Greetings...   Well, it's Christmas morning; time for some eggnog and that toxic stuff your uncle always brings over.  I'd like to throw you a slide show of all the happenings in the last few weeks, but it's not going to happen this morning, this is a morning for iPods and other such sacrifices...  Nothing long-winded to say, just a simple and clear message; peace, enjoy, be happy...  Merry Christmas from all of us at the Abattoir, do your bestest to everyone you don't know (...that's our way of saying, Smile...)  Have a great weekend.

 

Firstly, happy Chanukah to all our Jewish readers...  I admit, I really don't know squat about Chanukah other than what I've learned by asking questions on the Abattoir.BBs of our Jewish patrons and from Adam Sandler songs -- not wanting to look as misinformed as our Prime Minister (...who went to light the second candle on the menorah and made front page...) I decided to check out some of the customs myself...  Since I was getting no Google Points with my attempted spelling of Chanukah, I decided to just type "Jewish" into Google and pray I didn't end up on some government echelon list; the result yielded tons of info, oddly much of it about jewelry, but I did find "The only free Jewish encyclopedia on the Internet" -- I held on to this link, figured there's a good chance I'd need it.  Next I stumbled onto OU.ORG (Orthodox Union) which contained everything you need to know about being Jewish, and then some...  I don't know how the Jews do it really, the rules are endless!  Here's a page on just Chanukah (...also includes handy Chanukah Burn & Scald Prevention instructions...) Every detail is covered, right down to what kind of material is kosher for lighting the menorah.  Did you place your menorah at the correct height!?  Here's an excerpt: "Ideally, the Chanukah lights are not to be placed at a lower height than three 'tefachim' (handbreadths), about eighteen inches, from the ground, nor at a greater height than ten 'tefachim' above the ground; that is, they should be placed between a height of approximately eighteen inches and about five feet."  I admire you if you can even remember half of the "rules", but I digress...  Happy Chanukah my friends, enjoy the festival, and now I know that Chanukah is not "the Jewish Christmas", learned today.  I have a lot of reading to do -- is there a Cole's Jew publication?

One more quick Thank-You to all the BTM45 patrons for your generosity with our "Frag4Food" drive, The Daily Bread Food Bank recently received the Abattoir Payload (...SPAM free...) of goodness you all made happen and they we're rather surprised when they heard how many were involved in raising it; I say we have an Abattoir.Net PokerNite -- Bring your cans...  "I see your Beans&Pork and raise you two Chunky Steak&Potato, let's see if you've got any Honey&Nuts."

We're getting a lot of "when's the date then?" emails from anxious LAN junkies curious about the date for BTM46, we were throwing around the idea of a New Years BTM, but there would be way too many casualties, me thinks...  No date's been locked down, but we're probably throwing our grenades into the second or so week in the new year (...which of course, means our first 2005 BTM...)  Join the Abattoir.BBs Forums and make your voice heard.

I took today off to do my Christmas shopping...  Yes, a day off to shop -- last week I popped over to Canadian Tire on a Saturday morning to grab a power distribution network (...it's a heavy-duty extension cord with sockets located every 8 feet; It's still an extension cord, but as a "power distribution network" I don't mind paying $69, I mean, it's not like I'm buying an "extension cord"...) but as I stood in the line-up to purchase my new wire, I lost 20 minutes of my life...  I don't even want to know what the malls are like on a Saturday afternoon, so I decided to make a weekday my dedicated shopping day.  The chosen day started with a flat tire on the rear passenger side; I was almost riding the rim before I noticed it (...there was a lot of pull this time when I tried to bring it up on two wheels down Mississauga Road...)  A stop at a Petro Canada for tire air and I made it to the mall nice and early to nail prime parking, right at the gate.  The easy part for me was the fact that I was shopping for only one person, Isis...  She has 'taken care of Christmas' again for me, and I don't know how to thank her -- Oops, here's the Bill!  Remember, Folks...  It's not about the gift, it's about the thought.  Please don't overspend or excerpt yourself this year, give something from the heart...  (aka: Isis is getting screwed again this year)