Merry Christmas to Me

Yesterday I officially started my Christmas shopping, making the trek up to Bloor Street and the winter retail wonderland it holds. From the standpoint of finding gifts for loved ones, it didn't go too well (total gifts purchased = 1 book). From the standpoint of finding gifts for me, it went great--as evidenced by a trip to HMV that produced 2 new CDs by Charles Aznavour and Burt Bacharach (and Friends), respectively. With respect to the Charles Aznavour, I am proud to say that the album constitutes the first "World" music entry into my iTunes library. Brings the sophistication of the whole catalog up a notch, I think. Now, as regards the Burt Bacharach (and Friends), all I want to point out is the high concentration of freakin' awesome tunes we owe to this man. So, so great. Like, I think I'll be listening to Dionne Warwick's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" on continuous repeat for about the next three weeks. Followed by "Arthur's Theme" (yeah, baby). Followed by "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (never can have enough Dionne Warwick). Then, round out the mix with a little Neil Diamond "Heartlight." Can I just say, I had no idea the easy listening section could be so much fun? Unfortunately, no one on my gift list shares my love of Burt Bacharach and Friends. Yet...

Personal Kryptonite

I think if we stop to think about it for a moment, we can all come up with the components of our own personal kryptonite--one or more essential elements that could be used by your enemies to annoy, repel, or even (worst case scenario) destroy you, depending on how they are deployed. For example, "Welcome to the Jungle" was Manuel Noriega's personal kryptonite (N.B. - it's never a good idea to let the U.S. Marines know what your personal kryptonite is). The Wicked Witch of the West's personal kryptonite was water. Superman's personal kryptonite was...kryptonite.

So you get the idea. I recently arrived at the recipe for my own personal kryptonite. As this blog is vaguely anonymous, I feel I can safely reveal it here. For my friends reading this...well, I trust you all to refrain from abusing your new power. This is very, very potent stuff.

My personal kryptonite = Rachael Ray + Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine" + Anne Geddes photography

Put those three ingredients together and all my superpowers would be completely incapacitated.