Sweet Dreams, Courtesy of Freddy Kreuger

When I was in Texas last weekend, I helped Brooke sort through the piles of crap that have accumulated in her house since Dave moved in. As a result, I got to take a shopping spree through her many many closets. One of my favorite finds was, I'm a little ashamed to admit, a sound machine she got as a gift from IBM. I've secretly wanted one since taking a nap with my nephew in Carmel to the soothing tunes of a tropical thunderstorm. It was the best 45 minutes of sleep I've had in years.

Tonight, I plugged in the machine and took it for a spin, flipping between jungle sounds, ocean, babbling brook, rainstorm, and ... heartbeat...? Seriously? What kind of sick freak wants to doze off to a thudding, and seriously irregular for that matter, heartbeat? I had to turn it off after about 30 seconds, it was like sleeping in an Edgar Allan Poe story. Really, can you think of anything creepier to fall asleep to?

Christmas Link Theft '07

Merry Linksmas, courtesy of other people's internet finds! I didn't find one of these links myself, but they're great fun.

B sides for Christmas 2007. Someone's clever countdown to Christmas using really crappy Christmas songs and cheeky commentary. Love it!

B sides for Christmas 2006. Same deal, last year. I highly recommend last year's December 18th selection.

Christmas Medley from Indiana University men's a capella group. Cheesy as anything I've ever seen, but truly delightful. Be patient, the best part hits at about 1:50.

Free Rice. Each time you correctly identify a word's synonym, the site & United Nations donate 20 grains of rice to help fight world hunger. Okay, not directly Christmas-related, but nothing says holiday like a good cause and vocabulary expansion!

Families... Those are the best

No offense to any of you who aren't in it, but my family is the best family ever. I took a quick trip down to Texas this weekend to celebrate Brooke's birthday (I also would have gone to celebrate fall or Tuesday, if you're wondering, as one of Plano's greatest qualities is that it's not Provo). A few observations from this weekend:

My family will find any reason at all to eat out. I've been here since Thursday morning and have not eaten one home-cooked meal. Side note, Tupinamba's has the fastest service of any restaurant in the world. Maybe they can just sense Willardsons when we pull in to the parking lot, but the speed at which our food is ready is almost disconcerting.

Matt, like Jenny before him, has used sophomore year to make the leap into being funny. Tonight I asked him what he thinks he'll major in at school, and he said "Awesomeness. That way I'm sure to get an A." He's also officially taller than me.

I cannot WAIT for Tyler to move to Utah. On Thursday I told him some story about Jenny being Jenny, to which he replied "We need to cancel her subscription to Sassy Magazine." We also had a great time poking fun at a certain pregnant woman who likes to remind people she's pregnant by asking completely irrelevant questions like, Is it okay for pregnant women to eat pepperoni? Tyler's best: Is it okay for pregnant ladies to make right turns?

All in all, a fantastic weekend, and it helped cure me of the Bummed to Be Away From Home at Christmas blues. I guess I can handle Christmas in the O.C.