In Java, Literally...

My friends and co-workers know I tend to get a little blah about the winter holiday season. Still, I try to get in the spirit in small ways. This year, I'm leaping into the season pretty early on by participating in the local production of The Living Christmas Tree. The picture shown here is of a different church's production, but the set-up is almost the same at the church holding it here in Jamestown. Instead of the white pointsettas in front of the chior, picture a small orchestra squished in front.

Our performances start this Friday at 8pm, with four more to follow at 5 and 8pm on Saturday and 5 and 8pm on Sunday. For someone who is not religious in the organized-sense, I'm getting more than my fill of the Jesus-season over this week.

I'll let my iPod do the rest of holiday-spiriting by randomly playing several of the tunes I'm uploading today. I expect to be entertained by the following discs, mixed in with my usual crazy assortment over the next four weeks:

Mayb…

Matt and I survived the first Thanksgiving at our new house. The final guest total came to 21 people, with a few change-ups the day of the feast.

It was good to see everyone and the food that everyone brought was great. There was a moment of panic when my dad informed me there was hardly any breast meat on the 21.95 lb turkey I cooked. We breathed a sigh of relief when we realized the turkey was just oddly shaped and the breast meat was hidden some other place on the bird. But even if the turkey had lacked the proper amount of meat, my sister-in-law, Sue, had brought half a cooked ham for the non-turkey lovers (my father-in-law).

Here are the rest of the holiday pictures.

Another happy moment included the fact that the entire kitchen is now painted. There are a few minor touch ups, and the curtains need to be hung, but it's a relief to finally have one room completed in our house.

And the predictions of 1 to 2 feet of lake effect snow led to more people coming up Wednesday night, but …

With the new title of homeowners bestowed upon Matt and me, I decided to suggest having all the family to our house for Thanksgiving. It seemed to make sense at the time. After all, we are able to sleep 6 people (couples) on beds, and have two couches to accomodate the less picky or latecomers. Then the invites went out. Then our invitees decided to invite other people. While it's not definite, there's a chance we'll have 21 people at our house for Thanksgiving.


On the upside, it'll be good to have all the family down for the holiday and everyone is bringing a side dish. My main responsibility, cooking-wise, is baking the pies, buying the rolls, and making the turkey. The latter should be easy if not for the fact that Wegmans has run out of all the turkeys that are 29-cents a pound when you spend $25 on groceries. They were supposed to get a shipment last night. I went in this morning and the stock boy told me that they only had 10-lb turkeys. He was real nice about it …

When I found out that Toyota is coming out with a new car to replace the Echo, I breathed a sigh of relief and rejoiced at the news of Yaris. I assume the cost will be in the $13k-$16k range. At least, that's what I'm hoping. I'm willing to forgo my dreams of owning a four-door if the gas mileage on this new baby compares with the Echo and Tercel. Of course, I can dream that they might offer it in a four-door model too. I'll wait to see what Consumer Reports says, of course.

Matt said it best in his post about why Greg Edwards getting elected as Chautauqua County Executive is not good.

On a positive note, the Democrats took back control of the Jamestown City Council. And in my hometown of Irondequoit, the women have seized the day, the Supervisor's seat, and the majority on the Town Board. They're all Democrats too!

At this very late hour, all I have to say is that I am personally stunned with the results of our County Executive race here in Chautauqua County, NY. I know I am not alone in those thoughts. I dread to think what the next four years will be like in this county. I hope we don't have a future similar to Erie County, although nothing would surprise me at this point.

Today is Election Day across the United States. There are local races happening in every state, city, and town. It is your civic duty, if you are registered, to visit the polls today and to record that you showed up to vote. You don't even have to vote for anyone once in the voting booth, but you exercised your right once in the voting booth to at least be counted among those who showed up.

Locally, in Chautauqua County we have several county-wide seats on the ballot including County Executive, District Attorney, County Clerk, and the full County Legislature. The city council seats in the city of Jamestown are also being voted on today. A quick endorsement list from me:

County Executive: Mark Thomas
District Attorney: Ken Lasker
County Clerk: Lori Cornell
Legislature (my district): Chuck Cornell
City Council (Ward 2): Carla Howie
City Council (At Large): Vince DeJoy

And unless I read something today that changes my mind:
State Proposition One: No
State Proposition Two: Yes

Chautauqua County …

I seem to have good luck with finding good music to listen to during the month of November. This year is no exception. Quite happily, I've found at least three albums that are stellar:

Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
The Bravery - The Bravery
OK Go - Oh No

You can't help but feel like someone is trying real hard to make sure we don't forget the sounds of The Cars, early XTC, and Talking Heads. The Franz Ferdinand album is at the top of my playlist and gains the sort of status that Fountains of Wayne's Welcome Interstate Managers did back in 2003. The much coveted "Ohmyeffinggod! This is one of the best effing albums EVER!"