Reflections

• Dinner and Christmas with the kids @ my parents' on Thursday was great.
• Word has it there will be a special guest at Christmas Eve church services.
• No, not Santa.
• I have previously noted my disdain for the 'Occupy' movement - apparently a ragtag bunch of hippies and trust fund kids who have enough spare time to camp out in, and make a mess of, city parks across the country.
• If you're gonna protest, put some coherent thought into it, and do it this way instead.
• I can see, and, uh, understand their point[s].
• One of the Kardashian brood is coming to north Texas.  No black man is safe.
• Awhile back I was going to write a post about the 'Kardashianation of America - Whoring Goes Mainstream', but figured I might end up in a Dennis Milleresque rant.  Moi? 
• Baba Wawa interviews them and calls them 'talentless' to their faces, with which I agree.  Nonetheless, is she not using them to drive ratings of her program?
• And, in discussing the whole lot of them as part of the content of this post, I suppose I am complicit, as well.
• Week before last, Daughter bought me a living Rosemary shrub trimmed like a miniature Christmas tree, since I told her I wasn't putting up a tree this year.  I've so far used some of the leaves (a tiny portion) in some beef stew, and some spaghetti sauce.
• Yum!
• A light drizzle/freezing rain is falling outside my window.
• Last Saturday I stopped at GV Mills mall on the way to Dallas to some friends' party, looking for something specific for Daughter.  I loathe crowds.
• I'm not tall - 6'1" - but with boots on am tall enough to be seen, and I was on a mission. With my reading glasses perched on my nose (giving a stern visage), I must've looked like Robert Hays/Ted Stryker from Airplane.
• Too bad no hippies or Moonies approached me.
• Yesterday, with more time, I went there again - actually managed to find some things on the gift list.
• I'm what you call 'a value shopper' cheap.  Whenever I go to that mall, I cruise the food court because most of the places have someone out front handing out samples.  Probably about 6 or 7 opportunities.  If you snag something in both directions, you can skip a meal.
• Yeah, I kinda do the same thing at Sam's Club.
• Here is an odd story.  And who uses a 9mm to shoot mice anyway?
• Recently I was driving past the UPS depot in Fort Worth, just as the trucks were being dispatched - looked like an ant trail.
• I noticed a couple of the trucks had integrated aerodynamic headlights - bet that adds a couple MPG to their fleet stats.
• Medieval Times has a new show.  Our family went there for my 40th birthday.  I would think they should have a rotation of shows so it's not just a special occasion place to go.
• Was doing some work around the house, listening to a Christmas CD of glass harmonium music by Denton native Donal Hinely (yes, I know that sounds similar to Don Henley, but it's a different guy).  I first heard him play at the Scarborough Renfest several years ago.  Very talented singer/songwriter, a showcase performer at the 2006 SXSW - apparently now based in Tennessee.
• Of late I've sort of returned to the mode of doing housework on Saturday mornings, as I'd envisioned it when I was in college.   Crank up the tunes, vacuum, dust, do laundry and dishes, put stuff away.  Back then the house I had in mind looked something like Cardinal Puff's - wood floors and staircases, balconies.  It was a SMU hangout/beer garden, off of Greenville Ave, back in my high school/college days.  I Googled/Bing.birdseye'd it - now Ozona Grill & Bar - looks nothing like what I remember from back in the day.
• I'm gonna try to make that more of a habit this coming year.  And I still want that house.
• Have a blessed, Merry Christmas!