wake up call.

The problem with traveling in California, is that when people on the east coast don't know you're traveling in California, they call you really early in the morning and wake you up.

I'm in California this week on business, delivering Phase 1 of a project I've been working on for the last year. Its the reason that I've been so busy with work over the last few weeks, and I can't wait until its done and I can take a collective breath.

I desperately wanted to come home to at least some Christmas decorations, so I decided to put up my Christmas tree Sunday night. I have an artifical tree, so I dutifully sorted all the branches into the piles according to size, fluffed them, and started putting the tree together. I figured out a few years ago that if you actually string your lights as you go, the process goes much faster. Its much easier to maneuver this way when your tree is in the corner, and if you wrap the strands a couple times on each layer, you actually end up with a lot of depth to the lights, which I love.

The problem was, 3 of my 4 light strands aren't working. And since it was late at night and I couldn't exactly leave all the piles of branches laying on the floor for the dog sitter, I had to put it up anyway. So, I have a tree. Just no lights or ornaments yet.