From Creeping Crud to "Kringly"

I've had a decided case of the "ughs" today: woke with a burgeoning migraine as well as a sick stomach. The headache was easy to explain: I went to bed with the fan in the window, aimed directly at my head. This is a no-no when you have arthritis in your neck. As for the other, the Mongolian beef I liked so much last night might have had a beef with me.

So today wasn't a very enthusiastic day for me, needless to say. However, we did go to the hobby shop—the guys always put together some goodies on the Saturday before Christmas. There was an orange-zest flavored sugar-free cheesecake type cake there that was quite tasty. We also went to Borders to spend my birthday coupon; I ended up with Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants, which has just come into paperback, and four magazines. We also braved the crowds and went to Costco. The Cumberland Costco is next to Cumberland Mall and the traffic was, predictably, horrendous: people driving around and around looking for close parking spaces when you could see clearly that the "hidden" deck of the parking garage was mostly empty. Everyone crowds the top deck and the bottom deck and ignores the middle one.

Costco wasn't as crowded as we expected and we got out with necessary milk and also a bottle of cinnamon tablets. Supposedly they improve your glucose levels.

We finished up at Michaels with the world's slowest cashier. This Michaels accepts JoAnn coupons, but they have to fill out a form every time they accept a competitor coupon!

We had parts of a rotisserie chicken from Costco for supper and commenced to be Kringly (Betty Roberts' dad's term for Christmasy): first up was Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771, with Scott Bakula and Robert Loggia, the story of a pilot lost in a small plane between Pago Pago and Norfolk Island on Christmas Eve and the New Zealand airliner pilot who helps guide him to safety. Then:
• The Simpsons Christmas Special: Homer doesn't get his Christmas bonus and Marge has to spend the holiday funds to get a tattoo removed from Bart's arm; hilarity ensues when Homer gets an extra job playing Santa.
• The Bestest Present: The first of two "For Better or For Worse" animated specials about little Elizabeth losing her toy rabbit during Christmas shopping—love the "First Day of Snow" song!
• The Christmas Angel: The second special, in which Elizabeth chafes at being "the kid in the middle" and breaks her mother's precious glass angel.
• It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas: A parody of It's a Wonderful Life, with a special guest star, which reminds us how darn good Tiny Toons was and why in God's name isn't it out on DVD?
• The Waltons' "The Best Christmas": The family plans a grand Christmas after Olivia voices fears that her children won't all be with her in the year to come, but an icy evening that plunges a tree into the church roof, traps Grandma and Grandma in Charlottesville, and finds John-Boy helping rescue a neighbor and her niece, trapped in a car that drove off the road into an icy pond nearly ruins their holiday.
• Remember WENN's "Christmas in the Airwaves": A delightful confection of song and story; controlling financier Rollie Pruitt plans to shut down Pittsburgh's favorite small radio station, while writer Betty Roberts, scheming manager Scott Sherwood, and the actors of the ensemble try to thwart his evil machinations. Guest stars are Peter Noone and Betty Buckley...still makes me cry at the end.