Christmas Comes This Time Each Year

Grab yourself a cup of holiday cheer, in music form. Get your copy of the Vargas-approved collection of 37 holiday-inspired gems at http://www.mediafire.com/?6o6dc9s4fxzup45.

Christmas Comes This Time Each Year

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - The Jackson 5
Run Run Rudolph - Chuck Berry
Don't Believe In Christmas - The Sonics
12 Days of Christmas - Brak
Frosty The Snow Man - The Ronettes
Little St. Nick - The Beach Boys
Santa Claus Is A Black Man - Akim & The Teddy Vann Production Company
Rudolph The Red - Nosed Reindeer - The Temptations
White Christmas - Otis Redding
Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
Little Drummer Boy - Peace On Earth - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
Christmas In Hollis - Run DMC
Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto - James Brown
Winter Wonderland - Darlene Love/Ronettes
The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) - Alvin and the Chipmunks
Feliz Navidad - Voodoo Glow Skulls
Oi To The World - The Vandals
Father Christmas - The Kinks
Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
Santa's Beard - They Might Be Giants
Christmas at the Zoo - The Flaming Lips
Blue Christmas - Bright Eyes
Merry Christmas Baby - Bruce Springsteen
Santa Claus Is Smoking Reefer - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Christmas at Ground Zero - Weird Al Yankovic
Funky Funky Christmas - New Kids on the Block
Santa Claus And His Old Lady - Cheech & Chong
Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes
I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas - Gayla Peevey
Christmas Means Love - Sam Cooke & Soul Stirrers
7 O'Clock News / Silent Night - Simon & Garfunkel
Christmas time is here - Vince Guarald
Maybe This Christmas - Ron Sexsmith
Christmas All Over Again - Tom Petty

Au Natural

My hair has been feeling unhealthy from the infernal summer-sun, so I made myself a little deep conditioning treatment (see my recipe above). Leave in for at least 10 min and shampoo out. Good stuff!

Ben Prisk

I really dislike Squidbillies, but the background painting by Ben Prisk is so awesome! See more here.

Summertime Slowdown

Sitting on my desk is a small animal - with the head of a toucan and the body of a raccoon.

It stares at my desk calendar. Its name is Toucoon.

My body is a wonderland...

Week of July 25th - in review (and pictures)
Sunday
After camping and getting no bug bites - I got one on my butt the night we got home!

Monday
Ben went to get compost from the compost bin and it was infested with palmetto bugs
Tuesday
I was shaving my legs in the shower and somehow cut myself with a brand new Mach 3 razor


Wednesday
Was startled by a lizard that looked like a snake and then saw a different lizard chase a bird in the yard

Thursday
Tofu tacos and Tecate light!

Friday
Recreated the highlights in Photoshop at work

Living example

Tantamount: as good (as); equivalent in effect

I've had this word in my head for over a week now. A sudden case of the flu helped me learn how to use it in a sentence:

Vomiting is tantamount to diarrhea

Things I'm loving right now...

Cricket
Saw a game being played at a park this weekend. Although I don't know anything about the game, the players look like such gentlemen in their all-white and their bellies not hanging over their pants.

USPS
I made them to work last week. I finally put my glut of Borders gift certificates to use (I was able to order 5 books and I only paid $4). I also got a new issue of Believer Magazine!



Frontier Ruckus
Their videos are so sweet and fit their music perfectly. The Blood is my jam, but it's not on YouTube. I've liked that song for awhile and my office-mate is on vacation. It has been playing, indeed.

Mr. and Mrs. Lizard
Two lizards that like hanging out by the poppies and I'm pretty sure the Mrs. is expecting. Sometimes they startle me when I'm watering.


Lettuce
I'm growing an organic mix and it's looking good!

Wild Fennel
Found some in the hills down the street when I was on a hike with Ben. It's feathery soft.

Donovan

Donovan...
is a gem

Citizens for Boysenberry Jam

Ben made me the best mix - you should download it! There are some of my all-time favorite songs here

Language Lessons

Let them Knock - Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
Go Karts - A Band of Bees
I Found Love - The Free Design
Can't Wait too Long - The Beach Boys
A World Without Love - Peter and Gordon
Don't Drop Out - Dolly Parton
I Don't Love Anyone - Belle and Sebastian
Punky's Dilemma - Simon and Garfunkel
Satellite of Love - Lou Reed
Congratulations - MGMT
Crimson and Clover - Tommy James and the Shondells
The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo) - Bob Dylan
There is a Mountain - Donovan
Love is Alright - Mayer Hawthorne
I Never Dreamed - The Cookies
Back on my Feet Again - The Foundations
I Think I Love You - The Partridge Family
Baby you got it - Brenton Wood
I Love You - The Bees
Distant Lover - Marvin Gaye
I'm Still in Love with you - Al Green

Today I'd like to....

Take a dip

Photo by Joanna Goddard

Take a drive

Photo by Risa Vargs

Take a ride

Hope to checkout this ride this weekend

Take a walk

From Peterman's Eye

HAMMERMILL

Image by Christian Hagemann

If I were to have a daughter, I might name her Avery so that our names would be affiliated with paper products. If Ben wanted to be included, I would encourage him to change his name to Hammermill.

So impatient...

I'm ready for my new glasses to sit on my face

Little Red Corvettes

Whenever I'm walking and I notice that I'm wearing red shoes the song "Little Red Corvette" by Prince pops into my head. In my mind, I have also taken to calling my red shoes "little red corvettes."




This song might be more appropriate, though

Vampires of the NBA

Jose Calderon, Toronto Raptors

Andrei Kirilenko, Utah Jazz (aka Skeletor)

Kyle Korver, Utah Jazz (also what Ashton Kutcher would look like as a vampire)

The Lie and How I Told it

Finished a short story for my good friend Zuhair's new series, "The Lie and How we Told it" in my mind. Then on the voice recorder on my phone. In traffic. Here's what you can expect to see in the story:

If Paper Heart taught me anything...

It's that a woman loves a man on a motorcycle

Erin Mahoney's Bday Mixtape: 7-12 inches of Pleasure

Here's the birthday mix Ben and I (mostly Ben) made for Erin Mahoney. It's all from vinyl. It's a little on the quiet side. It's the bomb. Download it here.

Happy Birthday, Erin!

First Cut is the Deepest

If you were expecting Sheryl Crow, you are reading the wrong blog. And your taste in music is questionable.



Just got this gem on vinyl. I didn't even know it existed! He looks like a baby in this video.

Satisfaction

Heart it Races

Architecture in Helsinki - Original



Dr. Dog's version

Camp

I'd like to do this

Print by Brainstorm Design and Print

ride in this

RV Vase by Paige Russell

sleep like this

Print by Nikki McClure

wear this

Bag by LAYERxlayer

and see this

Print by Sharon Montrose

I wish it would rain

Smiley Tomato Face

Original photo of smiley tomato

I was eating lunch the other day and found the tomato to be subpar. Upon removing the tomato, I realized there was a little smiley face in the middle.

Enhanced tomato smile

On my way home from work, while stuck in traffic, I wrote some Haiku about this smiling tomato. I later read them to my husband while we ate Japanese food (and he made up one of his own).

Have you ever seen a

tomato smile right at you?

I think I'll eat meat

Small tomato face

Your smile makes you look happy

Are you mocking me?

A face frozen in

Carbonite like Han

Solo's in Star Wars

Ben's addition:

Smiles you give and take

Oh I wish you were better

Smiling tomato