Well, it turns out I may have a Christmas tree coming. A very good friend of mine called me tonight and found a frosty, 4.5' tree for a reasonable price. It's extremely reasonable because despite my protests, she wants to get it for me as a gift. I'm getting a little guilty because lately it seems when I mention needing things on my blog, they mysteriously show up as presents! I could blame it on the blog having some sort of evil, genie-esque power, but I think the truth is that I just have amazing friends. Thanks, Marcee.

And speaking of friends, the Succubus on Top book dedication-ees had me over tonight too. Actually, I kind of invited myself over because I wanted to watch America's Next Top Model. But I had nothing to do with the ravioli and chocolate pizza they offered me. That was all them.

I had just come from my condo's first HOA meeting. The point was to elect board members and approve the budget. For me--and, as it turned out, half the attendees--it was to complain about parking. We have a secured lot, and everyone theoretically has an assigned numbered spot. Unfortunately, no spots have numbers. There's a little map that was in our condo binders that has a drawing of the lot with scrawled numbers. But nobody references that, and really, it's grab whatever spot you can. The problem is that it's one spot per unit, but people are letting their friends park overnight. So, for the last two nights, I've come home after 11 and found the lot full. Apparently I'm not alone.

The lady who worked for the management company put it quite eloquently. "You could probably go down the hall, open someone's door at random, walk in, and use their bathroom--and not have them nearly as mad as if you parked in their spot." I think this is true, and my neighbors seemed to agree. All of them are young (hardly anyone over 35) and professional, but man, we were all out for blood on the parking issue. We were finally sated when the company said they'd spray paint numbers in and contract a towing company. You should have seen the gleam in everyone's eyes then. I think we were all secretly hoping people would park in the wrong spots now. Nothing like sweet revenge to get us all ready for the holiday season.