1. My obsession with the television show "House" knowing no bounds (in my defense I just started watching it about six months ago - what have I been doing with my time for the last four or five years?), I headed over to the show's website and clicked on an interview with Hugh Laurie. Hearing Mr. Laurie speak in his natural English accent for the first time was a jolt, to say the least. It wasn't just the accent though, the entire pitch and timbre of his voice was different from that of Greg House; lower, I think. It was as jarring to me as if my own brother suddenly one day started taking like Daffy Duck. Weird.
2. A friend of mine who is a mother of three called me this week and left a telephone message. At the end of her voice mail, I heard her three year old daughter screaming as if she has fallen into the seventh level of hell. I returned the call, getting my friend's voice mail, which didn't surprise me; she obviously had her hands full. When she rang me up, she apologized for the delay.
Me: "Don't worry about it. I heard."
Friend: "What?"
Me: "The yelling? The screaming? The wailing?"
Friend: "What are you talking about?"
Me: "At the end of your message - your daughter sounded like she was being murdered."
Friend: "Oh. Yeah. The kids were playing 'Monsters'. I had forgotten that."
Me: "You are kidding, right? That was a noise that would have split my spinal nerves. And you didn't notice?"
Friend: (Laughing)
This exchange explains why she has the vocation to motherhood, and I, apparently, do not.
3. My plan is to leave next Friday to fly home to Cotton Creek, Alabama to be with my family for Christmas. The universe has discovered my plan, however, and therefore everything is blowing up at work. I can't get people to make a decision on things I need them to make a decision on. People who HAVE made a decision, have made the WRONG decision, and not wrong as in, "I disagree with you" kind of wrong, but objectively wrong. So then those messes have to be righted. I so don't have time for this. What is the saying? "All stressed out and no one to choke."
4. The gingerbread cookies I made last week for my sewing guild were wonderful, but the cookie swap is THIS weekend, not LAST weekend. So I had to make more. I'm starting to wonder at my mental capacity.
5. Erin at dressaday.com is raising money for a charity that buys books and dictionaries for women in prison. If you donate (doesn't matter how much), Erin will enter your name into her drawing and if she picks your name, she will name one of the characters in her next book after you. The charity fund drive lasts until the Feast of the Epiphany. Pretty cool, huh?
6. My PBS station is running "Celtic Woman" during their fund drive this week. My favorite songs are the traditional ones sung in Irish Gaelic, like "Mo Gile Mear". I don't know what they are singing about, but the music enthralled me so much I was possessed with an intense desire to learn Gaelic, just to sing the songs. This lasted for about 20 minutes, fortunately. Tá mé ar buille.
7. My wonderful loving friend Eileen, sends me a beautiful Advent calendar each year. It is of St. Mark's in Venice, and I hang it on the door of my office. One of my co-workers just loves opening each little window with me every day of Advent, which surprised me last year. He's nearing 60 but his enthusiasm is heartbreakingly childlike. While I have worked with him for several years, he only told me a couple of weeks ago that his mother died when he was a baby. He and his sister were raised by his aunt. Now when he shows up at my door each morning to open the next Advent window, I am aware of the blessing God has given me to do this simple childhood tradition with him during this wonderful season.
Parting Shot: My re-done cookies for tomorrow. I was going for a delicate blue color to remind us of snowflakes. Instead, I got a garish Walt Disney technocolor blue. Doesn't matter, they will taste the same!
I'm enormously pleased with these placemats, as there is a pocket for the napkin and silverware. I quilted them according to the directions with just diagonal straightline quilting. 
