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Merry Xmas to us!  Look what arrived today:

Bah!  You can’t get it from a web-optimized iPhone jpg.  These prints turned out gorgeous.  They look like oil paintings.  Just… smashing.  Thank you, Venice, for being so photogenic.  I couldn’t be happier.  Except now the other walls are clamoring for attention.  Patience, friends.  Your time will come.  Of course, that sale happens once a year, so it could be a while.  Dangit.  Somebody buy my script.

Gorgeous!

I’m feeling awfully fortunate these days.  Avery and I must have spent half an hour just looking at the Christmas lights, neither of us saying a word.  She drooled some.  Me too, though that might have been the smell of Marjorie’s banana muffins.  Or the homemade cinnamon granola.  See?  So fortunate.

As planned, I connected with the nice lady at the tech/design school, and it sounds promising.  I’ll put together the job description and she’ll post it to the system, and we’ll be partners in education.  A thing Fuel knows something about.  In the new year we’ll meet for an extended talk about how our worlds might complement.  I’m hopeful.  The Italian team is working some magic, but I want to get them some help, especially on the UI – something with which none of us has much experience.  She’s very pretty, but she wants to dance.  The app, not the nice lady at the tech/design school.  Well, unless it’s also true in her case.  I have no idea.  I’m sure she’s lovely.  You should take her out dancing.  You neglectful bastard.

This week, Fuel needs to wrap its official 2013 planning sessions.  Chaos will take what time it can get.  I think I have some mixing coming up.  Wednesday should be especially good.  An abbreviated Chaos session, followed by the Fuel jam, and hopefully somewhere in there we hear back from [A-List guy for Secret Project].  And then Lee and I are attending a fete at the Canadian Consulate in honour of Barb Stegemann, whom Canadians know from The Dragon’s Den and her company, The 7 Virtues.  Neither of us have met her, but she heard about us and wants to meet.  So we’re going.  And then we’re supposed to take her out to see some comedy.  Neat.  Whatever shall I wear?

Adventure.

Wawaweewa!

What’s she so excited about?  Lunch?  Nap time?  Shiny thing?

How about a giant ass Snickers?  Kablammo shazammo.

I didn’t bring it home with me.  Seemed excessive.  But one had to admire a pound of candy.  I bet it really satisfies.  And eventually nauseates.

Yeah, that’s little Avery Peppermint strapped to my chest in the background.  Slept through the whole thing.  It’s what she does.  But that’s cool.  There isn’t much you can say about the K-Mart experience that’s really worth being present for.  Which probably explains why so many K-Mart Shoppers™ seem like zombies.

Why aren’t there more baby clothes consignment stores?  Why isn’t there a baby clothes recycling operation online?  Baby Gap clothes are made well enough to go through at least three babies.  They only wear them for three months, then they’re up a size.  Premium brands would go even further.  Look, here’s the model, for free.  You don’t have to give me a dime.  Build a nice simple searchable interface.  Let people sell for free.  Let people buy for free.  Buyers pay the shipping, all flat rate USPS.  Colour photos welcome.  Add a forum for product reviews.  The whole site is user-moderated.  What’s the revenue model, you ask?  Where do I start?  Sidebar ads.  Embedded links.  Premium services like storefronts and priority notifications.  Build it and they will come.  I know because we’ve been looking.  Huge blue ocean market.  Used frickin baby stuff, dude.

The last thing I need is another business idea to work on with all my spare time.  So this one is up to somebody else.

It’s now December 9.  In ten days we’re Canada-bound for the Xmassing.  All sorts of things happening between now and then of course, but it’s bright on the radar.  You can hear the sleigh bells jingling.  Actually, you really can.  We bought some for the Christmas pillar.  I heart xmas.  My girls do, too.  Sigh.  Happy.

However it happened, I got to spend a lot of today with an adorable baby in my arms.  Sure, she was squawking for some of it, but it was all quality time.  She’s very communicative.  In the sense that she talks a lot.  What she’s saying is a bit of a mystery, but I’m sure we’ll work it out.  Video shuts her up.  Doubly so for video of her being talkative.  Interesting.  I wonder if she knows what she’s saying in them.  And yes, we played some Christmas music, and we liked it.  So screw you, Scrooges.  It’s all good in moderation.

She almost rolled over today.  From her back.  She hasn’t quite negotiated the shoulder yet, but the days of safely stepping away from the changing table are fading fast.

When I wasn’t holding a baby, I worked on CBcom a bit.  I set up the next newsletter for premium subscribers, but I’ll hold off sending it til Monday to give Chris a chance to include a personal message.  The site is doing really well now that it’s been rebuilt from scratch.  Can’t even tell you what a boondoggle the last site was.  Enough said on that subject.  The new site is great.

The meeting I was supposed to have with the tech/design school didn’t happen – I gave her the wrong number.  Proofread, people.  For the love of all that is holy.  Proofread.  So we rescheduled for Monday, no worries.  Dang it.

That did free up a few minutes to tinker with a new Twitter account – Voicemail From God.  Check it out.  I suggest starting at the beginning.  There’s a bit of a narrative there.  Wait til you see where it’s going.  Such nonsense.  Irreverent, unapologetic, all in good fun comedy nonsense.  You have been warned.

Marjorie said earlier that she wishes she could get paid to cruise Facebook and write tweets.  Not even a week ago she was talking about starting a mommyblog, and you can make a comfortable living doing that, so, to her I say, en garde.  On the other hand, we haven’t actually made any money as Chaos yet.  Not with our own creative work, anyway.  We’ve contributed to all sorts of wonderful work by other people.  Nevertheless, one feels a certain pressure to validate.

It’s coming.  And it’s frickin awesomecore.

Speaking of amazing creations, I should resist the urge to put my daughter’s adorable face to work, right?  She’s a gorgeous girl, and I (like every parent, I suppose) am sure she could do well as… I don’t know… the next face of Gerber, or Baby Gap, or whatever.  I just don’t think I want to put her on that ride.  Or us.  Celebribaby parents can be horrible people, subjecting their kids to all sorts of unhappy conditions, not least of which is the schedule.  Or the utter abandonment of routine.  Kids need a certain amount of routine.  Structure.  It makes them feel safe and gives them room to grow.  So… I don’t think I’ll submit too many pictures of her to too many contests.  Not too many.

What a doll, though.  If she keeps these eyes I am going to have to lock her up in the attic until her 21st birthday.  If they do change to brown I will settle for sending her to school with a bag over her head.

I wonder if that’s how it all started out there in the Middle East?  Being facetious, of course.

Well, here’s hoping your Friday was super great, and that your weekend will multiply your happiness.  Merry Christmas.  Happy Holidays.  May the spirit of the season infuse your loins with the passion of thirteen storms.  And stuff.