Friday Shuffle - Just Around the Corner Edition

Please, let me be the ninety-jillionth person you've heard utter the words "Yikes! Christmas is next week? It's coming up so fast!". Actually I keep going back and forth between "Holy crap, Christmas Eve is Wednesday and I still have stuff to do before then!" and "Oh pooh - Christmas Eve ain't until Wednesday - I still have plenty of time to do everything."

Some things that have cropped up for me lately:

• I got a notice from the post office that a package from the US is waiting for me at the customs office. I'm fairly certain it's my Christmas gift from my sister because she said she sent me something from Amazon. Only problem is that she had it sent from Amazon.com and not Amazon.de or Amazon.co.uk so that means I'm probably going to have to pay customs on it. If something is sent to me directly from the seller it doesn't count as a gift so that means I have a lower value limit before paying customs than if it were sent directly from the person giving the gift. I also didn't get the notice until ten minutes before the customs office closed for the weekend so on Monday morning when I should be doing holiday baking I'll instead being driving to the other end of town to bail my Christmas present out of customs jail. Now let's all wish for the giving spirit of Christmas to be with the customs agent so that he lets me slide and I don't have to pay a customs bill that's the equivalent of my weekly grocery bill.
  
  
• Some thoughtful person, obviously someone who knows just what I find to be amusing and knows my sort of entertainment, kindly left under my windshield wiper an advertisement for a "porno karaoke" event to be held at a local club on Saturday night. It's karaoke! It's porno! It's two treats in one! What would porno karaoke entail anyway? Do they show porno flicks and you stand up in front of the crowd with a microphone and provide the moaning and panting? Do you get up and perform pornographic acts while singing Hit Me With Your Best Shot? I'm very tempted to go down to that club on Saturday night. Not to find out what porno karaoke is but to find the person who put the ad on my windshield. It rained this morning which soaked the little card advert. I found the ad after the rain had stopped and the winds had dried the card to the windshield and I spent ten minutes trying to scrape it off with my thumbnail. Finding the person responsible and beating him with a microphone while he moans in time with the music is what I'd like to do but I realize it wouldn't be in keeping with the spirit of the season.
  
  
• I can't figure out my holiday baking schedule. If I bake this weekend I'm afraid that we (read: I) may end up eating all the cookies before the holiday. If I wait until Tuesday to bake then I'm afraid I may be terribly busy that day and the baking won't get done at all. The solution may be to bake on Sunday and then lock them away, giving B the key.
  
  
• I've made it all the way to December 19th and I have yet to hear Last Christmas. Suck it, George Michael!

Time to shuffle.

1. There She Goes Again - Beat Farmers
2. Teach Your Children - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3. Cold As Ice - Foreigner
   
4. Sub-Rosa Subway - Klaatu
5. 3's & 7's - Queens of the Stone Age
6. Language City - Wolf Parade
7. Eddie's Gun - The Kooks
8. Dear Sarah - Scott Miller & The Commonwealth
9. Cult Of Personality - Living Colour
10. Gravity Fails - The Bottle Rockets