Both of the local "soft rock" stations already started playing Christmas music.  Seriously.  The turkey hasn't even come out of the freezer yet, and these crazy nutballs are already luring the holiday loonies out of their dens (aka DANIEL).  Well, I'll give the obligatory eye roll to the continuing push into the holiday season, and then I'll nonchalantly turn my knob to the Warm Rosey stations and bop to Brenda Lee while driving to work.  Yes, I'm a hippocrite. 

Here are my all time favorite Christmas albums (in no particular order):

1.  Harry Connick Jr. When My Heart Finds Christmas 
2.  Andy Williams The Andy Williams Christmas Album
3.  Andy Williams Merry Christmas
4.  Amy Grant Home for Christmas
5. Over the Rhine Snow Angels
6. Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas
7. Anything w/ the Vienna Boys Choir
8. Bing Crosby White Christmas
9. Frank Sinatra Christmas Songs by Sinatra

This time of year makes me want to curl up under a blanket and watch movies that will scare the bejesus out of me. So I pose this question to you:  what are your favorite scary movies?  I've given it some thought, and here are my top 10. 

10. Bram Stoker's Dracula
This movie isn't really scary as an adult viewer.  But if you're 10 when you see it for the first time, it scares the crap out of you and has you totally convinced that Gary Oldman and his crazy-ass hair are floating outside your bedroom window waiting for you to fall asleep.  This movie more than likely started my fascination with vampires.  Though not precisely accurate to the novel (and parts just downright cheesy), the film itself is beautiful with awesome costuming, creative photography, and creepy music.  Oh, and Gary Oldman rocks.

9. The Shining
The style of this film creeped me out more than the content itself.  What isn't disturbing about Jack Nicolson (in general), Shelly Duvall's bug eyes?  I found the movie more distubing than the book, ironically enough.

8. The Blair Witch Project
Masterfully marketed, this film scared the CRAP out of me.  You never actually see anything, and when left to my own devices, I tend to scare myself more than the actual thing itself did.  I first watched this by myself, alone in the house, living in the woods.  Stupid.

7. Bug
This is more of a pyschological thriller that doesn't necessarily scare you, but rather disturbs you.  William Friedkin (The Exorcist) directs, and his approach is very claustrophobic, which makes the whole thing even more bizarre. I offered to watch this for Karin, who had received it as a flagged item from the public library for not being appropriate.  Well, it stuck with me long after it was over, which in my opinion makes it more than appropriate as a piece of...art?  Hey, it's rated R...proceed with caution. 

6. Frailty
Again, another disturbing film.  A dad is convinced that God told him to destroy demons inhabiting human bodies and makes it a family affair. 

5. Nosferatu
Classic.  Try watching this by yourself with the lights turned off.  Count Orloff doesn't really even appear that much, but damn, he only blinks ONCE the entire time.  ONCE.  *shudder*  Coppola took quite a bit of influence from Nosferatu for his own version of Dracula.

4. The Exorcist
The concept of demons tends to scare me.  I first saw this movie on A&E way back in the day, late at night (b/c I couldn't sleep...what an idiot).  Even edited it scared me. 

3. The Ring
The concept of this film didn't really bother me, but the imagery sure as hell did.  It's cold and creepy from the get-go, and the image of that damn girl crawling all arachnid-like out of the well and through the TV still makes me queasy.

2. The Descent
I LOVE this movie.  It touches on all the elements of a great horror film - suspence, action, survival, and utter fear.  A group of women go speulunking only to get trapped in the cave and discover that they're not alone.  The only reason it didn't keep me from sleeping was b/c we watched the "making of" special on the DVD after watching the movie, which showed the actors playing the cave monster thingys dancing around and acting like goofs.  Otherwise, I would have been scarred. 

1. Open Water
Low budget and simple, this movie takes two of my most prominent phobias, fear of open water and fear of being touched by fish, and makes it the entire focal point of the story.  A couple goes scuba diving on vacation and accidentally gets left behind by the boat.  They're left floating in the Pacific Ocean and are soon investigated by a bunch of...sharks. 

That's my list.  What do you think?

This day is winding down, so I figured I'd write an entry to catch up. 

Jacque has been doing splendidly well.  We paired him up with Bear and Mo, which went pretty well.  Up until last weekend.  That durn Mo.  He just, for whatever reason, doesn't like any other pigs but Bear.  The first few days he seemed to like Jacque, playing with him, sharing space, etc.  But then it started to get kind of ugly.  He wouldn't leave Jacque alone, which led to little spats, and then eventually rolling balls of fur.  So Jacque is now back in a cage by himself, sitting on our ottoman next to the main cage.  He seems to be content nonetheless.  We took him to the vet on Tuesday, and he got a clean bill of health.  Tonight we take Bear to the vet for a check up and possibly some tests to address a long standing problem he's had.  I'm convinced we're known as "the guinea pig people" at the vet.  When Dr. D came into the exam room he smiled at us and said, "another one, eh?"  Dan and I both like him, though, as he's open to our concerns and experiences and doesn't talk to us like we're idiots.

The new job is going very well.  I enjoy it a lot.  The women I work with are great, I enjoy the work, and I don't have to work with any Ted's anymore.  Seriously, how could I NOT be happy? 

I had been really excited to attend The Groom Expo and Trade Show in Hershey this year, but it ended up not working out.  And that really irritated me.  I had been saving money up for this for awhile.  It's like the best of the best vendors and sellers in one huge space, all selling the best, craziest, weirdest stuff relating to the grooming profession you could imagine.  The friggin trade show is only open from 10a-6pm, and I work from 9-5.  Fo' reals. I went last year but was overwhelmed by it all - it was just before I left for academy.  So instead, I bought some things I've been needing online from the usual vendor I use.  I'm eyeing up a new clipper, and luckily for me PM carries it.  I get a 30% discount there, so...yeah. 

That's about it.  I'm loving this cooler fall weather.  It makes me happy.