Bad grammar makes the Baby Jesus cry

I am annoyed that the rules of civilized discourse prevent me from saying in my writing group, "Your story's bad and you should feel bad!" I resisted. I let this person know as nicely as possible that you cannot cram two sentences together using a comma as glue, and that writing "'It's cold today.' He said" is wrong in two places. To be honest, though, I expect an argument about that second one. This person's ignorance is deep as well as broad.

One of my stories is getting close to being fit for public consumption.

I'm going to make hot buttered rum for Xmas, which is probably more exciting to me than it should be.

My parents have the craziness

This morning I had a wee little stack of presents from home--about 4 that were clearly CDs, and three that might have been books or double DVDs. Maybe, I said to myself, my mom has not gone nuts this year.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Four boxes today! One is my "from Daddy only" present. (A tradition so old that the first "from-Daddy-only" present I can remember were little necklaces for me and my little sis with beads spelling our names.) One is clearly my new comforter, and another is just one thing, which might not be wrapped, so is still in its shipping box. The last had like eight presents.

*rolls eyes*

I like how they address presents to all my multiple personalities. Ellie is winning, but Alyce and [embarrassing nickname deleted] are doing pretty well.