As Christmas creeps (no...sprints) closer, this last week has been all consuming. I had intended to continue my blog addiction but had to quit cold turkey as work stuff took over. We recently bought another company, and at the same time had an audit by the folks that look for fraudulent activites a la Enron and Worldcom. What it meant to me was the rewriting of major policies, which I posted a little about a little while ago. This week the new document was signed off by our CEO, but not so smoothly. THREE times it got rewritten and retooled for the webpage by yours truly. A 14-page document with tables and links is not fun to redo from scratch as a daily ritual. We don't have any fancy webpage tools so I'm html-ing it from Ground Zero on Notepad. I worked 14 hours on Tuesday, 11 hours on Wednesday and while Thursday and Friday were *only* 8 hours, they were the kind of days that you have to book yourself into a meeting just to go to the bathroom. The good part is I do get overtime pay, so Mama Needs a New Ipod. =)

The good news is the policy is complete, posted and in effect. And BossDude has left the country for the next 3 weeks. Now, I can breathe....and get the damned tree out and decorated.

Christmas is, well, getting under control. 19 presents required....14 now purchased. A supershopper sprint to the mall Monday night got me ahead of the curve for now. I had ideas for the rest but have to wait until Monday or Tuesday night as I refuse to attempt the malls during the day this time of year.

The kidney thing....not so bad right now, but then again, I'm taking Tylenol #3 every 4 hours and I swear the beans are better than a clock. By 3 1/2 hours I can start to feel the ache and by 4, I need the pills. During the night too. So be it...I seem to be managing now although yesterday I did have a brief moment where I felt a little down about it. Sucked it up though and moved on.

I hold my friend, Leigh in high esteem for her ability to hold back the drama and deal with life in an amazing manner. She faces life with a smile and a strength I've rarely seen. Whenever I feel the 'poor me's' knocking around in my head, I think of her and she gives me the power to go on.

I'm working on a bit of another downer blogpost...Todd asked me the other night what happened here on September 11 and if we even noticed it happened? I was a bit surprised at the question, really. But I tend to forget we live in different countries and our views and perceptions are different. He thinks of it as a solely American event, while I see it as a bit more global. So even though it has been written about to death and then some, I think it's time I put my experience of the day down to 'paper'.