Mele Kelikimaka!

 

Yes, it's Christmas in July here at Nutwood! And no, I don't have presents for you all. <grin>

Yesterday I saw some Christmas cards in the latest Current catalog, and asked Ken if he liked them. He did, and agreed that I should go ahead and order them. We always like to order our cards from National Wildlife Federation--they have beautiful cards--but considering that I send out...gosh, I think I sent out about a hundred last year!--that can get a little pricey, so we went with something not quite as much. Still very pretty, with our usual nature theme.

After I ordered the cards, it struck me that I'm actually done for Christmas! At least as far as Ken goes--I finished about a month ago. I'll still need to get stuff for my nieces and nephews, and a few odds and ends, but it's nice to have most of it done with. That's something I picked up from Ken. He shops throughout the year, anytime he sees something that he knows a particular person would like. Considering our mutual dislike of shopping at the mall, year-round shopping makes perfect sense.

I've been "puttering" today. Little things here and there, taking out the garbage, what have you. I set up birthday reminders on AOL's calendar. I already have one reminder system set up, but it reminds me two days before, and that's not enough time to get a card out! I'll see if AOL's reminders work, but I hope they do, because I set it to remind me a week before. I suspect that I'm not the only one here who has a hard time remembering birthdays! My immediate family I remember, Cousin Shane, and Ken, of course, but as our family grows with niece and nephews, spouses, etc., it gets harder and harder for me to remember them all. I didn't give myself an alert for my own birthday...but maybe I should have!

I was also very pleased to get an email from our friend RaQuel in NYC. We hadn't been in touch for some time, and I was starting to get a little worried on two fronts: her health and well-being, or that I wrote something that pissed her off! This is another lesson in unwarranted worrying, because she is fine, but had been in Spain for a couple of weeks due a death in the family, very busy with her audio work...just a bit of craziness and a hectic life, but all is well with her, and with us. Hooray! We agreed that we have much to catch up on, and that a phone call is in our future.

Do y'all have deer flies where you're at? I know Melissa does, because I recall plenty of them during our summers in Minnesota when I was a kid. Last week, I went out to get the mail, and something bit me on my forearm. It was not a mosquito, because it was a sudden, sharp sting. I swatted it away, but it felt exactly like the bite of a deer fly. Let me just say right now that I really hate those little bastards. I know they're part of the food chain and all, but UGH, they are so irritating and nasty! Luckily, we don't have a ton of them around here. Well, this was last week, and all week long, that bite kept getting more and more itchy and irritated. It wasn't infected, I know that for sure, but it just was not going away! Benadryl, cortisone cream, Gold Bond cream...nothing soothed it. When I got out of my car yesterday after my trip to the grocery store, I just couldn't stand it anymore, and scratched the livin' hell out of it. I'm really good about not scratching bites, because I know that just irritates and inflames them more, and can lead to infection...but man, did it ever feel good to scratch to my heart's content. Ahhh, relief. After that, I put on Neosporin with pain relief, covered it with a Band-aid, and it is now starting to heal up, AND it's not itching. Go figure!

I guess sometimes you just gotta scratch that itch.

Tags: Christmas in July, deer flies