Friday, the housekeeper came after lunch and finished setting up the tree, as well as getting some other stuff done. She bought the lights, and said she had to try a few stores to find one with red, yellow, green, blue, and pink, but that's what matches the ones wrapped on the tree. The house is definitely better for her attentions, both cleaner and more decorated. {Smile}
The tooth is hanging in there, feeling odd, occasional small pains, nothing unbearable. Still, I will be so happy to get that root canal! {Smile}
I ate Breakfast, lunch and dinner with Mom and read to her before dinner. She was tired, but opened her eyes to look at things, sometimes when reminded. I started with scripture and thoughts about it. Then I continued with three cards: one from her cousin, one from her sister, and another from her cousin. Next, I showed her the first several pages of _The Calming Cat Book_. After that, I read the next story in _My Little Pony: 5 Minute Stories_. "The Crystalling." I finished up with the 8th of December's story from _366 Stories for Bedtime_, "the Reindeer." Grandfather told Kipi, a little boy from Lapland, stories about a great, white, magical reindeer. One day, Kipi decided to go hunting for it. If he saw it and killed it, he'd know his grandfather wasn't just making up stories. So, he dressed warmly, put on his skis, and took his bow and arrow. When he'd gone some distance, he saw a giant white reindeer silhouetted against the sky, with sparkling horns and flashing eyes. The reindeer told Kipi not to kill it, and he would have good luck all his life. Kipi went home as fast as he could to tell Grandfather. {Smile}
I read articles and played an online cross stitch game. It's simple, but somehow absorbing; the nurse came in to point out lunch was unusually late... I'd lost track of the time. After lunch I cleaned myself up. Then I welcomed the housekeeper who'd arrived while I was busy. Next, I hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming. It was too late for the early large-group events again, so I worked on some paperwork. Then I noticed it was time for the later short, large group event. I joined it, and as always, they ran two. The first went fine, but the second produced three times the usual enemies. We started to clear it, but folks attacked one with the wrong weapons, which just makes things worse, and it was quite bad enough already. Then enough folks left, the whole group broke up. I was actually relieved, since it was time to read to Mom already, but I didn't want to abandon them if they kept going. {Smile}
After dinner, I got back in time for the late-night short, large group event, and found a big group gathered, looking at the mess we'd left when the last event broke up. We got to work and cleared it. One even was sorry we'd gotten three enemies earlier. We'd get that much less experience and stuff. {chuckles} We cleared it with modest difficulty, considering the size of the mess, and ran the usual second run without incident. The character I played for both - the one I'd been trying to get to level 50 - finally made it, so I had a whole bunch of paperwork after that. I also talked with Owl Girl on the chat server. Well, and after I started writing this update. I guess I finished just as Kitten came in. We talked a while, then teamed up. Nox and I started talking on the chat server, too. Kitten and I ran a special mission only available during the winter event to test the newly improved character She is indeed improved. After one mission, Soothing Darkness said hi, and asked to join us. I added her happily, and we ran two more winter missions. Then Kitten left to start a new character they thought of. Soothing Darkness asked if I could add a friend of hers. I did, and we ran one more winter mission. It was tough, especially since her friend was lower level, but they insisted they were fine. The game adjusts, but not entirely. We made it through it, and I said goodnight. I wrote a little of this and made notes for the rest. I finished this the next morning after breakfast. {Smile}
