The Great OB Crisis of 2010.

Lauren Bush is engaged to Ralph Lauren's son, David Lauren. After their wedding, her name will be Lauren Lauren.

I wonder if she's a fan of Catch-22.

(...and Major Major Major Major)

My dad is so incredibly hard to shop for, I've started doing joint gifts at Christmas -- this year I'm giving Mom and Dad a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant in town, a bottle of wine, and another small gift certificate to Carlino's, the awesome Italian grocery/bakery (dessert!).

Then I go nuts on Mom's birthday, because I can always think of things she'd like.

My mother specifically asked me for gloves one year, and I'm pretty sure I just saw them still with the tags on, in her giant container of gloves, etc. @@

I am totally identifying with her. But other tampons are just too long and they hurt!!!

Mostly, I've never used anything else and have no desire to add an applicator to the whole process. That seems like a step backward for so many reasons.

I know exactly when I'm gonna start worrying about it. Will be combing Birmingham while I do my xmas shopping. God, don't fuck with that sort of thing.

Mom is terribly hard because she's frikking picky. So far, the only gift I was POSITIVE she liked was the year I gave her a Tiny Tears doll that I bought from Beverly because Mom never got it for Christmas when she was little. Since then, I never know if she likes stuff.

Hey Liese, can you please email me your snail mail address? My email is msgullo at gmail dot com.

I have a frankentree. The tree itself is a gorgeous 7 foot Douglas Fir we got as a school fundraiser for a friend's parochial school. I only had one green strand lights, and when I bought a second strand, they ended up being LED. So half the lights are LED and other half not so much.

Noah decorated so it's bottom branch full and most of my ornaments are dark so they look better on a white tree. But you know what, NO ONE CARES. The tree smells great even though it's not as pretty as I'd like. BFD. I think I need a bit of perspective.

I'm also sucking at gifts this year except for teh kids. I bought my parents steak. And my brother and his wife are getting preserves/curds/shortbreads. I bought K a hippo for Christmas (because of the song).

I know my parents' tastes pretty well, it's just...they have plenty of stuff and don't really want more. So I tend towards practical, or just...charity. Books, except they buy them regularly, so are likely to already have something I find interesting (we have similar tastes.) Ehn.

Also (random) I need to get better about getting a new vial of insulin before I'm down to the last 3/4, because Mister Kitty's picked up a lot with the new vial this week. Guessing the old one was losing viability. Uhg, makes me feel crappy for making him probably feel crappy. I was worrying he seemed to be losing weight, but didn't make the connection until this weekend.

Quote from my mom, "Well. I don't know what your dad wants. Anytime I figure out he wants something, he's already bought it for himself."

@@

Aggravating parents.