— Sylvester McCoy in The Secret Policeman’s Ball

A few years ago, I discovered that there’s something even better than receiving presents. And that’s giving presents. And seeing the faces of the people as they receive presents. So now that I’m Independently Wealthy^TM, I can dote on my friends and buy lots of gips (as we call ’em in my family.) I was wrapping presents last night and finished them tonight. Once I got them under my tree, I realized I might have gone a bit overboard. But, nah, my family and friends are worth it!

Here it is, my tree with far too many gips under it. Excess! That’s what this act’s about!

Tonight I went to our school Christmas concert. (It might be called something more PC than that, but that’s what it is, let’s be truthful here.) Back when I was in school, the Christmas concert consisted of singing from 1st grade on up through 12th grade. The bands (6th grade, junior high, and high school) always had their Winter concert the week before us. Two traditions took place during this “all-in” concert. The first was the singing of the 12 Days of Christmas. 1st through 6th grade got each of the first 6 days of Christmas. (It was always a treat to be in the 5th grade cuz you got to sing FIVE GOLDEN RINGS! really loudly.) The junior high got the 7th day, the high school got the 8th, and they divided the audience into 4 groups for 9, 10, 11, and 12. This particular tradition no longer takes place because they divided the elementary and high school programs up. Now the choirs and bands perform at the same concert.

The other tradition that took place when I was in school still takes place today. That’s the finale with the high school choir singing “The Hallelujah Chorus” where they invite alumni who’ve sung the song before to come to the stage and join in. When I was in elementary, I used to watch the high school choir with awe. They were AMAZING! They wore formal clothes and they sang beautifully and there was usually a humorous song that they did, which was fun to watch. My freshman year in school, I got to be a part of that choir and I was extremely emotional about it. But I didn’t cry until my mom (and uncle, even) came to join us in singing the “Hallelujah Chorus.” That was one of my most precious memories from high school.

I’ve since been one of the alumni who has come to sing with the choir. And I noticed something this year… Now, I’m a second soprano (to my mom’s first soprano and my sister’s alto), so some of the high notes in the Chorus are a bit of a strain. But for the most part, you gradually make your way up to those notes, and I was usually able to hit all but one or two. Tonight I discovered that I can’t hit even more notes. I really should learn the alto part! Eep! Maybe Amy can teach it to me.

The Christmas concert was the ending to a fun day. After school, the high school staff had a carry-in of snacks and sweets instead of our monthly staff meeting. That was quite pleasant – it’s fun to talk to my co-workers. And the eats were good. Then a few of us went off to High Marks (a school-themed restaurant in Troy) for supper. After the snacks after school, I opted on getting a nice Oriental chicken salad instead of something heavier. Then we returned to town for the concert. For some of my co-workers, this was the first time they’d been to it. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did!

Only two more “real” days of school this week. Physics are working on toothpick & glue bridges and tomorrow and Thursday they’ll have their catapult contest as well. (Normally this is held earlier in the year, but I’m really behind this year in both classes). Chemistry will have a test tomorrow or Thursday (depending on their lab day) and both classes are making Gak on Thursday. And Friday is Christmas Fun Day Spirit of Giving Day, so I’ll be watching over a room full of kids playing Euchre and other card games. (And I’ve got one student who’s promised to be my partner, so I should get to play as well – woot!) Yeah, yeah, hard week, no? Let’s hear it for having the ENTIRE WEEK OFF BEFORE CHRISTMAS! Hooray!

This morning at 10am, I drove next door to pick up mom. We stopped at the gas station (for gas & cash) and the post office, and then went on to exercise at Curves. After being good girls, I drove us to the shops across the street from WSU to the “new” Indian place. (I’ve no idea how long it’s been there, but it’s new for me!) It’s called Jeet India and, as we discovered while sampling their lunch buffet, they have really good food. And mom discovered that she loves Tandoori chicken. 🙂

After our lovely lunch, we headed onto the Sam’s Club near the Mall at Fairfield Commons. I found some Welch’s sparkling grape juice for the NYE bash I’m throwing and a bottle of Risling for mom (which I got for the way cool bottle) to enjoy at her leisure. After Sam’s Club, it was time for the Mall. Which was nearly full, but we still found a parking place, eventually. We shopped there for about an hour or so (and even saw my cousin working at the pretzel place, but she was too busy to even notice us). I didn’t find anything that I needed, but mom got a few items.

I’m on the lookout for something for Granny and thought that Lowe’s might have it, but after shopping there, I discovered that they didn’t. No matter, we decided to check out Best Buy just for fun. Only it was filled up even more than the Mall, so I just headed on to the Bookery instead. Got my DWM and Dreamwatch issues. Then back north to Troy to Walmart. Got a few more things off my list there (including windshield wipers – yay! I’ll be able to see again!) We finished out the shopping spree at the Little Professor Book Center. Thanks to mom, I found two books that will be PERFECT for Granny – yay! She ordered me a vanilla steamer and she got a (sugar free) caramel latte.

While we were drinking our beverages, mom’s cell phone rang. It was dad, curious to know where we were. She told him we were nearly done. He asked about supper and I suggested getting him a sub at Cassano’s, which had just opened up in the little shopping center where the bookstore is. After we finished our beverages, that’s where we walked. Mom ordered dad the “original” sub (which she figured she could share with him) and I got a cheese calzone.

Once we got home, I went back to my place to pick up my DVD of Elf and the three of us ate our Cassano’s food and watched the video. We finished up the evening with our little Advent ceremony, and now I’m back home, with Leo. A very fun day for me and mom! And while we were out, dad got the prototype made up for this year’s physics toy! Those of you who will be getting one will LOVE it! I ain’t telling you what it is, neither!

Tomorrow should start out fun as well – dad’s preaching and mom’s singing at the UU church in New Madison. Should be a good ceremony at that!

Every year (for the past umpteen years) Wright State University‘s chemistry department puts on a chemistry magic show. They do this in December (near Christmas) and in March. I like to sign up for a date in December for my chemistry students to go to it, since it’s in keeping with Michael Faraday’s Christmas Lectures. Today was the day when I took the kids off to watch. And, as always, Dr. Fortman and Dr. Battino did a great job educating and entertaining the kids (and adults) in the audience. They have one and a half hours of chemistry demonstrations – and they do it five days a week! Amazing, really.

At the end of the show, however, Dr. Fortman made an announcement about there being an “academic chemistry grandchild” in the audience. I immediately buried my head in Mary Jo’s shoulder. (Mary Jo is the HS secretary and, due to her daughter being in my chemistry class, I asked her to be the chaperon for the trip.) Sure enough, Dr. Fortman started talking about the first graduating class from WSU (there were 7 who graduated from the Chemistry department). And that one of those grads had a daughter who later graduated from the chemistry department, who is now a teacher in the audience. “Trina, would you please stand up?” Folks applauded and my students all cheered. I turned red, but since Mary Jo and I were seated in front of my students, they couldn’t see that. 🙂

Last year when I took my juniors (and seniors that year) to see the show, one decided to show off his butt to the people behind him. I, thankfully, didn’t witness this, but one of the chaperons (and a number of my students) did. Apparently, he did the same at lunch. So I had to deal with that when I got back (and thankfully, had the support of the superintendent, to deal with the discipline). This year, thankfully, nothing untoward happened. We all enjoyed the show, then went out to eat across the street from the campus.

My goal for tomorrow was to return to the WSU area for my usual comic store visit & shopping spree. And first I would go to south Dayton for Indian Fud. But while we were across the street from WSU today, I saw there is now an Indian Restaurant north of Dayton!!!! Whoopee! So rather than drive out of my way for Indian Fud, it can be a part of my usual trip. I’m trying to talk mom into joining me for Indian Fud and shopping tomorrow. Guess I’ll find out tomorrow if she’s willing or not. And I’ll find out if the food is good at this new place. I hope so!

“When you can help friends and get revenge on enemies, isn’t that what Christmas is all about?” – Pepe, the King Prawn

I watched It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie tonight. It’s not as good as my favorite Muppet Christmas special, A Muppet Family Christmas, but it’s still highly enjoyable. And one thing that it has, which my favorite does not, is Pepe. I discovered Pepe in Muppets from Space and he quickly became my favorite Muppet. And that ain’t an easy task! But of all of the Muppet Show Muppets, he’s the one I now love best. (For the Sesame Street Muppets, Grover is still my favorite. And Ernie is my inner-Muppet.) He’s so romantic, okay? And he parties with Ricky Martin, okay?

This most recent of the Muppet Christmas specials spoofs so many Christmas specials, I lose count while watching. Plus it’s got the “Crocodile hunter” and the cast from Scrubs. Joan Cusack is great as an evil bitchqueen from hell, and her cat fight with Miss Piggy is worth it for the bad dubbing alone. But I probably still rank it third of the three Muppet Holiday specials that I have on DVD. (The only one I don’t yet have is The Rocky Mountain one with John Denver. Have the soundtrack to that one, at least.)

The Muppet Christmas Carol was the first post-Henson movie, and at first I wasn’t sure I liked the new Kermit voice. But the musical itself was enjoyable, and was partly responsible for my turnaround opinion of Michael Caine. (I used to really dislike his performances. Now I rather enjoy watching him in a production.) Gonzo and Rizzo did a fabulous job in carrying the Muppets through the production, and they continued this role during their next movie, Muppet Treasure Island. The music is very catchy (almost too catchy – becomes part of my Jungian radio, even when it’s not Christmas time). I’ll probably watch this one as we get closer to Christmas.

But by far, of all the Muppet productions (even surpassing The Muppet Movie, in my book) is A Muppet Family Christmas. This story resonates so well with my immediate family that it was a tradition to watch it every season. The poor off-air VHS copy that we have of it is particularly worn (but still watchable), so I was pleased when I found it available for sale. Only to be GREATLY disappointed to find that they cut out one of the songs and the “live action” Muppet Babies video. (Probably a rights problem, but dammit, I wish they’d get that sorted out.) I bought the DVD hoping that it was the full version, but it, too, was expurgated. Alas! Still, with or without the cuts, it’s a piece of pure magic. It’s less than an hour long, but it’s funny and touching and has lots of holiday favorites sung with glee. And the Fraggles and Sesame Street crowd all show up too! The final scene, of Jim Henson having to do the dishes with only Sprocket the dog (from Fraggle Rock) to help him, is especially touching now that he’s gone. Thanks Jim, for the magic you gave us all!

Leo woke me up¹ mid-dream this morning, so I remembered bits of the dream when I awoke. I was in an art room (like none I’ve been in before, but I *knew* it was an art room) and a group of us are working on a project and talking. The people are folks my age and some of my students. We’re talking about Christmas movies and one of my students talks about the song “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing” from White Christmas. Before I’m able to contribute the trivia regarding White Christmas being one of the first movies to be filmed in VistaVision, someone else tells about it. So then I talk about my most favorite Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street. I inform the folks in my dream that it was released in July and the trailer said *nothing* about it being a Christmas movie². But then I woke up before our conversation could continue.

So, having dreamt about Miracle on 34th Street, I decided to watch it tonight. And I enjoyed it as much as always (which is very much). It’s my ideal Christmas movie. Tomorrow, I’ll probably pick another Christmas movie from my DVD collection to watch. (Yeah, I turn into an Elf this time of year. My family’s pretty used to it by now. Thankfully, I have a kindred soul in judiang!) Since I’ve recently finished watching all of my DVDs of The Muppet Show, I’ll probably watch one of the three Muppet Christmas DVDs that I have.

1. Alas, he woke me up with the sounds of “impending yakking.” Since he was laying right beside me on the bed, I pushed him onto the floor so he could yak on the rug instead. Joy joy.
2. This is true, BTW. There are times when I dream facts. Very worrying, if you ask me!

Today, dad and I went to the SOITA Technology Conference at the Dayton Convention Center. We went last year, and I talked about it here. And this year, I took one of the workshops which last 2 sessions. It was over Pinnacle Studios 9. Since we purchased that for our Newton News crew when we got them a new computer, I thought I should take a peek at the program. Seems like a fun program for editing video. The one question that I really hoped the workshop presenter would be able to answer managed to stump him. That has to do with my video/audio synch problem which I have when encoding DVD videos through Nero. Maybe once I get the Newton News computer done, I’ll try encoding one of the videos and see. (I fear that it’s my processor speed. I wasn’t planning to upgrade soon.)

The first session was over Macromedia Captivate and another program whose name eludes me at the moment. Captivate and this other program do video captures of your actions on the screen, which is great for making short computer tutorials for online use. It’s a cool thing, but since I don’t even have our website done, it’s not anything we need yet.

The Pinnacle workshop was next followed by lunch. They treat the techs well by having a sit-down dinner starting with salad and rolls, then some sort of baked chicken dish with roasted potatoes & steamed veggies. Finally there was a choice of chocolate or lemon cake. (I went with chocolate.) Apparently for the teachers & administrators who come the next two days, they have a buffet. I like our sit-down dinner. Unfortunately we have to listen to the keynote speaker when we’re done. Last year, it was fun. The lady there showed us cool gadgets. This year, it was some Microsoft Monkey (who sounded *just* like Alan Alda, it was spooky!) telling us how Microsoft has the same goals as we do. Yeah, I wanna be a billionaire and take over the world, too!

The afternoon sessions were pretty bleak (two were by other Microsoft Monkeys, so I said “no” to those). I ended up going to Fortres Grand‘s session on their products. And I’m glad I went. (Most of the Miami County techs who were at SOITA also attended this session). Fortres has a new program out that will help with software & hardware inventory. Since it’s the same cost as Clean Slate, it’s a bargain. The only thing we don’t know about is if it works with NT4. If it does, we’ll probably get it.

One of our complaints the past couple of years at the SOITA conference has been that they don’t have the vendors until the next two days. Well, this year they decided to have a Vendor Sneek-A-Peek at 3:30pm (lasting about an hour). Most of the vendors were set up (or nearly so) and dad and I got to talk to most of ’em. We weren’t sure we could do the room in an hour, but we managed it. And got some new ideas and some freebies. So, YAY to SOITA for making headway here. (Unfortunately, the WorldWise company was back, selling crap software for $10 a CD. ARGH! Those poor unsuspecting teachers are REALLY gonna be screwed when they buy that crap and find out it won’t work on their computers cuz it’s too damn old!!!! I mean, that stuff doesn’t work on our machines and we’re still using Windows 98SE!!!)

All in all, a fun tech day. I hope that my students didn’t kill the sub today and vice versa. Guess I’ll find out tomorrow. 🙂

Leo and I began decorating the house for Christmas yesterday, but today we did a lot more (and are, pretty much, finished now). Yesterday I needed to purchase some things, so that took up a bit of my decorating time. I had lunch at the Night Sky Cafe (1/2 of a reuben & a cup of cheesy broccoli soup), which I followed with an egg nog steamer (anyone surprised?) After my shopping was done, Leo and I did some cleaning up and got out all of the decorations and stuff. But at 6pm, I headed out with the folks to see the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus in concert at St. John’s UCC in Dayton. I wrote about this gay men’s chorus last year, so you can read up on them there.

One of the cutest things they did was during their opening number “Winter Wonderland.” For those of you unfamiliar with the tune, there’s a bit which goes:

In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Parson Brown
He’ll say “Are you married?”
We’ll say “No man,
But you can do the job when you’re in town.”

When the guys sang it the second time around, they replaced “town” with “Massachusetts.” Got quite a laugh from the crowd. 🙂

So today, Leo and I decorated in earnest. And of course, I took photos to document our progress.

Leo helps get out the boxes from the basement.

Now to put the tablecloth on the dining room table.

Patting down the runner on the table.

The table is now done. Notice the bare bit to the left. Leo insisted I leave that free so that he could lay there.

Leo let me decorate the exterior myself. You can’t really tell, but I’ve got those tube-lights on the fake pine boughs in the window box. Looks cool in the dark.

Leo gets the last of the stuff out from the box.

Time to make sure the tree tastes OK.

Leo rests after the hard work of decorating the tree.

Leo is still sitting underneath the tree. I think he really likes that tree skirt.

As gregmce and warinbabylon have mentioned in their journal entries today, it is World AIDS Day.

Back when my mother was in college to train at being a Microbiologist, she first learned about AIDS. She came home to dad and said “I just learned about the scariest disease ever!” And dad’s comment was, “Oh yeah, I’ve been reading about that in the journals for the past few years.”

Well, we’ve come a long way from a disease that’s only known about in the science journals to a disease that pretty much everyone has heard of. But there’s still no cure for AIDS. No vaccine. And still, not enough known about the disease. Awareness is a start, but we’ve got a long way to go in the study and research for AIDS and HIV. It’s good that we have days like today to help bring that fact to light.

In a more amusing turn, I’ll tell you a story about the time I taught communicable diseases to the 4th & 5th grade. Dad told me about an activity that he used to do with his biology students (and I don’t teach biology, so I didn’t have activities like this one to hand). Each student has a test tube with a clear liquid in it. They each have an eyedropper. They are allowed to “trade fluids” with their friends. Each basically takes a dropperful of liquid from their friend’s test tube and puts it in their own.

After a few minutes of trading fluids, I pick one student at random and say that we need to have a random fluid check. I add a bit of another colorless fluid. And every time that I did this, the test tube fluid turned pink. “Oh no!” I said. “You’ve tested positive for ‘HIV’. Who have you traded fluids with recently – we need to check them as well!” Now the student needs to remember who all he/she traded fluids with. We call the students forward and inform them that their friend has tested positive and we should probably check them as well. Sure enough, this student is pink as well.

Eventually, we test all of the students and usually they’re mostly all pink with a few non-pink ones. That’s when I’ll admit who the first student with “HIV” actually was. And usually the ones who tested negative are furthest from this person. But the students realize that many kids get “HIV” without actually ever sharing fluids with the first person. And that’s the real eye-opener of this activity.

In one 5th grade class that I did this in, I had only one student who tested negative. Apparently when he got home from school, he bragged to his mom that he was the only kid in his class that didn’t have AIDS. He went on to explain the activity to his mom, who is the high school secretary. She said she had to laugh when her son told her that – after the initial shock.

To do this lab, you start with all but one of the test tubes containing water. And in the remaining test tube, put a very dilute solution of a base like sodium hydroxide. (I had my students wear their lab goggles for this lab and anyone who got liquid on their hands had to wash it off, regardless of which test tube he/she had.) The liquid that you use to test for “HIV”? The chemists in the group are saying “phenolphthalein.” They’re right. 🙂

I won’t have those students again for another couple of years yet, but I’d be interested to see if any of them remember the unit they did on communicable diseases. It was certainly memorable for me!

I was talking with warinbabylon on IRC last night about Christmas stories & fan fiction and I admitted that I’ve got an itching to write a 7th Doctor/Ace Christmas story. (I wrote a Doc7/Mel Christmas story a few years ago called Miracle on 23rd Street – it’s got the sort of Christmas schmaltz that I enjoy. But now I wanna write one with Ace in it.) She then suggested that I post a fiction challenge on LJ about it. Thinking, perhaps, that it will cause me to write said story. Well, I don’t know about that, but here’s the challenge:

Write a holiday-based fan fiction from one of your favorite fandoms (or least favorite fandoms if you’d rather). You pick the holiday, the length, the characters, etc. But it must be done by January 1st. Post it in your LJ when you’re done. Give it a try – you know you want to!

So, um, prizes? Well, perhaps your reward will be the joy of knowing that you’ve written a holiday fan fiction piece… 😉

PS: Pass the challenge along, if you want!

PPS: Amy, if you’re reading this, I wanna see a Holiday V fan fiction with Willy’s Magic Bathrobe making a return visit! 🙂