I could get used to this vacation thing ...

This whole not-having-to-work thing? It's pretty alright. I'm getting some things done (although not nearly as many things as I ought, since I'm trapped in my apartment) and feeling pretty relaxed (except for the whole trapped thing.

My cat likes it too. She's pretending to ignore me while she chases a gold gift bow around the kitchen, but I can tell that deep down, she enjoys having me around.

The United States Postal Service is holding me hostage in my own home.

I'm expecting a package.

It's an important package. So important that I need it today. So important that it's being shipped through Express Mail®. (An example of the prestige of Express Mail®: it is the only type of mail that ships on federal holidays. Not that that does me any good, because I don't need this package on a federal holiday; I need it today.)

Recipients of Express Mail® have to sign for it, which is why I am sitting in my living room/moving box storage facility when I could be getting my oil changed, buying my sister's Christmas present, continuing to move things out of Leigh's house, or any of a number of other things that would require me to be elsewhere. Because I need that goddamn package today.

I'll let you know if I got it.

UPDATE. I got it! I got it! Oh, and I didn't have to sign for it - I found the precious package crammed into my mailbox with my Cinergy bill and the new Cincinnati Magazine. La-ame. But at least I was able to give my steady Eddie the gift of lower-deck Bengals tickets.

The nice thing about two weeks of vacation within four weeks ...

You get a second chance to finish your vacation to-do list!

- Unpack in new apartment
- Get last traces of stuff out of Leigh's house
- Run w/ dad (again)
- Catch up on pile of magazines (Real Simple, Esquire, Cincinnati Magazine, mental_floss)
- Catch up on pile of books lent by Edmund, bought on whim at Enquirer book sale
- Catch up on pile of unwatched DVDs
- Work on pile of underplayed video games
- Finish Strength of Body, Strength of Mind
- Do Christmas shopping
- Buy light bulbs for currently darkened kitchen
- Find out more about having currently darkened TV repaired

This must all happen sometime in between these scheduled events:
- Wed. afternoon: Lunch with mom and sister, possible shopping
- Wed. evening: Harry Potter party in Amelia
- Thurs. morning: Breakfast with Neil
- Thurs. evening: Running with dad; probable family dinner
- Fri. evening (possible): Movie in Dayton with Stacie, Chele, etc.
- Sat. all day: Various Christmas Eve activities
- Sun. through Mon.: Christmas in Milford and Bloomington

I forsee a week of paralysis in front of the computer, punctuated by bursts of frenzied shopping.

My sister is famous!

She's "reader Katie" in this Popsugar post.

Between her and Kari (here and here), it seems like everyone's a tipster these days.

Cleveland: Land of Free Wi-Fi at Nice Hotels!

And here you always thought it was the Mistake on the Lake.

Yes, I'm in Cleveland again, and I am again using the hotel's wireless Internet for my own nefarious purposes.

And let me just say that the Radisson is freakin' sweet. I chose it because it was supposedly within walking distance to the arena where the concert was. Um, yes. The arena is close - so close, in fact, that the hotel's Web site includes a picture of it in its little slideshow of "here's the exterior, here's the lobby, here are the rooms with Sleep Number beds, and here's the arena which we couldn't actually fit inside the hotel, so we did the best we could." If our room were across the hall, we could probably see the tour bus or private jet or whatever U2 uses to exeunt venues. As I footed it back to the hotel afterward, darting between the participants in the traffic snarl that entangled the arena and listening to an irate prisoner in a parking garage lean on his horn, I congratulated myself on a fine choice.

Although I really should congratulate Eileen, who picked it first.