It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like -- Well, Something

Ok, maybe now it's beginning to feel like Christmas. The cute little boy elf is my boss.

Have a gay and merry holiday season.

XOXO

Lianne

Dashing Through the Snow

Last night I was standing beside an older gentleman, waiting for the traffic light to change, when he said --

It's getting colder out. Feels like snow.

Are you hoping for snow?

Yes, I'm an eternal optimist.

Oh, you're hoping for a white Christmas?

Hell, no. I just want to see Santa slip and fall off my roof.

Oh, you must be a lawyer then?

His mouth dropped open, and he started to laugh.

Aren't you the feisty one.

He started to laugh harder.

And yes, actually I am.

The two of us crossed the street, laughing and wishing each other a Happy Holiday. Maybe it's beginning to feel a bit more like Christmas.

Martini Madness

It was Christmas lunch today with the client -- martinis all around.

Sour Scrooge Martini:

Smirnoff Vanilla Vodka
SourPuss Apple Liqueur
Pineapple Juice
Cranberry Juice
Shaken, not stirred

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas

Christmas Has Gone to the Dogs

Things have been pretty hectic at my kitchen table the last few weeks. I thought I was so smart -- finishing my Christmas shopping in November -- but then there was the wrapping. And the last minute gift ideas that are just too good to pass up. And the baking. And the mulling of wine. And the drinking of mulled wine. And the friends over for dinner. And, oh yeah, the whole year end thing at work -- which pays for all this.

But it's now the week of Christmas. And if you believe that the Twelve Days of Christmas end (not begin) on December 25th that puts us at "eight maids a-milking" today. And to be quite honest, my heart just isn't in it.

How did it get to be December 21st? Wasn't it just July?

The boyfriend and I are heading to Calgary this year to spend several days with good friends. We fly out of Vancouver on December 25th and we are taking our little dog. (This is where the sweater knitting comes in. I'm not a person who believes in dressing dogs up. Especially my dog. She may be small but she's mighty. And she doesn't suffer fools gladly -- two-legged or four-legged. But it has been - 30 Celcius (-22 F) with the windchill and I don't care how much hair you have on your body -- that's damned cold. The sweater and boots are for her own good. She begs to differ.) We are looking forward to some time off work and to seeing our friends, but Christmas sentiment? It hasn't arrived. Normally by this time of year I'm sick to death of chocolates, and Christmas carols (that have been playing since Halloween) and the political correctness of "the holiday season". But I just had my first chocolate today, and I'm humming "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" only because I keep seeing the Telus commercial on TV. And it's a catchy little ditty.

The days have flown by. It really was just July. Is it that I'm getting older and soon the entire year will just be one big blur?

The boyfriend has a theory. The reason time seems to pass quicker as we age is that we have more memories and we know what's coming next. Think about driving to a new place. It seems to take forever to get there. The anticipation. Have we driven too far? Should we have turned left back there instead of right? What will be there, waiting for us? Everything is new and unfamilar. But the drive home? It seems to take half the time. Why? Because we have seen the sights and remember what is just up around the next bend in the road. We know what is waiting for us when we get home. Piled up mail. Wilted plants. Dirty laundry.

I'm not saying Christmas is like dirty laundry. But it's familiar and known. The memories are there from Christmas's past. That's why I'm counting on my little dog this year. Never before has she flown on a plane. Never before has she worn a bright pink turtle-neck sweater with pink shearling doggy boots. Never before has she been in -30 Celcius. And never before has she met our friends' Maine Coon cat, Mr. Big. I have heard it said that Christmas is for children. They bring to it an unabashed joy and no expectations. The boyfriend and I don't have children. We have a dog. So I'm going to try to look at it through her eyes this year -- and experience all the joy and wonder anew. Ok, maybe just the turkey and Christmas tree, but you know what I mean.

(Cass is sure these are all for her -- photos of her in her new sweater and boots to follow)

Little Lianne Fell Down the Well -- Go Get Help

I'm so happy, I'm so happy. Whew! Finally I'm back in blogland. I've had no DNS host/server (whatever the hell it is) for almost two weeks and I've been frantically trying to figure out how to get my blog back.

I had this website www.beeuniq.com for almost two years. It was hosted by a company called Lunarpages and I paid about $250 for two years worth of hosting. I sold these things I called scübees -- scarf/tube thingys which you can wear around your neck or pull up over your head.

I sold quite a few last winter, but none through my website. This year I've already sold a bunch, but again, none through the website. So I decided that I wouldn't bother renewing my hosting with Lunarpages.

I also had my domain name www.liannescott.com registered with Lunarpages, but didn't pay for any hosting as I use it's not a website but my blog. So on November 24th, when my beeuniq.com website was cancelled, I also discovered (to my horror) my blog had ceased to exist. "We're sorry, the page you have requested cannot be found." It seems that Lunarpages doesn't offer just DNS hosting and I would have to find some other company to do this (???)

I'm a writer, not a computer wiz. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a DNS server nor that I needed someone to host anything (other than a website -- I get that, I'm not completely in the dark). I spent over a week opening service tickets with Lunarpages only to be told over and over again that I should go somewhere else. WTF -- I had just paid them another $40 so that I could use my www.liannescott.com and they couldn't help me. Many of the people I emailed back and forth with didn't even seem to know what blogger.com was.

But this story has a happy ending. I found zoneedit.com (a great free DNS server/host place) and within 48 hours had name servers (which I figured out how to change) and an alias (no, not snugglebunny) to direct my domain to blogger.com. Now all I need to do is figure out how to direct liannescott.com to my blog (without the www's) as that isn't working yet.

I am now sitting here, glass of wine in hand, remembering the good old days when I kept a little blue diary with a lock and key. It never crashed, it never booted me out, it never refused to accept my pictures and it, like my blog was just as easily found by my mom.

Ah, progress. Gotta love it.