I also have the audio version of the race report to edit as well. That is sitting on my iRiver as well… I am such a slacker. GEEZ!

I am not sure how much I will get done. I am going to a free ABA Training workshop here in Knoxville from 1-4pm which means that I will be at work for half-day. Work is the only place that I can get a block of time to do stuff. The Younger is always wanting to “Get on my shoulders” or lately, play Lightsavers Lightsabers. And I know there will be a time when he won’t want to do any of that, because his Old Man is a freaking idiot! I think that is the same time that aliens come an suck out his brain until he is roughly 20 or so. The Elder is wanting me to play the “real” races or games on the Playstation 2. He is more than capable of doing the practice races (for the CARS game) but I think the stress of racing against other competitors is a little much right now. This too will pass and he won’t want me to play for him and I will get stuck off on the sidelines. That is when I will be able to blog more.

Plus, apart from the Race Reports, I do have some other stuff to write about, that well, 140 characters just doesn’t do it justice… so those are in sitting in my Creative Repository until I get some time.

I’ve been listening to B97.5 which is Knoxville’s Official Christmas Radio Station since the beginning of the month. They play Delilah from 7 – midnight and last night was a rerun from earlier in the month, which is the second time that I have heard a rerun of one of her shows. Of course when it comes to traditional commercial radio stations, there is a limited pool of Christmas songs to play. They do make up for it by playing the same Christmas song but from a different artist, but it is Christmas music. I now need to watch A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation as part of the Terry Traditional Christmas. I’ll eventually get to the Black & White Classics too…

One of the nice things about working for the University is there are a number of “Administrative Closing” days inherent in the system. This means that you don’t have to worry about taking time off around Christmas to actually have something of a Christmas Holiday. Given that Christmas is on a Thursday, this would mean that most would have the 26th off giving them a 4 day Holiday… although technically, not much happens in (any companiy’s) offices on Christmas Eve… unless there is an interesting “Office” “party” with “mistletoe” and the holiday “yule” “log” when “Santa” is “checking” his “list” to find out who has been “naughty” and “nice”.

The University will be closed all of next week, starting Friday after work. So I get a 9 day weekend. This was one of the perks that swayed me to this job, because it wasn’t the salary amount. Now, I do have to come to work on the 29th… and I only get off on January 1st. But, I will worry about that next year… sheesh.

This year has had its share of traditions and alternations to traditions. For Example… I try to watch A Christmas Story at least twice before going to the In Laws house for Christmas. I can usually get the TV on TBS who has the annual 24hrs of A Christmas Story (you know a Gen-Xer is the scheduler). there, I can watch enough “parts” of the movie to see the entire thing. Well, AS-IF I really need to watch the movie to know what’s going on… I mean… I’ll just play it in my head.

The other movie tradition is Christmas Vacation. Now, I usually would catch this on TV while I was making some Holiday Bakeries… but this year, we don’t really watch TV anymore and I am not baking anything. Seriously. I’d love to make some Soy Milk Fudge… but I don’t have a recipe. I did have the DIVINE inspiration to make some Truffles with Coconut Milk/Cream. Perhaps, that is something I can do in South Carolina. Rumor has it that my in-laws have come up to the mid-2000s and have gotten Wifi. That beats the dial-up they had and perhaps I can be online during the downtime there, if any. Oh… downtime… right.

So, I haven’t seen Christmas Vacation, yet. There is always Monday’s Date Night… don’t worry, I’m not really thinking of a date watching Christmas Vacation.

Another thing that has been altered this year is Christmas Songs. I pooled my Christmas Collection in iTunes and it says that I have 455 Christmas songs which will last 1 day with 1.33 GB of Holidaze music… both includes the Classics and some the Comedy and some the Classic Comedy and some the “What-Tha?”. Typically, my Holiday Season starts with me listening to the U2′s version of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) and from there I listen to Run-D.M.C.’s Christmas in Hollis then to Jimmy Buffett’s Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rhum then to XTC’s Thanks for Christmas and finalize the beginning of The Season with The Twelve Days of Christmas by Bob and Doug MacKenzie. “What are you doin’?”

Well, I haven’t heard Run-D.M.C or Jimmy Buffett (that specific song) because I have been listening to the 24hr Christmas Music station here in Knoxville B97.5 and in the evening it’s Christmas with Delilah and when it comes to Easy Listening, she is the sappy-love easy listening, so although it’s been some the classics… she’s not going to play Run-D.M.C. Since I stay up late, Delilah goes off the air and then is followed up by the “I Can’t Believe I am actually listening to John Tesh” John Tesh. And it’s train wreck for me… not that I would ever “admit” to listening to Tesh, but there is this thing he does called “Intelligence for your Life” and it’s like CRACK to me! Little informational tidbits with teasers to keep you waiting until the next segment.

Some examples (from Tesh.com) are:
“Police-Friendly Windshield Stickers – posted 12/18/2008
Does Color Have an Impact On What You’re Buying This Year? – posted 12/18/2008
Are You a Left-Lane Slowpoke? – posted 12/18/2008
Are You A Dangerous Driver? – posted 12/18/2008
Don’t Let the Economy Bring You Down This Christmas – posted 12/17/2008
Plastic Surgery Isn’t Only for the Living – posted 12/17/2008
Do You Have “TiVo Guilt?” – posted 12/17/2008
Wanted: The Next Obama Impersonator – posted 12/17/2008
Beware of Chicken Trucks – posted 12/9/2008
Christmas Trees – posted 12/9/2008″

Seriously… I want to find out what Zombies are doing getting Plastic Surgery

“Hey Frank, I heard that Linda over in the Mausoleum got a Face Drop”
“I thought something looked different, she does look more imposing now… but soooo fake.”

*****

Now that it is Monday, I didn’t get to post a Photohunters post NOR a Success Sunday… It’s been like FOREVER since I have done either one of them. Well, it’s not like I haven’t been thinking of them. I just haven’t been writing them. Now that we have My Lovely and Talented Wife’s new laptop, we are going to start getting it ready, which’ll mean that I’ll have a laptop to use and possible get more computer time.

Another thing that happens is that two of the local radio stations play Christmas Music all day everyday from Thanksgiving to Christmas and so we cranked up the radio in the kitchen to get the mundane but festive Christmas songs playing through the house. I did hear the Jeff Foxworthy 12 Days of Christmas but that was at 11pm.

We are going to be going to South Carolina for Christmas so we decided to forego putting up our 9 foot mammoth tree and all the decorations (hard) and put up the kid’s tree with wooden decorations (easy) instead. The kids loved it and we had a sensory activity for the kids with stringing macaroni on fishing line for do-it-yourself garland. We (read: really just My Lovely and Talented Wife) painted the macaroni and placed it on the tree. We have this HUGE bag of macaroni because before we were Casein Free, we’d take the Cheese Mix from Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Cheese and Macaroni and mix it with Gluten Free Pasta… and it was good. So now we have this gallon size bag of macaroni for such crafts as Christmas Garland, maracas, snowflake macaroni decorations (read: throw handfuls macaroni onto tree), Macaroni Cushion decorations (read: throw handfuls macaroni onto couch) and the ever popular Macaroni Floor decorations (read: throw handfuls macaroni onto carpet).

The problem with all , most… eh, make that all mainstream radio stations is that the pool of songs to chose from is very very shallow. So, there might be a few Christmas songs in my 367 song library that I might be already tired of hearing. Thankfully the radio station (an Adult Easy Listening Station) has not played such songs as Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC, from the A Very Special Christmas album, the album that really started my love for Christmas songs and other “off mainstream” songs. I have some store credit at our local Book/Audio Book/CD/VHS/Video Game swap place and will probably score some more less mainstream Christmas music there. Don’t get me wrong, I have some mainstream and classic Christmas songs in my fave rotation.

Saturday, the kidlets and I (read: me) put up the outside light. We have some long netting white lights that we put out on our landscaping for a neat effect and some colored lights in the bushes. The driveway retaining wall is decorated with the lighted icicle lights but for some reason, only every other strand works. And seeing that we are going to South Carolina for Christmas, I’m not all that motived to check the lights.

Even here at work, I pulled up the grungy slightly used Christmas tree from the bellows of the house basement. I think I’m going to bring in some colored lights from home to make my desk area a little more festive. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry that some colored lights will be taken down because it’s not offending someone. Actually, I wish that someone here were I worked celebrated Chanukah, because I am totally ignorant about the whole Festival of Lights other than what I learned from Southpark and Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song parts 1 & 2. I need to learn more about Kwanzaa other than it would be an awesome Triple Word score in Scrabble. I hear there is even some who really celebrate Festivus and We have Freedom of Religion here in America and the corollary to that Freedom of Holidays, although I might get stoned (with rocks, not pot) if I wish the wrong person a Merry Christmas here on my home turf. Hmmm, I think some of the more uptight people could use a little pot to mello out over the next few weeks…

And so my Christmas Holiday season has started. I’ll be highlighting some of the traditions that I have personally (certain music, my Christmas baking etc) and I am sure that I will have some humorous stories about how Santa scares the pants off The Elder and The Younger… which sorta happened on Wednesday at the Fantasy of Trees.

—————-
Now playing: Smoky Mountain Jazz Cafe – Various Artists – Noel
via FoxyTunes

Today is the last work day of the year. A little birdie told me that'll be just a half day as well. So, my plans of running at lunch time have been jettisoned out into space. What this does allow is for Jen and I to finish putting up our Christmas lights up outside. With the kids, it's hard to get that done during the day and by the time I get home, it's dark. Stupid winter solstice! (BTW: the Astronomy Picture of the day showed the same horizon with the sunrise at different locations for the solstices and equinox – very cool!)

Jen's parents, her sister and my brother Chris are coming into town all today, so it should make it nice and cozy for Christmas this year. we'll be going to church on Sunday for “Christmas SML Style”. SML stands for Sunday Morning Light and is the Contemporary Service. This means that we have a Bassist, Drums, Keyboard Player, Electric Guitar, Saxophone and Acoustic Guitar Band along with 2-4 back up singers who perform the music. Powerpoint slides are used during the sermon and typically special music ranges from a solo person to last weekend with 2 acoustic guitars, a soloist and a violin. It's a neat and modern way to worship. The normal Reverend likes to play multimedia clips to convey his meaning. He's played clips from Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Phenomenon, Spirit, Alamo and many more. Appartently “Christmas SML Style” is going to have a Charlie Brown Theme.

I am looking to get in 5 miles tomorrow. I'll download the current episode of Phedippidations, my Fave running podcast and listen to that as I run.

If I don't get a chance to post anymore before Christmas… everyone have a Wonderful Merry Christmas !!!

Jimmy Buffett has his own Christmas album and even though a steel drum Jingle Bells is pretty cool, Christmas Island is my favorite.

#9 Rise Up Shepherd and Follow – An Acapella Christmas – Glad

This whole album was ingrained in my brain, I will not mention who was responsible for it, but she would put the CD in and his repeat. About 100x later, we’d turn it off. Nevertheless, many of these songs are very good and there where two that I was considering. I light this one because it is the slower deeper song.

#8 White Christmas – Bing Crosby

With Johnny Mathis, Burl Ives, Nat King Cole [and XTC] you can’t have a Top Ten without the likes of Bing Crosby. I am referencing the “long version” of the song that has the spoken part explaining where he is and why he is dreaming of that white Christmas. I too am dreaming of a white Christmas. It was when I was at 1810 that it snowed [but did not stick] on Christmas and the year that I went to Colorado for Christmas, a blizzard shut down the East Coast.

#7 Thanks for Christmas – Rag & Bone Buffet – XTC

Of course, no musical list couldbe complete with out an XTC song, right? One of the two mai Christmas songs that XTC has released. Despite the group’s views on Christianity or religion, they “get” the meaning of Christmas and how we should treat each other. It is a shame that Christmas is only one day in the year.

#6 Winter Wonderland – A Very Special Christmas – Eurythmics

They did such a wodnerful job on this song that this is my favorite arrangement for this song, even above The Carpenter’s version. Another song from the 1987 A Very Special Christmas album.

#5 Go Where I Send Thee – A Very Special Christmas 3 – Natalie Merchant

As Steve martin once referenced, Christmas should be for the children. Ms. Merchant does a wonderful job at making this song almost haunting in ym brain when I heard it and like the U2 song, it also helps start my musical season

#4 Good King Wenceslas – Time Life Treasury – Morton Gould

What a crazy rocking christmas song. I should look up to see if this Wenceslas was a real person and why he was so good. Perhaps the Christmas song that people don’t know the title and couldn’t match up the lyrics to the music.

#3 Christmas in Hollis – A Very Special Christmas – Run-DMC

Sorry Curtis, but this is my favorite Christmas rap song even if it is not the oldest. This is a great song and a cheesy video, teaching that you shouldn’t steal, that most situations are tests of character and produce great rewards “…and the dough [1 million bucks] was for me!” This song is the base for many of the current rap christmas song that are out there, if not for sampling but for the song structure itself, it will always retain its own identity as artists sample hooks and riffs from it. This song is another reason why Run-DMC is such an important part of the rap history.

#2 I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – Dr. Demento – Gayla Peevey

Once I found out that there were other novelty songs available, I did my best to find them. THe Dr. Demento album highlights many of the older Christmas Classics, this one was always in my top 5 favorites. I value this song much more now because in 1999 Jen practiced this song with Jeff at TVA and then at the Christmas party, to my delight, sang it in front of everyone.

#1 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – A Very Special Christmas – U2

Ever since my Mom bought me the A Very Special Christmas cassette back in 1987, I have played this tape to launch the musical side of my Christmas season. This song is my favorite song on that album. It’s about capturing the fun and excitement of the holidays with those that you love.

Honorable Mentions

The Chanukah Song – Adam Sandler
Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses
Wondeful Christmastime – Paul McCartney
Oi to the World – No Doubt
Sailor’s Christmas – Jimmy Buffet
Glory to God – Acappella