Holiday Gifts

…and by the way, I’m doing OK following my procedure last week. Many thanks to Mimi for the lovely handmade card. I just love a hand made card! My daughter wants to steal the ribbon which adorns the front and turn it into a necklace but that’s not happening. Our proto-psalti also sent me a card with a lovely Victorian-esque picture on the cover. I wasn’t expecting anything from anyone so the cards were a nice surprise pick-me-up. I think my biggest mistake was believing the doc when she said I could be “back to normal in 24 to 48 hours.”

The mister surprised me BIG time yesterday…when I had called him at work he says, “Hey babe I bought something for you!” I’m thinking, “ooooh what is it?” Since there are no special occasions we were celebrating and what not.

Apparently, the people who write greeting cards have dads stuck in a 1956 holding pattern. You have your fishing cards, your golfing cards, your ‘working on the car’ cards, your ‘working with power tools’ cards, and your drinking beer cards. The only nods to the 21st century are computer-themed cards and fart-related cards. (I’m not saying people didn’t fart in 1956, only that they exhibited some modicum of civilization by not mentioning it on greeting cards.)

tonight, i experienced my very first florist interview/appointment. i met with nicole ha designs and left 1.5 hours later feeling like i had made a new friend. nicole was so down to earth and easy to work with. she also had some amazing ideas that totally fit with my own visions. she had alot of opinions and helpful solutions to issues i was battling with. i still don’t know if we will ultimately choose her as our wedding florist, but i had a great introduction to the world of wedding florals!

Luckily, I have friends with skills, and Miss Sarah Tracy was generous enough to construct a funkier more awesome case for me as a birthday gift (brown cuorduroy, wacky zippers, Mountain Goats quote sewn onto the pocket). I assure you, as always, that you are quite jealous.

Just a few days after Charlie and I married, I received a heavy package in the mail with Mom’s return address. I slowly and carefully removed the paper and packaging, and there was Dad’s favorite hammer, clean and polished. That was the most wonderful wedding gift that I have ever received. It wasn’t a cold hammer, it was a piece of Dad and every time I use it, I think of Dad. I think of the way he threatened to cut the excess handle off if I didn’t learn how to hold the damn thing on the end of the handle–not next to the head. I learned.

Also from SplashData, this is a shopping list and general list program. Jot down all the groceries, gifts, books, wine, gear and other stuff you wish to purchase. It also allows you to keep such lists as travel checklists and can be customized to your liking. Comes with a companion desktop application and can be purchased in a bundle (SplashWallet).

Lei are almost always worn today at formal island occasions like weddings, they’re ubiquitous at funerals, and cast into the surf when one leaves Hawaii as a promise to return. It’s become common practice to give them as gestures of affection to your family and loved ones on special occasions; for birthdays, welcomes, good-byes, and, most timely at this time of year – at graduations.

Lots to do today & tomorrow. I gotta go to a florist and order some lei’s and balloons for the hubby’s graduation this Saturday. It’s gonna be uber crowded!

Garrett's Greenhouse, seen here through the gates of Highland Cemetery, is a small combined florist and garden center offering a vibrant array of floral arrangements and standard bedding plants and shrubs. As soon as I entered, I was greeted by a lady who along with her affable husband co-owns the place. She asked if I was looking for anything. When I said blackberry canes, she said she didn't have them on hand but that almost any plant could be ordered and available for pickup the next day. (!)

Jerome Carcopino notes in Daily Life in Ancient Rome that at the time of the Emperor Claudius, the Roman calendar contained 159 holidays, of which 93 were devoted to games given at public expense. In addition, there were games given on special occasions, and others paid for by private citizens; Carcopino concludes that “in the epoch we are studying Rome enjoyed at least one day of holiday for every working day.” The games, he says:

I just don't know where to start with this one, it's just a little bit too weird. But I owe it to my faithful and devoted followers to to at least try to tell this story. The problem is that it's beyond exaggeration, so I guess I just have to blurt it out and get it over with.

Well, today, I carried the roasted head of a pig into a prison as a birthday gift.

I picked it up on the showroom floor on my sixteenth birthday. I had no idea what it meant to get a car when I turned sixteen, both in terms of the privilege I was being accorded by my parents (now I was the one with the burden of responsibility; at least if me and my friends were killed, I was the one doing the killing), and the economic privilege of receiving a new car as a birthday gift (a painful lesson I would learn years later, when all I could afford was a used "value vehicle" at CarMax because it already had 70,000 miles on its tires).

Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett. - A Christmas gift from a close friend.