OhMYGAWD!

I have the most insanely generous boss ever. She brought our Christmas gifts today - our department received electronics, like DVD players and TiVO, and a gourmet "learn to cook" basket for our new bride who can't cook for shit (her words, not mine). My gift was the entire Sex and the City series on DVD. It's perfect, because I couldn't afford HBO when it was on the air so I saw only an episode here and there, and now I have the nice big TV and can wallow in it at my leisure. I think more knitting will even get done this way! My boss also solved my mystery - what to get my son who owns nothing and lives like a freaking Buddhist monk, except for the girls thing, there are plenty of those because he's sweet and funny and very very smart, and looks like Orlando Bloom but that's just my opinion and that of all my female friends who meet him. I didn't even see the Bloom thing until my cousin pointed it out, but she's right. He denies it.

He spends a great deal of time in his car for work. My boss inspired it by getting two of my colleages who drive a lot satellite radio, and I thought "PERFECT" and "I'm a moron for not thinking of it!" and Costco made it so: XM Radio. Because we are so pragmatic we don't do surprises, I called to make sure XM was the way to go. He said he didn't need it, but knew everything about it and had apparently priced it but denied himself. Mom won't deny him, I'll pay for a year's worth (it's only 13 bucks a month), and he's all set. If you are a last minute shopping Costco member, they have a car/home set with everything for $109 with a $30 rebate, and that's half the price of the components on the XM site.

Then I hit Pier One and bought little giftie things for the office this evening - I had no idea what to get, I hate that "working with people when you don't know the gift rules" so I settled for potpourri and Christmas ornaments. My boss is getting a rustic ceramic angel, because she certainly was our Christmas angel this year. Damn. It's a crazy, stressful, disorganized and weird place to work, but the people (and the money, of course, I do not work for my sense of self worth or my health - the former is fine and this job may do in the latter - or anything but the need to eat and support the mortgage) do make it worth it.

Edited to add: My landscapers stood me up. They'll be here Tuesday. They do mostly developer work, and of course developers are screaming for finished projects so they can get COs and those treasured end of year closings. I don't mind being bumped, but the guy who hooked me up with them called the owner of the company to bitch for me, even while agreeing that I'm getting an insanely discounted price on everything. I don't care when they can do it, it would take me TEN years and ten times as much money to put in that much stuff AND fix the sprinkler system. They can show up whenever....