While checking on some new code in the computer lab, Inga barges in with a large three-ring binder.

"He's the results of the experiment." She announces while dropping the massive binder down on the workbench.

"Experiment?" I ask.

"Remember, we added pure, powered evil to the cities water supply?"

"Oh, right. Well, I've sort of moved on to another project. Project H actually. It turns out my cheif rival lost all their lead researchers to a tragic conference room accident and have left a market opprotunity."

"Was it one of those accidents where all the researchers died of massive head trauma while all trying to grab the last capped dry-erase marker and tripping over carelessly laid wires that were never unplugged from the last meeting because the secretary went on strike?" Asks Inga.

"Exactly. Now I need you to gather the staff, Project H is ready for deployment."

(Bwahhhahahahhhaahh!)

The staff meeting is almost over, so far all the reports have been positive. My policy of killing department heads who bring me bad news appears to be working well. Ah good, the report on the evil household goods department is over.

"Very well, any comments?"

One of my worthless minions stands up and stammers out, "Shouldn't we stock some Chirstmas merchandise?"

"What is Chirstmas?"

"It's a holliday, stores usually stock a lot of profitable items...."

"Deimos. Form a Christmas committee to investigate this so-called holliday and report to me tomorrow. That will be all for today."

Is everyone ready for the Winter Light Show? My neighbors haven't even started planning out how we're going to decorate our street-- if we don't get on it soon, we won't have a chance at the citywide competition. We're gonna have to find someone the sells lights and decorations cheap, and in bulk...

t picks flyer off post

Festival of Lights Starts Here! Cash transactions only to emulate your own Starry Starry Nights. Dawnstars and stars of wonder! Cash only!

Well, I usually don't start decorating until after Thanksgiving, but it wouldn't hurt to buy some early...

Hmmm. I wonder if they have fairy lights, too, or just the standard electric.

'Bout time those freeloading faries pulled their weight. Of course, since they weigh next to nothing their weight-pulling generally consists of three hours of flickering, scintillating light. That's why you have to have lots of replacements on hand, usually fresh-frozen.

At least they waited till after All Hallows this year. Of course, that might have something to do with the ghosts and whatnot who swarmed all over town last year stealing anything at all Christmasy that was on public display. I remember Jilli having a knockdown yelling match with a crew of zombies and saying that her Santa Clauses were perfectly acceptable because they were all wearing goth gear. I'm still not sure the eight flying vampire bats were a good replacement for the reindeer. Though Bob nearly hurt himself laughing. All good.

Off to see how much eggnog it takes to convince a vampire that Thanksgiving is a perfectly acceptable holiday, not just the emblem of colonial oppression. Not like we celebrate any of the Orangemen holidays. No pumpkin pie for those, after all.

Edward-- dressed in black leather trousers and a bright red top with white fluffy trim-- bounces up onto my bed, and yells, "Wake up wake up wake up wake up!"

"What's on fire?" I mutter, rubbing at my poor tired eyes. Apparently too much shopping will tire a person out.

"Nothing," Edward growls irritably. "It's nearly Christmas! We have to decorate and buy presents and stuff!"

Okay, I ask myself, when did this bear forget that I dodn't do Christmas? I'm a pagan, I don't have to do that stuff.

"Call it Yule, then, just get up and join in," and the furry bear-bomb leaves me alone.

I lie back and listen for a moment-- Edward's paws hop downstairs, and (was that the back door?) out into the back garden, where I hear Jossica's moans at being woken.

"I know how you feel." I roll out of bed, wondering if this house decorates itself, or if I have to do actual work. Because if I have to put up the decorations, we are not going to have *any* Santas. I'm sure that man is evil.

I look over the checklist for this year's Castle Gudanov lighting display. I still don't know how I didn't win first prize in last year's Winter Light Show. Castle Gudanov's lights consumed a couple of orders of magnitude more power than the winning display. Oh well, this year will be different.

Okay, item one. Multicolor LED (for fire safety) lights on all the trees in the surrounding forest. Check.

Item two. Xenon lights for the Castle itself. Check.

Item three. Water cooling system for Xenon light display. Check.

Item four. FAA clearance to allow activation of light display. Check.

Item five. Welder's goggles for looking at display directly. Check.

Item six. Fusion power plant online to power display. Check.

Item seven. Blimps for skywide holographic projection of the entire Chipmunk's Christmas Special from 1984 resampled into 3-D. Check.

Item eight. Lighting display command center prepared. Check.

All right. First prize is in the bag this year.

I find Achmed cursing at the computer he uses to monitor the household budget and maintenance. "What's wrong?"

"A 3 percent spike in electrical useage over last year."

"Oh, um, well, the plasma TV really does work nicely for computer games, but I didn't think it was that much a power hog."

"I factored that in. It's citywide."

"Christmas light season, then."

"Sitt, everyone in the city is having the same jump in their bills, even the ones who don't have bills."

I find my chair. "You mean--"

He nods grimly. "Gudanov's back. And he's hacked the system to spread out his power load."

"My god, what's he building this time? They're going to see it from space."

"I would'nt be surprised."