I admit I complain about Christmas cards, especially the ones that include "I'll pray for you."

If nothing else:

No, the smell. Definitely the smell.

Oh, they do make you walk. I had to walk my ass out of surgery into recovery. (It's how they make sure all the vessels are working or... something. And on a nerve block, too, so you can't feel anything but the tugging of the stitches holding your leg together.) And then it's either pressure cuffs or walking every 45…

Even better, since I don't like gin. :D

Yeah, they had to open up my leg from below the knee to halfway up my femur. Then they used a dental drill to drill holes all around the bone, and a chisel to tap it out.

Cyndi Lauper did the songbook!

Bone tumor from my femur.

I had a bone tumor removed from my leg, and the plan was only an epidural. (In fact, they asked if I'd like a mirror to watch the procedure. Then they described what I'd see and I passed.) I became so faint from the sounds and smells they ended up doing emergency general anesthesia. So this would get a big ol' NOPE…

I had a lovely drink at Zahav the other night: hibiscus-infused gin, grapefruit, and cucumber.

Mulled wine and mulled cider are basically a "is the weather cold? TIME FOR MULLING!" thing around our house. Mmm... tried peach mulled cider recently. Quite tasty.

Isn't that really the worst? She's not embarrassed.

Not To Ruin The Surprise, But You’re Going To Get Proposed To Today

There are lots of knockoffs of the original Charlotte Olympias - Modcloth has the best lookalikes, for the $70 range.

And of course, there are never ever revealing or explicit or sexual displays at any other Christmas para...

Yeah, first thought: do we know who this girl is, and is she legal? :/

Eh, you don't get classmates being obnoxious if your birthday is in the summer, either. My sister had a summer birthday, my brother has an around-Christmas birthday. They sucked pretty equally in terms of school "participation", but good parents make it work.

Pretty sure the family is angling to to get out of contracts because they think they can get a better deal elsewhere. (They've said they won't come back to work without him, and A&E has regular, actual employees who are threatening legal action of A&E brings him back, because he creates a hostile workplace for them.)

I know some of the folks behind Science Cheerleaders, many of whom are/were college and pro sportsball cheerleaders, and was kind of shocked to learn there's basically no pay for cheerleaders, and almost as little respect. (Also, the Science Cheerleaders fucking rock - they turn the stereotype of the dumb cheerleader…