I stumbled across the word welkin this holiday season. It stands for ‘the sky; the firmament’. This heavenly word is often teamed with the verb ‘ring’ to suggest that the sky could ring like a bell given a loud enough noise. The words to a familiar Christmas carol once read “Hark! how all the welkin rings”, but today we know it as “Hark! the herald angels sing.”

I completed wrapping my family’s Christmas gifts tonight. I decided to take a break and photograph the lights I hung on my house this year. Enjoy!

Click on the image for a larger picture

House Lights

Porch Lights

Festive Door

I believe I have finished my Christmas shopping. All things considered the fellow mall patrons were relatively considerate. One cashier commented on the fact that the night had produced the most screaming children at the ‘Pictures with Santa’ booth. But I didn’t notice too much, I was focused on buying my gifts and getting out of the mall.

Mall (All Over the World) was found on Doppelgänger, the 1983 album by the band Daniel Amos. Here is a snippet from the song:

How come you’re sad, how come you cry
When golden arches ‘cross your sky?
They’re reminders of sweet bye and bye
This could be heaven when we die…

I had lunch with a colonel — not my PHC colonel buddy — an Air Force colonel. He asked where I was from. When I told him I grew up in Centralia, he asked me, “Are you an orphan?” It suprised me. Not too many people know the Centralia High School mascot is the Orphan. For the record the girls team is the Orphan Annies. I kid you not.

Other Illinois towns have odd mascots for their teams. Here is a collection of my favorites: the Cobden Apple Knockers, the Freeport Pretzels and the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes.

I went to two costume parties this weekend. The first was Friday night. It was hosted by a coworker and his wife. My mac daddy pimp costume won best costume. Wee! They gave me a spider with flexible legs as a prize. For some reason two women decided to make a toy out of my prize and bent the legs so the spider fit on their chest. Uhm, the spider in its breast-shaped embrace is now sitting in my cube at work. A married woman flirted with me. My luck! I told her she shouldn’t do that.

The second party was the Party Hard Corpse 1 by the Party Hard Corps (PHC) crew. We played great games, enjoyed some tasty food, consumed some beverages and watched some Evil Dead. The PHC hostesses — Babypants, Percocet and Sybarite — are all sierra hotel! While I spent most of Sunday recovering, I was glad I went.

I gave out candy tonight. The neighborhood kids had some interesting costumes this year. My favorite was the nun with a honking-big cross necklace.

Ugh, I’m under the weather. So I’m gonna turn in early tonight.

My neighborhood had a block party today. I get invited every year. Usually I stay home. But I wanted to go to this one. I had to warn my neighbors about their unprotected wireless routers. The invitation instructed me to bring a dish. So I made some deviled eggs.

The neighborhood has changed. We’ve had at least three new families move in this year. I took the opportunity to let my neighbors know that I am a single guy who welcomes being set up with a lady. Heh. We’ll see.