While out resident eight year old is out enjoying her very first sleep over birthday party, our resident six year old is being allowed to stay up way past his bed time. He is also in charge of the television.

So far we’ve watched The Polar Express and Frosty the Snowman. Now we are starting to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Does it get better than that? Not in December it doesn’t!

So I’ve been listening to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series books on tape while driving to and from work. I’ve mentioned that before, haven’t I? (ad nauseam?)

Well, anyway… I’m on the last book. Nearing the end, but not quite there yet. Part of the story takes place in 1999 and King often refers to that time as, “the year of ’99.” Every time I hear that phrase a song by Queen pops into my head and stays there for hours. The song is “’39” from A Night at the Opera and the phrase is actually “In the year of ’39” but it doesn’t matter, it gets into my head and stays there.

Now you can have it stuck in your head too! (Robbie’s power trip! Muahahahaha!)

Now anyone who knows anything about Queen records knows that “Bohemian Rhapsody” is on the A Night at the Opera album and sure, that’s the money track. But… I think the marketing folks got it wrong. There is another song on that record that, to me, is even more impressive. It’s called “The Prophet’s Song.” It tops 8 minutes, so get yourself a snack or something before playing it. You may want to turn out the lights and hold up a bic lighter or something… it’s one of those.

Family Guy.
Star Wars.
Win

I read this MacRumors article this morning. It talks about a New York Times report on an IDC report on the much rumored Apple Tablet.

My first thought on the possibility of a Tablet was simple. I’d rather a MacBook. If I am going to get any Apple product that is more powerful than my iPhone I will get the most powerful sucker available. Who wouldn’t?

Then I heard about the Tablet being used as Apple’s entry into the budding e-reader market. I really like the idea of Amazon’s Kindle. Think about it… your whole library; magazines, newspapers, and all, stashed in one little electronic device. Sorta like… oh, I don’t know… an iPod.

Then, after reading the above mentioned article this morning, I posed a question to myself (and to Jen, via Google Wave. I like Google Wave. I love Jen. Oh yes, I do love her very much): Which would I rather spend my dough on? An awesome e-reader, or an awesome e-reader that lets me check Facebook and Twitter (and Blogger too!) and occasionally play Pocket God?

If the prices are comparable (always assuming the Tablet actually exists) then I think the answer is pretty clear.

Really… if I had any video skill at all… actually, if I had even a tiny bit of video skill… I would grab a bunch of scenes and join in on this.

Star Wars Uncut.

Watch the trailer.

Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

You know what a Fake Book is, right?

No?

Didn’t you go to music school?

Urgh.

Okay, a Fake Book is a collection of sheet music. Most often they are associated with Jazz Standards, but you can get Fake Books in other genres as well. You buy a book for the key of your instrument. Guitar is in C, alto saxophone is in Eb (pronounced E-flat for those of you not in the know), trumpet is in Bb, ect ect. The sheet music consists of the melody, the chord changes, and the lyrics. It’s up to you to put together an arrangement.

Why am I thinking about this?

The kids have been taking piano for a while now. They are well beyond the early beginner stuff and are doing cool stuff like playing chords and using both hands.

Wouldn’t it be groovy to get a book of Christmas music. Each kid could pick a song or two and play the melody on the piano while some fat red head plays the changes on guitar. That could be fun couldn’t it?

Couldn’t it?

I took the twitter feed off of this page. There were two reasons. First, last night it was showing some one else’s feed. I don’t know who it was, but it sure as hell wasn’t mine. I checked the set up and it still had my user and the test still showed my tweets, but when I reloaded the page it wasn’t showing anything of mine.

The other reason is related to twitter lists, and the blog security purge from earlier this year. I was added to a list made up entirely of people who have my last name. I haven’t a clue who the person who set it up is except that we share a last name and he’s from Illinois. Other than that.. nuttin.

The problem is that I am trying to keep references to last names off of this page and if I kept the twitter feed you could click on that and figure out my last name. So off it goes.

The other problem had to do with some of the other twitter users on the list. Spam, in other words. What a bummer. I only gave the list a cursory glance, but noticed many a familiar tweet. The teeth whitening spam was there (your dentist doesn’t want you to know about this!). The webcam porn posts were there (I’m throwing a party and you’re invited >insert porn link here<). It made me feel sort of bad for those of us on the list who are actual people. It made me sad. I took a very quick look at opting out of the list but I don't think you can.

I could remove my last name from my account. As it is it doesn’t display (at least I don’t think it does). I don’t want to do that though, because if there is a chance that some one I might know might want to find me on twitter I’d like to give them a chance. I’m on the fence about that one. I’ll probably just take my last name off the account.

The kids and I did some major tree work. We're not even close to done yet.

Look at the post I made prior to this one. I’ll give you a second to scroll down…

>whistling while waiting<

Are you back? It was a Christmas tree, right? Good.

So last night Jen and I got a Christmas tree.

The original plan was to buy a tree on Friday, set it up in the designated tree place, let it spread out on Saturday, and then decorate it on Sunday. That was before we checked the calendar and realized we were busy Sunday. So we re-planned and decided to buy the tree Wednesday, the decorate it on Friday. Right about that time we saw a weather forecast calling for Wednesday evening rain. (The current forecast has pushed that off to late night. Oh well)

Then Jen and I got to talking (over Google Wave) about maybe getting an artificial tree. The tree we had last year made a god awful mess. Jen and I both grew up in fake tree families. She had a fake tree the Christmas before meeting me. It would cost us more this year but probably save us money in the future. After much back and forth we decided that getting an artificial tree would be the way to go for us at this time.

It was a bit of foresight on our part that might just make you folks think we’re psychic or some crap.

We were at Target (tar-jhay) last night looking at trees when Jen’s fantastic iPhone rang. It was a certain eight year old girl who was staying at her father’s house that night. She had been invited to a sleep over on Friday and was asking her mom if she could go. We looked into the calendar and agreed that yes, she could go. Which meant our decision to pick up a tree on Tuesday was no longer a spur of the moment thing. It had become a necessity! (like how I am trying to make buying a fake Christmas tree more dramatic than it really is? You’re welcome)

So now the plan is officially, buy tree Tuesday, decorate Wednesday, go to music lesson Thursday, go to sleep over Friday, baby sit baby Saturday, visit graves and have dinner with lots of family Sunday. >whew!<

Now for the ridiculously amazing part…

When I was a kid and we had a fake tree it was a huge, laborious process to put it together. There was a pole with holes in it. You put the pole into a tree stand. Then you put the color coordinated branches into the appropriate holes on the pole. There was a truck load of color coded branches and it took a very long time to get them into place.

Not any more. Our tree has a stand and three tree sections. You put the bottom section into the stand and unfold the branches, then put the middle section into the bottom section and unfold, then put the top into the middle and again unfold. We were done with the whole thing, including adjusting the branches to fill in an gaps, in just about 10 minutes. It was glorious.

So now we are fully prepared to take care of all of our Christmas decorating tonight. It’s going to be fun. To make it even better, I had some accumulated time off from work that I had to get rid of so I am leaving early this afternoon. I call that a double bonus!

WOOHOO!