1. My computer is temporarily working again! I've no idea how long it will last -- Wednesday night I got four hours before it froze and bluescreened, whereas Thursday night I couldn't get it to start at all and gave it up as a bad job and reread Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories instead. I do love that book. Tonight I have been reading Pamela R. Stern's Daily Life of the Inuit, and once I'm done with that, I will move on to Luka and the Fire of Life, which is the sequel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories. (The one and only upside to my computer woes is that I am reading more books and less fic, which is something I always mean to do and then fail to put into practice. Yay books!)
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2. The smoke shop was fairly busy-ish Thursday morning, which I put down to newspapers and addicted gamblers, mostly; we sold very few magazines, hardly any cigarettes or rolling tobacco, and almost no coffee at all. This meant that despite the traffic in the store, we made relatively little money -- newspapers are cheap, and people who buy instant lottery tickets often win back substantial portions of the money they spend. From 12:30 onward, however, it was quite dead, so I was able to close on time and spend fifteen minutes catching up on some paperwork.
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3. Being at work meant I cleverly escaped having to cook Thanksgiving dinner. (While I can cook and bake, I much prefer not to. Some people enjoy cooking as an activity of creation. I consider it an unfortunate delay before I get to eat.) Mom and Aunt Cara did most of the cooking, with Dad's occasional help. Honestly, I think most of what he did was move my furniture around and set the table. Well, okay, he also distracted the dog so she didn't distract the cooks, which is more important than it sounds.
The menu included turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, scalloped potatoes, spinach salad with onions and craisins, and two kinds of cranberry sauce. Also we had three local Rieslings for a blind taste test, but we were pretty unanimous in agreeing that one was sweetest and most full-bodied, one was tartest, and one was in between... and that we had no particular preference among them. Which is nice, because it meant we had three good wines, but rather defeated the purpose of the testing. *wry*
Anyway, it was a good meal.
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4. After dinner we played Clue, which Aunt Cara had never played before, nor really heard much about. So we taught her, and played two games. I won both, partly by skill but mostly by luck -- I think in each game Dad and I had about the same amount of information (meaning we knew more than Mom, who knew more than Aunt Cara), but I happened to get into the right room and get confirmation of the right weapon before he did, and was thus able to make an accusation before he could. In an amusing side note, my character (Mr. Green) was the murderer both times. *wry*
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5. Today PM had scheduled more staff than we really needed, just in case of Black Friday madness. No such madness occurred; in fact, it was a very slow day, and it became nearly moribund after 4:30pm, which meant that I left shortly before 8pm, once I'd finished putting up a book delivery, and let BW close alone.
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6. Just before eating on Thursday, we made a Skype call to Vicky via my parents' laptop and my neighbors' wireless connection. We could see her, but because my parents don't have a webcam, she couldn't see us, which seems unfair. She and I agreed that one of us should buy them a webcam for Christmas. It was my idea so it's probably my responsibility, but Vicky would have a better idea of what to buy, so I must remember to email her about that.
She looks good, and from what she says she's enjoying her job and her students. Also, her Spanish is improving. It was pretty good to start with -- she has good grammer, has been conversationally fluent for a while now, and reads YA fantasy in Spanish for fun -- but there are always nuances to pick up, and she wants to fix her accent so she sounds less obviously American.
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7. My library system does own three copies of the book I need for Yuletide, but all three are currently checked out and not due until after the Yuletide deadline. I have a hold request in, but I think I should try buying a copy. So I looked online this morning while I was in the library.
Annoyingly, the book is out of print.
I guess this is where I venture into the strange and unknown world of arranging used book sales through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. So. Does anyone have any advice on navigating those markets?
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2. The smoke shop was fairly busy-ish Thursday morning, which I put down to newspapers and addicted gamblers, mostly; we sold very few magazines, hardly any cigarettes or rolling tobacco, and almost no coffee at all. This meant that despite the traffic in the store, we made relatively little money -- newspapers are cheap, and people who buy instant lottery tickets often win back substantial portions of the money they spend. From 12:30 onward, however, it was quite dead, so I was able to close on time and spend fifteen minutes catching up on some paperwork.
-----
3. Being at work meant I cleverly escaped having to cook Thanksgiving dinner. (While I can cook and bake, I much prefer not to. Some people enjoy cooking as an activity of creation. I consider it an unfortunate delay before I get to eat.) Mom and Aunt Cara did most of the cooking, with Dad's occasional help. Honestly, I think most of what he did was move my furniture around and set the table. Well, okay, he also distracted the dog so she didn't distract the cooks, which is more important than it sounds.
The menu included turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, scalloped potatoes, spinach salad with onions and craisins, and two kinds of cranberry sauce. Also we had three local Rieslings for a blind taste test, but we were pretty unanimous in agreeing that one was sweetest and most full-bodied, one was tartest, and one was in between... and that we had no particular preference among them. Which is nice, because it meant we had three good wines, but rather defeated the purpose of the testing. *wry*
Anyway, it was a good meal.
-----
4. After dinner we played Clue, which Aunt Cara had never played before, nor really heard much about. So we taught her, and played two games. I won both, partly by skill but mostly by luck -- I think in each game Dad and I had about the same amount of information (meaning we knew more than Mom, who knew more than Aunt Cara), but I happened to get into the right room and get confirmation of the right weapon before he did, and was thus able to make an accusation before he could. In an amusing side note, my character (Mr. Green) was the murderer both times. *wry*
-----
5. Today PM had scheduled more staff than we really needed, just in case of Black Friday madness. No such madness occurred; in fact, it was a very slow day, and it became nearly moribund after 4:30pm, which meant that I left shortly before 8pm, once I'd finished putting up a book delivery, and let BW close alone.
-----
6. Just before eating on Thursday, we made a Skype call to Vicky via my parents' laptop and my neighbors' wireless connection. We could see her, but because my parents don't have a webcam, she couldn't see us, which seems unfair. She and I agreed that one of us should buy them a webcam for Christmas. It was my idea so it's probably my responsibility, but Vicky would have a better idea of what to buy, so I must remember to email her about that.
She looks good, and from what she says she's enjoying her job and her students. Also, her Spanish is improving. It was pretty good to start with -- she has good grammer, has been conversationally fluent for a while now, and reads YA fantasy in Spanish for fun -- but there are always nuances to pick up, and she wants to fix her accent so she sounds less obviously American.
-----
7. My library system does own three copies of the book I need for Yuletide, but all three are currently checked out and not due until after the Yuletide deadline. I have a hold request in, but I think I should try buying a copy. So I looked online this morning while I was in the library.
Annoyingly, the book is out of print.
I guess this is where I venture into the strange and unknown world of arranging used book sales through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. So. Does anyone have any advice on navigating those markets?