The good news is that it wasn’t food poisoning after all. The bad news is that I know that because Alissa got whatever stomach bug that I got . . . and so did her older brother . . . and her mom . . . and her sister. The really good news (so far,) however, is that Amanda has somehow managed to avoid getting this thing, which has been my big fear all week. Knock on wood, cross fingers, pray, whatever it is necessary to continue this through however long it is necessary to get past this - neither of us are up for dealing with ramifications of a spewing toddler.

I did finally eat my first actual “meal” since Sunday night yesterday, and I think my craving says much about me as a person: I wanted, very, very badly, Wendy’s chicken nuggets. I had to go out and get a ground-loop isolator for my truck’s Ipod install (because for whatever reason, the direct Ipod input/charger causes a constant hiss and loud alternator whine in my truck (and my old Ipod only elicits a very minor whine that I can ignore - strange)) and on my way home I just could not resist the call of Wendy’s just down the road from Fry’s Electronics. I’d had a bad experience the previous day with some leftover pizza that Alissa had gotten the day before and decided that I was well enough to eat (I wasn’t, but wouldn’t know that for a few hours - honestly, I should have guess, cheese? come on) so my first bites were more than tentative. Even when I was finished and I felt fine, even hours later, I was unsure and nervous - was this going to unleash an attack on me at any moment? Well, it didn’t and today I’m still fine. And Alissa? Two days later and she’s fine. I don’t get it. I suffered for nearly five days and she’s already back on her feet. Weird.

So maybe now I can have the “vacation” that I’d planned on having. It’s shorter by five days, unfortunately, but now I can have some of the freedom to do as I’d wanted. Now that I have it, however, I have no idea what to do . . .

After what seemed like ages (well, two years,) Apple finally upgraded the Ipod to a size I could really use (80gb) and so the proper authorities (Santa/Alissa) were notified at the appropriate time (Christmas.) And what do you know, I was apparently a good enough boy this year to warrant finding one under the tree this year - a shiny black one. It’s awesome - and already stuffed with about 60gb of music.

As much as I like the art-object like sheen of the chrome back and glistening black front, it’s just too slippery and prone to damage, so, as you can see from the picture above, my Ipod is already covered in an Iskin Evo3 case (which I have mixed feelings about, mainly because the lock-button on top is almost impossible to get to because of the very, very thick layer of rubber surrounding it - what were they thinking? Well, I kept wondering that until I started writing this and checked out the Iskin site and realized that what I have is not an Iskin case but a very similar knockoff! There are some notable differences, the first being that lock-button port, the second being two alignment holes (which, by the way, don’t) above the click-wheel (the real Iskin has a single hole below the wheel,) and a sharp edge on the bevel of the click-wheel hole in the plastic, among quite a few other things that I won’t bother going into. It’s just frustrating because Alissa went to the trouble to get this for me and I know she’s going to be upset that it’s not right. She couldn’t have known. I didn’t know for two days either. But it’ll get resolved with a real one soon enough, somehow.

The real dilemma is what to do with ol’ blue up there. He’s been absolutely the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received - my constant companion for the past two years. I feel more than a bit sad to see that little dude being relegated to the “obsolete technology” pile, especially since it’s only simply “out of space,” which may seem ridiculous to some, but when you go through music like I do, it’s a pretty frustrating predicament to run into. So I don’t know what to do. Blue is going to stick around for now, I guess. Maybe I can just rubber-band the two Ipods together and have 120gb of space, just switch the headphones from one to the other when I need to hear something on the other one.

As for the rest of Christmas, Amanda received a mountain of toys that we have no idea where to put when she’s not using them. I even bought an organizer before Christmas that I now realize is probably comically minimal in proportion to the amount of stuff she now has. So we may be getting another one of those soon . . . amazingly.

I couldn’t fool Alissa. She had told me she didn’t want a new Ipod, even after I explained that it now had the most sought-after upgrade from most music-freaks wanted - gapless playback (so concerts play back without that annoying half-second gap) - but she insisted she just didn’t want one. I kept suggesting that maybe she wanted a new Ipod for the past month and she resisted. A couple weeks back it hit me that it would be great fun to make her think I got her one so I asked around and found that one of my coworkers still had the box from her Ipod, a year old but current enough to look new. I carved out the middle and stuck Alissa’s real gift inside - a really nice diamond necklace - and wrapped it up, hoping that when she opened it up she’d get flustered and a bit upset and that I’d have to encourage her to go any further. Well, she opened it, sighed, looked at me, and said something to the effect of, “You did not” and promptly slid the inner box out to expose hidden gift inside. She knows me too well.

For dramatic effect, let me start off this way: in the past 36 hours or so, I have eaten about two pieces of bread, a bowl of rice, and a handful of Saltines. When Santa left our house Christmas eve, presents weren’t all he left.

I woke up Christmas morning and something was just not right, but I didn’t know what yet - something just didn’t feel quite right. I’d not felt quite right Christmas eve, either, but I’d chalked it up to overeating, even though I’d really not eaten all that much, not enough for that kind of stomach ache. I ignored it for the time being - Amanda was up and so I got her up, got her some breakfast while Alissa slept in a bit, and got a loaf of fresh bread baking in our bread machine. It wasn’t too long before I figured out what was wrong.

And so I spent the day darting from gift-giving and opening to the bathroom, unable to eat or drink pretty much anything until late in the day when I dared make some rice when the pain of hunger in my stomach outweighed the gnashing of whatever foul bug had gotten into my gut. I ate a very little bit of it and it seemed to sit fairly well.

As tired as I was, I feared actually going to sleep for how violently unrestful it seemed like it would surely be, but luckily it turned out okay. I only awoke a few times from various things unrelated to being ill, thankfully. I woke up in the morning actually not feeling too bad, but it turned out to be wishful thinking. I let hunger come to me after a few hours and gingerly ate some of the bread I’d baked the day before. When I found that nothing evil happened immediately, I ate another piece. I found quickly that I just didn’t need much, but mostly what I needed was water, so I nursed an ice cold cup all day.

Unfortunately, just when I thought things were going fine I made the brave leap and ate the remaining rice that I’d made the night before. Unwise, as I found out a few hours later. It’s hard to get your brain to accept that it may not feel sick while parts of your body that don’t necessarily directly report their every condition may not be quite up to the tasks you want to undertake. And so I overdid it a number of times, whether food or just being active - I put together a playhouse/slide that Santa brought for Amanda, then spent a good 45 minutes outside with her and Alissa while she played on it and wandered around the yard examining rocks. Shortly after that, I found it impossible to resist sleeping on the couch - something I never do. And I’m sore - everywhere, but especially my calves and forearms. I have found that if I bend my feet the wrong way, the muscles in my shins lock up in excruciating pain. So I try not to do that. It’s harder than you’d think.

Where did this come from? Not sure - I can only assume food poisoning, as I’d think if it were some kind of communicable disease then everyone around me would have it. I was the only one who ate the burger at the restaurant we went to for Christmas eve dinner and I’m the only one sick. But the burger seemed to be cooked just fine, so I don’t know. All I can say is that, for the moment, being a pastatarian sounds real good.

• I woke up sometime in the middle of the night yesterday with some hilarious thoughts about why you shouldn’t invite Vikings into your home. Needless to say, by the time I officially woke up for the day, I had completely forgotten everything but the fact that I had woken up with hilarious thoughts about why one shouldn’t invite Vikings into your home.
• You can’t tell, but I updated my two Wordpress installs for this site and Lookout For Hope and then activated the Akismet spam-blocker. I have been having HUGE comment-spam problems - literally hundreds a week and I was losing the battle keeping them at bey, but with the latest Wordpress and Akismet, I have been released from my spam-cleaning duties! It’s truly amazing - not a single bit of the (so far) 299 pieces of comment spam that have hit this site in the last week have passed through for approval by me. Akismet is a saving grace - if you’re using Wordpress and don’t have the latest updates or don’t have Akismet, update!
• Whither Christmas? Maybe it’s just me, or just Arizona, but it seems like Christmas has kind of disappeared this year. I realize not everyone celebrates Christmas, but it seems like most people do to some extent. Few houses on our street have lights up and no one seems to be in much of a Christmas mood. This after one of the more pathetic Halloween’s that we’ve ever experienced. It seems like people just don’t want to bother celebrating anything anymore, or bother with the effort of decorating. I’ve even seen signs around advertising a service that will decorate your house with lights for you. That doesn’t seem very festive - putting up lights is part of the fun, but I guess having someone else do it for you is better than not having them up at all.
• Somewhat tied into the above, this has been one of the odder Christmas-buying seasons: I got almost all of my buying done early and almost all of it done online. It took most of the stress out of it, but it also sapped it of a lot of the fun that is a part of the season. I feel like I’ve been disconnected a bit from the season for the above and because I wasn’t out in the stores surrounded by everything. I know the stress of shopping takes its toll, but sometimes the hustle and bustle is part of the fun. I’ll seek a better balance next year.
• After today, I’m off for 10 days from work. This is a true bargain: I took three vacation days next week to make it a full week because we get Monday and Tuesday off for Christmas and of course New Year’s Day the next week falls on Monday. You can’t pass up an opportunity like that.
• Quite possibly the most hilariously cute thing that Amanda has done yet: whenever one of the many appearances of the famous Chia Pet commercials comes on, she stops and attempts to sing along with it. All she can manage to do is “Cha-cha-cha” but it never fails to send us into fits of laughter. Nearly as funny is the fact that when ads for The Clapper come on, she is compelled to clap along with the announcer’s urging to “clap on, clap off!” That’s the power of marketing right there, people. I’m just glad she can’t use the phone or the computer to order these things.
• I have a feeling things are going to get very busy over the next two days, so let me take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas while I can! I’ll be back next week, posting furiously while I have some free time - be sure and check both sites!

She may not have had a list, but after today, she’s definitely on Santa’s “nice” list (not that she wasn’t before, of course, but you’ll get the point in a moment.) No lumps of coal for this one . . .

Time of arrival at the line for Santa’s lap? 11:30 am. Time of arrival at Santa’s lap? 2:45 pm. Hence the lack of smile on Amanda’s face - she may not have cried like many other kids did, but Alissa and I both think her lack of reaction either way may have simply been out of exhaustion. This kid was tired. She went to bed extra early tonight because she missed most of her daily nap for this and once she was down in her bed, she was out - a rarity because she likes to play with the two little music box-things that are attached to her crib. Tonight she went to bed and went to sleep fast. I don’t blame her - that was a long, long afternoon in the mall doing not much other than standing, being amazed at the sheer number of kids some families have (unscientific average number: 4!)

And dude gets extra points for having a real beard. Hell, who knows. He might have been the real deal.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: If you’re blue, and you don’t know where to go to, why don’t you go where fashion sits…
The Monster: ‘UTTIN’ ON THE ‘IIIIITZ.

Rest in peace, Peter Boyle.

It’s winter, so you know what that means: it’s disease time. I guess I’ve managed to become a target for some so far unknown bug that has, at this point, not been too awful, but just bad enough to take me out of commission today at least. It took a while to wind up, however - I’ve been feeling pretty dumpy for almost a week, whether due to allergies because of the horrible pollution Phoenix suffers in the winter or the slow build-up of this cold, I don’t know. But today I woke up and just knew that I wasn’t going to work. Sore throat, groggy head, burning nasal passages, achy muscles. Nope, I was down for the day.

In a way, I knew it was coming - I’ve been running around like a headless chicken for weeks, stressing out over stupid things at home and at work, even stressing out over the possibility of getting sick (stressing out, in fact, about getting sick for Christmas like I have so many times in the past.) I just had a feeling my body was just going to suffer a stress fracture at some point.

I don’t even know why I get like this - I just do. I get all wound up inside for no reason. Work, for whatever stupid reason, gets crazy busy between the middle of November and the end of December, the very time of year I absolutely need it to not be crazy busy so that I don’t get sick (because I know how I get when things get busy - I get stressed out, and stress kills your immune system.) I could almost sense the stress cracking like a board snapping in half - one loud crack and things afterward are different. If I’m back at work tomorrow, I know I’ll go in with a much more relaxed state of mind - what gets finished, gets finished, no more stressing. Why I couldn’t have just been like this before, I don’t know, but that’s just now how my mind works. I tend to roll things up in tight little mental bundles that end up unspooling if I get too many things going on at once because I can’t keep track of what I’m doing, and then everything gets tangled together and I can’t make any headway on anything. Having reached my breaking point, I’ll be okay for a while again. And then I’ll just do it again. I never learn.

The problem:

The solution:

I spent most of today building something I was badly in need of: more CD storage. As the first image attests, I am out of room and have been for some time. All of the CDs on the floor? They need homes, and the four racks I have are out of room. If you notice, there are several stacks of CDs laying there in front of the two twin-sized racks, and in the distance is a long row of discs. The former are newer discs that simply have no place to go. The latter are ones that have slowly been migrated out of the fourth and last rack as newer stuff has come in - that represents everything from Wilco to John Zorn, to be exact.

The second image is one of two four-foot tall, two foot wide racks I built today (the materials for which lay below on the concrete) and there’s still one to go. As you can guess, two racks is not enough - that simply solves my problem now, and as I have learned from years of driving in Arizona and dealing with our tendency to design road construction programs for now instead of when they’ll be finished years from now, I have planned ahead to build a third rack for the next few years of music buying.

These are super-sturdy racks - 3/4 pine with plywood backs, glued and screwed (naughty!) everywhere possible for strength. I need these to not only hold the discs vertically but also be able to transport them whenever we move. I simply can’t handle packing up all these discs in flimsy cardboard boxes like I did when we moved into this house years ago - it was a ridiculous mess, a waste of way too many boxes with a lot of wasted space because CDs, like books, weigh a lot, so you can’t really pack many in those boxes. These are designed to move - carefully.

Unfortunately, not having the best equipment on hand, they’re a bit rough, but that’s okay - I’ll just call them “utilitarian” in design. I did the best I could. It was a one-man job. Someday they’ll get sanded and painted to cover the ugliness of this cheap, raw pine, but for now, they’ll get the job done.

Do you know what I find really annoying about the latest version of Itunes? Even more annoying than the ever-present popping and clicking in playback, as if Apple thought us digital junkies needed to be reminded of modern music’s vinyl roots (a problem I spent two hours attempting to solve late Saturday night - to no avail)? It’s the spotty implementation of cover art.

At this very moment I’m importing the very excellent 4-disc Charlie Parker boxset that I’ve had for years, The Complete Live Performances On Savoy, which, for whatever reason*, I’ve never bothered to rip until now. Disc 1 ripped and Itunes grabbed the correct art. Disc 2 ripped and grabbed completely different artwork for a compilation set derived from this box, but it’s completely different artwork. Discs 3 and 4 ripped and grabbed the right artwork as well. When I attempted to simply copy the artwork from the correct discs to disc 2, it wouldn’t let me. When I went to Amazon, I couldn’t find artwork of the correct size - instead, I find artwork with a giant white border which leaves the real artwork very small. This is just completely stupid - why can’t I copy the artwork from one disc to another? A Google image search is fruitless - this box is apparently out of print and only the compilation is available now, so finding a decently-sized image of the cover is very difficult. Yet somehow Itunes new to do it for discs 1, 3 and 4 . . .

I eventually found something suitable, but it took far longer than it should have. That, afterall, is the whole point of adding the album-artwork finder feature to Itunes, isn’t it?

*Perhaps it’s that some boxes I just don’t seem to like digitizing - I really like enjoying them as a whole. It’s cool to have the immense and informative liner notes with me when I listen, but like all things, it’s just easier to have it in a smaller format to take with me everywhere now.