The Christmas tree went up today, midst feelings (for me, anyways) of hypocrisy. Christmas, in it's purest form, is the Stanley Cup of the Christian flavor of religions. The birth of Jesus Christ, the reason for the Catholics and Protestants to be. And here I am, singing songs about how glad I am that Jesus was born when I'm really just glad that I get a few days off work to hang out with my family and friends. I feel I've done my kids a disservice regarding all this Christmas stuff, too. Due to my information regarding Christianity, they wouldn't know the Holy Trinity from the Three Stooges.

I wasn't always this way. I was raised by Christian-ish parents, taken to a United (Protestant) church, became a member of the boys choir and sang Christian hymns right along with all the other slick-haired, young, rosy-cheeked boys. I learned to recite the Lord's Prayer from memory, understood how a service generally proceeded and even figured out what to do during communion. As I grew older and my weekends got busier with swim meets and vacations, my (and my family's) church attendance dropped off to pretty much nothing. As a teenager, Christmas Eve and Easter services were expected, but anything else was just a bonus.

Now I've become an adult with busy children and a family of my own and I am recalling the church experiences I've had away from my mom and dad. Since becoming an adult, I've had a couple of two-year runs where I've attended church regularly, usually drawn by favorable family circumstances (read: some extra time on Sunday), ministers that I've gotten along with well and/or the lure of singing (once again) in the choir. Right now, I have found the United church closest to my house to be a bit stuffy and non-welcoming. I haven't attended more than four times all year. Combine this with the reading and studying I've done of different religions and philosophies and suddenly I don't feel a real close affiliation with all the other hard-core Christians that are gearing up for the B-I-G celebration.

I'm still trying to firm up my beliefs and I've had a hard time trying to swallow the one-size-fits-all structure that most religions have for you; Christians in particular. For now, I'm going to just focus on the message that was wrapped around the visit of that Jewish carpenter to our lonely planet - hope for the human race, peace, tolerance for each other and gratefulness for those whom we love and who love us. I'll go to church (yes, the one that I feel weird about) on Christmas Eve and sing my favorite carols with a church organ vibrating my sternum in accompaniment. I'll shake hands with all the congregation, wishing them a merry christmas and wishing at the same time I could remember their names.

That'll have to do for this year.

I just spent an hour cleaning our storage room. I can see the floor everywhere in the room, the shelves are organized, the workbench is clear of junk and I've created a whole bag of recyclables and just a small bag of garbage.

Whew - talk about satisfying! Next time, I attack my study ...

Separated at Birth?

Rex Murphy of CBC Televsion

Gollum, from Lord of the Rings

S.M.A.R.T. Technology?

Puh-leeze. Are people still impressed with interno-techo-integrated-no-one-cares-about components that are given acronyms that spell a cute, vaguely meaningful word?

I managed to hold off on feeling Christmas-y until December, no thanks to retailers who've had garland up and Bing Crosby playing since before Hallowe'en. I plugged in the Christmas lights last night due to some other subtle signs that the HoHo day will soon be upon us. The holiday parties have started, Mandarin Oranges are on sale, and my mom (bless her heart) has covertly set out some of her own decorations at our house on one of her visits.

Christmas always makes me feel cozy and warm. I want to skate outdoors, go Christmas carolling, come home and drink hot chocolate by a fireplace. At the same time, I'm curious about what traditions are going on right now for those follow (as loosely as I do or not) other religions. I found an excellent website that details the Jewish traditions, specifically Hanukkah.

Good reading.

I have a new mobile phone. I love playing with new technology.

OK, enough is enough.

The pictures from our trip to Greece and London aren't fully annotated with comments, but they're good enough to have a quick look at.

Be sure and try out the cool panorama shots.

We're starting Day 6 of having a broken dishwasher at the house.

Its not like I haven't tried to get it fixed. Saturday, when I determined that the water that refused to drain from the basin of the machine was not caused by the food chunk catcher being plugged (I regularly keep it clean). There was a more sinister problem in the bowels of this beast.

Owing to the fact that we have a spiffy Swedish appliance, there are only certain appliance repair guys that will touch it - two in Calgary, to be exact. Being suspicious of the reliability of service companies, I booked both of them to come out. On Monday, the first one called to say that one of their technicians had a heart attack Sunday night and that I wouldn't get my visit until Friday. The second one showed up the next day but neglected to call beforehand. He found it quite rude that I hadn't stayed home all day to wait for him. I'm sure he left in a huff, even though I had provided him with my cell phone number when I made the appointment. Company Number One should be back tomorrow, barring any more myocardial infarctions.

Anyhow, I am getting tired of doing dishes by hand, all without the help of a drying rack. Its hard to believe that I lived in a house that had no dishwasher for three years.

If you send me an e-mail, please please please give it a descriptive subject line. The spam is filling my poor, little Inbox quite regularly. I find myself indiscriminately deleting e-mail with vague subject lines.

I took a break from work this afternoon and was out driving. I went by a school yard where I saw a young (12 years old, I'm guessing) boy standing with his foot on the chest of a younger boy who was laying on the ground in front of him. The two were talking for the whole time I traveled by them, frozen in a pose of physical dominance/submission. I wasn't sure if it was a game or bullying. Had I been on foot or been able to pull over safely I would have broken up this confrontation, even if it were just a game.

What would you have done if you had been me?

"Peace shall steal unaware into our room,
and putting her hands across our eyes from behind,
shall whisper "Guess who?"
and before we know it,
when we least expect it,
she is there,
to remain by our fireside and bless us and our children with her presence."

- Lin Yutang

Selfish shellfish.

7 times, fast.

You know, if the computer world would call a halt to progress for a year or so, I'd buy a new G5.

But next month's machine is nicer.

I'm back. I'm rested. I'm going to try not to jump back into the run-in-circles, heightened level of activity I was in before I left on that little trip. I'm going to try to put processes in place that limit the amount of craziness I'm exposed to and expected to take part in.

London is being kind to us today. The sun is shining and we've been exploring Camden Market. Clothing deals abound - not much for music - everything seems pretty much the same as at home. The software developers I work with keep me up on the dance/trance/euro/techno scene.

I'm loving being back in England - the accents I hear, the clever advertisements, riding the Tube, the traffic, the life on the streets after dark, the tall old buildings, ... Just everything about being here (except the prices). I'm taken back to my youth, days when I took a break from University and traveled Europe with friends (and by myself for a while). After backpacking around the mainland, I returned to London and found I could not get enough of the history, sights and general feel of London. I found a job at a building merchants stocking shelves and working as a yard ape. I was able to find a roommate and a family that needed housesitters (they were off to Spain on a sabbatical) and I was all set up. Happy memories.

This visit, we're staying on the top floor of a posh bed and breakfast in Chelsea - nice old house built in 1708. We've bought Travelcards for the transit system, we're off to the theatre this afternoon and we've stopped at a little Chinese cafe with Internet service in the back of the shop.

Tomorrow is a London Bus Tour day, where we go 'round to all the big sights of London proper - the Tower of London, House of Parliament, Westminister Abbey, Marble Arch, Speaker's Corner, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus and the like.

Totally, totally great time. I hope my family is having fun, too.

Thanks, Morton, for reminding me why I love 'blogging so much. It's about the little things, isn't it?

Believe me, I'm not in Crete because of the excellent internet access or the ultra-reliable power grid (7 power outages in three days and counting - always at the aexact instant that I have a moment to sit down at a computer).

Guess I should be vacationing instead of looking for a decent connection.

Crete is turning out to be a much nicer place. The accomodation is very, very nice. Warm, comfortable, nice facilties, even a weightroom (or sorts) and a pool! 30 metres or so long! Only problem is that it's not heated - 21c. I've been in for a 1000 m swim, but it's very cold! I wish I brought my wetsuit. I got out for another run this morning. It was along the beach. It's low tourist season here and the beaches are littered with all sorts of unsavory things - the locals must do a lot of cleaning of the beaches during high tourist season.

This afternoon we are going to Matala, a town in the central-south part of Crete that has some ancient caves - old Roman burial caves that became dwelling places for local fishermen. The caves are over 6000 years old! I went there when I was a young buck (20 or so) and slept there overnight - illegally (it's a national park). Should be fun. We rented a tiny little rental car and will use it for the trip. The kids and I have dug in our heels about tomorrow - we are going to stay put in the timeshare and enjoy it. Jenn can wander if she wants! I'm starting to relax. Just in time, too - just eleven days left of the vacation!

We're at the end of our time here on the island of Paros. The weather has cooperated on and off. We had sun and some clouds for the first day, cloudy with some rain the second day and just pouring today. I got out for a run yesterday - an hour of my music (which I don't realize how much I miss until I'm without it) and some good ol' biofeedback from the legs has done wonders for my mood. We've seen some nice sights and had lots of fun,but it's time to go. Paros is very quiet as almost ALL of the shops close in October. The few local places that are open (grocery stores, restaurants) all seem happy to see us. I'm not exaggerating when I say that there are *maybe* 200 tourists on the island when there are over 100,000 in the summer.

I'm getting well rested and will be ready for work when I get back home. I can't wait to get into a pool. All the pools here are unheated, and even a brave, Canadian boy like me shudders at the thought of getting into that water. Brrrrrr!

Language is a challenge - I wish I had worked on my Greek before I left. Counting, greetings and directions would have been nice.

Athens, Greece

Jenn's race is finished. She ended up running with one of her buddies from the Running Room and two guys from the States that we met in our hotel. She did exactly as she predicted - 4:15.XX, not a big surprise as she had lots of instrumentation (HR monitor, pedometer, stop watch, etc.) to rely on.

Jenn broke a molar on the airplane - bit into an olive pit. We haven't seen a dentist (although we did try) and she is OK now. The tooth is better - she had the broken part come out yesterday, so she says it's not an issue until she gets home (where she'll have her own dentist look at it).

Banana, McMonk and I have been exploring Athens. We found what our guidebook promised as Europe's biggest outdoor market. It turned out to be the biggest garage sale we've ever seen - old shoes, tea towels, used electrical parts, we saw it all. We traversed the subway system (which has been nicely cleaned up in preparation for the 2004 Olympics) and saw all the construction that is happening. The city has a great deal of work to do before all the athletes arrive in 2004. Athens has tons of people, shops, cars, buildings, noise, pigeons and history packed into a very small, smoggy place. The girls have severe culture shock and are spending more than 12 hours a day sleeping. Banana seems to be coming down with a cold - I hope it's short-lived.

Tomorrow's a traveling day, as we make our way to Paros (island) and our timeshare there. The weather is great here - almost too hot for a run today, but very pleasant for touristing. The girls got pretty tired of being dragged around, even though it was them that wanted to go to the market initially. I'm ready for a sit-still-by-the-pool day, or even a get-in-and-swim day. Perhaps Tuesday will be that day.

27 hours of travel, and we've just made it to Rome. Another 3 hour layover, then we're off to the final destination of Athens.

We've run into some medical challenges (the missus a chipped tooth), but it's nothing we can't handle.

Boy, we sure are tired, though.

Instead of sleeping, I'm doing some Geek bookwork and digging some old Supertramp. I almost forgot how much I like this music.

I'm one step closer to having all the things that I want.

Funny how life just falls into place. Wish hard enough for something and there it is.

When I'm nursing home age, I know for sure that I will regret the things that I didn't do much, much more than the things that I did.

How about you?

By the way, what did/will you do with your extra hour today?

I spent mine listening to music and reading on the sofa. I discovered my extra hour just after my shower, when the chilluns were still asleep and the missus was off doing a run. The Collins Family has adjusted and we are back behind schedule again.

My dog's 2 am trip outside to use the grass requires me to be the doorman, so up I got. Now, up I am, and back to sleep I can't get.

Double poop.

In the locker room, I overheard a father and her very young (about three year old) daughter talking. Although I couldn't see either of them, the little girl's sweet, innocent, sing-song voice wafted through the air and caught my attention.

Girl:	Daddy, what day is it tomorrow?
Dad:	How does the song go?
Girl:	(sung to a nursery-school tune) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday-Thursday-Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then we start again.
Dad:	Right. Now, today is Wednesday, so what day is tomorrow?
- big pause -
Girl:	CHRISTMAS!

Never been to Mexico, eh?

You should go then. Helluva drive, but swimmin' in the Caribbean is worth it.

Got my new Blogger hoodie today. I'm stylin' now.

To a mechanic fixing your brakes, rotors are like chocolate sprinkles on an ice cream sundae. Probably unnecessary, totally an option, definitely a small-but-tangible way to increase the total bill.

When you take your car in to have the brake pads replaced, the mechanic will phone you after he's had the car for an hour or two. He will say something like, "I noticed your rotors are looking worn. I could probably grind the rotors, but there won't be much left on them. We've got everything apart and could replace them for about 60 bucks each."

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

Now, you're left thinking, "Does 'not much left' mean 'not enough left'?" and it's a safety thing he's got it apart anyways and you didn't replace the rotors in the van and it blew a caliper that cost $450 to fix and are the pads going to outlast the rotors and and and ....

Down your mind goes in a spiral of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Of course, the mechanic counts on this. Most of the time, it's what he sells.

"So, do you want sprinkles with that?"