Thursday
Twas the day before the day before Christmas
And all through Salt Lake
Christmas shoppers rushed about madly
As though Armageddon was upon them
And their last-minute supplications would garner them a break.

Or something like that.

Today was “Get some shoppin’ taken care of” day. And, I was able to find everything that I sought except for one item. One. Uno. Singular. Tomorrow, I’m making a trek up to Ogden (or as would say: “bOgden”) to see if I can find it there. If not, it’s no big deal. After taking the presents for her and , I managed to drag her along for some of the shopping fun. After we finished, we picked up and Nox and headed out for dinner. After dinner, we headed to their place to hang out for a bit.

Then, it was off to the grocery store to get the makings for Saturday’s dinner. We ran into Val, another regular at Cheers. It was unexpected but good. In the course of spreading Christmas cheer yesterday, we had a few extra goody boxes left. I went back to the car, got a box and gave it to Val. He was stunned, complete with accompanying “WTF” look. He smiled – really big – and said, “This… is really unwarranted.” I simply told him to “Have a Merry Christmas” and walked away. It’s nice to put an unexpected smile on someone’s face.

News
Morning Edition: PC Users Warned of Unwanted Gifts from Hackers
Morning Edition: Immigrants’ First U.S. Christmas: The Montagnards
Talk of the Nation: Holiday Travel: How to Survive It
Talk of the Nation: The Stupidest Angel
Day to Day: ‘A Front Yard View of the Holidays’ in America
All Things Considered: Play Closes in England After Sikh Protests
All Things Considered: A Reprieve for St. Mary’s

Yahoo! News: Cloned Cat Sale Generates Ethics Debate
Yahoo! News: Homeless Honored Around the Country

NewScientist.com: Mystery of Mars rover’s ‘carwash’ rolls on

Stray Toasters

  • I still have cotton candy. And you don’t. Booyah.
  • sent me a link to this. It makes a great follow-up to yesterday’s “Random Access” rant.
  • Also from yesterday’s post: I mentioned that told Nyx and me about a parody of Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song. I mentioned the wrong song – apparently, there are two songs: The Mormon Thing (which I mentioned) and The Fireside Song, which is the one she was referring to. Well, it looks like she had a few things of her own to say about it.
  • Looks like another Farscape alumn will be joining the cast of Stargate SG-1. This time, it’s Claudia Black, who portrayed ex-Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun.
  • TV Cream’s Top 100 Toys I remember some of these. 49, to be exact.
  • By way of Backwash (and the “Yes, I’m Going to Hell” file): Santa’s Lil’ Gimp
  • Band Geek Glossary
  • : An article about… well… synaesthasia
  • 50 Things to Eat Before You Die I’ve had 30 of these.

Quote of the Day
Nyx and I were driving along 9th East and I was recounting the story of scaring people sitting at a light next to me (here, third paragraph). I noticed a huge pothole in the road. Approaching fast. That, naturally, elicited a rather sharp “FUCK!” as I swerved to avoid it. There was a slight problem, however: I had just started telling the story. So, it wound up coming out sounding like this:

“So, the other day, I swung by to see Kate and… FUCK! …Perry.

Nyx looked at me like Ô_õ and then burst into laughter. When I realized what I said, and how it sounded, I laughed, too.

For those of you who will not be reading LJ over the weekend, let me take this opportunity to say: May the joy and peace of Christmas (and/or whichever holiday you celebrate) be with you and your families.

Namaste.