Robin, the Red-Eyed Reindeer

Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won't you be my eye tonight?

Actually, I don't need Rudy, as I've been sporting a nice red eyeball since Friday, along with what I thought was a Christmas Day Cold but the nice doctor tells me was a sinus infection with a side of pink eye. I'm sure I picked up these germs while Christmas shopping at the fifth gate of hell mall on Christmas Eve eve. I've never been sick over the holidays before, and it bites. I had big plans -- Big Plans, I tell you -- for these two weeks. Visiting with faraway friends in town for the holidays, visiting with local friends that I haven't seen in weeks, closet cleaning, magazine purging, dinner party-throwing. Not to mention the BF is a teacher and this is one of the few times during the year that he has time off and I my work schedule allows me to take time off to match.

But enough whining. In between coughing fits, cabin fever (from which Meg & Mo have been so good about trying to rescue me), daily chats with Mumsie, and The Lounging Party's favorite activity (cat-naps), I've had lots of time to catch up on reading. Two books, a dozen magazines, the daily paper from cover to cover, and blogland. My Google Reader was overflowing with long-unread posts -- some of you are prolific and I've been really bad about keeping up.

Thanks to the miracle of modern medicine I am feeling better and am hoping to make a brief cough-free, red-eye-free appearance at a New Year's Eve party and then cram some fun times (and perhaps some of that closet-cleaning) into what's left of my vacation. Wishing you all a fabulous New Year's!

(photo from ABC)

She spends in a week what you make in a year

{Marie Douglas-David, soon-to-be-ex-hubby George David, and actress Julie Delpy at The 10th Anniversary of Green Cross International and Global Green Founded by Mikhail Gorbachev. MGDavidJDelpy_101104, originally uploaded by Global Green USA.}

Currently duking it out in Hartford Superior Court and on the front pages of the Hartford Courant are the Davids, one of America's uber-rich couples, he the former CEO of United Technologies, she a countess and former Wall Street type who apparently spends more in a week than what some people make in a year.

Click here to see what she spends it on. No really. Click.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around those types of numbers as weekly discretionary expenses. I know that there are people out there who are far more wealthy than 99.9% of the rest of us, and I know that in a divorce there is a little fudging of numbers going on, I just wonder if I was ever that rich would my lifestyle escalate to one where I spent that kind of money on clothes, hair, facials, flowers etc., every week. Every. Week. Oh, sure, in the beginning there would definitely be a shopping spree and lots of travel, but I don't think I could keep it up. There've been too many instances in my life (as a newlywed, as a new divorcee, etc.) where I had to be super-frugal, and even get a second job, just to make ends meet. I'm not saying I would maintain my current lifestyle 100%. I just don't think I could spend four grand a month on my hair.

What about you? Would you be all Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?

Hooked on Holiday House Tours Blog Party

Welcome! I'm participating in Julia's Hooked On Holiday House Tours blog party today. If you like looking at holiday decorations, need to get in the holiday spirit, or harbor some voyeur tendencies, then you may want to pop on over and check out the 50+ homes on display.

I live in a Victorian apartment building that "went condo" in the late '70s, so we have lots of charm and period detail, but with modern electric, plumbing, sheetrock, etc. We also have lots of great neighbors who can get quite festive when the occasion calls for it, and the holidays are no exception. We throw some great parties here, including one just to "deck the halls" i.e., decorate the lobby and the landing of each floor.

Here is the tree in our lobby, decorated with handmade ornaments depicting historic scenes from Hartford.

Before he played for the Sox, Babe Ruth batted for the minor leagues in Hartford.

A mod blue and white tree on the landing to my floor.

My front door. Welcome! (Note, I wasn't tipsy, I just couldn't take a straight picture with my dorky camera).

This year my wreath is silver, pewter and white. And fake. :-( It is very dry in the building and a girl can vacuum the doorway only so many times....

My tree, which I just put up this weekend. I love the smell of a real tree, but a) see note above re: the dry air in the building and b) The Lounging Party [aka my cats] think any living plant is their personal salad bar, just waiting to be chomped on. They did, however, "assist" with the decorating and frequently rearrange things while I'm at work.

My BFF Marie Louise of Cottage Industries brought back this petit chat from her honeymoon in Paris last year. The starfish is from Cape Cod.

I'm in love with the face on this little owl and acorn ornament.

As you can imagine, with a name like Robin I have a lot of bird ornaments on my tree (including the one in my new header above). Many were gifts from my dad growing up.

Even my chandelier gets a little dressed up for Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check out the other tours at Hooked On Houses. But before you go, please have a cookie, made by Meghan of Two Ladies In Waiting for our condo Christmas party the other day. I promise they have no calories!

In stitches

{needle and thread, originally uploaded by Thru Jenn's Eyes.}

I am a girl who wears skirts. And dresses. Mumsie always said "Dress for the position to which you aspire," and I'm sticking with that rule, even though I am always "overdressed" compared to some of my co-workers. I like getting dressed up for work every day and I curse whoever invented "casual" dress code. I have a thing for heels and handbags. And accessories. I'm a girly girl, and not ashamed to say it.

I tore the hem of my skirt today during a run-in with an unruly file cabinet. I mended it at my desk (while wearing it) and it wasn't until I was threading the needle that I really took a good look at the sewing kit. It's a little plastic box with 7 spools of colored thread (there were 8 but I lost one). Of course the black thread is almost gone, followed closely by the navy. There's a plastic thimble, safety pins, a threader and a couple of needles. And then I realized: I have had this sewing kit in every desk I've ever sat at, at every job I've ever had, since graduating college. That's almost twenty years.

I'm sure the gals at Basket of Kisses would agree that "Joan" would be proud.

{Christina Hendricks as "Joan Holloway" in AMC's "MadMen"}

Joan Holloway dresses like the hot ticket she is, and keeps aspirin, a sweater, safety pins and a fifth of something in her desk. For emergencies.

What do you wear to work? Does anyone like getting dressed up anymore?

Sorry for the long absence. Thanksgiving melted right into a non-stop 10 days of work and travel that I only recently surfaced from. Just in time for Christmas shopping!