Happy Festivus!

Today is the day for the eating of comfort food, the airing of grievances and feats of strength.
The thumb wrestling championships were after dinner and then the good bit...
"I got alot of problems with you people, and now you're gonna hear about it!"

Ah, the holidays, a time of peace and love and all like that stuff there.
Tomorrow, 7 seafood dinner for Christmas Eve! Yummmm
Given that we celebrate Festivus, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day I find myself rather busy.

Heifer project total...$600!!
If you want to contribute you have until the 25th to follow the link over there >>
Hope you had a happy Festivus!

Here, read this meme and pretend I said something interesting, please

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Gift bags whenever possible (I believe in energy conservation) but they don't work so well with something, and some PEOPLE, gift lookers!!

2. Real tree or artificial?
REAL! Must be real, always! You hear me, Mr. Logo?? ALWAYS!

3. When do you put up the tree?
As soon as I can talk Mr. Logo into it Usually around the 15th

4. When do you take the tree down?
After New Year's or Epiphany

5. Do you like eggnog?
Eggnog is lovely, especially with Capn Morgan

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
A Barbie dream house from my gramma, ooooooo, Barbie was stylin'

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yup, if you lived in Naples and don't have Il Precepe of some kind I think you get a fine or something, at least a very stern lecture from an Italian grandmother, be afraid

8. Hardest person to buy for?
I dunno, I figure if you can't decide what exactly someone would want you get them food. Everyone likes food, and now its so easy to get people gift cards, there is no such thing as hard to buy for anymore!

9. Easiest person to buy for?
The kids, they are very clear on what they want and therefore I am very clear on what they want

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail, and late

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
A sweater with huge embroidered flowers and sequins. Kill me now, my step-mother-in-law must have thought I would wear it

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Charlie Brown or Christmas Story, oh, or the Muppets Christmas Carol, or...

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
When I can no longer ignore Mr. Logo's urging to get the present buying taken care of

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Nope

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My sister's cheesecake, mmmmmm

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
I prefer clear, Mr. Logo prefers colored, we have colored lights on the tree but NO ICESICLES!!
This far and no further, dang it!

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
At home for part, and with local family for part

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Probably not, am I allowed to Google?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star, with lights in it

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
One on Christmas Eve, the rest on Christmas morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Commercialism

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Penguins, I love my penguin ornaments. Ive been sort of collecting them for years but I keep it quiet because I don't want a bunch of stupid, ugly penguins given to me which I would then be forced to use

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
We all love the appetizers and the desserts, so we focus on those Christmas day. The 7 Seafood dinner on Christmas Eve is always a big hit. Although this year the esteemed elder sister is making a standing roast, ooooooo

25. Leave cookies & milk for Santa?
Nope

I have a time deficit

Too much to do and not enough time to do.
I think the time bandits have been raiding my stash.
I'm going to be gone till tomorrow night.
If you start missing me too much feel free to dig through the archives till you find a pic and then talk to it.
Just don't do anything creepy, or if you do, don't tell me about it.
Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999.
Is that still passe, or is it long enough for it to be retro?

A deep dark secret

Despite not watching TV much,
and in fact, none at all for a majority of my life,
I have a confession to make.

Late at night, when the mood was right,
when I was all alone,
I would sometimes watch The Tick.

The sayings of The Tick amuses me even still.

"The night is young and we have umbrellas in our drinks."

"Yes, destiny has her hand on my back, and she's pushing."

"Eating kittens is just plain... plain wrong! And no-one should do it, ever!"

"And so, may Evil beware and may Good dress warmly and eat plenty of fresh vegetables."

"Gravity is a harsh mistress."

"Well, folks, there you have it. A day in the life of a superhero and his sidekick. It's a very long day, the tights are uncomfortable; I think we covered that before. Map light, convenient and essential. A lot of working of villain motifs. Crime has a Bossa Nova beat. Leap before you look. Remember denouement. Other French words: inconvenient, nonessential... oh... I could go on and on... But time's a-wasting and evil's out there making hand-crafted mischief for the swap meet of villainy. And you can't strike a good deal with evil. No matter how much you haggle. We don't need to look for a bargain; goodness is cheap because it's free, and free is as cheap as it gets. Cut. What was that pig about?"

One Word

This meme was stolen from Snavy.

This meme is designed to be answered in one word.

Describe ...

1. Yourself: Ineffable

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse: Effable ;)

3. Your hair: Unruly

4. Your mother: Ruly

5. Your father: Phlegmatic

6. Your favorite item: Unutterable

7. Your dream last night: Forgotten

8. Your favorite drink: Wet

9. Your dream car: Fast

10. The room you are in: Family

11. Your ex: Informative

12. Your fear: Carnies

13. What you want to be in 10 years? 45

14. Who you hung out with last night? Family

15. What You're Not? Reversible

16. Muffins: Marvelous

17. One of your wish list items: Llama

18. Time: Flying

19. The last thing you did: Mediate

20. What you are wearing: Cozy

21. Your favorite weather: Fall

22. Your favorite book: Multiple

23. The last thing you ate: Cereal

24. Your life: Complete

25. Your mood: Capricious

26. Your best friend: Fabulous

27. What are you thinking about right now? Finishing

28. Your car: Functional

29. What are you doing at the moment? Answering

30. Your summer: Fast

31. Your relationship status: Married (and dating exclusively)

32. What is on your TV? Nada

33. What is the weather like? Windy

34. When is the last time you laughed? Recently

35. What do you think of memes with missing or odd numbered questions: Frustrating

Seasons change with the scenery, weaving time in a tapestry

It's hard to believe it's not officially winter yet.

It feels like winter.

I'm ready for Christmas break and eagerly anticipating the winter solstice.

Come on, December 21st! I want those longer days.

Whenever it gets close to the winter solstice I think of my visit to Newgrange, In Ireland. It was a fascinating place.

This is the opening to the structure and that rectangle (roof box) above the main door is aligned so the sun shines through it directly only from the 19th to the 23rd of December.

It's estimated Newgrange was built about 3200 BC. Ancient humans in Ireland built this enormous thing and aligned it perfectly to sun's course in the sky. An amazing feat accomplished without surveyors, retractable measuring tapes, compasses, telescopes or building code inspectors.

We will not be building anything, but I will let the Things stay up all night, the idea being to watch the sunrise after the longest night of the year. We will oooo and aaah over the astronomical wonders included in our "Round the Sun in 365 Days adventure cruise (no expenses included, void where prohibited, cruise length is indefinite, see participating dealers for details)."

In other news,

we have $200 toward out Heifer Project donation!

Well, after a full week and an additional Monday

the verdict is in. Mr. Logo is a

and he LOVES it!!

I want to get him that patch from Archie McPhee's along with some Cubes ™ for him to play with when he hits a slow moment. In other new, he also has a laptop and carries a cell phone these days, who knew? He is a reformed Luddite. He even downloaded applications to his phone!! I'm so proud.

Ok, and to finish off this post, I have another poll.

Ok, the scene,

Logo has gone to meet the esteemed elder sister in a town about 30 minutes away from home. She has gone in Mr. Logo's commuter car (the crappy lil car in Logo lingo). Unlike her reasonably up-to-date vehicle this one does NOT automatically kill the lights when you turn off the engine. Can you see this one coming?

That's right, I drained the battery.

I checked the trunk- no jumper cables. So I called Mr. Logo and told him I needed a rescue.

Mr. Logo was disinclined to acquiesce to my request.

He suggested I have my sister take me to an automotive center and purchase some booster cables.

I did so, jumped the car and all was well.

There appears to be a difference of opinion regarding Mr. Logo's behavior.

Some regard his decision not to come to my rescue personally as an offense of the most egregious nature.

Now, I have dealt with car issues in the past. In fact, I've dealt with car issues in Greece and Italy. I have, due to necessity, known how to pop-start or jump an engine since shortly after I could drive.

So I regarded it as mildly annoying, but the big problem as far as I was concerned was not having cables in the car in the FIRST place. We fixed that though, so it was all good (I even got a bag for storing them).

Anyway, men, what would you do?

Ladies, what would you expect?