Happy Birthday Strega!

I don't have to be at work again until NEXT YEAR!!

PFFTTHH!

I'm eating company supplied pizza.

Pfltttthhh to the both of you. You may commence with the jealousy. I am going home! The office is closed!

Huh. Supervisor just told me I could go home, so I shall!

And since both of my supervisors gave me gift cards this year -- which has never happened to me before, so I was totally unprepared -- should I get them something for next week, or just be a greedy little peon and accept the gifts?

accept the gifts. and write a thank you.

I didn't do gifts this year except for 3 people. And one, the gift isn't done yet.

I'm still trapped here. Another 30 minutes, then the signature olympics.

just be a greedy little peon and accept the gifts?

Unless they're personal gifts other than company gifts. Did you get them for being a great person or a great employee?

I'm watching NASA TV while working - the Space Shuttle is on its way to a Florida landing....

Bah humbug:

ABC has still not posted the next episode of Day Break on its website despite promising to do so after it yanked the show from its broadcast schedule early this week. The online edition of TV Guide said that the network is blaming "unforeseen music-clearance issues" for the delay. The network apparently did not spell out the precise nature of the problems, but the musicians union has been demanding payment for online performances.

I am not looped by pain the way I was last night. The trick is to keep stretching the finger and bending it. It's already a lot better, but still sore. Do you think these would bother the TSA?

Bad news - Santa is dead.

Santa dies at children's party

Children watched in horror as a Santa Claus collapsed and died as he handed out presents at a Christmas party on Sunday.

Andrew Robertson was taken ill as the excited youngsters received their gifts. The 82-year-old was taken to a side room and attempts made to revive him, but he was pronounced dead when medics arrived.

Just about any story that starts with the words, "Children watched in horror as..." is a good one....

Dispatches from the front lines of the War on Christmas: Troops fight for Christmas in Seattle

NEWS ITEM: Officials at the Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle took down all the Christmas trees in the facility after a local rabbi asked the airport to erect a menorah to mark Hanukkah. The trees were returned after a national furor which, in the eyes of conservative talk show hosts, made the airport the central front in the mythical war on Christmas.

...

VOICE OF PAULY SHORE: My dearest Tiffani,

Tonight, all is quiet on the western front. We are bedded down in an airport Ramada, a few klicks from the main battlefield. Our surroundings are comfortable, or as comfortable as you can get at an airport Ramada. The minibars are well-stocked, but few among our ranks feel they can justify paying $18 for a small jar of macadamia nuts, much less $12 for one of those mini-bottles of Scotch.

And we have had to endure other hardships. The Wi-Fi connection in the lobby was down all afternoon. One of our number lost his valet parking ticket. The piano player in the lounge keeps playing the same Billy Joel songs over and over again. War is hell.

We just returned from conducting a patrol and attempting to engage the enemy in the main concourse of the airport. You should see it, darling. It's a wide concourse, brightly lit, a beautiful sight to these eyes made weary by horrors of the culture war. It's distressing to see such a place become a battlefield. It should be a placid place, a place for travelers to rest before embarking on their lengthy journeys, a place where the peace is shattered only by the screams of travelers trying to convince ticket agents to permit them to carry on a crate of duty-free wine.

Happy days getting longer.