Someone asked me if I knew a good place to get a free chart online, and I knew I had done that once before, so I did a little research and found the link to Astrology.com.

Mine is probably not really accurate, since I don't know my exact time of birth and am just guessing--I could call my folks and find out exactly, but I don't know how much difference it makes, since I don't really understand it anyway. Looks cool, though.

I've always been sort of vaguely interested in astrology. Not enough that I've ever studied it, or know what a chart means, and not enough that I check my horoscope in the newspaper every morning (or even any morning), but I do think it's interesting, and I'd like to know more about it. Maybe some day.

I figured I'd get a head start on that, and wrapped a bunch night before last. I picked out the easy things--books and videotapes and stuff that was already in boxes. I'm saving the awkwardly shaped stuff for the last minute.

I also wrapped a birthday present for my mother and mailed it to her, since her birthday is on Friday and we're leaving on vacation Saturday morning.

We always do the vacation thing in either late November or early December--it alternates because we buy a Disney World annual pass; if we buy it, say, around the first of December, it's good for a year, so we get at least two visits out of it, i.e., first week of December, then last week of November the following year.

So about every other year, I'm out of town on my mother's birthday. This is that year. We can't really go any later, because it's already only a week 'til Christmas when we get back, and we can't go earlier because of Thanksgiving. Well, obviously we could go earlier, but then it would be too warm, and what's the point of going to Florida if you can't gloat to people who are staying behind in the snow?

Not as much as I would have liked, but more than I actually expected for this time of year. I wrote another chapter last night, but as I wrote to someone this morning, I have absolutely no idea whether it's any good or not. I think it might be, but it's so hard to tell when you're this close to it.

I figure the important thing right now is just to get the words down, and worry about structure and pacing and editing later.

I rearranged my desk again today. Twice. I got an additional monitor at work today and set it up, and rearranged everything on my desk, then realized that there was too much glare, and had to move it to the other side of my desk, and rearrange everything else again.

Having two monitors is cool. The second one isn't as good as my primary one, which is an Apple Cinema Display, but it was getting really difficult to work in Photoshop or Flash--now I can move the palettes and tools over to the secondary monitor and free up the primary one and actually see what I'm doing.

I'm really tired of the current design of both willa.com and Moodswings, but I obviously don't have time to redesign them right now. But I'm itching to. I can think about it, at least. I'd like to have them both redesigned for the first of the year. Once I have a good idea, I can execute it pretty quickly, but the current frame design is slowing me down. I don't know whether to keep the frames or not. I actually\ like frames a lot, and now that I have them I don't really want to contemplate redesigning without them and trying to fit things into the current arrangement . . . It's a dilemma.

Really more "Christmas errand running," things like buying extension cords and lights for the bushes outside, and a new light fixture that will allow me to have both a bulb and an outlet for the lights in the same fixture; buying food for the holiday party at work; buying giftwrap and tags; making lists. Which deserves a category of its own.

Lists and lists and lists and lists. Lists of Christmas gifts to buy. Lists of Christmas gifts already bought. Lists of things to buy for vacation. Lists of things to pack for vacation. Things I need to do to the laptop before vacation (load some MP3s, transfer the book, transfer the site since I haven't worked on it on the laptop for several months).

Lists of things I need to do before vacation (polish my toenails, fix a pair of Bob's shorts that are missing a button, mail a birthday card to my brother, get cash).

Lists of things I need to put in my purse (a couple of blank checks, my new datebook for 2002, the book I'm reading).

Lists of things I need to bring to the office (candles, a Javascript book, an HTML book) and things I need to take home from the office (the gooseneck lamp that is too short and too bright and doesn't fit on my desk anymore anyway, an insulated cup that I never use).

Lists.