Twelve of the thirteen miners trapped in the West Virginia coal mine have been found alive.

The last novel I read in 2005 featured a similar mine explosion — with the caveat that the miners all died. While my reading experience lead me to understand that warm weather and barometric pressure can increase levels of methane in deep mines, causing explosions, I was unprepared for this knowledge to be so sadly useful so soon.

I am delighted for the families of the twelve miners — and for the miners themselves. To have cheated death when all signs pointed to certain disaster is wonderful news to hear in the middle of the night.

To the family of the one miner who died, I send healing thoughts of peace. Knowing that others lived when your family member did not is little comfort when you are facing lonely days ahead. My thoughts remain with you.

Update: Apparently, it’s only smaller miracles happen. And maybe not even them. The revised news is that only one miner was rescued, and this morning finds him in critical condition in the hospital. I can’t imagine the horror and devastation you might feel if you were told your loved one had survived against all odds and then that was taken away from you. My thoughts are not adequate for that sort of loss, but I offer them to the families anyway, for I have nothing else to give (other than my own outrage toward the wrong reports and toward mine owners who chose not to improve safety conditions despite dozens of citations).

Rudi tagged me with this meme:

The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits of yourself,” and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You are tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

My five weird habits:

1. I dislike certain foods, but often like either what they’re combined with or their taste. So I will accept oatmeal raisin cookies and eat them over the trashcan, throwing out the raisins as I go. And I will pull the onions off an otherwise tasty sandwich.
2. I am mildly obsessive compulsive about gift-giving. I buy perfectly good presents for people, think I’m finished, and then think, “Oh, just one more.” Lather; rinse; repeat. Or I buy presents for people that I don’t send. I still have them. And when the next gift-giving holiday comes along, I buy them another gift and add it to the pile. But they’re taking over the Burrow.
3. Cleaning causes me to lose things. I am perfectly capable of finding things when they’re in a bunch of piles. But if I clean up (here or at the office), I immediately lose things. Why would you look in that folder or in a drawer?
4. I don’t believe the Christmas season starts until after Santa Claus arrives at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I don’t play Christmas carols or decorate or acknowledge the presence of Christmas consumption at local stores until then. But it’s all fair game once Santa has shown up.
5. I have a nervous tic where I jiggle my legs up and down like I’m keeping time to a techno tune. I don’t necessarily notice it when I do it, but my mother or grandmother inevitably complain about it when I’m doing it on Gramma’s deck during lunch — I bounce the deck noticeably. Apparently I get faster or bouncier when I’m feeling under the weather or am stressed.

If anyone would like to be tagged, I’m happy to comply. But as I don’t forward chain letters (or chain mail, for that matter), I won’t tag anyone unasked…

Update: Finishing my best of books post made me think of two other weird behaviors of mine:

6. The need to obsessively look up words in the dictionary. Sometimes it’s because I don’t know the definition. Other times it’s because I want a word’s derivation. And other times it’s just because I’m interested. If I could only take one book with me to a deserted island, it would be a dictionary. And if I ever win the lottery, a complete edition of the OED will be high on my list of luxuries to acquire.

7. When I come across a book I want to read, I write it down so I can read it someday. There are dozens of notecards that float around the house left over from my Middletown days. Now there’s a notebook that houses my lists. Do I take it with me every time I go to the library? Sadly, no. But I should. Can I ever read all the books I’ve written down? Only if they stop writing new ones now. And maybe not even then. But I sure enjoy the challenge of trying…

Instead of telling you about the lowlights of the Christmas holiday (about which I’m able to laugh already — only five days out!), I thought I’d tell you about the highlights:

Best impromptu moment
Dad and I went to the evening Christmas eve service to enjoy a nice mixture of readings, sermon, and music. After the offering had been collected, the minister told us to sit down, went to begin his next reading, and burst into laughter. The associate minister stood up and then the minister came back to the pulpit, saying he needed to share this with us. Apparently there had been a bit of a typo in the program and the wrong chapter had been written down, giving us a genealogical rundown (all those “begats”) instead of talking about the shepherds.

Best food
Mum had made eskimo cookie dough, so I made the cookies — and then ate 90% of them, leaving only three or four cookies in the tin when I left.

Best present
Mum and Dad gave me a rocking chair, hidden, of course, in plain sight where my mother’s rocker normally is. It’s black and has a comfortable seat and rocks properly. (What’s with rockers that stop halfway through the rock? Don’t people actually rock in them after they’ve built the prototype?) I’m very excited to start my next knitting project in it because I think the rocking rhythm speeds up the knitting process.

Best trash
After opening the bell and tea that Jenny gave me for Christmas, I discovered the ribbon had fallen into the gift bag and had been hidden under all the tissue paper. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was there on purpose — because there was a ring attached to the bow!

Best realization
Rudi gave me two knitting books and three skeins of yarn for Christmas. The best part of this gift was when he proudly bragged that all three skeins were from the same dye lot. How cool is it that he knows to look for that?

Best knowledge
My family put up with a lot this Christmas and they did it because they love me — and Rudi. And I am a very lucky girl.

Well, things are definitely in a better place this morning than where they were over the weekend (and far better than where they were last week when I was filled with despair).

Despite a few wrong turns during last night’s shopping trip (don’t you hate it when you get on the Metro heading the wrong direction and don’t notice it until you’re in another state?), I am nearing completion on the mass accumulation of gifts. Olsson’s was very happy to get my business last night, and I hope those of you who receive their wares will be pleased, too.

I am done with other people’s shopping. As is Rudi. Hopefully the givers will be just as happy as the recipients.

I am generally happy with what I’ve bought. It’s definitely less than in previous years, but I think they are gifts my loved ones will appreciate and will get use out of. (And, if not, my feelings will not be hurt if they regift their presents to others who will appreciate them more.)

I am ahead of where I normally am with baking. Often the baked gifts get made Christmas morning. That will not be the case this year.

There are still some holiday cards that haven’t gone out. Those of you who haven’t received them live on the East Coast and I’m really hoping they go out in tomorrow’s mail. You might still receive them before Christmas, but, if not, they’ll arrive on Boxing Day and that’s good, too.

We still don’t have a cat sitter lined up — an oversight on our part. We’re working to remedy that.

We leave in less than 30 hours for our drive up north. I still believe it’s possible that we could be mostly ready to go by the time we need to be in the car.

This week definitely holds a sunnier outlook than last week.

***

Update: Rudi’s coworker Monica says she will be able to look in on the cats on Saturday, eliminating the one real source of stress remaining. Many thanks, Monica!

I think this is what I’m going to tell people when they ask how my shopping is going. Sadly, it’s probably true. Rudi’s grandmother? Taken care of. The rest of you? Um … no.

But I have made a great deal of progress on everyone else. There are ideas and pieces of presents bought/made for the rest of you. And, frankly, I still have six days. That’s more time than I need to research and write a 20 page paper. Frankly, that’s more time than it took me to write the $100,000 grant I applied for.

So I shouldn’t be worried, should I?

No. And neither should you.

I’m going to try to do a whole season’s shopping and baking all in one weekend with a holiday party (and maybe some pool) thrown in for good measure.

I’ll try to surface periodically to let you know how it’s going, but I make no promises…