My Christmas Playlist

I love Christmas music. I love it so much that I've been listening to it since October. It comes in every variety -- pop, jazz, hip-hop, instrumental...There's something for everyone. For those of you who might want to add some new songs to your Christmas repertoire, here are some of my favorites:
(Links are provided for ones that could be found on amazon.com)

* All Alone on Christmas - Darlene Love

* Somewhere in my Memory - John Williams (from Home Alone)

*When the River Meets the Sea - John Denver (from Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas)

*Percy the Puny Poinsettia - Elmo & Patsy (a childhood favorite)

*Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer - Elmo & Patsy (Should we open up her gifts or send them back?)

* 12 Days of Christmas - The Muppets

* Christmas Don't Be Late -- Alvin & The Chipmunks (I used to think it said, "We can hardly Santa wait" )

* O Holy Night - Josh Groban (That voice!)

* Snoopy's Christmas - The Royal Guardsmen

* Deck the Halls - Manheim Steamroller

* Happy Xmas - John Lennon

* Last Christmas - Jimmy Eat World

*The entire Winter Solstice V album

I'm sure I could list many more, but those are the ones that come to mind first. Enjoy.

Cubicle Decorations

My place of employ has an annual cubicle-decorating contest around the holidays, with prizes for first and second place. Last year, I did a cow-print background with tinsel around the top and a big cow head saying, "Moo-ry Christmas." I thought it was creative, but I didn't win anything. This year, I opted for a Family Guy theme, inspired by the stuffed Peter Griffin dressed up like an angel that I won at Kennywood over the summer. Since I already had the angel, I decided to go with a whole nativity scene. The cast of characters is as follows:

Lois --> Mary
Brian --> Joseph
Stewie --> Jesus (naturally)
Peter --> angel
Chris --> shepherd
Meg --> donkey
Quagmire --> Wise man #1
Cleveland --> Wise man #2
Joe --> Wise man #3

See picture below.


Guy and I made the stable out of a cardboard box, and I found nativity cut-outs online that I pasted Family Guy characters' heads onto. Amanda, who I share the cubicle with on the shift after mine, did the background.

It probably won't win anything, but at least I've enjoyed looking at it for the past two weeks.

Briefs

Funny observation of the day: A little boy cruising down the sidewalk at 5 mph in his yellow Power Wheels Corvette, followed by a Power Wheels white and pink Jeep (possibly the Barbie edition?) carrying two girls. No adults in sight.

Announcement: Guy and I are now the proud parents of a new baby Wii. And we didn't even have to wait in line for it!

She's Baaa-aaack

Came home the other day to a few messages on the answering machine. When I pressed "play," a familiar voice rang in my ears. It was Florence! I guess her ceiling didn't come down after all. In this message, she talks about how Brian should wash his windows and how she was wrong about the laundry (I guess she dialed the right number when she told the beginning of that story.) Look for audio clips coming soon.

Clean House

As I sit on the floor of my new master bedroom the first thought that comes to my mind is not "Ahh, the joy of vaulted ceilings," but rather, "Thank God Guy cleaned this carpet!" As you may have noticed, I haven't updated in about a month, but I have an excuse. -- "move-in ready" houses are never truly move-in ready. Since we closed on the 31st, life has been a mess of trying to come up with design schemes, shopping for necessities, shopping for items to contribute to design schemes, returning said items, packing, cleaning, telling Guy what to clean, and telling Guy that he missed a spot. There are many things I can say about buying a house, but I have one main theme to this post, and it goes out to home sellers more than home buyers. If you are moving out of a house that other humans soon intend to live in, clean it before you go! Even if you haven't vacuumed more than twice within the 7 years of living there, lift a finger and leave it in a nice condition for the new owners. I was cleaning the bathroom vanity the other night when I encountered (gag me) a drawer where the previous owner presumably kept his electric razor. You can only imagine my disgust at the sight of dozens of tiny hairs Grizzly Adams had left behind for me to clean. Now not only do I have to attempt to block out this image every time I eat a meal, but I am convinced the previous owners were slobs. And hey, I can be a slob myself at times, but it's one thing to live in your own filth and another to sell it to someone else for $120,500.

Homeowners' Fret

We signed our lives away yesterday in the form of a mortgage. Homeowning is exciting, but it also comes with a whole new set of worries. For instance, how cold will we have to keep our house in order to be able to afford the gas bill? How about, what if our furnace explodes? And who can forget, did I leave the garage door open? The last worry has been consuming my thoughts ever since we left there last night. We were there to pass out candy to Trick or Treaters, and I remember hitting the garage-door button when I left, but what if a little mouse ran under, triggered the sensor, and it went back up without me noticing? Now hobos and ragamuffins are probably making themselves at home in our 2 1/2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath semi-house. I guess that's one way to meet the neighbors.

Classified Contradictions

I was browsing the Pennysaver today, when I came across a couple of ads that I considered humorous. Here they are:

"Temperpedic memory foam mattress. Still in original plastic, never used. 20 year manufacture warranty. (NASA). Very comfortable. Cost $1,200. Asking $395."

and the second...

"Saxophone, New. Used 1 month. Great for student or beginner. $400 or best offer."

I'll let you see if you can find the humor in them that I did.