Swaps, Shopping, Life in General

So SP11 is coming to a close. I don't have my final package all sorted out and mailed out yet, but I am getting close. My upstream pal is in a similar situation, but she's been having a few interesting challenges in her life. I can't wait to find out who she is! She's definitely given me a few laughs and smiles. I did do "my usual" with my downstream pal... Yes, I unintentionally revealed myself! Sigh... Sometimes I'm just too blonde for my own good. I haven't told her everything about me, so I still have some things to tell her about that hopefully she will find both interesting and amusing.
I'm busily working away on my WWCS package for my downstream pal. This time my pal is quite a challenge for me! But I like a challenge, so it is all good. I haven't been too communicative with her since she is very clearly dealing with some personal issues that require more immediate attention, but there is lots of information on her blog that I can work with, so hopefully she'll like her package. My upstream pal sent me a very cool link to a video of my theme song! Thanks, pal!!!
I'm not quite sure what is going to happen with SITMT... My downstream pal dropped out, for perfectly understandable reasons, but I'm still not sure what is going to happen with me. I may just hang back ready to spring into action as an angel. I'm thankful that my downstream pal communicated that she wasn't able to participate rather than leaving anyone hanging. It's the right thing to do!!! And I remain sockless from SITM... Good thing I had such a great time with my downstream pal for that swap. I would like to give full credit to AJ, our lovely swap hostess, for all of her hard work with both of these swaps. She can't control everything but has been very helpful and communicative.
Living close(ish) to the border and the strong Canadian dollar was enough to entice myself and some friends to spend the weekend shopping in Bangor, Maine. We had a very good time. We spent lots of money. We saved more money than we spent! Now I'd probably do Black Friday shopping again, but I'm not sure that I'm too inclined to get up to be at a store at 5am again unless it is a big ticket item. I bought mainly clothes, toys, DVDs... They would have still been there at say, 8am. The border crossing times were very good. We only had to wait about 10 minutes to get back into Canada. We paid our taxes and went on our way... Easy peasy. The only thing that might have been better would have been if there had been enough time to visit a yarn store or two... Non-knitters outnumbered knitters.
I'm on training for the next couple of days in anticipation of starting a new job on Monday. After 10 years of doing the same type of work, I'm looking forward to doing something different, although it is right in line with my training. I'm feeling both anxious and excited. I'll be doing very different work and for the first time in many, many years, the majority of my co-workers will be women... I'm used to working in "a man's world". Let's hope that I can adapt!
Both boys have received their report cards recently and they did very well. I'm so proud of my guys!
Unlike many of you out there in blogland, we DO NOT have out Christmas tree up! We always put up a real tree, so that won't happen until right before Christmas, but we do have up some of the outdoor decorations like our gigantic 6 foot wreath that we hang on the outside of the house and the wreaths on the stone gateposts. (That sounds far more impressive than it really is.) The house is starting to look very nice!
On the volunteer front, the start of the Christmas season means things like the church supper and working on our local First Night Activities. While both are enjoyable, why are some older "church ladies" SO BOSSY??? I always feel like I should be saluting them, clicking my heels and barking out "Yes ma'am!". They are VERY SCARY...