They might be windmills

Between trips to carry things in from my car yesterday, I grabbed the mail from the mailbox. The first piece of mail that caught my eye was the bill from children's hospital we took Ari to when we got her stitch. Holding my breath, I opened it and of course, my eyes immediately found the grand total--over $600. Wincing, I scrolled down, trying to find out how much we had to pay. When I saw $50, I released the breath I'd been holding, and then shared the news with Tony. (Well, of course, I scared him with the $600+ number before letting him know we only had to pay $50.) I looked at the itemized list, and called out to Tony, "Here's how it breaks down--it says 'med-surg supply' was $91.67. I guess that's... uh... the stitch."

"And the giant wad of gauze. Don't forget the giant wad of gauze."

"Of course. And the numbing cream."

I can't even imagine what the bill might have been like if she had had a really serious injury.

Also included in yesterday's mail was a summons for jury duty for me. Holding on to the hope that I might be able to opt out, I rummaged through our filing cabinet to find out the last time I served. (Which involved me sitting around all day, being in the very last group of people called before the judge, and then getting dismissed. And accidentally leaving behind my copy of The Princess Bride in the process.) If you've served within the past 3 years, you can get out of jury duty, but alas, I found out that I last served on July 24, 2004--just over 3 years ago. Which I'm sure they knew. But I'm going to opt to postpone my appearance, since the date they want me to show up is December 20. First of all, I'm taking the entire next week off of work, what with the Christmas holidays and my siblings' visits, so it would seem unfair to miss another whole day of work so close to that. And second, there's no way I'm letting myself get picked for the jury and then missing out on all my sibling-bonding time because I have to be in court. No way.

Speaking of my siblings, it's less than 2 months until I get to see them all again! Dave and Jess will be here for Thanksgiving, but since we'll be with Tony's family, I'm pretty sure we're going to miss seeing them then. So that's just one more reason to look forward to Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas, I'm proud of how much shopping we've already completed. We're all set for all the kids in our lives--nieces, nephews, and friends' kids. Plus we've gotten a few other people out of the way. and I just ordered some other people's gifts online (don't you love how vague I'm being?). The problem is, we need to finish up shopping for Tony's family soon, since we're bringing all their gifts down with us at Thanksgiving. I keep thinking I have plenty of time, but then I remember that it will be November in 2 days. TWO days, people. Where did October go?

And lastly, for your entertainment (well, really for mine), here's a video. Yeah, don't ask me what the video is supposed to mean--I just love the song. Guaranteed to be stuck in your head for days. (Big shout-out to "Pushing Daisies" and the TWoP message boards for introducing me to this little gem.) Ladies and gentlemen... "Birdhouse in Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants.