Writing offline... because my damn cable modem has been mostly offline the last few days, and this evening has been basically an exercise in not trying to pull my hair out. I'm so tired of watching little spinning symbols. Damn, there are so many things I can't do without an internet connection, and I had a bunch of auctions end this evening. Can't look up or research anything, can't print postage, can't send invoices or emails, can't answer questions, can't list anything for auction. And lots more auctions tomorrow, here's hoping Time Warner gets their shit together. Ebay also, the few times I was up tonight, Ebay was almost always down.

Well, I've made an initial commitment to picking my contact lenses - I'm trying three different presciptions as a start. All are bifocals with the "high" add. I found my brain won't let me do one low and one high, which is what the doc kept trying on me in different variations. One strength works pretty decent for driving and running around to the grocery store, etc., and I'm basically testing the other two for reading and computer work. Kind of fun, I can put 2.5+ in both eyes (I've got two of them on hand), or a 2.5+ and 2.75, or a 2.75+ and a 3.0+ for when I'm really blind. I'm SO bad at the "better... worse?" thing, they all look fuzzy to me, dammit. So I'm going to get to experiment on my own now. And when I get my three boxes of contacts in, I'm going to try two 2.75s for reading. And the eye shop I'm going to say they would meet the prices of Sam's Club - which will save me $20 a box on refills.

On another note, I need to remember to do things like color my hair before it gets cold. We have a 1950's tile bathroom and the thought of standing around naked waiting for color to develop is not very appealing when it's 40 degrees outside. We don't get much winter here in Houston, but I'm such a sissy. I have to force myself to take showers and washing my hands is just plain painful at times. I share a circulation problem with my mom, the name of it slips my mind right now (ah, Google is working - it's Raynaud's Syndrome), but any cold weather at all is intensely painful. RIght now I can't feel my nose, my toes are cold in my fuzzy Dearfoams, and my hands are icy and numb. And it's like 70 degrees inside the house right now. I need to start eating ginger root again, it helped with my stomach problems and one of the nice side effects was it kept me warm. Either that or have a shot of port...

Been battling a sinus infection all week which literally started the day the weather turned cold. I always get sick around the holidays, whether I stay inside and hide or not. We've been invited to my parents and the inlaws to be stuffed twice this Thursday. I may make Sparky drive for the dinner invite to his mom's, she's across town and I have this weird tendency to fall asleep after eating at her house already, after two turkey meals I'm probably not going to be real perky.

My mom asked me to bring a dessert (I love bringing dessert, I'm actually good at that), and Sparky's mom asked for a veggie so I'm doing green bean casserole. I was going to use fresh beans, but they didn't look too healthy in the store the other day. I'm not good at transporting food in cars (or on cafeteria trays, etc.), but I'll give it a try. I haven't turned our oven on since last Christmas (annual Xmas scones for my dad). Now I've got to start thinking about Christmas (and three holiday birthday, four including mine) gifts.

I think I've stalled as long as I can, I'd better go shower, brrr. Oops, can't go yet, the eight minute extended version of Donna Summer's "Last Dance" just cycled onto my iTunes :-)

P.S. I've got comments turned on to Moderate right now (I have to approve them). Apparently MT 3.2 isn't as efficient as Blacklist was. Or I don't have it tweaked correctly, who knows. I tried to "preapprove" my regular commentors, so hopefully it won't affect any of you. Too many damn spammers. Someone has picked up one of my parked domains and has been spending tons of emails all over the place using my domain name, I'm getting like 400 bounces a day from their antics, I hope it stops soon, how annoying.