Christmas Albums.

Carin just got me thinking about my favorite Christmas music. I give you a list.

Faves : these four five I could listen to over and over and over. (and I do, just ask RTO)

1. Squirrel Nut Zippers - Christmas Caravan I don't think there's a clunker on this one. Love Indian Giver, mainly for the very last bit where Santa shows up, "Ho! Ho! HOooold on a minute." like I said, I've heard it a million times and just never gets old. They also do a great arrangement of Sleigh Ride. overall, not too fun without getting too sappy.

2/3. Ultralounge - Christmas Coctails (2 volumes!) lots and lots of kitschy arrangements o' familiar tunes and a few original things. ooooooh, I just noticed there's a 3rd one.....

4. Klezmonauts - Oy to the World !- yet another album of really interesting arrangements. can we see a pattern here? I think it comes from singing so much traditional stuff, RTO sometimes accuses me of liking things just because they're different and not necessarily good. hmmmm, but this? this is good.

5. Great Songs of Christmas by great artists of our time -(album six) this was made for Goodyear. and who are the great artists?too many to name, but since this one is on vinyl I can't find an easy link for it except for ebay auctions. probably the most traditional sounding christmas album i have. I got it from my grandparents many years ago when grandpa discovered that he had two. speaking of two, it's got two tracks by Barbra Streisand (Silent Night and Ave Maria(the bach/gounod version)) probably my favorite is Bing Crosby on White World of Winter cause it's just so cheesey

so there's the five. there's others that get an honorable mention.... but this post is taking me forever, so maybe later.

mom always tells me kids would be easier.... yeah right.

Carlos: I'm gonna sit on your lap now.

MK: um, no, no you're not.

Carlos: yeah, it's no problem.

MK: I'm typing. get off my arms.

Carlos: but I'm comfortable!

MK: here, you can put your front paws on my lap and I'll pet you.

Carlos: okay....

MK:

Carlos:

MK: NO, you're not sitting on my lap!

Carlos: BUTIWANNA!!!!!!

MK: front paws only

Carlos: fine.

MK:

MK: nope, you're still not gonna sit on my lap.

Carlos: um, I was just going to sit on the arm of the couch..... oh, it's so nice here on the laptop.

MK: keep moving.

Carlos: you sure about that?

MK: grrrrrrrr.

maggie: hi! you can pet me now, right? oooooh, laptop!

IT'S SNOWING! IT'S SNOWING!!!!!

*runs in circles*

I really didn't order a dress

Saturday I got a call from a lady in the chorus that went something like this:

CL: Hi, I have the dress you ordered

MK: uh, I ordered a dress?

CL: yeah, didn't you?

MK: I... don't think so....

CL: well, I ordered it for you, you can come try it on today.

MK: I guess I could, but what size is it?

CL: 6

MK: uh, yeah, I definitely didn't order it. 16... maybe.

CL: huh, okay, well, uh, I guess I'll check and see if it's for someone else.

so, I get to rehearsal tonight and she comes up to me and says she checked her records and she ordered this dress for me and she has it with her. ooooookay. it's still a size six. I told her I haven't been a size six for ten years, not that I wouldn't like to be. not sure what's going on. I noticed there's another lady named maggie in the chorus and she may be able to pull off the tiny dress. we shall see. concert is Sunday.

looks like i'm in for a surprise later this week.

High Temps To Abruptly Drop From 70s To 30s

I was on the phone with mom when I caught the five day forecast and I gasped. 74 for Wednesday and a high of 32 for Thursday. yeow! guess i better get out the next couple nights to get christmas light pics.

these things finally started blooming 

i just like the colors in this one.

carlos

and sometimes i get bored.....

something i never would have done with film.



yeah, for whatever reason, one night last week i felt like putting on a ton of eyeliner and taking pictures of myself. there's a lot of them and they're almost all bad. but i thought i would share anyway. so much excitement here.

and another

puppy observation

what's up?


Roxie often will go find something to chew on while she stalks the cats. Once they alight somewhere, she'll find a spot a safe distance away to plant herself and then start gnawing. I don't know if she thinks she's being sneaky or what. kinda like some old movie spy trick but instead of a paper to read she has a rawhide to chew. well, sometimes she will chase after Carlos, but she'll be sure to have something in her mouth when she does it.

i didn't think things through completely......

puppies


all the christmas stuff in the stores reminded me of Halloween Snoopy. so i thought i'd try to find Roxie a new stuffed friend. decided it couldn't have a squeeker in it, cause that's the quickest way to gaurentee stuffins extraction, and I didn't want anything too furry cause they get slobbered on a lot. didn't think about removable facial features. this picture is from a few hours after i gave this to her. see? it's missing an eye. soooooo, i started searching again. settled on a bunny. he's for babies, has eyes that are embroidered. some day i'll get around to removing the other eye and the nose on the german shepherd and making some replacements with black thread.

just one of the many ways the cats demand attention

laptops

camera fun

some things you don't catch on that tiny display screen.

thanksgiving ramblings....

rumor has it that VP Cheney is in Baghdad. (as i'm writing this I can't find anyone official confirming it, but that's subject to change while I sleep (ha!)) mom had asked me earlier if I thought anyone important would go over there. anything is possible, and President Bush had gone over there the last time RTO was deployed. and I know some people thought the President's visit was silly, staged, whatever. but to me, sitting at home all alone that Thankgiving, it was the coolest thing. ever.

so, this time around i'm headin' over to the in-laws. and at this point, i'm going to be seriously sleep deprived. oh well, story of my life. chatted with RTO about it this morning and then Matt tonight and i'm gonna take the laptop and webcam and see if we can't at least all see each other.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

shopping hazards

i've decided there's some kind of special chemicals in yarn that makes me need to buy it to store in the scary bedroom closet. that's the only explanation. i don't know how many "projects" are in there.

oh, and holiday women's magazines, I can't resist them. I'm going to make cookies. no really.

so in other news, I went through a car wash today. lost the magnets that were on the back. maybe i'll call the gas station and see if they have them.

starbucks. they make some really disgusting tasting coffee, but some really delicious drinks. had a peppermint mocha today. mmmmmmm.

i was told he wouldn't eat the bushes or run away.

other bunny.


yes, and i'm sure RTO will be thrilled to know our yard is now mainly weeds. yay!

one of those odd things....

article came out today about someone i've met. kinda weird.

From the Ace of Spades Casino Royale review...

this sums up my feelings perfectly:

It all starts crackling good, then goes off the rails in an ending so anti-climactic and interminable you'll wish you were back watching nine hours of goodbyes in The Return of the King.

For about two thirds of its running length, this is one of the best Bond movies ever. Then a curious combination of over-fidelity to the book, coupled with a contradictory impulse to change the ending of the book, leads to a meandering denoument that largely makes you forget how good everything was before the ill-advised Act Four. (There's a reason movies have three, not four, acts, and Casino Royale will be cited in future sceenwriting classes as an example of what happens when you add that superfluous fourth act.)

It's only remembering the movie later you again realize, "Hey, the first two thirds were terrific!"

chatted with RTO about it.... read the Dallas Morning News review. They gave it a B+, which i would agree with. RTO was kinda surprised by that, but then i was thinking.... really it wasn't that bad, i was just so annoyed by the end of it. the last half hour or so could have used less talking and more explosions, IMHO. seriously, it took some willpower to keep myself from screaming, "SHUT UP AND DO SOMETHING!!!! #$(%$*%^$ BLOW SOMETHING UP!!!!" also Ace mentions that they don't use the "James Bond theme music" until the end, it's something I noticed, but had forgotten about. so i have high hopes for the next one. really. i do.

bunnies...

they're mulitplying....

EDDIE!!!!! 

interesting idea....

saw this tonight at World Market. thought about sending some to RTO, but then remembered how much he hates hummus. you can find more info about it here.

other disappointments....

fat free turkey dogs. what was i thinking?

i was thinking, how bad could they be? and there's the same number of them as buns.

I watched the new Casino Royale

so you don't have to. or if you just have to, leave after the torture scene, cause it's all downhill from there. I should have known when there were no "nekkid" women in the opening credits that it was going to waste my time.

the fact that i work in accounting should concern people

every 12 hours means twice a day. for whatever reason my brain decided it was really once a day. so maggie only got half her meds before getting her teeth cleaned today. oh well, the vet didn't seem too concerned about it and they went ahead with the dental thing. so i went and picked her up around five, she's been hangin' out on the couch with me most of the evening. it took me a couple hours to notice the spot they shaved on her front leg. poor kitty.

message for RTO

heh. I got the idea for the picture from gail's.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just switched over to FNC to watch the rerun of Special Report and IT'S NOT ON!!!! They're rerunning Hannity and Colmes. I went to the website and it looks like they've moved the Special Report rerun to 2 a.m. my time. This will greatly reduce my Morton viewings per week. I've sent them an email.

laurence simon, drug pusher

for cats.

every Monday he posts a kitty movie. this one made me chuckle cause the cat's all "leave me alone" until the catnip comes out, then they're best friends.

LS also wound up hosting this weeks Carnival of Cats.

one of the few things i don't like about the weather getting cooler....

spiders.


in my house.

on my couch.

not cool.

well, I was in OKC last weekend

so you know what that means.


EDDIE!!!!!

Lola let me download some pics of him from her camera. yay!

see other cats at this week's Carnival of Cats at TBIFOC.

Project Valour IT

Please consider giving to Project Valour IT. what is it? I'll tell you.

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at home or in military hospitals. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. The experience of CPT Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered severe hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important this voice-controlled software can be to a wounded servicemember's recovery.

you can find their homepage here for more info.

m'kay. I'm making this sticky, so it will be up top til Veteran's day.

oh, and Go Army!!!

Bill Roggio is going to Iraq again.

Hello, everyone. I am planning an embed to Iraq in the next three to four weeks. My goal is to embed with the Army in Baghdad and the Marines Ramadi. These two cities are the flash points in Iraq.

If you are not already aware, I have devoted all of my time and energy to this endeavor. This is my full-time job. I need your support to make this happen.

I believe this war is too important for me to sit back and let others do the work. I learned early on that our greatest deficiencies in this war are partisan free reporting, education on the nature of our enemy, and honest, informed reporting on how our troops are doing on the ground. Currently, there are 11 embedded reporters in Iraq, while the United States has over 150,000 troops in country.

I really need your help to keep this project going. Please support this embed by donating via PayPal.

I really appreciate his reports and analysis, you can find some of his previous embed posts here and here.

what was for dinner tonight?

Boston Market Grilled Chicken with Mesquite BBQ Sauce and a side of Ranch Seasoned Smashed Potatoes.

sorry, I couldn't find a picture of this one, and it seems Boston Market doesn't list their frozen things on their website. imagine little strips of "chicken" with grill marks on them in some red sauce and some mashed potatoes with the skins still in them. ah, upon inspecting the box close I found the url. so here ya go!




I will probably eat this one again some time. I liked the BBQ sauce, it wasn't too sweet, just vinegary enough. the potatoes were okay, kinda bland compared to the chicken. so i just saved the chicken for last it was very tender. sometimes i just like some bbq without having to drop at least ten bucks for ribs. i know this will shock some of you.

oh, and in the process of searching for the boston market site, I came across this blog that reviews frozen meals much better than i do. they have a star system and everything!

I guess i clean up okay....

before

after

I , for one,would feel much better....

if the probable new speaker of the house could demonstrate that she has some clue about what our troops are doing overseas.

update: cause i'm just that angry..... over the weekend, RTO was ranting to me about the Army Times running and editorial calling for Rumsfeld's resignation. at the time I couldn't understand what he was so worked up about. it's a paper, NOT part of the military, owned by the same people that run USA today. But now, more than a couple times, I've seen dems misrepresent it as "speaking for the military" when they should know better. (if you follow none of the other links, at least visit the Hot Air link and see this in action) so yeah, i get it now, RTO, rant away.

Hey sis!

Happy Birthday!

(h/t tv in japan)

lots o' driving today....

bumperstickers sighted:

I think, therefore I'm liberal

Peace is Patriotic

Mohammed is dead, Jesus is Alive

toothache? probably just bored.

maggie

Fungus Friday

i'm guessing this is a fungus of some sort, it's in the tree stump in the backyard.