<p>well the tree got down today – and the stockings and the lights and the wreaths and everything. I don’t know why we all find it so depressing once Christmas passes. We just want it done. Or I just want it gone. I envy those that have the excuse to wait until mid-January. Who’s the most upset? The cat – who loves to drink the water from the Christmas tree. I’m considering putting a few drops of peppermint extract into her water bowl. Is this a new thread? Drinks to soothe our pets??!</p>
<p>I danced like a maniac on NY eve-- the entire party MISSED counting down to midnight because we were crazed with the dancing. Best NY eve ever!! :)</p>
<p>Crazed with dancing. Sounds like as close to a rave as those of us in this age bracket will ever come. Congrats to SBmom for keeping the spirit of Burning Man alive in 2008:).</p>
<p>Hahaha! It so happens the party was in Mill Valley and my sister (the burner) was there!</p>
<p>I have a poem for you Alumother-- re the rocks ahead-- I’m putting it in the poetry thread. :)</p>
<p>pulling my people up from page 2.</p>
<p>Sit on down Alu, so I can get you that drank that I promised ya.</p>
<p>I’m gonna buy you a good one (no knock off, bootleg liquor for you) :D</p>
<p>Thank you. Much appreciated.</p>
<p>Also ask my east coast D a bag advice favor for me, since we were, tangentially, on other threads, on the subject:).</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking that I need a small one, in a good color, so that when I travel and have to carry on only two and have a computer backpack and a suitcase the bag can go INSIDE the suitcase. Good idea, no? Because makeup etc. can go (drumroll) IN THE COMPUTER BAG! </p>
<p>Ask her what she recommends. And what color. I tend as you can image towards black brown navy omgod let’s get wild and do some olive green…I would do with a <em>pop</em> of color, as they say on How Do I Look.</p>
<p>Alumother-are you by any chance near Ross? The town.
Look for a small handbag store on the square.</p>
<p>Okay, upend the coin jars. Pass the proceeds over to Alu. She’s about to buy a bag recommended by Chicky. This is gonna cost her. :p</p>
<p>How will chicky pick just one? 
</p>
<p>Good point. After the coin jars, we’d better pass the hat.</p>
<p>Heck I’m gonna apply for Financial Aid for this purchase.</p>
<p>But it will be worth it…</p>
<p>I wonder what FAFSA looks like for handbags?</p>
<p>I say get all the Ds to put together their outlet suggestions – no reason to pay full price!</p>
<p>See there you go Ivory. You know chicky well as she refuses to pay full price for anything if she does not have to.</p>
<p>Alu, </p>
<p>I agree with the gang, you will need to pass the hat and say only “soft money please”.
Don’t mess around with Chicky who takes a suitcase of bags to school. Chicky’s mama carries a classic coach bag that is more than 10 years old (year you can say I got every dime out of this bag but it gets better with age).</p>
<p>I am telling you my girl probably needs a 12 step program (the worse thing that has happened to her is that she has a friend who works for LV and now gets the family discount on bags).I tell that girl of mine constantly that she needs to get and keep a really good job (I think she should name them all to see if she can write them off as dependents).</p>
<p>Morning, all. I’ve retreated to a different part of the house…let’s hear it for multi-zone heat. When we returned from being away last week, we found that the heat for the main part of our downstairs wasn’t working…okay…so it’s NC, not a big deal, call the HVAC dudes… Have been waiting for the $600 inducer fan since Monday, and we set new lows at 13 degress the last couple of nights. It’s been a great excuse to clean my closet in my bedroom, as it DOES have heat. Keep your fingers crossed that the part arrives today… if not, it’s going to be 70-degrees next week, so I guess we won’t need it anymore… Maybe I can use that $$$ and spend more for a handbag than I’d ever dream! hahaha (my last 3 handbags have come from Walmart, Target, and a flea market in Mexico!!!)</p>
<p>LOL I love the idea of naming the bags and claiming them.</p>
<p>Hmm. How to apply that to other significant cost sinks? Can I claim Princeton as a dependent given the cost of tuition? I’ll call it anything it likes, Howard, Melvin, Chip, Jorge?</p>
<p>I love you all dearly, but I am still trying to get my mind around the concept of someone I care about choosing to pay massive amounts of money for a purse. (Pardon me if I call it by its utility name.) I have been known to swallow hard and shovel out up to $90 for a good leather Stone Mountain bag every few years, but many hundreds or thousands of dollars for one? Gee. I guess I’m consitutionally unable to imagine such a purchase being worth it.</p>
<p>But I’ll try to remember to admire you folks’s when you bring 'em into the Alley, I promise! (I promise to <em>try</em> to remember, I can’t promise to remember. I guess that’s why this kind of purchase would never occur to me: fashion in general does not occur to me.)</p>
<p>astropmom, your furnace dilemma sounds like a conspiracy between your bedroom closet and the local HVAC folks who aren’t looking for more jobs in places without heat when it’s 13 degrees out. You’ll probably eventually be glad you got it fixed, though.</p>
<p>What do you call a storm with near-hurricane-force winds on the left coast? 'cause that’s what we’re having out there. I was trying to post a few hours ago but we lost power, twice, and right now the in-ground swimming pool out back is about to overflow. The rain is arriving in sheets, and some very heavy things have fallen over outside in the frightening gusts (including an 18-wheeler on one of the main bridges here; luckily it only fell <em>over</em> and not <em>off</em>). I am enjoying imagining the 10 feet of snow that may hit the Sierras overnight from this, and the happy evaporation of our drought for next summer in a mere weekend.</p>
<p>And to think Older Son and friends were planning to drive to Las Vegas for the weekend. When we nixed the use of one of our cars, one of his friends offered his father’s small airplane. Um… I don’t think so. I think my H is big enough that he could physically sit on Older Son if that plan becomes more likely. We decided we would prefer an Actual Son than a Former Son.</p>
<p>WHOA!!! I THINK SOMETHING JUST FELL ON OUR HOUSE!! BACK LATER…</p>
<p>stuck in her frugal and practical fashion past, trying to stay dry here,
–moot.</p>
<p>hey mootmom – you can’t leave us like that. Hope everything is okay with the house. Stay dry!</p>
<p>Mootmom, </p>
<h1>1 I could not agree more about ultra expensive purses… Like Sybbie, I tend to keep mine for 10+ years. I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $300. A high-quality purse, of course, LASTS rather than becoming landfill in 1 year of heavy use. But I do not understand the ultra expensive designer purse trend nor the seasonal updates that seem to grip otherwise rational women. In my mind you’ve got a brown, a black and a small evening bag and that’s all she wrote.</h1>
<h1>2: If your pool is threatening to overflow you can take a garden hose and create a siphon and flow it somewhere where it won’t hurt your house… Ask me how I know…</h1>
<p>Our office building has sent an email saying we may lose power.</p>
<p>Aren’t they considerate?</p>
<p>High wind and rain? Welcome to western Washington…</p>
<p>Hope all you Californians survive your drenching, and best wishes to those in mudslide zones around where the fires were burning. Sometimes I think God whips fire, flood and earthquakes into California in exchange for the wonderful climate there. </p>
<p>Might snow here this weekend, but at least we won’t need swim fins.</p>