The Angel Tree, or Hurrah for Clearance Skulls!

Monday, Monday .. I ache, I feel beaten and I don't know why. Oh wait, could it be I was up and moving? Perhaps.

Saturday afternoon when MyLarry got home, I had a list of chores for him. The hot water heater needed the accumulated mineral sludge drained from the bottom; I had been washing my hair and ran out of hot water. Then he had to rescue the wisteria; the arbor holding it up had finally collapsed under the weight of snow and ice. And there was shovel the drive and clean out the critter cage ... and so on. That evening we went to see The Golden Compass with friends. I rather liked it; although the one person who had read the book did not. I didn't find it anti-religion, I found it anti-establishment. Guess it is all about perspective. The bears were cool. We had a nice late evening afterward, came home and drank wine and chatted in fronmt of the fireplace; the guys played Go and the women discussed sex. When Swarmed came on, we had to open a second bottle of wine. "Take a drink!" I forget the rules, but the movie certainly was fun.

We did not get our tree up. We did however, give our new neighbors my entire collection of Disney ornaments. These are the 3-D figures by Grolier and Hallmark. I am no longer into Disney, and never use the ornaments anymore; they were stored in a teabox. The couple has lived next door for around a year, nice kids, and now they're expecting their first baby. Someone had given them a little pre-lighted tree, and they did not have a single ornament for it. The plan was to wait until after Christmas when everything went on sale. We went over and asked if they would like some ornaments, they hesitated at first, but said yes. MyLarry carried the box over and we started unpacking ornaments. Each one is in a little box of its own. They had the greatest time, oohing and aahing over each one, recalling the movies they loved as children. We sat in the living room while they decorated their tree, Larry told stories about his pet snakes, how he caught an Eastern Timber rattler in mid-strike (no, really, he did) and how he delivered a baby on a speedboat (no, really, he did). A real Hallmark moment.


Borderline and Genius have their hands full with their families and the holidays. Apparently the FIL has decided that everyone should not be concerned with themselves, that the focus should be on making Christmas better for other people. Borderline and I decided that means participating in the Salvation Army Angel Tree program. I have always wanted to do this, but need an accomplice. We went and picked out an Angel; a sixteen year old boy. I have more of an affinity for teenagers, little children frighten me. I was disgusted by the Angel card from a four year old asking for an MP3 player. What does a four year old know from MP3? Anyway, "our" boy is a big person, size 36x36 pants, XL shirts, and size 14 shoes. We searched and searched, but could not find pants that size. I settled on a 36x34 with a gift receipt. For gifts, the young man asked for vampire movies and MP3 headphones. The earphones were an easy find; Skull Candy brand, excellent choice, we all use them ourselves. Vampire movies, easy to find, nearly impossible to find ones NOT rated "R". I hope he has a good sense of humor; we got old classics with Christopher Lee. Shirts were simple, the Hot Topic clearance rack. Hope he likes the bands of the shirts we picked, Avenged Seven and Converge. I was in despair about the shoes, most stores don't carry size 14. We had found a pair of white athletic shoes, but I wasn't feeling it. We went into Zoomies (not how it is spelled), a snowboarder and skater shop in the mall. They had piles of shoes on clearance. The biggest was size 13. Then I spotted another pile over against the wall, nearly hidden behind a rack of hoodies. There on the bottom was a box labeled 14. Borderline dug it out. Indeed, there was a pair of size 14s, black suede slipper or loafer style, printed with SKULLS! Skulls! On clearance! Less than $20! The find of the year! Hurrah for clearance skulls! Borderline's FIL will get a nice card with the Angel Tree card tucked inside for his gift. Life has a way of balancing out.