Book #46 is A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggars. It is an interesting book. Very different from how I thought it would be. I didn�t realize when I got it that it was completely non-fictional. He even uses his friends� real phone numbers. I liked it, and most of it is in SF and Berkeley, so I like being able to know the places he�s talking about, though I sort of think he had a habit of taking the long route to get where he was going at times, judging by his descriptions.

Dance Along Nutcracker was so much fun. I danced and bought a tiara that blinks (because I arrived ridiculously underdressed. Not a single thing I brought with me blinked or lit up!) and I did not need the gym yesterday. I was sweating profusely by the end. Also, the trumpet section were dressed like Muppets! I think I have a new tradition, by golly. We then went to Tia Margarita and ruined all the calorie burning with yummy Mexican food and strawberry margaritas. They are better for you, you know, because they have fruit in them. That makes them healthy, you see. I�ll try to post pics when I get them, if I can figure it out.

On Saturday I put a pretty good dent into my Christmas shopping. I have quite a few kids to buy for now, so a good chunk of the shopping was done at Toys R Us. I have such a hard time shopping for the under 5 set. I really have no concept of what an 18 month old can and cannot do. I am just not around kids that age on a daily basis, and I obviously haven�t learned from personal child rearing experience, so I have to totally rely on what the front of the toy boxes tells me. �Huh, Liam is two and a half. The Mr. Potato Head says for ages two and up. Mr. Potato Head it is!� I have no idea if a two and a half year old would actually like a Mr. Potato Head. Well, that�s what gift receipts are for, I guess. I know Loren liked the Weebles I got her for her birthday, so guess what? That poor kid is getting Weebles until she graduates from High School. Nandy! Is probably getting a puppet. Why? Because I like puppets, and my mom says kids do too. My mom is kind of my final authority for kids� gifts right now. She has gotten many a call from my cell as I stand, completely overwhelmed, in the Playschool isle not knowing where to go from there. �Are you sure I can�t just get her a Barbie?� �Bunkie, she is six months old, no, you cannot get her a Barbie. Get here one of those things that looks like a cookie jar with the different shaped blocks that fit through the holes in the sides.� (Yes, my mom calls me Bunkie, no I do not know why. I was far too young when it started to pay attention.) �Do you think he�ll like a truck?� �Does it make noise?� �Yes.� �He will love it.� �Oh, OK. Thanks, bye.� So, that is that. Hopefully all the two year olds I know aren�t reading this right now. If they are: Do your mothers know you are reading this drivel? Now scram, and go read some Kafka. And forget what I said about what I got you. None of it is true. Or maybe it is� but probably not� you won�t know for sure until you open your presents, now will you?

Our computers, well, mine at least, are so slow today. It is so very frustrating. It is taking forever to open orders and checking availability is taking over two minutes on some of the equipment. Arg. I can�t wait to start the new program. Although, I know it will take a while to get used to that too, so we shall see if I do less complaining then.

I hope this week stays relatively mellow. I�ve already had one customer who called after his order was delivered to tell me he had all the wrong equipment to run power. This was because they didn�t know what they were doing and therefore told me the wrong thing. I am now waiting for the facility electrician who was supposed to show up �at any minute� about two hours ago so he can tell me the information that I was supposed to get about a week ago. I know it is a little unfair for me to ant everyone to have the level of knowledge that I want them to have, but at the same time, these people are working with sizeable amounts of electricity, at the very least more than they are used to dealing with, and there is a certain level of risk involved and it just frustrates me when people are so laissez faire about it and expect me to do the work for them, especially when I know they can�t answer the pertinent questions that will keep them from overloading their building or preventing someone from getting hurt. It is really not fair to ask me to shoulder that kind of responsibility. Not to mention the fact that this is basically what a Master Electrician is hired for and when you hire me to do that I charge you $20 an hour. You are asking me to do it for free.

OK, end of rant. This started out as such a nice entry full of Christmas cheer. So it goes.