Everyone Make a Wish

WOW.

It is my one year "blog-aversary".   I can't believe I started this thing a year ago.  Frankly,  I'm not sure about continuing... not that I have run out of things to say, rant, sew, complain and/or outright bitch about - the topics are endless.  In fact,  I wish I had fewer things to write about.  I wish I had a quiet life.

I wish I was healthier, that my husband was healthier, that this economy would stop strangling us.  I wish people would think before they speak, be more considerate drivers and stop throwing cigarette butts out  the windows of their cars.  I wish dog owners would pick up their dog's poops.  I wish  people would stop posting videos of their very young children singing and dancing like a stripper and thinking it is cute. I wish the political leaders of every country would pull their collective heads out of their asses and work cooperatively and constructively.  I wish women would stop being their own worst enemies.  I wish people were required to regularly read good books.  I wish the news and TV outlets would also pull their collective heads out of their asses and go back to producing news programs with journalistic standards. I wish reality programming would be banned. Forever.

See what I mean?  There is no end to it.  Maybe it is a year-end thing, but I just feel exhausted keeping all the plates up in the air and spinning. (Ed Sullivan show reference.)  When I was in my 20's I used to look at the elderly (meaning people in their 50's) and wonder how they could be so content with reading and sewing and gardening and having long, lovely dinners with friends.  Now I understand. Less is so much more. Less is so much saner. Less is so much better for the heart, mind, body and soul.

I wish us all less in 2011.  Less aggravation, stress and debt.  Less weight, worry and fear.  Less of anything that is weighing us down physically, mentally and spiritually.  "Less will be heaven in 2011" if you will. That's my wish, and now I will blow out my one-year candle.  Let's all make a wish it comes true.

Buddy the Elf Day

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!"

December 18th is "Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day" - so if your phone rings, pick it up and say, "Buddy the Elf - what's your favorite color?"

If you haven't see the movie Elf you are missing out on a great Christmas flick.  I own a copy of it and watch it ad nauseum.  It never gets old.  You can also put a lot of syrup in your coffee if you need a boost getting started.

PS - make smiling your favorite!

Noelco!

It isn't the original, but pretty close.  I have such memories of this commercial (for some unknown reason) and it is nice to see it up on YouTube.  Bonus - you  get a peek at the  wonky,  1970's state of the art beauty supplies!  Enjoy!

"Noel-co, Even Our Name Says Merry Christmas!"

Norelco Electric Razors

Christmas Earworms

I am watching the store today; my husband had his Rotary Club meeting at noon and then has marching orders to get a haircut.  (I have strong feelings about long hair on men - eeeuuuchh.  His hair cannot be longer than mine.)

Needing a creative outlet I decided I'd play around with the look of my blog.  It's kind of like auditioning fabric for a quilt but without the patterns.  (If there were patterns available I'd never get anything done.  Seriously.  How much fun is this?) In between tweaks, I wait on customers, answer a lot of questions, and listen to Christmas music on either the radio or my Pandora.  I have strong feelings about music and a pretty broad spectrum of music I like. There are, however, a few changes to the cannon of Christmas music that I would like to change effective immediately.  They are as follows:

1. Dominic the Donkey should be banned from the entire planet.  It is the most obnoxious, stupid song ever written and screws itself into your brain like an earworm. I'm not an old fart - I love Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer and the barking dogs Jingle Bells, but this donkey song is just vile.


2. Anything sung by Mariah Carey.  Mariah the Pariah has destroyed more Christmas songs than anyone on the planet.  Seriously - it sounds like someone is holding lit matches to her feet while she sings.  She makes me want to pour hot wax into my ears so I don't have to listen.


3. Synthesizers can serve a purpose (limited at best) but you can't seriously build your life or career or album around 5000 of them.  It is just waaaaaaaayyyy too much.  (Are you listening, Trans Siberia Orchestra?)


4. Metal bands doing Christmas songs.  I was in the grocery store the other night and it sounded like  Iron Maiden was singing Silent Night. Aside from being really offensive, it almost made me run out of the store. It was L O U D and causing the groceries in my cart to rattle from the vibrations.  It was surreal, like being caught in a  Stephen King nightmare.


5. Songs where a parent is drunk (Please, Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas) or dying (The Christmas Shoes). No further explanation needed.


6. The Little Drummer Boy. Nice concept, bad execution.  I've never heard a version of it where those "rump-a-pum-pums" didn't make my ears bleed.

One further admonition - just because you have successful recording contracts does not mean you can sing Oh Holy Night.  Very few people have the pipes and the talent to tackle that song and you should leave it to the people who do.  Chances are, Celine Dion, you are not one of them. Just sayin'.

For a consummate Christmas music experience  listen to a professional choir.  Choral singing is the most brilliant, beautiful and evocative way to listen to the songs you love best.  The Kings College Choir, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Cambridge Choir - any of them will reverberate in your soul.  Combined with their orchestral support (those French horns do me in every time) you are virtually guaranteed to be infused with love and light.  Alternatively,   you can shake yourself up a pitcher of icy martinis and listen to Eartha Kitt sing Santa Baby.  That'll put some holiday color in your cheeks!

Enjoy.

About Shopping with Beverages...

Today's subject:   Shopping with beverages.  I'm not sure at what point in time so many people became incapable of walking in to a store without clutching a cup of hot coffee or a dripping cold beverage. It might be about the same time that water bottles became a semi-permanent fixture, either stuck in everyone's mouth or clutched in their hand as if it was their last chance to hydrate on this earth.   It's all a blur.  A very bad blur.

Most stores and offices have signs indicating that you need a shirt and shoes - or you will have no service.  Many more have signs that say "no food or drink in store" or the more gentrified, "please enjoy your beverages outside."   Not only are  these signs ignored, but customers often bristle offensively when asked to "leave your cup on the counter while you browse" or "Let me know if you need anything, and do be careful with the coffee!" chirped ever so pleasantly.  WELL. I NEVER.  (Stomp out in a huff.)   "Good riddance,"  I think to myself.

People sipping coffee/tea/soda/pop/water are rarely purchasing anything. They are recreational shopping.  That alone is cause for having your head examined, but please consider the store owners who are left with soggy quilt fabric, dribbled on greeting cards, dripped on t-shirts, and puddles of god knows what where a coffee cup (not empty) was "cleverly" tucked behind merchandise when the drinker was looking for a place to get rid of it.  I was in a well known department store shopping for a new down comforter when I pulled one from the shelving and found just such an abandoned cup of coffee. It had teeny little bugs crawling around it  - and I put the down comforter back.  Even though it was encased, I don't want anything in my bed that was near those bugs.

Lest you think this does not affect you, please know the cost of replacing these stained shirts & merchandise is passed along to the consumer - you and I are paying for the nimrods who can't separate themselves from their precious drinks.  I love to have a cup of coffee, but I take a break from what I am doing and sit down and DRINK THE DAMN COFFEE.  It is much more relaxing and does not encroach on other people's property or skeeve out people who have to watch you slurp and dribble on what would otherwise be saleable merchandise.

If you do it - knock it off.  If you don't - you are a reasonable person who is not a nimrod.

Thank you, and spread the word.

Decking the Halls

Have a few hours at home this morning and thought I better get started decking my halls.  The feathered star above the mantel is actually a table runner my mother made, but I like it up here much better.  It's visually gorgeous and no one can spill anything on it!  The mantel  is a work in progress, but I like what I've got so far.

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The quilt on the left is called "Reflections" and is another one of mom's wonderful quilts.  The piecing on it is just amazing - the work of the insane.  It is hanging in my Dad's room so he can see it from his bed.  I'm not sure if he knows what it is or remembers who made it, but I like the idea of him having something beautiful to look at and that it was made by someone he loved - and who loved him - so very much.

The GO BIG RED Nebraska plate was an early gift from Santa - I LOVE IT, and it will be up and around through the Big 12 Championship  game this Saturday, and for the bowl game season.