Obviously, channel 26 cannot be beat in terms of public access television.

Today I attended my third city council meeting on the subject of horse-drawn carriages at the beach, and I spoke against them for the second time. It was a long meeting. It started at 6 o'clock and I didn't get home until 10. The council voted to allow the carriage rides, as I suspected they would, but the mayor, bless her, voted against it for the second time. The first meeting, a month ago, ended in a tied vote, which means the item is defeated. Then the council decided to reconsider the item, seemingly because it is so controversial. At the second meeting, last week, they decided to defer the vote, hence today's blockbuster. I wore my huge "no to horse-drawn carriage rides" sticker proudly. Apparently these meetings are replayed on a local TV station. I'm not going to bother finding out which one, for two reasons: I don't want to know if I made any dumb faces, and what could compare to the school board meetings on the Okemos Channel? Obviously, channel 26 cannot be beat in terms of public access television.

Lately, Jacob has been jumping the baby gate and waiting right next to the door so he can run outside when I get home. This is the second night in a row I have had to pull him out from under a parked car. Hello, the gate is there so you won't get out, beebeard. Why can't he be like Jasper, and run away when I open the door?

It's so late, Jason might be home in not too long. I guess attending city council meetings is a good way to pass the time between when I leave work and when he gets home.

Merry Christmas to us.

Santar (yes, Santar) came to my house early. When you're a big girl, he brings diamonds, apparently, because last year I got an engagement ring the first week of December, and this year, I got a necklace! I like early Santar visits.

In other happy news, Jason is getting out of the Navy in March and we're moving to Massachusetts! This means he won't go on the six-month (November 2007 to March 2008) cruise I'd been not-so-silently dreading. I love being a Navy wife, and I am endlessly proud of Jason for all he's accomplished as a sailor, but having him home with me is far more important than anywhere they could possibly send him and any accolade they could possibly give him.

As a result, we canceled the lease for the apartment we were going to move to, and I told my boss I'll be leaving. It will be interesting to see how they'll deal with replacing me.

Lest you think Jason got nothing for his stellar jewelry fetching, behold his ultimate reward: a cat-proof entertainment center and a TV wider than my backside--37 inches (the TV, not me). He swears he'll never want a bigger TV. Yeah, right.