Christmas treats for friends and family

I swept and mopped the whole house! Except for my grandparents’ bedroom and the back room, which are carpeted. And a lot of the living room is carpeted. But I was blessed with a lot of strength and energy today. I plan to wrap gifts tonight.

We all just finished watching Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. It was so funny and sweet.

Today has been/is a cleaning day. Got up early and have been doing work while listening alternately to my cleaning playlist and Christmas hymns. After Grandpa and my cousin go out, I’m going to mop and hopefully vacuum.

the almost contentious but intimate relationship between a woman and the book she’s been trying to read for a year

A holiday short story from Acio's point of view:

https://pumpkinberry.wixsite.com/my-site/post/a-gift-for-quill-a-short-story

You know, thinking about it, I imagine the Leverage crew are pretty philanthropic. Parker might have had to be introduced to the concept (”You just give them money and they go away with it? How does that work?”) but probably once she got her head around it she’d be into it. 

What gets me is how god damned frustrating it would be to work somewhere that one of the Leverage crew supports. Nate would be okay, he’d just make small monthly gifts to ten million different organizations so that nobody thinks he’s worth very much (he doesn’t own his home and he gives such small amounts monthly that Development writes him off as an earnest but low-capacity donor who should get a thank-you card around the holidays). It’s probably a bigger inconvenience to him because he’s on every nonprofit mailing list known to man. He has so many address labels, guys. (I don’t want to be Nate but I am Nate. I have so many address labels.)

Sophie I imagine has an extravagant alias for every charity she supports; she gives outrageous amounts and in return demands only attention and adulation, tickets to all the galas, and to be in at least one photo in every annual report. We have a donor like this – she’s genuinely invested in our work, gives generously of her time and money, is never rude or demanding, but if she’s in the room all eyes must be on her at all times. I actually really like her but constant exposure could get…tiring. 

Eliot just sends enormous, anonymous checks once a year through a shell company or DAF, which while not unusual would be irritating in that they can’t ever reach out to thank him and/or steward him into a larger gift appealing to his interests. They can’t even send him dumb swag! He deserves a charity-branded bottle opener and keychain flashlight! (He has stolen all of Nate’s, but they don’t know that.) Still, they’ve probably got a fun nickname for him; I have a few people in my research files who are simply named after characters from Greek mythology because that’s all the data I have or am allowed to store. 

For a long time Hardison just dumped money into the bank accounts of his charities of choice, seamlessly, invisibly – it just APPEARED in the account, and he was cool with that until he checked back after a few years and found none of his money was being used because they couldn’t figure out where it was coming from and were worried it was a clerical error despite the bank assuring them otherwise. Now he still dumps money into the accounts but he entertains himself building an elaborate digital paper trail so that the accounting all works. Have you ever watched a Gift Processing office try to balance a nonprofit’s books? Sometimes they cry! Don’t be mean to them, Hardison. 

Parker, bless her heart, just leaves bags of money on the doorsteps of random employees with notes directing how, in general terms, it should be spent. If she’s particularly pleased with the climbability of their home, she leaves a donut for them, too. Generally if she mentions she’s done this to the crew, Eliot calls up the charity to assure them that the large bag of cash was a legitimate donation and is not some kind of money-laundering scam. (That was ONE TIME Eliot, and the IRS didn’t even NOTICE.) This happened to me once. A tiny old lady in a Cubs jacket showed up to our office with a backpack full of money and it was a very intense morning. 

Anyway, what I’m saying is that every year, across the span of roughly two weeks, Hardison’s Nana’s church gets their regular $25 check from that nice Mr. Ford, a visit from the very devout but slightly weird Madam Sofia who wants a private choir recital, an enormous check from a bank in the Bahamas with no name attached, a large direct deposit from a heretofore-undiscovered bond the church invested in a decade ago, and a large bag of cash with a dozen donuts on it and a note reading THANK YOU FOR THE NEW ROOF IT WAS VERY SLIPPERY AND FUN. PLEASE BUY STUFFED ANIMALS FOR CHILDREN WHO NEED STUFFED ANIMALS. 

I have a dozen Christmas cards to mail. Last night, BB ate one of the envelopes where the stamp goes, but the card was undamaged and we found another envelope. It’s been a low-key day; I woke up with a mild sore throat and cleaned out my drawers and folded all the clothes. If the sore throat persists, I’ll take a COVID test, but considering I had COVID less than a month ago . . . 

Anyway, I need to get back into writing. I’m still kind of burned out.

That's it. The full paperback cover for Miss Percy's Travel Guide (to Welsh Moors and Feral Dragons) (Miss Percy #2) now exists. And I love it.

I’ve signed and addressed ten cards tonight! Somewhere between two to five to go, depending.

Cranberry muffins! Messy, but cranberry-packed and hopefully good.

I think I fell asleep super early last night? I remember lying down at some point and I woke up still in my day clothes.

Etsy is somehow being even worse, do not click etsy ads

Etsy is now forcing shop owners to be part of their ads. We can not opt out.

To anyone who buys from etsy: DO NOT EVER CLICK THEIR ADS

They are rolling out a program where if you get a sale from an ad they put out, they’re taking 12-15% of the profit(probably on top of the like, 5%ish+ they already take). Even worse, if you have clicked an Etsy ad in the last 30 days ANYONE YOU BUY FROM ON ETSY IN THAT PERIOD WILL BE BILLED THAT FEE. 

So please, if you see an ad for something you like off etsy, do not click it. Just go on etsy and search for it.

This is somehow worse than what storenvy used to pull. 

Please go directly through an artist or see if they have their own storefront (I use bigcartel) instead of purchasing off etsy. And if you must, just please, please, never click an etsy ad.

I'd love to workout, even the beginner one I started with. We'll see how strong my post-COVID body is.

Artoo and I had some afternoon cuddles. Planning to have a low-key day and spend the evening writing out Christmas cards. I have some addresses to gather, though.

I can’t believe it’s only 5 p.m. I might take a nap with my babies.

My cousin just left. We had a nice visit. I’m going to watch Christmas episodes of Monk and chill.