A little help, please.

It would appear that some of us, or maybe just me, need help with Christmas carol lyrics. So, here is a site to help the lyric-challenged.

When someone at your next caroling event says, "How on earth do you remember all those lyrics?" be sure to tell them that Suzanne's blog hooked you up, and encourage them to stop by regularly.

Christmas Carol Quiz!

One of the blogs I like to read, and one that I link to here on my blog, is BusyMom.net. Busy Mom is having a little trouble feelin' Christmasy, but she did provide a link on her blog to a Christmas Carol Quiz at the Chicago Tribune's site that I gave a whirl.

I missed 6, which made me deeply ashamed of my profound failure (I have a slight perfection complex), but the Trib says I shouldn't feel bad. Here's what they said about my performance:

"Your TOTAL SCORE is: 76%. Not bad. You stand to be the life of any winter holiday party you attend, should caroling break out."

This is true, ya know. I'm peppy at parties, and I love to sing. I'm pretty good, too...certainly better than most of the shmucks at holiday parties (now THAT's the spirit)!

It's Elftastic!

No, this isn't another post about Will Ferrell. This is something you may have already heard of, but I can't take the chance that you haven't - it's just too good!

Ever wonder what you'd look like as a dancing elf? I know you have, so don't even pretend that you haven't. If you can't stand the suspense, the not knowing, then bust out whatever means you have of uploading a picture of yourself to this site and get your happy on!

You want to see me as an elf, don't you?

Well.

Okay!!!

You can record your voice, too, I guess to impart happy Christmas wishes to all who see you cuttin' your elfin rug, but I'm not really in a position to do that just right this minute. Send me the link, though, if any of you decide to do it!

Merry Almost Christmas!

One more week!

Well, this time next week we'll be in a stupor from the frenzy of opening presents and gorging ourselves on a gigantic Christmas feast! I believe there are still a few of you out there who haven't finished your shopping, and perhaps even a few who haven't finished decorating. To assist you with both endeavors, I present, Monster Stockings!

I personally wouldn't pay $60 for a stocking - even one with webbed toes - but you last-minute types get stuck paying a premium all the time, so you probably won't mind.

Just for a moment...

If you get a chance during this holiday season, keep an eye out for the show, The Christmas Truce, on The History Channel.

You may have heard the story before, but it bears revisiting at this time when we have soldiers abroad, and Christmas is upon us. It's the story of one Christmas during World War I, the Christmas of 1914, when German and British soldiers in one place on the Western Front laid down their arms and met in No Man's Land for a day of peace/armistice. They shook hands, talked, laughed, even played soccer. It required both bravery and trust on both sides. Other soldiers in other areas tried to do the same thing, and one side or the other wouldn't have it. But in THIS place, it did work...at least for a few days.

I do not suggest you watch this show as a commentary about war - either the one we're fighting or war in general. I simply think it's a beautiful moment during a horrible time. Just for a moment, they weren't soldiers or enemies, they were people. And it was Christmas. And God granted them peace. And they took it.

It's a special story during this special season.

Shake, rattle and roll.

I'm feeling like poo (yeah, that's right...I said it) thanks to my allergies, so I don't have any witty observations today about the world we live in, but I do have this bit holiday festivity to offer: The Holiday Snow Globe.

Give it a shake and let it run for a while. You'll see some humorous stuff. Or at least it's humorous to me, but my brain is only half-functioning.

Snowball fight!!!

It's supposed to hit 73 today, so no snowball fights will be had here in River City, but to get a little Christmas cheer, visit the "Elf" Snowball Fight Web site: www.elfmovie.com/swf/snowball_fight/index.html.

I'm sure it will suprise no one that I love the movie "Elf" considering its star. But hey, I'm not alone. My friends were *just* talking about it on Friday and laughing about particular scenes. I swear, it wasn't me who brought it up!

If you haven't seen "Elf" then get thee to Blockbuster, because it's nothing short of a modern holiday classic. Really! I mean it!! Okay, maybe it's not "Miracle on 34th Street," but you will laugh, and it's good holiday spirit and all that. If you don't like Will Ferrell...well, then, there's something wrong with you and you probably don't like Santa or Rudolph or, for that matter, the Baby Jesus, and you can't be helped. But for all of us good and true people, somewhere in among "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Scrooge" and "Christmas Vacation" (if not the best "Vacation" movie, one of the top two), squeeze "Elf" in there.

"SANTA!!!! OH MY GOD!!!! I *know* him! I know him!"

Here it comes.

I had a nice weekend, but my winter cold/allergy flareup has begun. I'm honestly not sure which it is, but my throat hurts from all the gunk running down it from my sinus passages, and it's a race now for me to get done as much work as possible while my brain is still functioning. Any day now, my head will weigh 20 pounds and I'll no longer be able to think from all the gunk gumming up the works. So, after I post this, it's work, work, work, like a worker bee who is working! But first I post.

I had an enjoyable weekend, aside from the illness settling in. Friday night, my crew and I went out to celebrate Vangie's birthday. You go, girl! We had drinks and appetizers at 219, then went to see our resident rock star, Angela, rockin' the house with the band she sometimes sings with (and lookin' hot, my friend!). We petered out a little earlier than usual, but that's okay - we're entitled. We're old now. Things overheard that night:

"Suzanne is going to tell us how she keeps her *** clean." (No, she wasn't, and she didn't.)

"Bitch stepped on my hair!"

"Happy birthday to youuuuu....I don't remember the words." "'Happy Birthday' mother fu**er."

Saturday I spent pretty much the entire day enjoying a marathon of "That Girl" on TVLand. I've known about "That Girl" for many years, but never saw an episode. Now, I've seen most of them. Cute show. I must say, there's something very pleasant about spending a cold, winter Saturday watching a frothy 60s sitcom all day. I even started noting the actors who had bit parts on the show, and who later when on to actual fame: Chuck Connors, Richard Dreyfuss, Caroll O'Connor, Rob Reiner, Teri Garr, and that Russell whoever guy that played The Professor on "Gilligan's Island." If I ever see the rest of the episodes I didn't see Saturday, maybe I'll spot more! That's part of the fun of watching old TV shows - seeing somebodies before they were anybodies.

Sunday, I got a big chunk of my Christmas shopping done, which was a relief, and then I went to my book club. In anticipation of not being home by 7:00 for TAR, I set my VCR. Unfortunately, stupid NFL football pushed everything back again, so I only caught half the show! I saw in real time who won, then went back and watched as much of the show as my VCR had taped. Here's the recap:

First task: find the clue in the park in Spain. Bama was slow on this one, but it didn't matter since the next task was a flight and the teams all caught up at the airport.

Second task: Fly to Paris.
Rob and Kim get earliest/first tickets. Blech. Bama outsmarts the other teams by finding airport closer to Eiffel Tower and they get there first, though. Awesome.

Travel to Caen.
Everyone caught up again. Bummer.

Roadblock: Skydive.
You all saw Kimberly wipe out when she got to the clue box, right? I saw it happen in the background, then they showed one shot of it happening from another angle, and that was it. There wasn't even any dramatic music. That deserved several replays in slo-mo, man. Rob, of course, whined about not getting to skydive, but everyone seemed to enjoy the Roadblock, whether they skydived or rode in the plane. Seemed like a fun task.

Take the Train back to Paris.
Rob is an idiot, but somehow it manages to not bite him in the butt. He leaves the train platform to go change money, and the train comes early. Hilarious. But then at the next station, he and Kimberly catch up again. Arrrrgh.

Detour: Art or Fashion.
This is where my VCR cut off. I barely saw the instructions for Art and saw nothing for Fashion, so no more recap and commentary on the rest of the race.

I do know that the models won, and I guess that's fine. It would've been nice if Bama had won, but it would've been annoying if Rob and Kim had won, so whatever. I wasn't terribly invested this time after the Chos and the Barbies were out. But it would've been nice to see the rest of what happened. The football delays are on my last nerve. I'm glad the next season won't start until after football season.

But wait, there's more!

Well, I hope you've all had a chance to go play with someone else's Christmas lights online. Now, it's time for a little nostalgia. Take a trip down memory lane, to a time when you were convinced that the jolly, fat man in the red suit at the mall was nuthin' but a Stranger Danger test. I present you with:

Pictures of children terrified of Santa.

Ah, the spirit of Christmas. And the seeds of therapy.

Tis the season

Okay, people, time to rev up that Christmas spirit. Do you realize we're less than three weeks from the big day now? Well, we ARE!!!

So, I'm going to see if I can share some interesting holiday "stuff" in the coming weeks. Let's start with this Web page of Christmas lights: http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/christmas_webcam. This page is not your normal Web page showing someone's Christmas lights. Oh no! This is Age of the Internet, the Interactive Age, the Too Much Time On Our Hands Age. So, thus, you have Alek's Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease!

At this page, you can view the light displays on Alek's Colorado home in real-time, 24 hours a day, via 3 Web cams. But that's not all! No, it gets better. You can CONTROL Alek's lights!! That's right, folks - you can turn his lights on and off and blow up or deflate his inflatable displays via buttons on the Web page! Is that wild or what?!

While at Alek's place, he also pitches for you to donate to celiac research. Both of his kids suffer from the disease, so he's trying to raise money. A good cause. He also tells you all about his set-up for his Christmas lights, as well as several other features of the site.

A very unique site and all in the spirit of the season. Check it out!

Oh, happy day!

It's a happy day for many reasons, not the least of which was the outcome of TAR last night. I'll get to my recap of that in a minute, though. First, a rundown of the weekend. Friday night, I got to see the Longhorn volleyball team advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Saturday they advanced to the third round - Hook 'em, girls!

Saturday, I met my friend Sheila for an afternoon at the Blanton Museum and a late lunch at Romeo's - one of my favorite Italian places here in Austin. It was a theme lunch, since we spent our Blanton time viewing an exhibit by Italian painter Luca Cambiaso. It was a gorgeous exhibit. And lunch weren't too bad neither! Thanks for a lovely Saturday outing, Sheila!

Saturday night, I went to my first holiday event of the season - a potluck and Laurie and Tony's. It was a blast! We had lots of good food and wine and company. Laurie always gets a real tree (as opposed to the pre-lit plastic one that I put up every year), which really kicks off the season, I think. A good time was had by all, which is always true at L&T's!

Sunday afternoon Angela invited some of us over to taste the wines she brought back from the California wine country over Thanksgiving. The wines were incredible, and she did a fab-o job of laying out snacks that were paired with the wines and telling us about the vineyards that each wine came from. Very enjoyable. After the wine tasting portion of the evening, Angela and I watched TAR, which capped things off nicely. Let's recap, shall we??

The teams started with the Road Block of eating camel meat. While I normally demur from all food tasks, this one I could've done. It sounded like most of the teams thought the meat tasted good, and there wasn't an excessive amount of it to eat. The only thing I couldn't figure is how the Blondes got so far ahead of Bama and Rob and Kim after starting out last! I would like to have muzzled Karlyn while Lyn was trying to complete the task. She can be a real bitch, that one.

Next the teams flew to Spain. They all caught up at the airport, which I thought they might. I nearly choked when the Blondes asked the Models if the Models would be willing to step aside at the mat and let them be first. WHAT??? And WHY would they do that for you when you've been nothing but cut throat the whole game??? I was so glad the models were like, "Not happenin'" even though it didn't come to that.

Next was a Detour: Lug it or Lob it.
This was a tough choice, but I would've taken a risk and gone with Lob it, and it looks like that would've worked out - it did for both of the teams that chose it. I was about ready to change the friggin' channel, though, when Kim kept screeching like a banshee. I mean, WHAT is the big deal? So, some people are pelting you with tomatoes. They're not acid bombs. Grow up! And taking time to change clothes after that task before going on to the Pit Stop? I would've been like "Get in the freakin' car!" if my partner did that (and yes, I know they both did it, but I still was incredulous. This is the last round before the finals! Don't waste time with that crap!).

The Pit Stop. Rob and Kim first. Okay. Then Bama. Good. Then...Models, Blondes, Models, Blondes, who will it be?? MODELS!!! Blondes are OUT!!! Hallelujah!!! I'm SO happy that they're out. Not only will I not have to look at their Crest White Strips smiles anymore, but they can't possibly win now, so whoever wins, it won't be a knife in my gut like Treasure Hunters was. Whew.

I'm just full of ideas.

The subject of crying at work has come up twice in the last 24 hours as I conversed with friends and co-workers. Note, I did not say I've cried at work twice in the last 24 hours - the subject has just come up. I'm not really a cry-in-public kinda gal. I have cried in public, and at the office for that matter, but it's something I'll bust a blood vessel in my brain to avoid. I'm a big believer in holding things in check until you're safely in the car or home. Then let the dam burst.

I *am* a cryer - I'm kind of an easy mark actually. Just not in public. And especially not in the office. I even have a "rule for living" about it. It's very profound, and I shared it with a friend yesterday. My rule is, "When you start crying at work, something has to change." It's like a light just came on for you, isn't it? The insight. I know.

Of course, this rule applies to situations where something at work is what made you cry - your actual job, or your boss, or a co-worker, etc. When this is the case, you must take action: get another job, confront the person who made you cry, ask for a different assignment, etc. But there are times when the crying has nothing to do with work. Maybe you broke up with your significant other, or you just found out a beloved pet has a terminal condition, or you haven't slept in 6 months because your baby has colic and now you just spilled your coffee. Tears in these situations are almost impossible to stop, and you probably don't feel like explaining your weakened condition to your boss or anyone else within hearing distance. What's a worker to do?

Oh sure, you could go to the bathroom and cry. And then someone comes in to pee, and you're both uncomfortable. You could try and sob quiety at your desk. And then someone comes over to ask you a question, and you're suddenly the center of attention for the whole floor. You could go to your car, but then everyone coming out to their car to go somewhere looks at you suspiciously (What is she doing in there? Why is she just sitting in her car? Is she going to jump out and mug me? Is she in there committing suicide? Maybe I should tell someone...). None of these is particularly great. So, I have come up with the solution: Cry rooms.

Churches have them. Why not offices? They church ones are for babies, but who says babies are the only ones who sometimes need a good cry at an inopportune moment? My office building has a room for new mothers to go pump breastmilk. We have a break room on the first floor. Why not a cry room?

Section it off in cubes, just like our work space, and put up curtains, like the nurse's office in an elementary school. Take the psychiatrist-couch things placed in some of the bathrooms around our building (don't get me started on those), stick them in the cry rooms, stock the cubes with kleenex and trash cans, then get outta the way. You just found out that your plumbing system is falling apart, and it's going to cost $30,000 to dig up all the pipes and replace everything? Head to the Cry Room, baby. Find a cube, pull the curtain, plop down on the couch, and let her rip. They could even put little timers in there, so if you're only allowed two 10-15 minute breaks a day (plus lunch), you won't run over and get in trouble (which would, of course, lead to more crying).

I think it's brilliance. In fact, I'm so moved by my own genius, I think I may cry.