I'm at my parents' house in Michigan now. Both of my parents' cats, Cinnamon and Annie, are sitting on the desk by the computer right now - it's so sweet! My dad is in the basement wrapping presents and my mom is on her way

home from errands. I just finished the frame for my brother and the bitch. And it's soooooooooo cute!!!! Now I want one for myself, I love it so much! I printed the pictures out in black and white, it looks just gorgeous! The pictures are 1) the bitch's cat growing up, 2) Cinnamon, 3) Annie, and 4) Sammy - the puppy my brother and the bitch fostered for a week last April. When they get a house, they plan to get two puppies, a puggle and then a puppy from a shelter, so they can replace the pictures then with pictures of their new puppies. I'm in love with this gift!
I need to go out shopping in a bit for 1) cards, 2) wrapping paper (since I left my gorgeous wrapping paper in the cab on the way to the train last night, pisses me off!), and 3) slippers for my mom (since she really wants those and my dad hadn't already gotten them for her). I think that's it. My mom stopped at the pet store for me to get dog toys to give my brother and the bitch. And I'm done with my dad, grandpa and grandma. So good! Yay!
Yesterday I woke up late so didn't get to work until 12:30. I left my house at 11 and dragged my huge suitcase, backpack, purse, and wrapping paper first to Caribou Coffee to get beans for my mom (she's getting a cool grind and brew coffee maker so she can stop drinking the stuff out of the can), then I walked about a fricking mile to the yarn store, because I didn't want to spend the money on a cab. I got three more balls for my brother's scarf, but for my dad's scarf there was only one more ball in the color I was knitting, so I ended up getting two balls of a brown and the ball of the rust, and I'll have to take out half of what I've already knitted and make it into a colorblock scarf. He's going to be getting the scarf on the knitting needles, by the way, and I'll keep knitting while I'm here and then while we're driving back to Chicago. Oh, so after the yarn shop I realized I forgot to go to the liquor store to get Bombay Sapphire for my boss, so I walked

all the way back to get that, and THEN I got a cab, stopped at The German's place to leave my keys with his doorman, and then on to work. And then I went to Borders to get the books - three for my dad, one for my grandpa (called
Hypochondria Can Kill: A Disease for Every Occasion, An Illness for Every Symptom - hahaha, perfect for my grandpa, the germophobe, and it's actually a really funny book, especially the sexual things that can go wrong, which part my grandpa will I'm sure NOT read), and one book for me. The total came to $99.06. I had a coupon for $20 off a purchase of $100, so I was instantly thinking about something really cheap to buy, but the really nice guy told me not to worry and ended up giving me $30 off the whole purchase - I LOVE nice people!!!!
The Amtrak ride was good. I undid my brother's scarf so far cause I wanted to make it thicker, and then knit the whole way and got over two feet done, so I'm happy with that. I'll have to knit much more after shopping and before they arrive later tonight, but he'll probably also get a mostly-done scarf with the needle still in it. :)
Oh - on Wednesday night Violet and I went the Do-It-Yourself Messiah. We'd never heard the

whole thing before, and didn't recognize most of it, but it was fun. We bought the big book, and we chose to sing Alto cause it was in the middle. Luckily we had a lady right next to me who REALLY knew what she was doing, so we could just follow her. The full orchestra was on stage, along with a soprano, alto, tenor and bass, and then we all joined in for all the chorus parts. The one I still can't get out of my head is All We Like Sheep (Have Gone Astray). Here's what's in my head: "All We Like Sheep! da da da da (that's music). All We Like Sheep! da da da da. Have gone astra-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay. (And repeat over and over!)" I keep singing it aloud, because I can't help myself! My parents think I've gone a bit wacky!!

Before I left work yesterday, I gave The Meat a Christmas card with my family Christmas picture in, which he really liked. And I also printed out for him my Ode to The Meat from this blog. He said it was the best Christmas gift he could get to read that. He's just wonderful, and I'm glad I could let him know it! Also, The Italian Chef gave me a bag of her homemade Chex Mix for the train ride. I ate some halfway through and was glad that the conductor had given each of us a candycane, cause oh my mouth had the most horrible onion taste in it after eating the onion-powder-laden Chex Mix! So good, but horrible afterward!
I need to go out shopping now. What's making me procrastinate is first the traffic out there, but mostly because I popped a little pimple in the middle of my forehead and haven't covered it up yet or it will just fill back up with crap and I'll have to do it all over again. But before I go out I'll have to cover it or I guarantee I'll run into every single person from high school who I used to be friends with and also who I hated! And they'll all be staring at the pimple on my forehead!!!!
But now I'll go. Yay, Christmas is almost here!!!! And I'm happy even though we'll have the bitch here!!!!