How it ALL went down in 2008.

Well this is it. The final night of 2008.
2009 is peeking its sun rays just over yonder and it's time to pop on the reading glasses and see how I did with my resolutions I made this time last year.

Here is a list of my 2008 Resolutions - which I wrote last year on this blog.

New Year's Resolutions for 2008:
1) Hit the gym 3 times a week.
Well...I gotta say, I started out great with this. I did. I was going probably more than 3 times a week to the YMCA on a shaky workout plan, but - 45 mins of carbs and another 20 mins of weights. But - the second half of the year, I fell off in a hard way and never hopped back on. Boo to that.
Resolution: FAILED!

2) Continue walking to work whenever possible.
Again. I did this very well. I really did. But when the snow and ice hit early this year, that was it. Done. Mind you - I don't have boots. But...I can't say I failed at this. I did after all, walk home from work on the SHITTIEST Death Storm of the YEAR! Which is insane. But I did it.
Did I do it whenever possible? No. But - I did it FAR more often than not.
Resolution: Passed...by the skin of my teeth...but passed.

3) Crack out the crock pot and get CRACKIN' on some fun and easy and simple and healthy meals.
Yes! I did it! This year I made some delicious pumpkin soup - all from scratch in the crock pot. It turned out amazing. I also tried my luck at a bean casserole - the gas nearly killed Life Partner - but it turned out amazing. I also made some sweet-ass roasted garlic potatoes. All easy recipes and I have no doubt in my mind - I will get "crackin'" on more easy crock-pot recipes in 2009.
Resolution: Passed!

4) Finish up this "thing" I've been working on since early 2007.
Okay...this "thing" I have been working in - that I am referencing here...is a book. Oddly enough - the book I ended up finishing this year was NOT the book I mentioned in this resolution...but - the point was to release a book this year, and in a round about way - I did it!
So I'm gonna go ahead and say: Resolution PASSED!

5) TAKE some vacation time. I'm bad for this. I need at least 1 week this year ALL for me...no responsibility. NOWHERE to go. Just me.
Well...while I did enjoy some great time off...I did not have a single week to myself this year. I did take a few weeks off ...to work on the air.
Resolution: Failed.
That being said - I did take some time off (not a full week) to have lunch and relaxation a few days...I also took some time off to hit Chicago with Julie, Anna and Life Partner and then again with just myself and Life Partner - also in Chicago. That made up for it. I love my job, and in all honesty - working doesn't ALWAYS feel like work.
That being said - I could have used a week off in December, because my schedule got a bit ridiculous with 14 hour days 5 days a week and no weekends off.
But - now is not the time to be complaining about having a job!!!

6) Finish unpacking the bedroom.
Err...Um...ahem...
Resolution: Failed.
(insert red face here)

7) MORE POETRY READINGS.
Yeah. I did a few. I didn't do MORE...but I did a few. I had my book release. That was cool. I went to a few poetry readings...read at a few events...but...I can't say I did more. But I read. I did indeed read.
Resolution: Passed.

8) Learn guitar even MORE.
Does guitar hero count?
Resolution: Failed.

9) Get the garden in tip top shape...(2007 was a write off)
We had a good go-ahead, but we need to work on it BIG TIME in 2009.
It's not horrible. We (and when I say "we" I mean Life Partner) did a pretty decent job of getting it cleaned up. but - to a point where I am comfortable with having a full on backyard party - nope - not yet.
Resolution: Didn't fail. Didn't pass.

10) Somehow...get a cameo in an "art film".
Okay. I came SOOO fucking close to this it's not even funny. but - it didn't happen.
Resolution: Failed.

Favourite Moments/Highlights of the Year:
Discovering Chicago this year was a definite highlight. Had the chance to visit the beautiful city not once but twice - and it will forever remain a favourite place to visit. It holds nothing but amazing memories for me.

Releasing my first book, Whine & Cheese. Independently published. It was an amazing experience - the night of the book launch at Phog. Steffie Loveless and her band performed. Nearly everyone in the world I cared about packed the place. There was energy in the air - at least I felt it - and I got to read my poems for everyone - many who have never heard them before - or never even knew I read poems. It was an amazing experience, and it will not be my last book...there will be another in 2009!

Liz Phair in Chicago. I know this was already mentioned in my favourite concerts section, but this was an especially amazing experience. It was Liz Phair - live in her hometown of Chicago, playing her debut album Exile in Guyville from start to finish and it sounded stunning and flawed and fabulous - exactly the way it should have. The bonus: It was on the EXACT day of the 15th Anniversary OF the album! You cannot get a better Liz Phair experience than that. It was a magical night, and regardless of her sinfully awful 2003 and 2005 releases, it re-opened that very special and untouchable place in my heart that will always be reserved JUST for Liz. Hey - I named this very blog after that album! But the show...legendary. I am so lucky and so incredibly stunned that Life Partner worked out a way to get me into this show...it was up there with "most amazing musical moments of my life" - second only to meeting the Bangles in 2006.

I don't talk about it much on here because I like to keep me and the on air guy separate - but I got a job as fill-in dude on a very cool triple A station in the Windsor Detroit area. I am on the air permanently Sundays 1pm - 7pm and I fill in at least 2 or three shifts a week whenever they need me, usually in the evenings. It's incredible and fun and I truly do care about the music we play. Even if I didn't work there, I would be an avid listener. I'm just honoured to be a part of the on-air staff.

Animal activism. I was spokesperson for WAAG this year and was in the papers and on the radio and in the streets demonstrating everything from the Circus, the Canadian Seal Hunt, the Fur Industry and Factory Farming - and promoting vegetarianism and the Humane Society. It's a constant learning experience. I am still not sure if I'm the most qualified person to talk to the media...but - it's a learning experience. You need a thick skin and a strong passion. And confidence.
For some reason or another - I have the softest spot in my heart for animals - no idea why or where it came from, but it is there and I know that flame will never be extinguished. Yes, I sound like a crazy Christian - "God is in my heart!" - but the animals are there and I can't kick them out and would not want to.
I stand by the "top of the food chain does NOT give us license to eat and destroy everything under us."
I'd never judge anyone for eating meat...but it is my belief that we can do better for ourselves, our planet and our friends who share it with us - who have every right to roam the land and not be shot at or captured.

This has been an extremely successful year for me - creatively and professionally. I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm not, I'm simply re-capping. I didn't really give the events much thought - but all in all - it was a crazy year.

One of my best yet. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop - because the last couple years have just been a dream come true.

If there is a heaven, and someone told me I had died 9 years ago, when I met Life Partner and this was it - I was in heaven - where all my wildest dreams come true on a daily basis...I would have no doubt believing it. I am there.
The good out-weighs the bad - knock on wood - and even the bad has only helped birth incredible things... it's all part of the experience I guess, and reviewing 2008 - the fact remains: I'm a lucky ass guy...um...who probably needs to do MORE - give a little something MORE back...and I intend to try to do that in 2009. I really honestly do. Because it's not fair to ride shotgun in the luxury sedan for free.

*sigh*

Cheers brothers and sisters...to you, this blog and to 2008!

Hearts and Champagne Farts,

Dan

My Year-in-Music Review...or something like that. (In no particular order)

I know every year I make a list of my Top 10 or Top 15 of the year.
This year was too hard.
Too tough.
I know that sounds lazy, but it's true.
There was a lot of great stuff. And a lot of shit stuff.
It was a mish-mash of crap and gold to sift through, and frankly, it's all inter-twind, far too tangled to make heads or tales, so instead, I am going to offer just a few lists of my "favourites" and "not-so-favourites" of the year.

Favourite 2008 Albums
Breeders - Mountain Battles
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Aimee Mann - @#%&*! Smilers
Portihead - Third
Sam Roberts - Love at the End of the World
Sloan - Parallel Play
Conor Oberst - self-titled (although I hate that it is self-titled - THAT is lazy!)
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
The Faint - Fasciinatiion
Juliana Hatfield - How to Walk Away
Matthew Sweet - Sunshine Lies
B-52's - Funplex
Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
Hayden - In Field and Town
The War on Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues
David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Brightblack Morning Light - Motion to Rejoin
Madonna - Hard Candy
Tilly + the Wall - O
Megapuss - Surfing
Dressy Bessy - Hollerandstomp!
The Kills - Midnight Boom
Ani DiFranco - Red Letter Year
Beck - Modern Guilt
Pretenders - Break up the Concrete
The Watson Twins - Fire Songs

Albums I Did Not Give A Proper Chance to in 2008:
Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
High Places - self titled
Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
Cyndi Lauper - Bring Ya to the Brink
Sia - Some People Have Real Problems
Duffy - Rockferry
Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop & Roll
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Emmylou Harris - All I Intended to Be

Albums That Just Let Me Down in 2008:
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
R.E.M. - Accelerate
Elvis Costello - Momofuku
Kathleen Edwards - Asking for Flowers
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Martina Topley Bird - The Blue God

*side note - Tricky and Martina...both made "decent" albums. Well..Tricky's was shitty...but held potential. Martina - again, proved to be the stronger of the two, but fell flat.
I think these two SERIOUSLY need to reunite because together: Unstoppable.
But that's just me.

Favourite Shows of 2008:
Liz Phair - Chicago, IL
Toadies - Detroit MI
Hayden - Ferndale MI
Goldfrapp - Toronto, Ontario
Sam Roberts - Leamington, Ontario
Wicked - (broadway production) - Chicago, IL

dats all folks...see ya New Year's Eve!

BLOG ME! BLOG ME! HARDER! FASTER! MORE! MORE! BLOG ME! YES! YES! ...part FIVE!

Well...happy new year.
Of course, when I say "New Year", I don't mean 2009.
I mean...Dec 28th - 2008.
This marks four years since I started this here little blog.
Four years.
I was a waiter.
A writer at a teensy little Windsor magazine.
The host of a groovy little indie-radio show at a funky little station.
Pluto the Cat...she was not yet here.
I still had my gallbladder intact and I still ate chicken wings.
Times, they have-a-changed, haven't they?
It's funny, when I first signed on as maintenance man for this little wee corner in blogville, I wasn't really sure what a "blog" even was or what it was "supposed" to be...what role it was supposed to fill.
What point it was supposed to make.
I still don't - except that it turns out - it ended up being one of the few constant things in my life that has remained month-after-month-after-month.
A diary. Yeah, sure.
But a little bit more than that - something a bit different because it's shaped. Sculpted.
It is put on display for people to read. Or for people to scoff at.
For friends to post anonymous bitchy comments - or for random strangers to tell me I made them smile.
Vice versa times infinity.
Sometimes, no one reads it and it just sits here, some of my most personal thoughts exposed with no one but the faceless big brother or big sister in cyberland to browse.

Expect sad posts and happy posts, sober posts and drunk posts, musical numbers and boring narratives, poetic sonnets and brick walls of text - walls of words, mountains of thought - useless or inventive - that's up to you.

I wrote those words back in 2004, recapped it in 2005, explored it a wee bit deeper in 2006, celebrated the hell out of it in 2007 and today...I'm here pondering it in 2008.
Useless or inventive...I guess after four years - it is no longer up to *you*.
This blog is...simply...what it is.

It is four years of my life.
No blog awards.
No real constant readership.
It farts. It burps.
It shits.
It contradicts itself.
Re-reading it and scanning over the posts - as I do once a year, every year on this very day - it proves that I am a very rich and lucky guy with a life that couldn't be better.

It's proof that the lone seat at the bar isn't always the loneliest place to sit.
At least not here.
Because it feels good.
It feels good to be an exile, in blogville.

The Christmas Bath

I like a good bath.
It's a fact.
Some consider gift baskets with creams and lotions and soaps and bubbles a de-personalized, thoughtless, lazy gift - but anyone who knows me knows that this is the most direct route to my heart.
Buy me soap and bath accessories - I am yours forever and eternally.
Apparently, my family and friends know me well.
My mother, Life Partner and sister-in-common-law Anna bestowed upon me gifts of patchouli, citrus and sparkling shea butter.
Enough bath potions to mix up a glamourous cocktail-of-a-tub - intoxicating fumes, moisturizing waves and glittering mounds of foam to melt me away into bath-time la-la land.
Anna upped the game.
She gave me a vibrating bath mat with jets - an accessory I have longed for many a year - but always thought it vulgar to buy myself something THAT indulgent.
So Anna did it for me.
It promises to transform any bath tub into a whirlpool of soothing bubbles and comforting waves - like a hot tub.
Our bath tub is already a thing of beauty - eggshell white, clawfoot - and deep - very deep...you can fill it right up to your chin. The slope is the perfect angle for lying down and reading a book.
I prefer my bath tub over my couch. Honest.
Like a cherry on top of that delicious bath-time sundae, Anna also included a "Christmas Morning Bubble Bar" from Lush.
*sigh*
So this morning - seeing as it was indeed Christmas morning - I thought: "Why not crack out the jets and pop in that bubble bar?"
Bubble bars from Lush...I love them - though I never buy them for myself.
Once in a blue moon, maybe.
They never give off THAT many bubbles - I do it more for the amazing aroma, but I assumed with the jets working this time, I might get a bit more bang in the bubble department.

I filled the tub with piping hot water and sunk the mat to the bottom.
Being careful not to electrocute myself, I plugged in the mat and switched the motor to HIGH.
The sound was a bit louder than I expected, but one look at the steaming hot waves in the tub, I knew it was a very easy detail to over look.
I dropped in the bubble bar, and just as a few snowballs of green and white heavenly foam started to rise to the surface, I lowered myself into the rumbling rapids of my tub.
Gorgeous.
Imagine bathing in a steaming hot glass of champagne...I felt like an Alka-Seltzer tablet, like my body and my muscles and my worries - were just disolving away into sweet, sweet oblivion.
Then I noticed the bubbles.
"WOw," I thought..."Lots of bubbles..."
They rose up to my chest and I gathered them around my shoulders.
"Now THIS is a bubble bath!" I said, smiling.
I had discovered the TRUE magic of the Bubble bar.
The machine roared on, and more bubbles rose up to the top.
"Wow!" I smiled, smushing some of the bubbles down...
"Lots and lots of bubbles.."
Soon, the pile of bubbles was towering and quivering over my head, I was choking, inhaling wads of bubbles...
I tried shoving them out of the way, but they were closing in, sealing me! I was blinded, completely incased - and they continued to appear...burying me deeper and deeper in a christmas death-tomb of bubbles.
Finally, fearing my life - I clawed my way through to daylight - literally swimming through a mountain of bubbles to the edge of my tub, and climbed out, shaking, dripping, nearly consumed and coated in foam. I had no other choice but to abandon ship!
My eggshell white clawfoot tub was transformed into a literal bubble machine - pumping out waves of bubbles - an infinity of bubbles - which was over-flowing onto the bathroom floor. It was amazing. I'd never seen so many.
Had I let it go - surely it would have completely over-taken my entire bathroom!
The mounds of bubbles spilled over the edge and onto the floor! I stared - naked and dripping, a worried look puckering my face as I eyed up my bath tub - which at this point was completley out of control. I flicked the switch on the jets to kill the rapids and the bubbles seemed to stop.
Out of breath, heart pounding, I surveyed the damage.
They were only bubbles - so nothing horrific.
I peeked out into the hall to make sure Life Partner was still sleeping.
I guess the moral of this story - those Con Air psuedo bath jets: They work.
For real.
And of course, after the mess was cleaned up and the disaster was averted and no bubble-monster from hell rose up from the depths of my tub to create havoc and chaos on earth - I enjoyed one of the greatest bubble baths of my entire life.
So...merry Christmas to me.
And thank you Anna!

Hearts and tub farts,

dan

R.I.P. - EARTHA KITT.

Cheers to 81 years...she was one cool chick.

Christmas Eve, 2008.

Is anyone else floored that it's Christmas Eve?
Christmas Eve, 2008. Wow. How did this happen, seriously?
I can't help but feel a wee bit cheated this year. Cheated by myself alone, but cheated.
I picked up every single shift imaginable at work and my final 12 Days of Christmas were not spent watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas or National Lampoons Christmas Vacation...they were spent working.
Work is good. I'm lucky to have a job. Luckier to have a job I love.
But...I feel like I missed the party-boat, a wee bit.
Had one good blow out party with my friends...that was epic and fun...but even shopping...listening to holiday music...like...it's over.
This is it! THE moment.
Christmas Eve.
The Magic Night. Santa getting ready to take off at the North Pole...Kids uber excited...last minute shoppers...people hitting the liquor store, the bakery - all because tomorrow: One big party.
And then: Over.
Along with 2008.
Hard to believe.
I feel like I'm whining and I don't want this Christmas eve blog to take on a depressing note - that's not the case...but the build-up is half the fun and I feel like I missed the build up.
(insert Debbie Downer music here).
I guess all this could be remedied if I got off the computer, threw on the Phil Spector Christmas album, burned a Christmas candle and called my folks.
And I think that's exactly what I'm gonna do...

Hearts and holiday farts,

Dan.

The Christmas Cheat.

Gifts.
We get 'em every year.
Life Partner has a hard time waiting, especially once his gifts are laid out under the tree a few days in advance of "The Big Day".
He is the worst for shaking, lifting, weighing and guessing what I have wrapped up for him, so I've started a new "holiday tradition" in our home: Hide the gifts and pretend I haven't gone shopping yet.
It worked lovely last year for his birthday. I stashed a very bulky package (containing a Playstion 2 guitar-hero Guitar and a few games and shirts) in some discreet places - and yanked them out the day before his birthday.
He opened them that night - couldn't even wait 10 hours for his actual birthday, which is why I am holding off on displaying his Christmas gifts.
I am about half done shopping - but the gifts are not wrapped nor does he even know I have them.
Of course, that facade is blown to hell once he reads this blog.
I can't say I completely blame him for not being able to withstand the instilled need to "want".
I've been eyeing up the beautifully wrapped black and gold packages from him that sit like shimmering bricks of gold under our tree this year - wondering what's inside.
It reminds me of when I was 16...the magic of Christmas was traded in for teenage greed.
I wanted more than anything - the 3-disc Prince compilation "The Hits and the B-Sides".
I was an insane Prince fan back in my day and was dying to hear anything new from him - I was a Prince collector and had everything he had every done. Except his b-sides.
The idea of an entire CD filled with b-sides that spanned his career...I was literally all but convulsing with anticipation.
So - I did what only the most foul children do to their parents - the ultimate form of holiday-disrespect:
I snooped their closet where I knew the gifts were stashed while they were out grocery shopping.
I know, bad me.
Spoiled, rotten bad me.
See - I didn't really WANT to know what I got for Christmas.
I was just consumed by this NEED to snoop - I had to know - it was as if I was posessed - I was helpless - and before I knew it -there I was, rumaging through shopping bags from the Bay, Sears, Coles Notes...noticing socks, shirts, books - the mystery of what I was getting that year slipping away with each new bag I peeked into...until finally, the unmistakeable red and white font on one small, CD-sized bag from Sam the Record Man:
"Jackpot," I whispered.
The 3-disc Prince set.
The Hits and the B-Sides.
I stared at it, held it in my hands...felt the weight...read the track list over and over, imagining what each song would sound like.
I fingered the plastic wrap and a light bulb went off.
My CD player was just one room away.
Before I knew it - it was like I was working on auto pilot - everything moved in a blur.
I carried the CD to the kitchen, went to the utility junk drawer and yanked out the exacto knife.
Into my room I skipped, like a demented elf - toy in hand - breaching the kid-parent contract of "Christmas Confidentiality" like it meant nothing at all.
With a few skilled and strategic slices of the exacto, I had the plastic wrap off that jewel case - and had disk 3 spinning in my CD player while I read the liner notes and basked in the music like some kind of funked-up Prince afterglow!
Ah, the adrenaline rush!
See, I cut the plastic wrap in such a way that I could slide the disks back in - and - with only a small piece of clear scotch tape -could seal the whole package back up and my parents would never know I snooped.
The music - pure, sonic bliss.
Gorgeous.
Everything I had hoped for. I was in love - the snoop was soooo worth it.
Then I heard it.
Like a panic alarm going off - the sound of my parent's key turning in the front door.
They were back early. Far earlier than I had expected.
There I was, laying on my bed - CD booklet in hand - Prince blaring on my stereo singing something about Scarlet Pussies - and me - wide eyed, ears cocked like a bad-ass waiter about to be caught pissing in the coffee pot.
I instantly threw the CD under my bed and crumpled the plastic wrap, ripping it, wrinkling it - destroying it.
I didn't care, I'd deal with that later.
I greeted my parents.
Turns out - it was too busy at the grocery store and they were going to go the next day.
I was furious.
"Did you try the other Zehrs?" I asked - trying to sound non-chalant. "The other one might not be as busy," I offered.
Sweat was on my brow.
"Nah," My mom said. "We'll just go tomorrow, early. Maybe I'll get some gift wrapping done today."
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck!
I had to devise a plan to either get them out of the house or somehow get my CD back in that bag in their closet before they decided to gift wrap.
But the plastic wrap! The plastic wrap was destroyed! They would know no matter WHAT that I had opened up the CD and listened to it in all its profain purple-glory.
I felt horrible.
I was a terrible, awful child. My poor parents, I envisioned them walking into HMV and referencing my selfishly written christmas list and asking politely: "Yes...um...do you have something called...The Hits...and The...the B-Sides...by um..Prince?"
Then they were probably sighing with relief when the store clerk handed it to them.
"He's going to be so surprised," they giggled to each other with knowing smiles, satisfied they met the demands of my list.
Cut to me - 8 days before Christmas, gift unwrapped and them - just minutes from realizing that no - I would not be surprised at all.
Awful Person, am I.
Then it hit me.
Saran cling wrap.
I could pull it tightly over the disk and re-wrap it, use a thin piece of scotch tape to thinly conceal the seam.
They would never know.
But first - I had to distract my parents.
"I think Porky's is on TV," I offered, desperately.
"Ooooh Porky's!" My mom said. "Is that the one with the guy peeking at the naked girls through the shower hole?"
"That's the one!" I smiled.
"Oh I love that one!"
Operation "Distract Parents": Accomplished.
Mission two: Cling-wrap Prince disk.
I grabbed a pair of kitchen scissors - which sucked - a roll of cling wrap and...damn it...
Out of scotch tape.
Fuck.
I immediately noticed a chunky, awkward glue stick.
I sighed.
It would have to do.
I took my "instruments of deceit" back to my bedroom, set up a small "CD wrapping pirate station" at my desk where my math homework should have been and got to work.
The scissors were dull as shit and they were lefty scissors. I couldn't get a clean edge on the cling wrap.
Finally, satisfied with the square I hacked out - I carefully wrapped the jewel case up, making sure to squeeze out the bubbles.
I applied a thin layer of the glue stick to the jewel case itself - to my horror it was tinted ever-so-subtly a gross shade of purple - fitting in a sense, seeing as it was a Prince album - and stuck the saran wrap to it.
It worked.
Barely.
I viewed my work.
Any seasoned CD collector would insantly know this was NOT a factory sealed job...but my parents, god bless them - were raised in the era of vinyl and probably wouldn't notice.
I slipped past them quickly - they were in hysterics - laughing at a group of nude teenagers running through the woods in Porky's - and I slipped un-noticed into their room and deposited the CD back in its proper place.
Done.
I have to say though, I was riddled with guilt.
While watching Porky's with one's parents isn't really the greatest idea in the world - I felt bad and joined them...I considered it my punishment for snooping.
And yes - I blushed at all the horrifically inappropriate parts...the scenes that a teenage kid should NEVER - under ANY circumstances watch with his parents...but I laughed at how hard they were laughing.
They're blessed with fratboy humour. I guess I am too.
For the record, I never ever peeked at a gift again.
And also - for the record - the album DID indeed rock.
So...while I can't see Life Partner ever snooping (and I know for a fact he hasn't found my hiding spot yet) - I do know all about the all-consuming need to KNOW.

As far as the gifts he has for ME laid out...beautifully wrapped...?
Tempting, yes.
But - unfortunately - he is a far better gift wrapper than I...I know I'd never be able to duplicate his wrapping...and besides - we don't keep a gluestick in the house.
I'll just have to wait.
I'll just have to wait til Christmas morning like all the other good little 31 year olds, all around the world.

hearts and jingle farts,
daniel

THE TREE ...VERSION 2008

Well...here it is.

The MacDonald-Riley Hexmas Tree, Version 2008.


We went for "sparkle and shine" this year. Life Partner bought these really cool branch-like garlands, covered in sparkling little beads - and we wrapped them around the entire tree, and it almost looks like the tree was frozen in an ice storm...


We used ONLY white lights and ONLY white or frosted or icy looking bulbs - and for the lights, we attached little star-caps - lethally sharp - but the whole tree glitters like...well...kinda like Hexmas...


Kind of a Cinderella-meets-the-Flaming-Lips-Christmas-On-Mars...but frozen in ice.


Yup. So...um...that's our tree.

Next week: Exterior illumination!

Hearts and twinkle-farts,

Dan