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Location: Home.
Listening: "One Million Miles Away" by jralph.

I'll begin by saying that, if you haven't visited jralph's site, you really should give it a look. He's the musician behind the gorgeous piece backing the new VW Jetta commercial (the one in which the young man rushes to the church to stop the wedding of his presumed love). I saw the commercial and immediately got lost in the music--a scratchy track of heavy strings (sounds like a cello, violins and possibly a bass), bells, and various synths with a soprano thrown in for punctuation. The rest of his stuff is very much the middleground between A3 and Underworld (what I've heard) or perhaps This Mortal Coil. I'm still trying to locate his album (the website is sold out and none of the music stores I've been to have heard of him *sigh*), so I have to be satisfied with the clips on the site for now. Check it out-it's good stuff.

I haven't been as quiet as it seems lately. I've got two entries that I've been working on that are almost ready for posting. One is a sample of what I've been doing photographically (I'm having problems with the image sizing, but when they get ironed out, I'll post) and the other is a collection of the results of the various on-line quizzes I've taken lately. Should be up here sometime this coming week.

Things at 1260 are moving right along toward the holiday. Peter and I went out Monday evening and bought our tree (a six foot Frasier Fir/noble pine--the treeman said they were the same thing, so I'll defer to him) as well as ornaments, wrapping paper, ribbons, yards of Scotch tape, Danish butter cookies (for me), Swiss Rolls (for Peter), and various and sundry other Christmas-y things. I'm determined to get the holiday cards posted tomorrow and have already bought the bulk of my presents (the majority of which I'm very proud of--I actually have the money to give people what I would like to give them this season). The next step is trying to organize the boys for a Christmas party this coming weekend so that I can distribute said presents all at once. Much easier said than done. Presents arrived from my family and Peter's this past week. We're likely trimming the tree tonight (we had to wait for the branches to fall a little more) and I'm going to try to make cider. I'm still looking for cookie cutters for the gingerbread men and need some oranges to cover in cloves, but we're doing pretty well so far.

In less festive news, I've been thrown back into some anxiety about my health lately, which I've been trying to fight off (or at least postpone until after the holidays). I've been having some vaguely disturbing symptoms and have promised myself that I'll make an appointment with an internist after the New Year and try not to worry about anything until then. We'll see how successful I am.

I've decided to keep my mind off things hypochondriac by trying to write again. I figure that, if I can turn to a project every time I start to get scared about my health, I can complete two tasks at once--keeping myself sane and actually producing something creative. I'm feeling very clever about this right now. If what I produce finds favor, I'll likely post it.

Sitting here now, with sunlight filling the room, waiting for Peter to wake so that we can go to brunch (which, I suppose, is technically lunch by now), drinking a Tazo Brambleberry. I first discovered this stuff when I worked for three weeks as a barista at Starbuck's in Houston. I eventually resigned when I realized that my manager was mentally unstable (oh, is that another story), but still try to get ahold of Tazo when I can. The Brambleberry is basically iced herbal tea with blackberry and apple juice--incredibly yummy ice-cold. Speaking of Starbuck's, which I don't often because I prefer independent coffee shoppes, they have a new holiday drink out that is really just amazing. Peter and I dropped in this week before going to see "Spy Game" (surprisingly good, by the way, and not just because of Redford and Pitt *yum*) at the Marina Pacifica. Peter got a Gingerbread Latte (which was also really tasty) and I got the Caramel Apple Cider. Oh my Lord, was it good. The last few sips are deadly, as the caramel settles at the bottom, but damn. I have to figure out how to make it at home.

OK, off to try to rouse Peter and get some food in us. Then off to PetCo for a rat for Luce and possibly to Banana Republic for a shirt for me. More later tonight.