1. Usually, the cold/flu thing happens after performances, not before. ‘Sides, I’m too mean and tuff to get sick. Thank Jesus and Mary for DayQuil.

2. I’m looking forward to tonight with the middle school choirs. Should be fun.

3. BRAD! How many times I gotta tell you, son? Lose the mouthbrow mustache and grandpa hair. I mean, honestly. You’re attending the premier of the film that might win you an Oscar, so let’s channel a used car salesman from 1972. Brilliant. Oh, and make sure that the unattractive brown is painted on your temples so it looks astoundingly unnatural. Sorry, but the whole unkempt Clark Gable effort gets a big fat FAIL.

Money, looks, good fashion sense. Two outta three ain’t bad, I guess. Lawd.

Have a great Wednesday, fiends. Back tomorrow with concert fotos.

F.O.

1. The Thriller got a call yesterday. The TV arrives tomorrow, not Friday. Joyous. He now has a difficult choice: Go to RF’s middle school concert…stay home and hook up the new TV. Go to RF’s middle school concert…stay home and hook up the new TV…
2. Wanna see where all the money in the country went? Clicky.
3. Do you know how good Steve Martin is on banjo?
4. I plan to start up the RtB Contests again in January. Much chocolate to be won here, fiends.
5. I’m taking some of my singers to perform at a couple of nursing homes today. I hope they bring something tasty for the bus ride, because I be all about the treatses.
6. You will now please post your favorite Christmas song, and if applicable, the artists who sing/play it. Mine: “That Holiday Feeling” by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé (sister had a big voice). I’m always up for new Christmas tunes; seems like they’re the same ones over and over every year — or it could be just collateral career damage. Searching for new and interesting arrangements of the same Christmas “classics” is a challenge year after year, ya know?

Ok, time to hit the shower and the road. Maybe I’ll stop by Hawkins bakery and get some treatses of my own.

hulu.com

Finally — TV I can watch whenever I want, without recording or planning ahead. Only downside: no Mad Men. AMC wants their pound of flesh like anyone else, I guess. I plan to get the Season I and II DVD at some point.

Hey, looky. The Thriller decorated the living room yesterday, and then we both put the gold ornaments (hard to see, I know) on the lovely Noble fir. It smells great, and the room looks and feels warm and cozy:

Of course, after Friday, it’ll look like this.

Fink out, and on to the insanity that is the next 8 days.

RIP John Winston Lennon, 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980

With your holiday shopping, I mean.

I still have some more to do — some of it online, so I’d better get to it.

I recently had a conversation with a friend, and we both agreed that giving the gifts is way more fun than getting them (although getting them ranks a reeeally close second). It’s great fun for me to try to come up with something that might delight and surprise someone else, or conversely, try to buy exactly what I know the person wants. Although surprises are super-nice, sometimes there’s great satisfaction in getting precisely what you asked for. I like both.

Some random thoughts for your Sunday morning:

1. I got up at 6:30 (geez, another instance of sleeping the day away — I have no self-control), and had a sudden desire to get out all the veggies that were likely going to die a slow death in my freezer, throw them in a pot, chop up a few potatoes, add some broth & seasoning, and make a savory soup. Which I did. I’m now having it for breakfast. Of course, I only used the veggies I like (green beans, peas, corn, carrots). I think I’ll eat it for lunch and dinner, too; good day for it.
2. We’re going to decorate the Christmas tree this afternoon. I think I’m going to go all gold this year for the color scheme. Should be pretty; I’ll post a photo and let you decide.
3. ShopNBC still hasn’t shipped the dreaded new TV. The Thriller is getting impatient. (Maybe he’ll end up telling them to go take a hike, and we’ll go to Detroit instead. Hmmm. Maybe not.)
4. The next 9 days are going to be ridiculous. Going to the band concert on the 8th, daytime performance (obligatory nursing home tour) on the 9th, concert on the 10th, $12,000 worth of candles delivered on the 12th, concert on the 15th, Dinner Theatre auditions on the 16th, and all the garbage that happens in between. I know, it’s all stuff I’ve brought on myself and I shouldn’t complain. But I will anyway, k?

There are days, truly, when I wish I were a librarian. Meh, not really.

Happy Sunday, and Go Browns. [Shyeah right.]

PS – BoomR, good to see you back, my friend!

Ho, ho, ho and Merry Christmas and happy weekend.

Oy.