I've started Christmas shopping. It used to be that my sister was the most fun to buy for and I'd always get her presents purchased first. But she'd been replaced by my goddaughter. Shopping for a kid is so much more fun. For her second birthday, I bought her a My First Leap Pad and some books, plus an outfit. Wendy says she doesn't need any more clothes, but the little dresses are so damned cuuute. I cannot hold back. For Christmas, she's getting a Fisher-Price grocery play set. Unlike the wooden toys of my childhood, this does everything. There is a real scanner and a register that adds. There are different cards that can be added to the toy that teach the kid phonics. The only other thing that I could do with my wooden groceries was hit my sister (but I'm not complaining).

Actually, I already bought my sister's birthday gift so she's not really that far behind the two year old on the "fun to shop for" scale. I'd say what I got her but, as she can read, that would ruin the surprise. Speaking of gifts...some items from my registry have already been purchased! Amazing. There's probably something somewhere that says I'm not supposed to look at it, but I don't care.

Boston was good (except for the inadvertent drunkenness). Why is it that, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I can't get back to sleep but I can hit the snooze button of my alarm clock and repeatedly fall back asleep in the morning? Oh, here's more inadvertent fun. I ended up going out to dinner at a gay Indian restaurant in the boystown section of Boston the night the court decision clearing the way for gay marriage was announced. The German national I was with was totally freaked out. The restaurant was next door to a club, and there were more than a few jubilant transvestites outside.

I've still got to buy a dress to wear to Leo's firm's Christmas party. I have pledged not to wear black, as there were 160 women in black last year and 1 in red. And the dress must have sleeves (because geo-thermal denial annoys me). I've taken to wearing a lot of bright orange lately, I wish I could find a dress in that. Shannon, I think we need to visit the discount mall of the gods this weekend. It's my only hope.