Today’s list of things to be grateful for or appreciate:

1. Getting a good night’s sleep.
2. I’m off work all day, surprise surprise.
3. Opening my presents this morning. Among some rather odd items (a pink USB vacuum cleaner ) I did get a new dressing gown and some slipper socks. And some tasty coffee syrups.
4. Finding my new favourite blog. It’s written by a paramedic, all about his line of work.
5. Not having to spend too long playing families.
6. Smodging on Wenna. She’s had some new toys, and the largest chew stick I’ve ever seen. It’s a foot long, and about 3″ in diameter. It’s like a policeman’s baton, and probably just as deadly. Another toy she’s had is a blue ball with a bell inside (which bounces magnificently) and a large football with a squeaker inside. She loves them both. Sadly, her reindeer exploded (literally) last night, in a shower of grey dust. On reading the label, it was designed with a weight to hang in someone’s car window. Alas.
7. My new slipper socks are very warm and cosy.
8. A nice shower to wake me up.
9. The turkey this year is very succulent. Mom has cooked it in a new fashion, which basically involved steaming it for a while. The turkey goes in an ovenproof pan, with a couple of inches of water. That goes on the hob to boil, while it’s covered in foil. Half an hour later, it goes into the oven to cook. Or something.
10. I’m not visiting with relatives at all tonight. UPDATE: I found out later from mom that the relative we usually visit on a Xmas afternoon got stroppy with her (mom) when she was told we wouldn’t be visiting. Bitch is lucky I wasn’t there.
11. I have an idea for a new blog theme. I’m not sure if it will ever come to pass, but it might do, so Watch this space.
12. Listening to Alice Peacock.
13. I know Christmas is here when I hear this song:
14. Chatting to some old friends via text.
15. Picking at the turkey. This is another tradition of mine. Every Xmas morning, I pick at the turkey, and this year I have the added bonus of throwing scraps to Wenna.
16. Orange and Mango J2O. Delicious.
17. Getting an insight after taking Wild Oat for a few days. Providence is grinning at me right now, because I’m going to do Fregair on this.
18. I’ve been feeling good for the past couple of days now. Coupled with the Wild Oat? Or just few working hours?
19. I’m turning into an old woman. I just enjoyed a glass of sherry.
20. Getting a new theme up and running. What do you guys think?
21. Fiddling about with CSS. I know that it’s an odd thing to be doing on Xmas day, but I’m having fun, and that’s what matters. I certainly don’t want to spend Xmas day not having fun.
22. Hot Teeccino with some of my new coffee syrup in it.
23. I get to have a nice long soak in a nice hot bath tonight. Lobster time again.
24. Getting some insights while soaking in said hot bath.
25. Trifle. Mmmmm. I think I prefer it without cream and custard though.
26. Spending some more time fiddling with the CSS. I think everything is done, but the post titles seem to be rather large, and I have no idea why. They should be 1.2em, but they’re much larger than that.
27. Listening to Lani Nash.
28. That I am not religious. I feel quite good about this.
29. I am much much better physically than I was a couple of weeks ago.
30. Getting lots of money for Xmas. Some of it is to be saved, and some of it is to be put against my credit card.
31. That I have the leisure time, even on Xmas day, to fiddle with CSS.
32. My new slipper socks are fantastic. My feet are lovely and warm despite not wearing any trousers at all.
33. Hot coffee with some caramel syrup in it. It’s helping me stay awake after my bath.

Things I’ve laughed at today:

1. Dad being confused and stressed out by Wenna playing with her new toys.
2. Mom shouting at the dog to get out of the kitchen, when it was in fact me she’d trod on.
3. This loldog. And this one. This one too.
4. This lolcat. And this one.

Things I want to manifest:

1. Avoiding relatives as much as possible. MANIFESTED.
2. Fregair on insights. MANIFESTED.

Things I’ve done for others:

1. Handed out presents.
2. Complimented mom on her cooking.

Daily rating:

Today’s list of things to be grateful for or appreciate:

1. Getting a good night’s sleep.
2. I’m not in work until 11:15 today.
3. A nice hot shower, taken with enough time to sit and dry off in comfort.
4. Nat has remembered to lend me the car for today.
5. Breakfast cereals.
6. I’m not working for 4 whole days after today.
7. I have lots of cash on hand.
8. Dinky and L are both in work today, so I should be able to have a good laugh.
9. Y is in tonight, so it looks like I won’t be on the till this afternoon.
10. Watching 10 minutes of 27 Dresses. Yes, I know. But, it looks quite funny and I don’t have time before work to sit and watch it all.
11. Safe driving.
12. Work went well. I was on till till for all of 4 sales. At the front, anyway.
13. Dinky loved her presents. L got her some chocolates, flowers, and various other woman type things as a thank you for being such a good supervisor.
14. L paid be the money she owed me and got me a selection box.
15. Laughing with my colleagues, especially when I was teasing A about what a golden barrel is. There is in fact no such thing, but L and I were discussing our sex lives, and L was eating a chocolate which was in the shape of a barrel, wrapped in gold paper. She mentioned that it sounded like something out of the Karma Sutra, and we were laughing about it when A came upstairs. A, who has yet to kiss her boyfriend, wondered what we were laughing at, so I had a little harmless fun teasing her about it.
16. Dinky mentioned that it had been flat for the past few days without me there, and L joined in. I basked in the praise.
17. Tasty food from Greggs.
18. The nutcase customers who brightened my day by asking for ridiculous items (see #7 below).
19. Spending some time upstairs working on the delivery.
20. I called H a bitch, because he deserved it. L was suitably scandalised. I am so getting fired someday.
21. I got in tonight to nose-pokes and kisses off Wenna.
22. A turkey and a pork sandwich.
23. Mom’s jelly is very firmly set. It was supposed to make a pint, but she only made it to 3/4. Oh well. I just need to use a knife instead of a spoon to eat it with.
24. I finished watching 27 dresses. And really rather liked it. The jokes were quite funny, and I’d have liked to have seen more of them, but never mind.

Things I’ve laughed at today:

1. Mom and the fortune telling TV recorder. I got in tonight to mom wanting to know why something hadn’t recorded. It hadn’t been on TV yet…
2. Mom calling Simon Biagi “Simon Bokashi”.
3. This very funny Youtube video. It’s quite rude, so be warned.
4. This lolcat. And this one.
5. This loldog. And this one. This one too.
6. This and this from Not Always Right.
7. Please bear in mind that I work in a shop that sells books, magazines and stationery. Given that, I had two customers today that asked me for serviettes and Bacofoil (that you cover a turkey with before roasting). Thankfully, I have years of self control that prevented me from laughing hysterically at them.
8. This funny video.

Things I want to manifest:

1. A day spent on the shop floor. MANIFESTED.
2. FCKEditor on TIGF. No longer needed.

Things I’ve done for others:

1. Served some customers.
2. Added some more money to Dinky’s collection.
3. Gave Dinky her stuff with L and nearly made her cry.
4. Entertained my colleagues.

Daily rating:

3.

Today’s list of things to be grateful for or appreciate:

1. Getting a good night’s sleep.
2. Having a bit of a lie in until 10:30.
3. A nice hot shower to wake up to.
4. Nibbling on some more chocolates for breakfast.
5. The new TV recorder recorded something for mom perfectly last night.
6. I’m feeling good. Not manic, but just generally good. This might be related to me doing star jumps while waving 2 remote controls in the air, while trying to chase one of the budgies back into his cage.
7. Smodging on Wenna.
8. I’m off work all day.
9. Nat has said I can borrow her car while she’s away, so hopefully I’ll be able to drop my car over to Peter soon.
10. Doing another codeword without looking at the solution.
11. L’s parcel has arrived.
12. Tomorrow is Xmas eve.
13. Remembering my PIN when I went shopping yesterday.
14. Taking my card with me when I went shopping yesterday. Nat left her wallet at home, so she had to borrow my card to buy her stuff with.
15. Having enough money in my account to pay off my credit card bill. It’s quite large this month, but some of it is to be paid back to me by other people, so that’s good.
16. I seem to be developing some confidence in dealing with mom and getting my point across.
17. Hot fruit tea. It’s cherry, as always.
18. Working out how to use the anchor tag to make moving about a page easier. You often see it at the bottom of a page, saying “return to top”. I’m using it on another blog to great effect.
19. Leftover Chinese food for lunch.
20. Cold milk.
21. Having cold feet, when I can warm them up.
22. Lemon tea. I haven’t had any for ages, but I found a jar at the back of the cupboard a while ago, so I’m sipping a cup right now. It’s very refreshing.
23. Watering the plants. I’ve given them all far more water than is healthy, because they haven’t had any for about 3 months. It says something about the constitution of an Aspidistra that none of them have yet to go yellow or wilt.
24. Finally getting around to watching The Golden Compass. Lets just say it thoroughly deserves it’s 6.3/10 rating on IMDB…
25. Mom has paid me some money she owes me.
26. I still have a job.
27. Nat has said I can borrow her car tomorrow, which I’m very grateful for.
28. Finding the Easy Admin Colour Schemes plugin, which is allowing me to customise the colours of the Wordpress 2.7 Dashboard very easily. This plugin has made it so much easier for me to change the colours on the admin screen, with the end result being that I can have my own colour scheme instead of that horrible grey bar across the top of the screen.
29. Updating various other plugins that needed updating.
30. Dinky is in work tomorrow, so I should be able to have a good laugh. L is in too, which should be fun.
31. Pickled onions.
32. Teeccino.
33. The smell of the hyacinths in the kitchen. Mom has had a bowl bought for her as an Xmas present, and they smell lovely.
34. Making some trifles. This involved a lot of shrieking and talking nonsense (on my part) and a lot of eye rolling (on mom’s). Great fun. Making jelly (jello) is such a comforting act for me. Especially if it’s lime.

Things I’ve laughed at today:

1. This loldog. And this one. This one too. Today’s funniest.
2. This lolcat. And this one. Today’s funniest.
3. This, this, this and this from Not Always Right.
4. Mom poking the washing up onto the line with a paintbrush. She’s short, and couldn’t quite reach.
5. Preparing food with mom.

Things I want to manifest:

1. A clear desk/floor. MANIFESTED.
2. A fixed bed. MANIFESTED.
3. The Fregair typed up. MANIFESTED.

Things I’ve done for others:

1. Texted L to let her know that her parcel has arrived.
2. Ordered mom some tea online. Whittards are apparently going into administration, so mom has decided she wants to stockpile their Russian Caravan tea against the coming apocalypse. I’ve ordered her 20 boxes.

Daily rating:

3.

Today’s list of things to be grateful for or appreciate:

1. Getting about 12 hours sleep last night.
2. Weird dreams. One of which was where I was playing a computer game with the characters from Secret Of Mana, but it was a totally different game. I only played one screen, because I could only play as one character, and being attacked by 4 wolves simultaneously was quite intimidating.
3. I’m now proudly running Wordpress 2.7 on this blog. I had a few niggles, like the Dashboard link in the top left not working as expected (which I sorted by removing the Akismet stats details), but overall I’m pleased with it.
4. Hot Teeccino.
5. Getting a reminder from Providence: Once is better than none at all. The import being that it’s better to do something that helps you once, like one push up, than to not do ten.
6. I’m off work all day today.
7. Listening to Howie Day.
8. I only have to have a quick tidy round (< 2 minutes) to get everything back to how it should be.
9. I have some jobs to do today, like updating Wordpress across the board, and altering the database correctly. Gulp.
10. Noticing a trick of mom’s - she has to get in the kitchen before me to see what I’m cooking/making. She heard me coming downstairs this morning, so she dashed into the kitchen to watch me fix my cereal. She does this every time I’m cooking something. I’m apparently not allowed to be in there on my own to cook something. Now I know that she’s doing this, I can work around it. I think I’m capable of dealing with a kettle of boiling water.
11. Getting a YouGov survey worth 50p. I think it’s nice to be asked my opinion and feel as though someone cares.
12. Creating a list of all the customisations I make to my blogs that I need to follow every time I update them. This is going to save me time and hassle next time I upgrade.
13. Fixing another problem I created with a missing button.
14. I met Lush today. After she texted me to remind me.
15. Having fun walking about the town and seeing the dirty filthy yokels that inhabit the area sights.
16. Laughing with Lush.
17. Getting a box of chocolates off Lush.
18. The weather was nice and dry on the way home.
19. Playing with Wenna, on beds and with balls.
20. Wanda Sykes:

21. Singing along to Stone Walls by Jim Croce.
22. Getting another YouGov survey worth another 50p.
23. Chinese food for tea.
24. Skype, that is enabling me to keep my phone usage separate from the household bill.
25. Nat drove to the local shopping centre. Yes, 4 days before Xmas day. It took us 45 minutes just to park.
26. Buying a Freeview Recorder was nice and simple. Working it should be quite easy too.
27. A nice hot shower.
28. Nibbling on some chocolates.
29. Watching a documentary on the Humboldt squid.
30. Completing a codeword puzzle.

Things I’ve laughed at today:

1. This loldog.
2. This lolcat. And this one. And this one too. Finally, this one.
3. This funny video.
4. This from xkcd.
5. I was sat at the computer earlier, and the light, which is on the rather unstable chest of drawers, was moving about. This usually happens when the back of the chair is touching the unit, so I pulled forward a couple of times. It stopped, so I carried on typing. The next thing I know, something cold and wet is poking me on the forearm. Wenna has managed to somehow squeeze her way between the unit, chair and bed, and was poking me with her nose. I squealed like a girl.

Things I want to manifest:

1. A tidy desk/floor.
2. Wordpress updated across the board. MANIFESTED.
3. The bed fixed up.

Things I’ve done for others:

1. Entertained Lush.
2. Carried shopping.
3. Showed mom how to use the TV recorder.

Daily rating:

3.

Today’s list of things to be grateful for or appreciate:

1. Getting a good night’s sleep.
2. Noticing one of mom’s little tricks, and trying to remember it’s not about me.
3. Getting up in plenty of time for work.
4. I have plenty of cash on hand to get some food with today.
5. It’s 4 days until Xmas.
6. I’m only working today and Xmas eve before Xmas now.
7. Breakfast cereals.
8. Interesting Fregair last night.
9. The roads will be quiet on the way to work today.
10. H will be upstairs for most of today, which means I can get everything done without him interfering.
11. I get to wear my own clothes again today.
12. Safe driving.
13. Managing to park outside of Dinky’s house.
14. Finally getting into work.
15. H is paying me for the whole day, even the bit we couldn’t work.
16. I got all the news scanning done.
17. Tasty food from Iceland.
18. Laughing with C and L².
19. When my car went into a skid coming back from work, there was nobody in it’s path.
20. I was fine. The car was a little dented, but nothing serious.
21. Someone stopped to see if I was OK.
22. Although my indicators stopped working on the way home, the headlights kept working, which was way more essential.
23. McDonalds for tea.
24. Clean sheets on the bed.

Things I’ve laughed at today:

1. This lolcat.

Things I want to manifest:

1. A solution to the dashboard problem.

Things I’ve done for others:

1. Entertained my colleagues.

Daily rating:

4. For the skid.