XMas 2013 Begins

I set up my Xmas tree this afternoon, complete with ornaments and tinsel rope. It looks tacky, but appropriate for the season.

I did my final fall raking this afternoon. Almost all the leaves in my yard are raked and bagged and left along the the side of the street for the street department to pick up tomorrow. (I said almost, because I ran out of yard bags before I could finish.) This coming Monday is the last day for the leaf vacuum. I also washed those sides of the house which were dirtier than the rest, especially in front.

I celebrated Thanksgiving with Madre, my sisters and my niece Megan. (Erin, the other niece, is still in Japan teaching English to grade-school students.) We had turkey, sage dressing, mashed spud and corn. (No oyster dressing, though: Padre, the only person who ever ate it, is no longer with us.) After dinner, I was roped into setting up Madre's XMas tree. It went quicker this year because my sister the editor tagged the matching plugs and sockets on the three-part tree.

I have bought and installed Mac OS X Server utilities on my laptop. They were originally meant for the Mac Mini server at work, which I have revived and upgraded (to Mavericks) over the past couple of weeks. I now have a working Web server (among other things) on my laptop, with a Web site that will always be available whether I am connected to the Internet or not.