Wow, I've just spent the last three hours, or so, cleaning my room. There was some selective other house bits that I cleaned, but this was a bedroom kind of day. I am not actually finished this monumental task as a significant amount of miscellany is lying on top of my bed. I know that at least a quarter of it is made up of clothing, but as for the rest, it's up for debate. There's no question, by the end of the night, I will have cleaned that up and changed my bedding as well. All this business has been hindered by cats who when not under foot were digging through the bag of garbage and spilling the contents, rolling themselves up in the rug, throwing litter on the freshly swept floor, attacking the swiffer wet-jet, and trying to get into every possible place I needed to have my hands.

I'm taking a break now, considering what I should do for dinner. Stew walked into my room earlier today and handed me fifteen bucks saying, "Order some Swiss Chalet, or something." He is one of the few employees left in the world that still gets a Christmas bonus and his was pleasantly more than what he'd expected. Swiss Chalet sounds kind of nice, since I've really eaten more pizza over the last two months than any human ever should.

...

Okay, I just ordered Swiss Chalet's Festive Special. On-line. Whee ! The future is now ! Cool. Anyway, just on my computer desk, we're not talking about anywhere else in my room, I've found $2.25, which is subway ride. Hurray ! I'm sure that will come in handy. I've managed to put several books back on the shelves from which they were removed quite some time ago, and I've put all my convention sellables together. I sorted out my Christmas cards from last year and have begun designing this year's models. I'm pretty pleased so far.

The ornaments went very well, with the exception of Sierra balking at doing her homework and being sent to bed early. Had we thought about it, we should have had her do her reading homework right away when she got home and then the ornament painting could have been a big reward. Instead, we did painting with the intention of taking a break and then finishing our project. Oh well. I finished them by myself and I think it's fair to say they came out really well. I tied ribbons on them while watching last week's CSI in Stew's room and various Simpsons episodes. He's very good about letting me infringe upon his privacy. I think he's the best roommate I've ever had. I'm probably going to make a new batch of ornaments tonight, too, and paint them over the weekend. These will be the ones for giving away.

Speaking of Christmas ornamentation, I was out on the front porch, shaking my bedroom rug, and could hear the pathetic strains of some electronic musical ornament somewhere. I noticed that neighbours had put up fairly tasteless lights and made the assumption that the music went with them. Unfortunately, it turns out I was quite wrong. Stew came in from doing his laundry and said, "You know that ugly fake tree the downstairs people put out on the porch? Well, not only have they put lights up in it, but it plays Christmas music, too." So, it seems their bad taste extends to seasonal festivities as well. A shame. But, since they haven't asked for money yet, I'll let it slide. At least it's not so loud that I can hear it through the sliding door.