I haven't had to wade through two inches of water to get to the station since last spring! I was assuming it was just because we'd had such a dry summer, but there have been several downpours which 100% would have flooded the station entrance last year now. We had a whole thing where the back of our site kept flooding and our management company spent months arguing with the water company about whose fault it was, and eventually the water company admitted it was them and did a bunch of work on the main road to fix it; I'm thinking the flooding by the station must have been part of the same problem, since it's the parallel road downslope. Who knew it was actually fixable without completely reconstructing the whole rear station entrance area! My wet boots thank them from the bottom of their soles.
I've been experimenting again with the automation software at work; at this stage it's a process of continuous failure - you create a process, you run it, it falls over, you spend ten minutes working out why, you fix that, it falls over at the next step, you spend fifteen minutes and call a colleague to fix that, rinse and repeat. On the other hand, the buzz from getting anything to work (I would say "a process" but I haven't actually got a complete flow for anything yet!!) is pretty good. And if I can get the flow I was working on yesterday up and running, it'll save me a couple of hours of extremely tedious manual checks every fortnight, and I'm all in favour of that.
In other puzzling news, I haven't had to wade through two inches of water to get to the station since last spring! I was assuming it was just because we'd had such a dry summer, but there have been several downpours which 100% would have flooded the station entrance last year now. We had a whole thing where the back of our site kept flooding and our management company spent months arguing with the water company about whose fault it was, and eventually the water company admitted it was them and did a bunch of work on the main road to fix it; I'm thinking the flooding by the station must have been part of the same problem, since it's the parallel road downslope. Who knew it was actually fixable without completely reconstructing the whole rear station entrance area! My wet boots thank them from the bottom of their soles.
I've been experimenting again with the automation software at work; at this stage it's a process of continuous failure - you create a process, you run it, it falls over, you spend ten minutes working out why, you fix that, it falls over at the next step, you spend fifteen minutes and call a colleague to fix that, rinse and repeat. On the other hand, the buzz from getting anything to work (I would say "a process" but I haven't actually got a complete flow for anything yet!!) is pretty good. And if I can get the flow I was working on yesterday up and running, it'll save me a couple of hours of extremely tedious manual checks every fortnight, and I'm all in favour of that.
Choices were made
Dec. 4th, 2025 08:13 pmlannamichaelsFor no good reason (yes I'm procrastinating on something), trying to decide tonight which is the most WTF of the music videos I have had to watch and rewatch and rewatch this year. Is it the WTFFFFF of the "clink clink" visual in Yum Yum? Or is it Shwekey deciding to stop the song right in its tracks to do a commercial for Baron Herzog? They are both so WTF.
-YUM YUM | Rabbi Greenspan | Featuring Afiko.Man & Mendy Worch | TYH Music
-SHWEKEY - Baruch Hashem It’s Shabbos
If you don't understand Yum Yum, don't worry, neither do I.
don'tcha wanna dance, say you wanna dance, don'tcha wanna dance
Dec. 4th, 2025 05:24 pmursamajorOkay, after rehearsal last night, I think the ship is feeling a bit more on an even keel. Even if we are only 10 days out from the annual holiday concert, and we just finished getting all of our music last night.
I'm most nervous about the Magnificat, of course, never having done it; how many trills can you possibly fit into 45 measures? ALL OF THEM, says Bach. But the Hallelujah Chorus is old hat. The new arrangement of Break Bread isn't too difficult, aside from some truly weird close harmony chords in the third round; I do need to record that with a keyboard before this weekend so I can send it out to the sopranos.
And then the Whitney Houston stuff is easy, at least to me, at least partially because these are childhood car radio songs for me, especially the finale medley of So Emotional, Where Do Broken Hearts Go, and I Wanna Dance With Somebody. I mean, I even sang the last of those three for the third grade talent show, and can still get just about every nuanced ad-lib at karaoke today; restraining myself to the choral part is gonna be the hard part here, hahaha. (The tenors and basses get to do the DANCE! spoken word at the outro, though,hyounpark is gonna be so stoked.)
Speaking of, right now, he's in Boston (well, okay, he's about to get on his plane back from BOS), and I'm a little jealous, even if it is for the most last-minute work thing possible and it's not like he got to see anybody but work people, though he did squeeze in dinner at Abe and Louie's. And turns out Boston hasn't quite yet gotten the snow, though Western Mass did, so at least I don't have to be jealous that he got the first snow and I didn't. (Him: "You can have all the first snow you want, I've had enough for a lifetime!")
And he got his Flour sticky bun, so all is well there. :) He tried to pick up their Bakers Gonna Bake sweatshirt for me, but they didn't have any in stock at Clarendon which was his closest option, though they don't have that much room for merch (Central Square is much bigger).
He did manage to stop by Burdick's and pick us up some drinking chocolate and chocolate penguins or mice, so that'll be good for the truly frigid nights we've been having lately (I know, I know, by Bay Area standards). I do need a slightly more windproof solution for night biking; when I was biking home from choir last night, I had a fleece on over a puffy vest over a wool sweater over a long sleeve top, but my arms were still chilly. It wasn't quite cold enough to require pulling out the puffer (which, admittedly, is showing its age because it dates from Eastern Mountain Sports still being an intact company); I think I really just need a windbreaker shell. We'll see.
*
Note to self for Thanksgiving next year: PEANUT SAUCE FONDUE. I mean, it might not wait until next year, peanut satay is a regular guest at the table chez us, but the reminder that we could make a vat of it and do it all fancy banquet style is a good one. :)
I'm most nervous about the Magnificat, of course, never having done it; how many trills can you possibly fit into 45 measures? ALL OF THEM, says Bach. But the Hallelujah Chorus is old hat. The new arrangement of Break Bread isn't too difficult, aside from some truly weird close harmony chords in the third round; I do need to record that with a keyboard before this weekend so I can send it out to the sopranos.
And then the Whitney Houston stuff is easy, at least to me, at least partially because these are childhood car radio songs for me, especially the finale medley of So Emotional, Where Do Broken Hearts Go, and I Wanna Dance With Somebody. I mean, I even sang the last of those three for the third grade talent show, and can still get just about every nuanced ad-lib at karaoke today; restraining myself to the choral part is gonna be the hard part here, hahaha. (The tenors and basses get to do the DANCE! spoken word at the outro, though,
hyounpark is gonna be so stoked.)Speaking of, right now, he's in Boston (well, okay, he's about to get on his plane back from BOS), and I'm a little jealous, even if it is for the most last-minute work thing possible and it's not like he got to see anybody but work people, though he did squeeze in dinner at Abe and Louie's. And turns out Boston hasn't quite yet gotten the snow, though Western Mass did, so at least I don't have to be jealous that he got the first snow and I didn't. (Him: "You can have all the first snow you want, I've had enough for a lifetime!")
And he got his Flour sticky bun, so all is well there. :) He tried to pick up their Bakers Gonna Bake sweatshirt for me, but they didn't have any in stock at Clarendon which was his closest option, though they don't have that much room for merch (Central Square is much bigger).
He did manage to stop by Burdick's and pick us up some drinking chocolate and chocolate penguins or mice, so that'll be good for the truly frigid nights we've been having lately (I know, I know, by Bay Area standards). I do need a slightly more windproof solution for night biking; when I was biking home from choir last night, I had a fleece on over a puffy vest over a wool sweater over a long sleeve top, but my arms were still chilly. It wasn't quite cold enough to require pulling out the puffer (which, admittedly, is showing its age because it dates from Eastern Mountain Sports still being an intact company); I think I really just need a windbreaker shell. We'll see.
*
Note to self for Thanksgiving next year: PEANUT SAUCE FONDUE. I mean, it might not wait until next year, peanut satay is a regular guest at the table chez us, but the reminder that we could make a vat of it and do it all fancy banquet style is a good one. :)
(no subject)
Dec. 4th, 2025 04:23 pmlotesseReading Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's The Wizard of the Crow; absolutely wild parallels to current events here, on the daily. Despotism as the ultimate theater of the absurd: all of these petty men running around to shiv each other and cover their own asses, twisting language and logic and meaning up in absolute knots because what are words but a means to power?
head down antlers on
Dec. 4th, 2025 06:48 pmwychwoodDecember is busy! I looked in detail at my calendar last week and had a little meltdown about it. How do I do this to myself so often.
Anyway. On Saturday I used 7 onions, 2 aubergines, 4 peppers, 6 courgettes, a little under 1.5kg pasta, 3.5 jars of pesto, and 2 bags of cheese and made just about enough packed meals to get me through to the end of next week. On Sunday A came over and we put up my tree and made disappointing experimental maple and pecan cookies (edible, but weirdly cake-like and not particularly good). I am more-or-less up-to-date on laundry and washing up and the like, and have started my Christmas cards.
I am in the office tomorrow as usual and then every working day through to 15 December inclusive, and am also out every single one of those seven nights. Then the week after I have choir four days in a row. Then I get a whole one day off between finishing work and Christmas Eve, for which I shall be duly grateful.
I think I am sufficiently prepared to make it that far, although there's going to be a lot of things waiting for me! But I've got most of my Christmas shopping sorted, I'm OK for food, and I don't think I should run out of clothes. Anything above and beyond that is a bonus!
Also this evening I made a little graph of how many books I finished per month and the point where I stopped intensively playing computer games is extremely visible. I knew all the hand-wringing about my reading decline was futile anyway, but also it turns out that the cause is almost entirely Bioware. Spoiler: if I'm playing ten or fifteen hours of a computer game, I do not read as much, who could have predicted.
Anyway. On Saturday I used 7 onions, 2 aubergines, 4 peppers, 6 courgettes, a little under 1.5kg pasta, 3.5 jars of pesto, and 2 bags of cheese and made just about enough packed meals to get me through to the end of next week. On Sunday A came over and we put up my tree and made disappointing experimental maple and pecan cookies (edible, but weirdly cake-like and not particularly good). I am more-or-less up-to-date on laundry and washing up and the like, and have started my Christmas cards.
I am in the office tomorrow as usual and then every working day through to 15 December inclusive, and am also out every single one of those seven nights. Then the week after I have choir four days in a row. Then I get a whole one day off between finishing work and Christmas Eve, for which I shall be duly grateful.
I think I am sufficiently prepared to make it that far, although there's going to be a lot of things waiting for me! But I've got most of my Christmas shopping sorted, I'm OK for food, and I don't think I should run out of clothes. Anything above and beyond that is a bonus!
Also this evening I made a little graph of how many books I finished per month and the point where I stopped intensively playing computer games is extremely visible. I knew all the hand-wringing about my reading decline was futile anyway, but also it turns out that the cause is almost entirely Bioware. Spoiler: if I'm playing ten or fifteen hours of a computer game, I do not read as much, who could have predicted.