Holiday Links

Here are some fun holiday links:

• Gingerize Yourself! Create a cookie in your likeness and send to a friend or post on Facebook or Twitter
• Free iTunes 21 song holiday sampler
• A free holiday MP3 every day at Amazon.com
• Every day a free iPhone game: Appvent Calendar
• Buy a pair of red shoelaces at Nike, and help in the fight against AIDS in Africa.
• Free Christmas wallpapers and printable calenders from Vlad Studio
• Red and white Christmas iPhone wallpapers
• Big selection of nice Christmas iPhone background images

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Suck it up

I had an appointment to get my hair cut and colored on Saturday at noon. Normally my appointment is at 11:00, but they're busier during the holidays and I can't always get the time I want. I knew it would take an hour and a half, and I figured I'd be starving by the time I got out of there, so I drove through McDonald's and got Chicken McNuggets and fries, and a Diet Coke, and ate in the parking lot.

I got my hair done, went to the library and picked up some books, went to the office supply store and bought printer paper, and did a few other errands, and by about 4:00, felt like I needed to go home and take a nap. So I went home, and it turned out that it wasn't really a nap I needed, I was having (I guess) a gall bladder attack.

We had planned on having a little Thanksgiving dinner of our own Saturday evening; Bob was off, so he cooked a turkey while I was out. I thought maybe if I slept a couple of hours I would feel better, but I didn't. I ended up spending all evening in bed, alternately trying to sleep and reading "Grave Secrets" (Charlaine Harris) on my iPhone. I'd read until I got sleepy, then lay down and try to sleep for a little while, but didn't have much luck.

Bob went ahead and carved up the turkey and made some mashed potatoes for his dinner, but I couldn't eat anything. He called a friend of his who's an internist, and he suggested giving me some Pepto Bismol. I couldn't see how that would help, but I was wiling to try, so I took some, and slept for another couple of hours, and when I woke up I felt a lot better. Maybe it helped, I don't know.

In any event, I felt like I lost a whole day, and I really need to figure it out. The problem is that it isn't consistent, but I guess that doesn't matter since I can't control whether something bothers me or not. I just need to suck it up and stop eating anything fried, for one thing. I've read that carbonated beverages are bad, and I've cut down a lot--I don't have them at work any more at all--but I do occasionally have a soda when I'm out. I need to stop that, too, I guess.

It's just hard, and I guess I have a short memory. I was talking to Barb about it over email, and I said I supposed that the first time I end up in the emergency room will make my decision for me!

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Quiet Night

I've been downloading desktop wallpapers from Vlad Studios for several years, and he always has beautiful ones, but this I think this is the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time: Quiet Night. It's my current desktop, and probably will be for some time.

I was happy to see that Netflix had the first three seasons of Nash Bridges available. It was one of my favorite shows. I watched the last DVD of the second season tonight, and when I mail it back, Netflix will send me the first DVD of the third season. I originally had the 2-DVD out at a time plan, but this month I scaled back to the one where you only have one at a time. They get them out so quickly that it doesn't really matter, and honestly, the best thing about Netflix is the free movies-on-demand. I can almost always find something worth watching.

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Mysteries

Olive. Isn't she just almost too cute?

She spends the entire day sleeping in her bed, but we've discovered that when everyone is gone, like during lunch time, she gets up and runs around. I've come back to my office a couple of times when she didn't expect to see anyone, and she starts, looks guilty, and hightails it back to her bed like she knows she's not supposed to be out of it. It's pretty adorable.

Today Dave came back to his office and said she was out of her bed hanging out with Connor, Dave's big German Shepherd. The minute she saw Dave, though, she scrambled back to her bed and jumped in. So I guess it's not Connor she's intimidated by, but Dave.

Bob's schedule is all over the place. One day he'll go in at 6:30 a.m. and work 'til 3:00, the next day he'll go in at 2:00 p.m. and work until 10:30. Sometimes he goes in at 8:30. And it's never the same from one week to the next. He's had to get up before dawn a few days in a row, and lately it's been hard for me to go back to sleep after he gets up. Plus I've been trying to go to bed earlier, too, so I'm sure that contributes to it.

This morning he got up at 4:30, I think, and I tried to go back to sleep, but just couldn't. I keep my iPhone plugged in on my night table over night, so I grabbed that, laid back in bed, and checked email, Facebook and Twitter, then played a couple of games of Solitaire and read another story in Miracle ("The Inn"). By that time he'd showered and dressed and was ready to leave, so I kissed him goodbye and turned off the light, and was almost immediately asleep.

I guess it was probably only another half hour or so before my alarm went off. I always think it's strange how I can wake up in the middle of the night and have a terrible time getting to sleep, but can fall almost instantly back asleep after hitting the snooze button on my alarm clock. Just one of those mysteries of nature.

I'm sending out Christmas cards again this year, and anyone who wants one, just send me an email. If you've sent me your address before, you're probably already on my list, but it wouldn't hurt to send it to me again just to be sure I have it right.

There's a new iPhone app review up at my iPhone site.

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Miracle

I know I mention this book every year around this time, but I love it: Connie Willis' Miracle and Other Christmas Stories. It's a big part of my Christmas season, and actually I could read it any time of year.

The title story, "Miracle," is one of Willis' trademark screwball comedies. Lauren, an office worker, is overwhelmed with Christmas tasks--finding a new dress for the Christmas party, mailing her Christmas cards, thinking of what gifts to get her family, and, in addition, has been roped into doing the corporate gift shopping for the office by a co-worker who she has fallen for. She thinks he's her heart's desire, but the Spirit of Christmas Present (as in "gift") decides it's his mission to convince her otherwise, and in the meantime, teach her the true meaning of Christmas. His tactics include turning her black sequined off the shoulder dress into a fetching concoction of bark and leaves, and decorating her Christmas tree with handmade brown objects made by rainforest indians.

Another favorite story is "Inn," which is set in a suburban church during a choir rehearsal. A young homeless couple turns up at the church, barefoot and dressed in completely inappropriate clothing for a December evening. The outcome is somewhat predictable, but it's a lovely story.

From the introduction:

I love Christmas. All of it--decorating the tree and singing in the choir and baking cookies and wrapping presents. I even like the parts most people hate--shopping in crowded malls and reading Christmas newsletters and seeing relatives and standing in baggage check-in lines at the airport.

Okay, I lied. Nobody likes standing in baggage check-in lines. I love seeing people get off the plane, though, and holly and candles and eggnog and carols.

But most of all, I love Christmas stories and movies. Okay, I lied again. I don't love all Christmas stories and movies. It's a Wonderful Life,for instance. And Hans Christian Andersen's "The Fir Tree."

But I love Miracle on 34th Street and Christopher Morley's "The Christmas Tree That Didn't Get Trimmed" and Christina Rosetti's poem "Midwinter." My family watches The Sure Thing and A Christmas Story each year, and we read George V. Higgins's "The Snowsuit of Christmas Past" out loud every Christmas Eve, and eagerly look for new classics to add to our traditions.

There aren't a lot. This is because Christmas stories are much harder to write than they look, partly because the subject matter is fairly limited, and people have been writing them for nearly two thousand years, so they've just about rung all the changes possible on snowmen, Santas, and shepherds.

Stories have been told from the point of view of the fourth wise man (who got waylaid on the way to Bethlehem), the innkeeper, the innkeeper's wife, the donkey, and the star. There've been stories about department-store Santas, phony Santas, burned-out Santas, substitute Santas, reluctant Santas, and dieting Santas, to say nothing of Santa's wife, his elves, his reindeer, and Rudolph. We've had births at Christmas (natch!), deaths, partings, meetings, mayhem, attempted suicides, and sanity hearings. And Christmas in Hawaii, in China, in the past, the future, and outer space. We've heard from the littlest shepherd, the littlest wise man, the littlest angel, and the mouse who wasn't stirring. There's not a lot out there that hasn't already been done.

In addition, the Christmas-story writer has to walk a narrow tightrope between sentiment and skepticism, and most writers end up falling off into either cynicism or mawkish sappiness.

Last night I went up to bed and thought of the book, but hadn't brought it upstairs with me. Out of curiosity, I checked Amazon to see if it had been made available for the Kindle yet, and it had, just last month. So I purchased it ($6.39), and was able to read it immediately, at least until I got sleepy.

I'm going to try to post every day in December, either here, on my iPhone site, on the P3 site, or on all of them. It will be a miracle if I accomplish it, though . . .

To that end, there's new post at Beautiful iPhone Apps: Homescreen, 12/01/09.

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