Xmas 2007 is over! Whew. It was not too bad, though I was worried all day about the money situation I posted about a couple of days ago. I got to eat a little more than my diet normally allows, but today my wife is back to being strict and I only got to eat one mini peanut butter cup from all the treats I got yesterday! She did make a delicious dinner tonight though, beans in peanut satay sauce and veggie burgers with ajvar spread.

I think the coolest present I got yesterday was the TV Ears system. When we watched Tin Man over at my in-laws’ house a few weeks ago, I couldn’t hear the dialogue at a volume my wife was comfortable with. Their HDTV doesn’t do captions properly, so my usual way of keeping up wasn’t an option. Fortunately my father-in-law has a massive A/V system, and he was able to wire up some headphones and I could listen that way. They were big and bulky though, and I lost outside sound because I couldn’t hear it over the TV sound in my ears. So my in-laws got me the TV Ears set, and now the TV volume at home can be at a comfortable level for A and I can still hear it! Plus the TV Ears allow outside sound too, so it’s a great solution overall.

I’m a little unsettled by a recent post over at gBlog…if you go look, you’ll see what I mean. It’s right after one of my posts, currently on the front page. It makes me all squirmy and I want to respond somehow but I don’t know what to say.

I was quite surprised to get an e-mail this morning saying that my flowers were being delivered today. I promptly called the company and asked; it turns out that when we called to cancel yesterday it was too late to really cancel the order, so they had to let that one go ahead and they’re sending another shipment on Saturday. Fortunately they’re not going to charge me a second time!

I don’t usually order flowers because they’re so expensive - sometimes I’ll bring home a cheap bouquet from the grocery store - but Valentine’s Day is an appropriate occasion, and I wanted something pretty in the hotel room while we were there. But I didn’t expect to send roses to the hotel staff! If I’m not going to have to pay for it, though, why not pretty up their workplace too? I called the hotel and got myself transferred to the front desk, and explained the situation. The woman I spoke to was very apologetic, lots of “ohh, I’m so sorry!” But I told her to please go ahead and enjoy the flowers, keep them at the front desk if they like, whatever they want…because we’re getting more delivered on Saturday!

Just because I can, I guess. Be warned: much Hello Kitty to follow.
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My in-laws got me a bag full of Hanukkah gifts! The ironic thing is that I’m not even celebrating Hanukkah this year, but we didn’t tell them that. I think this is the first year in…oh, just about forever…that I haven’t lit candles for eight nights. I do miss it, but I’ve been so distracted lately that I just didn’t drag the menorah out in time. I am hoping to at least make some latkes from a mix - okay, A is probably going to make them and I am going to sit in the kitchen with a laptop.

Anyway, though, her parents did get me some nice little presents. They got me a bunch of Hello Kitty-branded food, including chocolate dip biscuits, strawberry dip biscuits, Lips candy, and Dream Cakes (which look kind of like moon pies). They also gave me a mezuzah (I guess they didn’t notice we already have one at our front door), some fruit-shaped marzipan treats, a whole box of fine marzipan with Jamaican rum, and a big bag of really cool gelt. The wrappers are sparkly, hologrammy, or whatever it is that makes that cool rainbow effect. It’s so cool I don’t want to eat them! I’ve never seen gelt wrappers like that before.

The best part of all this is that they are also giving me presents for Xmas and my birthday - bigger and better presents! They have not had a history of being overly generous, so when I got a bag full of treats last night I figured that was it for my holiday gifts from them. But after I finished opening everything, my mother-in-law said “you’ll get your bigger gift at Xmas, of course” - and I was quite pleasantly surprised!

A co-worker who knows I like Star Trek (she once saw me reading Star Trek Lives! and mentioned she was a fan too) brought in a gift for me the other day. It’s two Hamilton Collection ceramic plates, Captain Picard and the Enterprise and Best of Both Worlds. I accepted them to be polite, but we don’t want additional clutter in the house so I tried to figure out what to do with them. To my surprise, they’re actually worth a little bit of money! That’s when my wife got a good idea: save them for the Shore Leave convention in July. I’m either busy or exhausted the entire time I’m there, but she’s willing to take charge of running a silent auction with the proceeds donated to charity.

My challenge now is to decide what charity to give the proceeds to. Something that Trekkies and geeks would appreciate is appropriate, so I could go with some organization that donates computers to needy families/schools; another friend suggested Earth First as an appropriate alternative. Please feel free to leave other suggestions as comments on this entry! (I’m keeping my big charity list in mind, too.)

Added: Also under consideration are Baltimore Reads and the National Space Society.

It’s the season of gift giving in many parts of the world, and there’s a meme to match! The full rules are here, but a quick summary is that participants post their own holiday wishlists and then surf the wishlists of friends, granting wishes where possible. I already have multiple wishlists online, but I figured I’d narrow it down to ten items…including some that aren’t on my other lists! I’m asking family to put money into the pot and get me a used PS2, but I haven’t developed a list of games that I want yet, so none of those are included. Anyway, here’s my list!

1. Star Trek (TOS) Season 1 on DVD
2. Autographed copy of Wil Wheaton’s book Just a Geek
3. A laptop with better than 64mb RAM, and with a CD burner
4. Thinkgeek gift certificate
5. Temporary membership to AmazingTy.com
6. Patterns for crocheting hats with ears (like this one, this one, and this one)
7. Pointe ballet shoes
8. JT’s Stockroom gift certificate
9. Clothes and accessories for my American Girl doll (offbrand is fine!)
10. Fredericks of Hollywood gift certificate

I received a gift in the mail today - and I don’t know who sent it! The Amazon.com box was waiting outside the door when I got home, but when I picked it up it felt awfully light. I took it inside and called my girlfriend at work (I usually do that when I get home anyway, to find out when she’ll be coming home) and asked her what she’d gotten me. She said “I hate to tell you, but I didn’t get you anything!” I opened the box to find an envelope that said “Don’t Ruin Your Surprise - Open your gift before this envelope.” So I cut open the packaging and found a small gift-wrapped box with a printed notecard:

Meredith,
For the wonderful way you touch
people’s lives.
–P

I had no idea who “P” might be! As I opened the package, I realized it was a CD, and was delighted to find one of the few k.d. lang CDs I don’t already have. I finally opened the envelope and found the sender’s full name and billing address. He’d sent it next day air (!), gift wrapped and everything, but didn’t indicate who he was! I tried putting the name into Google, but it’s a common first name paired with a common last name so I had absolutely no luck.

So, PT of California, if you’re reading this…feel free to drop me a note and let me know who you are and how you know me! If you really want to keep your identity a secret, that’s okay, but if you feel like revealing yourself I’d love to know! I especially appreciate the note you enclosed with the CD; it’s so nice to know someone out there is thinking of me! Thank you so much!