It is much cheaper and he is leaning in that direction as well. Only drawback is standing in the heat/rain waiting for the bus and it's difficult to accommodate employer extra hours demands.

What's a Druzy ring?

Cute car, does the big one have a name?

Love the fountain pen, Lola!

Clod, I almost went with the bike instead of the camera! What kind of bike is it?

You must mean someone else, no bikes here...

A druzy ring is a ring made from the habitat quartz grows in(i think so anyway) it is pretty but not exactly rare or $$$$ but i love it. It goes different colors when you move your hand : blue pink purple green.

Yes. Daisy-Head Mayzie. Daisy for short. ;)

I always name my cars...well except my Astra that was smooshed after two weeks of ownership...and the car before that was POS.

I got a bunch of stuff for Christmas. My favorite two things are kind of boring, but I just love them. A fleece-lined flannel shirt that is so soft and warm and good looking. And another fleece sweatshirt thing. My old ones were getting threadbare and lost their warmth. I'm so much warmer now around the house!

I also got a torque wrench and some jack stands, and a bunch of little stuff.

Oh and a neat little gadget. It's a cordless screwdriver that turns on when you hold it, and when you turn it slightly one way or the other, it starts automatically driving the bit in that direction. It's got some sort of built in accelerometers in it. Pretty neat. We all kept trying it out by taking the coffee table apart and putting it back together.

I love the little things. My fuzzy blanky is almost TOO warm. Hard to get out of bed. I got a cute calendar/planner called "Do It Later: A 2013 Planner (or Non-Planner) for the Creative Procrastinator. And a gift cert for the bookstore. Yay.

I also love my set of 3 flameless candles. They have a REMOTE. No kidding. Imma take it to UT's pawn shop. It's got a REMOTE!

COOL! Where'd you get those?

My momma got it. So either Kohls, Elder Beerman, or QVC. :)

I wanty!

eta: I always light candles first thing in the morning then drink coffee with them and wander into my computer room forgetting that candles are burning and hoping my house doesn't burn down before I remember they're there.

They're great. I have them 'burning' in the bedroom, then I just push the off button to turn them off one by one. I love candles but I typically stick with tealights since they don't burn all night if I fall asleep.

It's a Magna Ruby from Target. It's a cheap one-speed cruiser, just for relaxing rides around the neighborhood. My previous bike was a Trek mountain bike which I absolutely adored, but it doesn't fit me as I've grown -- but not much -- since I first got it when I was 12.

At 5', it's surprisingly difficult for me to find a bike -- most frames fit under 4'8" or over 5'4". A few years ago when I went shopping for a new Trek, the guy told me I could have one custom built... for a four digit price tag. :eek: I'm pretty sure that's not the case, and someday down the road I'd like to get a new Trek, but the Ruby works for now.

In a previous life, I worked in a shop that sold Terry Bikes which are designed towards women's proportions. The prices were a little inflated but their sales rep was super cute so we carried a lot of product.:facepalm:

http://www.terrybicycles.com/Bikes_2

Some surprising frontrunner gifts this year... First off, Minifob immediately recognized the marble run I painted as a digestive tract, and loved it. He also was quite pleased with a little stocking stuffer card game called "Get Bit."

Minifobette was predictably thrilled with "Just Dance 4" for the PS3, but even more enchanted with this butterfly-in-a-jar thing I got from ThinkGeek.com. She declared, "Oh, I have a pet now," named it after her cousin, and has been carrying it around since.

Me, I freaking love the ant farm they got. I went out and dug up 4 ants for it from the front yard before I got too cold, and already that little team has got a couple inches' worth of tunnels going. So fascinating to watch.

Many thanks go to Limey again this year for her repeated thoughtfulness and kindness to my son Daniel. This year she sent us these beautiful handcrafted sea glass ornaments from her beautiful Isle. Daniel is so thrilled with them that he basically rearranged all the "other" ornaments on the tree so these could be displayed front an center. They are just to the left of his other ornament which she knitted for him with his name on it. Thank you so very much, limey.