christmas update

so, about getting ready for christmas. so far i have gifts for the dogs and my father. i have no idea what to get mom, and i think i'll get the brother and his woman a gift card for going out to dinner, but haven't picked a restaurant or purchased it. i normally get a small gift for monk (the brother's dog), but am not sure if it would be fair to do so and not get anything for the other 2 dogs now living there. i did see the perfect thing for him, though. you can get a fairly realistic squirrel, and i've seen the boy sit in the window and bark at squirrels in the side yard. i know it must sound really weird to put this much effort into gifts for a dog, but i'm not the only one who has told my parents that the only grandchildren they'll be getting will be furry and four-legged.

as far as the 4 birthday gifts i need in time for the christmas party. the big project is totally complete, except that i realized earlier that after augmenting it, i think i put it back in the box wrong. i may decide to fix that. for someone else i have purchased a gift, but intend to purchase an additional and similar gift and give them together. for yet another person i found the perfect gift by accident, but it's a) out of stock in the appropriate size and b) out of my price range. found a decent alternative along the same lines, but with shipping it's still a bit outside the price range and i'm not sure it would be here in time. so, i'm basically at square one there. that leave just one more person to gift, for which i am totally lost.

otherwise, my cards are sent and my mail project will be boxed tonight and sent tomorrow before work. i'm hopeful that will be soon enough to reach there destinations in time. my ornaments are killing me on drying time, but i'm hoping to prevail there.

work has been getting more and more retarded by the day. tonight, despite requisitioning and getting a dedicated cashier to stay on register, at 9:00 i had only been able to get off register long enough to straighten two small grids. by closing (at 10) i still hadn't swept. enough people were coming to the doors after closing that we couldn't leave them unlocked while carts were rounded up. instead someone stood inside to unlock them and let the manager push carts in. this included someone who pulled up across the only spot in the sidewalk that slopes, allowing for the pushing up of carts, then sat there while a passenger sauntered up to check our hours. needless to say they were severely tempting said manager to ram into them with a row of carts, but she was able to restrain herself until they moved allowing her to come in and yell obscenities about them. the "eat me" fudge (so named because it was in an unassuming container with a post-it note labeled "eat me!") went over well. honestly, though, i'm not how much of it got eaten by anyone other that the closing manager and my favorite experienced cashier. i know the two of them hit it pretty hard.

i'm seriously not looking forward to next week, when we will be open until 11:00. especially since i close friday night and then have to be back at 7:00 saturday morning to count money. in fact, in addition to being against company rules about having a register the day before being in the cash office (which my store manager seems to have totally thrown by the wayside), i'm also pretty sure that's a violation of labor laws, since there's only 7.5 hours between my shifts, and i think there are supposed to be at least 8. oh well, money's money, eh?

that is all for now.