| Ho, ho, ho ... |
[24 Dec 2009|11:56pm] |
 So, it's Xmas eve. We went to see Santa today down at the Daley Plaza (rather than at The Store Formerly Known as Marshall Fields, although we were back in there today), got some last-minute shopping done (a case of copy paper before a sale expired), and had our now-traditional Xmas eve dinner of home-made pizzas. I got the last of the stuff wrapped, and everything's out by the tree. I also had to do the "Santa thing" of drinking the milk and consuming some noticeable amount of cookies.
 This over here is a Violation Notice from "the Village of Winter Wonderfest", which I got when down there for the Tweet-Up a couple of weeks back. I figured that if I was going to share this, I'd better do it soon (click on it for a large version). They sure will write you up for anything ... it's the big indoor winter thing at Navy Pier ... but I sort of cheated, as heard that it was a violation, "soliciting for a holiday ticket", to ask to get one!
I did a somewhat different sort of post today for The Job Stalker (clicky-clicky on the image over there ===>), but I don't think it's my best work. I was wanting to sort of get into a whole intention/attraction thing about "gratitude", but didn't want to wade off into too "newagey" stuff, so it ended up being somewhat tepid and half-hearted. I did want to get it done today, though, so went with what I had.
I'm looking forward to doing another Chicago Now show on Saturday ... I'm sort of surprised that I'm getting called back in so soon (there are over 150 bloggers on Chicago Now, so even with 8 per show, they could go a long while without repeating!), but I'm not complaining. They're going to be pairing me up with the guy who writes the Hire Learning blog, and I'm still waiting to hear what "the concept" is, aside from the obvious angle of having two guys who are writing job search blogs on.
I was pleased to have gotten the "author interview" material back from one of the folks I'd contacted, so now I have Monday's column good-to-go. That with tomorrow's "link dump" means that I don't have to think much about that stuff for a while.
I had hoped to have had a book review up today, but I'm thinking the odds that I'm going to get that written yet tonight are pretty much "slim to none", but maybe I'll get a spare hour tomorrow to knock that down (I'm behind 3 reviews at this point, perhaps I'll get caught up on those over the weekend).
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| The view… |
[24 Dec 2009|04:07pm] |
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Christine Krizsa - Krizsa.com
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| white christmas |
[24 Dec 2009|10:13am] |
It is a White Christmas here, or Christmas Eve anyway. Merry Christmas from me and Spot!
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| merry xmas |
[24 Dec 2009|09:40am] |
Linus explains the meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown. Luke 2:8-14, KJV.
"Lights, please."
8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
"And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
Merry Christmas from me and Spot!
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[24 Dec 2009|01:06am] |
that's what i said. all day long. bet you wish you didn't know.
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| James for Christmas! |
[23 Dec 2009|08:26pm] |
It's a Christmas Carol! The song is about a gender-bending female Santa Claus who wants Tim Booth, the lead singer of James, to dress up in women's clothes. Note the lyrics
She only comes (to his house once a year and she lands on the roof)
When she's on top (she slides doen the chimney and she gives him toys)
The two lines had to be abbreviated to fit the song but that's what it's about.
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| maybe in comparison. |
[23 Dec 2009|05:06pm] |
everyone seems to be thinner. actually, guys at work mostly. kind of strange. seems like people would get heaver this time of year. i for sure feel like a sausage. me and this chick think they all got sick. cause it seems like they were gone for a while and came back much thinner.
i do not wanna do anything until the new year.
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| Ho, Ho, Ho ... |
[23 Dec 2009|04:56pm] |
Well, lookie there! I actually got the video segments off of the SD card, into the computer, converted from .mov to .avi (the "t@b Media Converter" ... http://bit.ly/5ClwvI ... is the best I've found, and it's FREE!), loaded into Windows Movie Maker, edited down, titled, and uploaded to YouTube!
One of these days I'll have one of those fancy phones that will let me do all that automatically but for the present time you'll have to deal with my having to find time to mess around with this stuff "the old fashioned way".
This was our now-annual ride on the "Santa Express" train ... the CTA runs this (generally, for one round-trip) on specific lines on specific days, so you really sort of have to schedule your holiday around it (or stumble over it, The Wife says the best part of it is seeing people in the subway who were just looking to get on a train only to see this show up!). Since the train stops in each station for about 45 seconds, it's hard to pick-and-choose one's shots, I would have preferred to have gotten some better shots of Santa on his open-air rail car (which has got to be freaky to be in going full speed through the tunnels!), but I did get a bit of a shot of him waving on his way out of the Chicago/State station.
Ho, ho, ho ...
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[23 Dec 2009|02:36pm] |
we got a wedge of brie and a sharp cheddar cheeseball for xmas snacking. that's after a breakfast of crumpets, english muffins and preserves. then for dinner, doc is picking up a roast tonight that i will infuse with garlic and make yorkshire pudding to go with it. christmas will be a day of good eats. it turns out that doc doesn't have to work that day, i'm actually relieved. M will be out and it will just be us and the cats.
i'm also glad i didn't put the tree up or any lights. i'd just have to take them down soon and this year i don't see a point. even though i leave it up until almost march. i'm also not in the mood to wage war with a curious 2 year old cat and the tree. felix is just too defiant to have a tree with antique baubles on it.
i hurt my back sleeping on my stomach again. i don't know why i do that. so heating pad and hot bath today with light chores. i have to brush chloe, and then vacuum up the mess. no big deal.
the cats are fighting me for the heating pad. leeloo just gave up the battle and went to eat. that's what they all do best: eat. it's their answer to everything. silly cats. felix is my lap cat and i wake up with him next to me every morning. his cuteness level is astonishing.
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| i no longer have a boyfriend, i now have a fiancé |
[23 Dec 2009|11:42am] |
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PJ Harvey - Long Snake Moan |
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i was making dinner when he came home. chicken and mashed potatoes and peas. two kinds of chicken, one for me and one for him. super buffalo sauce for him and sesame ginger for me. he came home from work and took the dogs out while i was fixing things. it got dark in the hour it took for the chicken to cook. i was slumming around in my jammies since i wasn't going anywhere that day and my hair was tousled due to not caring, he took off his green work shirt and put on a coat. "put on shoes and a coat and bring your plate outside" he said as i started to set the table. "what?" "get your coat and shoes and dinner, bring it outside, i want to show you something" and he takes off. i gather my drink and dinner plate and stand out in the breezy and dark night saying loud enough so he hears "why am i standing in the dark outside with a dinner plate?"
he emerges from the darkness around the side of the house and pulls me towards the side of the house where he had laid a blanket, tossed about tulips, and had light candles saying "i didn't except it to get dark so quick". i get giddy, he does this every once in a rare while and i always feel good when he does. we sit down and i try not to crush flowers where ever i may go and he sits next to me. i lay down my drink and instantly it falls over and spills all over him. i apologize and he waves it off, and gets up to go change pants. i start to munch on food and admire how lovely our yard is at night when he returns.
when he returns he eats a bit and we chat about this and that as the dogs bark wildly inside the house because they know we're out there and they aren't. i aplogize a million times over for spilling my drink on him and he comes over to me, i think to reassure me it's alright but instead he gets on one knee and says my full name, pulls out a robin's egg blue box and asks me to marry him.
i just slump forward and then i fall into him and say "oh steven, yes." as i hug him and bury my head into his chest. after a few moments like this i sit up and look in the box, but only have candlelight. i can see it's twigs shaped in silver and i get a excited and say "maybe you should put it on me?" but the ring is just a tad too small so we slide it on my pinky. and just hold each other for a minute more and blow out the candles and head inside.
(the ring was made from a silversmith on etsy, the candles were made by my friend charlotte, the flowers were tulips because of an inside joke where he thinks all flowers are tulips)
we go inside and i ask why he picke dtoday to ask and he said "cause today is the day the ring showed up"
the first person we call is my dad because i know he was feeling down earlier in the day and i thought the new might cheer him up. then we call my younger brother because of the awkward situation our relationship teeters on constantly, steven and philly have been best friends since jr high. phil sounds really uncomfortable with it all until he asks if steven prosed to me in second life or real life then he gets a mad crazy idea that i should play Warcraft online with afree trial so steven and i can have a bonding ceremony and then we all go kill orcs in a celebratory rage.
he said he won't condone our marriage until i do this.
steven called his mother was how just so nervous about everything he tried to calm her down and i could see a peak of a smile cross his face. then dad calls back and asks me "wait... are you getting hitched because you are preggers!??" where of course i tell him to shut the hell up and stop being goofy.
since then it's just been a barrage of "when is the date? what does the ring look like? what colors are you having for your wedding?" a million questions i'm not prepared to answer because i have none. we are thinking of taking a year and just gather ideas for the wedding and then next year setting a date. we can't afford a wedding at all anytime in the near future. hell, we can't afford an engagement party either. fuck, we couldn't afford the ring neither but i got one.
the theme for the wedding will most likely be in a whimsical fashion of nature. a mature whimsical, maybe kind of dark. maybe we'll have it in our backyard. maybe we'll have bbq for him, and tea and crumpets for me. i can assure you the wedding will be all DIY, so i will be doing it all and not paying anybody to do anything (but the food, dear god, lets somebody else do that). but again, this is all speculation. don't pester me with the when and what. i want to enjoy this for what it is while it is what it is and not rush into what it should be eventually. i am very excited that so many of you are excited. it makes me glow with even more love.
just let me enjoy the fact somebody wants to love me the rest of my life.
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| sayalessandra |
[23 Dec 2009|09:28am] |
"I'm on a boat!" Sayalessandra is on a cruise ship, singing Fly Me To The Moon.
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| that didnt work. |
[22 Dec 2009|11:13pm] |
i thought itd push me to do the other thing and then id say no but i just ended up poppin zits. not the good one though, so i should be ok.
pumkin pie and fudge mint cookies, gone. still workin on the red vines. might get another pumpkin pie before i quit. and egg nog.
so many plans that i already blew off this week. hope work doesnt suck.
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| Late again, eh? |
[22 Dec 2009|11:55pm] |
 So, I didn't have an interview to go up on The Job Stalker yesterday, but I was able to get my "how to use LinkedIn" post (that I'd been trying to get nailed down for a week or so) up. Clicky-clicky to check that out ===>
As you can see, that was from yesterday (and if I don't get this entry written fast it will be from two days ago!), the Holidays have descended on my schedule big time, and I've been spending a lot of time down in the Loop doing last-minute shopping, primarily with Daughter #1.
The Girls were supposed to have seen Santa today, but we got blind-sided by the line and The Wife had to get Daughter #2 to a doctor's appointment, so they bailed on that (while I was elsewhere in The Store Formerly Known as Marshall Fields) and opted to go over to Daley Plaza to see Santa there, only he wasn't there today (and, frankly, had they just stayed in line they would have gotten to Santa and out of there in plenty of time, but that's just ME saying that, and my opinion on these things carries very little weight) so we're going to have to schedule some additional trip downtown for the Santa thing.
Oh, speaking of stuff Job Stalker-ish, I've been invited back to do another segment for the Chicago Now show in WGN-AM this Saturday. They're going to be pairing me up with Ron Culp, who writes the "Hire Learning" blog which talks about jobs, but from the other side of the table (he's a partner with Ketchum and on a boatload of corporate boards). It should be interesting, and I'm (needless to say) eager to get to know Mr. Culp!
Today was The Wife & my 18th wedding anniversary. Her dad sent us a check for going out to dinner on, and we found this deal (a 3-course dinner for $19.95, thanks to The Local Tourist for the heads-up on that!) that worked out for us, so we were able to have a nice dinner out.
The Girls and I did Xmas cookies on Monday ... opted to go "simple" this year, so made up vivid green sugar cookie dough, cut it with the "tree" cookie cutter, and had The Girls go to town with a set of "writing" frosting tubes ... they did a great job making the cookies look like decorated Xmas trees.
Oh, and we did the Holiday CTA Train yesterday, and I shot some video ... I need to get that off the chip and edited, but you can look forward to seeing that in the next day or so!
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[23 Dec 2009|01:04am] |
that's what i said. all day long. bet you wish you didn't know.
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