Okay, it's almost Craptacular time. I am considering the list for my post-holiday cleanup sale on eBay, and believe me, I have enough to last a lazy person like me several months. The last thing I need is MORE CRAP.

In fact, living in a very small rural town, Mojo must make occasional dump runs--although technically our dump is no longer a dump but a "transfer station", and everything gets dumped into variously labeled Dumpsters to be driven away and either recycled or dumped--oh, sorry, I mean "transferred"--elsewhere, like where poorer people live. Or whatever happens to it; Mojo has no say in the matter. (Once when I worked in a Very Old Library at a Very Old College, they spent a year or so removing asbestos from the building, and they had a staff meeting with an asbestos expert to allay staff fears (the actual removal process, it turns out, involved a lot of plastic sheeting and duct tape, which did NOTHING to ally Mojo's vague fears, since she was looking for something a little more high-tech), and one of the things one of Mojo's trouble-making librarian friends brought up was, "Where does the asbestos go after you remove it?" To which the asbestos expert hemmed and hawed and tried very hard to sugar-coat what they do with it. Which, rumor had it, was to truck it all down south and let some poverty-stricken Appalachian community deal with it. You'd think they'd be asked this often enough to have a good strong super-casual response to it instead of this decidedly awkward exchange (and maybe now they do), but back then Mister Asbestos Expert clearly did NOT want to talk about it.)  MORE Mojo! »

...mostly on account of my Favorite Husband being sick with a cold, and Mojo fighting off the temptation to join him, and ignoring the simple fact that we don't really lead excitement-filled lives in the first place.

Right now I am watching the movie A Christmas Story, and while I admit it is a cute, sweet story I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Like the Harry Potter books. I read them all, and I wish Rowling all happiness and success, and they are nice books and all, but I fail to grasp what EXACTLY sets them apart from all the other, equally good children's lit. I guess I am trying to determine the "tipping point" factor that makes average things suddenly take off, while things that I suspect are higher quality are left in the dust.

Of course once Mojo figures this out there will be no stopping her, and she will eventually Rule The World and then everyone will have to follow her myriad Rules and Regulations to Avoid Annoying Her. First order of business--the new Burger King and Old Navy campaigns will be totally taken off the air. (You're welcome.) And people who can't spell will lose their jobs as Chyron operators for the local news. I woke up to the Christmas news on the local station and their holiday graphic wished all of us a "Mary Christmas". I kid you not. I kept watching thinking this must be some sort of reference to the Virgin Mary, but ten minutes later I came to the sad conclusion that no, someone was just illiterate. Yay.

My Favorite Family actually isn't celebrating until Saturday. So I went out shopping this morning. I think from now on EVERY Christmas celebration should take place a week after the actual day. Because you just can't beat the bargains!

I was at the store at 10:00 am expecting masses of people. Instead I walked the mall and was out of there by 10:20 with about half of my shopping done. And for much, much less than it would have cost me on Monday. So there!

Mojo