My first jury duty …

Was cancelled.

That was anticlimactic.

Online shopping

Long before there was a World Wide Web, I used to get claustrophobic and kind of manic at the Tysons Corner mall at Christmastime and I was the first person I knew to shop for Christmas gifts online. This year will mark the seventh where I’ve done some of my shopping online and either the fourth or fifth where I do all of it that way.

Amazon has been my primary shopping venue, but I’ve been looking to branch out some. This year, thanks to NPR, I’ve discovered Mighty Goods, which points to cool stuff all over the Internet. Definitely worth a gander.

What to buy me for Christmas, part 4

OK, last one of these. After this, folks, you’re on your own. Twenty-one days until Christmas and 27 until my birthday, chop-chop.

• U.S. Out of California T-Shirt
• Daily Planet PRESS T-shirt
• “Never forget” Dinosaur T-shirt
• This shirt or that shirt from Thinkgeek
• Or about a million things from my Amazon wishlist

In other Christmas-related news, check out this online advent calendar. I like the coloring page on December 2.

What to buy me for Christmas, part 3

Last year, I got a ton of electric blankets to help out with the joint swelling and pain and I used them all year. (Yes, even in the summer.) So much so that the single-sized electric blanket I got (I got a whole variety of them) seems to have burned out from overuse. So that’s something, for those pondering choices.

In the non-electric variety, I’ve gotten more and more into lightweight “throws” that can be layered on. This is sort of an expensive one, but it’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.

Pill Catch-22

I get 28 days of pills at a go. I cannot fill my prescription until I’m out. It takes 24-72 hours to refill my prescription, since my doctors have to be consulted every month about this.

In the meantime, I have a softball lodged under my left kneecap and my tongue is turning into a pot roast left too long in the oven.