Rec contr' Amor non es guirens lai on sos poclers, s'autra.

I've got two small bookcases (one three-shelf, one two-shelf) and a cd tower that are free! to anyone who wants them, or it or whatever. Take it all, take two, take one, whatever. Your choice.

In other news, clumsy_me gave me a tinkerbell mug for Christmas and it's awesome! It's my new favourite mug, and (this is important) it doesn't leak! Currently it's a little dirty and needs to be washed (mmm....hot chocolate) but as soon as it's clean, it's coming to work!

A.

I finally finished the scarf that I was knitting for my mom as a Christmas gift, but now I want to keep it for myself. It looks fantastic. I'll try and get a few pictures of it in the next few days.

In other news, I've been invited to a going away party on the 15th. *eye roll* Why does this always happen? For weeks, nothing and then suddenly bam! several things one night. I work until 8, so I'll only be showing up for one of them, which will of course be clumsy_me and mr_rhodes birthdays shebang. Birthdays shebang or birthday shebang? Interesting.

I was informed today that for the English Assesor's job, you need to score at least 80% on the English Proficiency test. Way to instill confidence!

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Early this afternoon, my doorbell rang. It was the postman (apparently, there was enough mail for the three apartments, that the guy just rang the doorbell to give it to us all) who handed me a small package. I raced excitedly upstairs (promptly hitting my head on the small overhang just as the stairwell curves a little) and threw open my apartment door.

Then I had to go running back down again, to chase my cat.

Anyway, once I corraled her, and got back upstairs, and the door shut, I eagerly ripped open the envelope, anticipating my one skein knitted gift from my secret pal. With breathless anticipation, I pulled out a jumble of colours, and went "wha?" before realizing that it was folded up a little.

After that I put it on and haven't taken it off yet (well, actually, I did, but only to get a few photos of it not on my head). So everyone gets to see pictures.

( Pretty pretty pictures under this here cut )

After that I realized that I still needed to send my two pals their gifts. I got one sent off, I've lost the address for the second one, so I'm waiting on her to email it back to me.

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We in the extended mathowny family believe that you *must* give more presents than you receive. Always. Every year we frantically attempt to out-gift one another, going bigger, better, more, pricier, prettier, and just plain cooler.

This year I piled my momma's car full of prezzies -- leaving just enough room for me, my momma, my sis's dog, and, as a last thought, my roomie. And laundry, but that's a given. And I thought "HA! That'll teach 'em all!" and "great, I should have more than enough room coming home. No dog, less presents."

Boy, was I *vastly* mistaken. DAMN THEM! They out-gifted me! There was less room in the car coming home. Christ. What does a girl have to do in this family?

Coolest gift: Wine from the house of commons. Mmmmmm....government wine. :)

Gift that should never have been given to me: furniture that needs to be put together. I mean, hello? I can barely work nail clippers.

Gift that made me squeel: Buffy, season 7. *sigh* Now I can do a Buffy week, and watch every episode from every season.

Gift that made me laugh: "Mr Right. (when you need him). A little doll that has speech bubbles, like "I'm sorry, you're right." "Can I take you shoe shopping, sweetie?" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. *wipes eyes*

Gift that will have me bouncing for weeks: $30 in Tim Hortons gift certificates. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

And tomorrow, I will go boxing day shopping, and I hope to all and every god out there that I get a jump on my competition. Next year, I will out-gift, out-give and out-wrap the lot of them! *shakes fist*

Merry Christmas all, and have a tip-top Teht.

A. -- hehe. Tip-top Teht. hehe.

I think I'm done Christmas shopping, I find out I'm not. My roomie has decided that he will, indeed, be joining my family for Christmas. (As his family is in Russia, he can't afford to go home, and my mother is like nature, and abhours a vacuum. No wait, she abhours people not spenind time with people at Christmas. But I also think she abhours vacuums too. At any rate, she invited the roomie out for Christmas.) So I found out yesterday. I had a gift for him, yes, but my mother _freaked_ out because he didn't have a stocking. And only one gift. So the end result of this freakage was that I had to scramble to find stocking stuffers for my roomie who does nothing but sit in his room and play with his computer. On my breaks at work, I ran to various stores in the Glebe. After work (thank gods that this was the one night I didn't work) I ran to Shoppers to get the ever present lotto tickets, toothbrush, shaving cream, body wash and lip balm that are staples in our stockings at Christmas. I think I did a fairly good job, and relatively cheaply too! The most expensive item: Mach 3 razor blades.

On a really great note: I got Mr. Right When You Need Him from my friend S. Yah! And a tres cool notepad that she made for me. And a honkin' huge amber ring -- the ring size itself is small, but the amber piece is gi-normous! It was given to her (along with other amber pieces) but, as she put it "it's really wee, and I knew you had wee fingers, so I thought of you." Ah, that's so sweet. *looks down* and true.

Let the gift giving begin!

A.

So last night I gave bracelet boy a non-Christmas, Yule-time (but not Yule) travel kit. It even had a note on it that said "this is not a Christmas gift. In fact, it's not Christmas yet, but it's almost Yule, but it's not a Yule gift either. In fact, it's not even a gift. It's a travel kit."

I was bored at work, so I wrapped it in this crazy/scary snowmen paper, that might have been 3D. So the note also said "I didn't have any other paper, so I wrapped it with this psychotic 3D snowmen paper. Very festive, if we're celebrating Hallowe'en."

I wrote on the paper as well. Stuff like "Paper can be used as TP in dire situations." "Box can be used as: a)make-shift plate, b)foot stool, c) re-gifting, d)a bum warmer." "Everything in this box was stolen. Actually, so was the box." "My signature can be used as the North Star." "I have no nifty saying to write here." "I think this paper is 3D....and scary."

The travel kit itself had little sayings:

Kleenex: 'cause the nose knows
penny: So you never go broke
safty pins: So you can hold it all together
rubber band: So you can bounce back from any situation
eraser: So you can erase your mistakes
hand sanitizer: In case of dirty situations
wet-naps: For use in sticky situations.

I also got him a shot glass, by Tim Walker, who does these crazy faces, with shit eating grins and big noses. Veryvery funny.

We were in Kanata, went to the movies, then O'Connors. I was all prepared to take the bus home -- I had a wool sweater on over a long sleeved shirt, and my big ass sheepskin jacket, not to mention wool socks in lined boots, heavy duty mitts, and a toque. I was _set_ for the cold weather! Nothing was getting through my layers. In fact, I was kind of looking forward to reading more of my book, and it seems like the only time I get to is when I'm on a bus, which is so infrequent.

This is the point where he decides that my Christmas present, from him, is a cab ride home. I try to talk him out of it. I mean, he's not offering the cab ride 'cause he wants to see my home safe and sound and not mugged at the bus station, but 'cause he's cold. $40 later, I'm in the Glebe.

What can I say? I'm a suckah.

I'm going out with him and his friends on Tuesday, for a going away drinking night. The day I figure out why a guy would introduce the girl he's emphatically not dating, to his friends, is a truly unbelieveable day.


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