Distracted by Work....

Apparently, December is the time that many Ramsey County circulation staff decide that going to work is not for them.

Not that I blame ANYONE who decides this. In fact, I support that attitude not only in general, but also in specific, because it means I get a lot of sub hours. I worked almost every day last week. I'm working both tonight and Tuesday night. It's going to be a decent-sized paycheck for once, and, right around the holidays, this is a very good thing.

Plus, my back is feeling much better, thank you. I can't say it's at 100%--if for no other reason that I still have weird numbness/tingling in my fingers and thumb of my left hand. (Yes, I FINALLY got an appointment with a neurologist, but that's not for another week yet.) I sill get that beat-up feeling after a long shift at work, or, like yesterday, when I spent the day on my feet rolling out cookie dough. But, as I said before, that's a kind of pain I know how to deal with: you take some aspirin; you lie down. It hurts when you do that? Stop doing that.

I can't believe it's raining today. I don't even know where i live any more. It's supposed to be Minnesota. Says so right on all the mail I get in the post, but it must be wrong because there is GREEN GRASS IN DECEMBER. This is ridiculously unnatural. Facebook did one of those things where they show you some picture you posted in the past and some time last week they gave me the "memory" of the gigantic snowfall that had me outside with a yardstick to show the amount of snow we were getting. It was easily seven inches. Now, I can't say that's particularly "normal" either, but it's closer than this freak show. I know lots of people are happy with this year because the streets are easier to drive on, etc., but, for the record, this is not okay with me. We could have dry streets and a bit of snow, couldn't we? I feel we could. I would like that, please.

So to compensate for the weird weather, we spent is weekend FESTOONING our house in cheerful and seasonally-appropriate Solstice array. There is tinsel everywhere! Lights! Ornaments! The tree was bought and ceremoniously carted across University Avenue on Saturday. We decorated it (and the house, while we waited for the tree to warm up and relax). Sunday we spent baking ALL THE THINGS!! If I had the capability to show pictures any more, I would post the lovely gingerbread house that Mason decorated as well as our Solstice velociraptor sugar cookies (because, is there anything more Christmas-y than velociraptors?? No, I didn't think so.)

We kind of got overly ambitious when we started all the dough that needed time in the fridge, so I actually rolled out and baked up the gingerbread cookies today. Without Shawn around to stop me, I may have spent way too much time creating tableaus of Attack on Titan (only with gingerbread)... but, hey, it all eats the same, as my grandmother used to say.

Speaking of eating, I should probably go out to the grocery store. We need to have something ready to go tonight once everyone is home, since I have to be in White Bear Lake by 5 pm. So, I think tonight be Avengers shawarma, since it's really just about mixing things up and sticking them into pita. But, of course, I think of this when we have no pita bread. And, if I have to get pita, I might as well pick up a pre-cooked chicken.... I would never survive long in the world that Naomi Kritzer writes about in "So Much Cooking" (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_11_15/).

All right then, that's a wrap!