By the way, I'm running for mayor of Chicago, too

Did you miss the news the other day?

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners ruled that former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is a Chicago resident and can run for mayor.

Part of the problem is that Emanuel doesn't actually live in Chicago. Hasn't for a couple of years. He says he's paid taxes there. And that whole selling his house thing? He wasn't really selling it.

The Board, in true Chicago style, said that as long as Emanuel was planning on going back, he was a resident.

Which brings me to my point: I've been to Chicago. Spent days there. Drove the roads and paid the tolls ... which are road taxes. Even been to a White Sox game. And plan to go back to see a Cubs game at Wrigley.

Like Rahm Emanuel, I've been to Chicago, paid taxes there, and plan to go back.

Therefore, I am a Chicago resident.

So, I'm running for mayor, too.

And, since it's Chicago, I want everyone to register so you can vote for me. I mean, it's Chicago. Dead people vote there all the time. I don't see why being alive should disqualify you. Just tell them you're a Democrat. That should cut through any red tape.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I'm elected mayor of Chicago. I suppose I should think up some campaign promises or something. I mean, it's what people running for office do, right?

Here are some of the things I've come up with:

• Rename US Cellular Field to Cominskey Park.
• Daily contests between Lou Malnati's and Pizzeria Uno's for best Original Chicago Style Pizza.
• Every holiday gets a massacre. St. Valentine's Day has ridden that gravy train for too long!
• Oprah has to give cars to everybody.
• Lake Michigan is renamed Happy Fun Lake and is declared off-limits to Canada.

I'm looking for more ideas. When I'm elected mayor, I'll have jobs for everyone who submits ideas and otherwise contributes to the campaign. As mayor of Chicago, I'll be able to do that.

Luke 2:1-20

1. And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
2. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5. To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
15. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

The Night Before Christmas

A Visit From St. Nicholas

©2000 Denise Van Patten - http://collectdolls.about.com

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled down for a long winter's nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave the luster of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name: "Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, so up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof the prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around, down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! His dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, and the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly, that shook, when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, and filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, Laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, and away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

-- Clement Clarke Moore

On the last day of Christmas shopping...

Yesterday was the last day of Christmas shopping.

Oh, sure, the stores are still open today and people are out shopping and such, but I'm not. Because I finished up yesterday. It was the last day of Christmas shopping.

Of course, there have been a few times that I thought I was finished. Three times prior to yesterday.

It wasn't fun, though. Traffic was, well, like everyone was out Christmas shopping. Bad.

Got caught by a train once. That's never fun. It's even worse when the roads are packed, as they were yesterday. That's when people do stupid stuff. Well, more stupid stuff. Or maybe it's the same ratio of stupid stuff, just more people out there so more stupid stuff happens.

Like this old lady who was next to me. In the wrong turn lane. Actually, it wasn't a turn lane. Not for traffic going in our direction. She was actually in the oncoming traffic lane, with her left-turn signal on. There was no oncoming traffic, because it was caught by the train, too, just on the other side of the train.

Anyway, this old lady wasn't happy. I say that because she was fussing at ... the air. She was gesturing and just a running her mouth and was in her car all alone.

I shook my head and said, aloud, "How sad." Then I realized what I had just done. Because I was talking out loud while I was in my car all alone.

But, she wasn't the only person on the road that didn't need to be on the road. In fact, Christmas shoppers are horrible drivers. Police should have pulled everyone who was out driving over and given them a ticket. Including me.

I had thought that I had finished up my shopping before the day began. That's when Wife told me something she wanted for Christmas. A couple of things, actually. Only, I had already gathered and purchased what she wanted. Except for this one thing she mentioned that I don't remember her ever mentioning before. That meant I wasn't done.

Now, to be honest, I had to pick up an item from the mall. I had purchased an ornament from Things Remembered and left it to be engraved. I had planned to pick it up that day anyway, so I knew I had to go to town. But, now I had two stops to make.

I made my first stop, got the thing she wanted -- plus something else that she probably doesn't want -- then headed to the mall and Things Remembered.

When I got to Things Remembered, they were packed. Then, when they got to me, they couldn't find the thing I bought. Then they didn't have another one. But, the lady said to give them an hour and they'd have me fixed up. So, I was not done shopping.

An hour to kill in the mall. What to do?

I figured I could run into Spencer's Gifts. After all, you can't have too many fur-lined handcuffs or pecker whistles!

Nah. Victoria's Secret? Well, Wife says their bras care comfortable. I assume she means some of their bras, because I don't think some of them are built for, well, doing what bras do. But, she says they're really good bras, but won't go buy them herself, because they cost like $50.

Now, personally, I think that anything that makes the boobies happy is worth $50. Happy boobies are good things. Okay, boobies are good things, but happy boobies are better things.

Anyway, I'm not sure what all I bought or how much I spent but it was probably too much.

After an hour, and a severe drain on the wallet, I made my way back to Things Remembered, and they had the ornament ready. That was the last thing I needed in the mall, so I headed for the exit. You know, the mall should replace all the signs that say "Exit" with signs that say "The Hell Outta Here" because that describes it better.

Still, I'm happy that I finally finished my Christmas shopping.

Except for one thing...

How to set up Apple TV sharing for computers with different iTunes accounts

Here's the scenario:

• You have iTunes and you buy your stuff under your own iTunes account.
• Someone else in the house (or on the same network) has iTunes and buys stuff under their own iTunes account.
• You have an Apple TV and want to be able to play anything from either iTunes account on the TV/sound system.

How common is this scenario? I don't know. It applies to Wife and me. But, it's not common enough for you to be able to find out how to do this easily from Apple.

All the instructions from Apple assume that everyone is using the same iTunes account. Wife and I have separate accounts and prefer it that way. For others, it could be a roommate situation. Or it could be another family situations where the teenager has his own account that's fed with prepay iTunes cards, and the parents have iTunes with their credit card; and you don't want to give your teenager unlimited access to your credit card.

Whatever the reason, there are plenty of good reasons for computers on the network to want to connect to Apple TV but still run different iTunes accounts.

Pick the Home Sharing Account

First thing you need to do is pick which Home Sharing account you want to use. You see, the way the Apple TV can play stuff off your computer is via the Home Sharing feature of iTunes.

The catch is, if you want to allow rentals via the Apple TV, this is the account that will be used, unless you sign out after each purchase. More about that later. This isn't a show-stopper, as you'll see.

For my purposes, I chose my Apple ID. In a college or other roommate situation, you might want to use your Apple ID, since that gives you control over who can access it.

Set Up Home Sharing on the Your Computer

Launch iTunes.


From iTunes, click "Advanced" and select "Turn on Home Sharing"


If prompted, log in to iTunes with your account.

You are now set for Home Sharing.

Set Up Home Sharing on the Other Computers

In order to share content on the various computers, they'll have to use the same Home Sharing account. This doesn't mean they'll be able to access your iTunes account, but it does mean they can share your content across the network.

Go to the other computer and launch iTunes.


From iTunes, click "Advanced" and select "Turn on Home Sharing"


Log in to iTunes with your account.


If this computer is not already authorized for your iTunes account, you'll be prompted to authorize it. That's the only way Home Sharing will work.


You'll be notified that the computer is now authorized on your account, and how many authorizations you have left. You'll need one for each computer on the Home Sharing network (including yours) and for Apple TV.

If you don't have enough, go to the other computers that you've already authorized and deauthorize the ones you no longer want authorized. You only have 5 to go around, so you may have to make some hard decisions. If you don't remember what all computers you authorized, you can reset your authorizations. Apple lets you do that once a year. If you do a reset, you'll have to reauthorized your computer.


Your iTunes library will now show up on that computer. This user can copy anything in your iTunes library to his library, as long as that computer is on the same Home Sharing account.

Set Up Home Sharing on the Apple TV

Set up your Apple TV. That involves connecting the HDMI cable and the power cord. You can connect the optical audio cable if you use that. You can also connect LAN connection if you like, but Apple TV supports 802.11a/b/g/n, so you can go WiFi.


After it's started, select "Computers" then "Turn On Home Sharing."

Enter the same Apple ID and password you entered on your computer, then choose Done.


The iTunes library's logged in to the Home Sharing account should appear.


You will also see any rentals made to the Home Sharing iTunes account.

If you have any trouble, recheck the instructions and try again. Or, try Apple's help page.

You should be good to go, though.

It was actually easy to set up. The hard part was figuring out that the other computers can be logged in to one iTunes account but another Home Sharing account. Once you get that part down, the rest is easy.

Apple TV

Got an Apple TV box recently.

In case you aren't familiar with Apple TV, it's a little box that you hook up to your TV that allows you to send content to your TV.

Apple is pushing their movie and TV rentals, although that's not what attracted me to the device. I have been buying content from Amazon.com and feeding it to my TiVo device.

They're making a big deal about its Netflix integration, but that's not a selling point for me. I already have that with Tivo.

The playing of iTunes content on the TV is what sold it for me. I've been wanting to be able to do that. And Wife wanted to do that. And, with Apple TV, we can. Wirelessly.

To do that, you have to turn on the Home Sharing feature. Where it was cumbersome is that Wife has one iTunes account and I have another. So, it took a bit to figure out that she can be signed in on her iTunes account but signed in to Home Sharing on my account, and we can share content with each other and with the Apple TV.

Now, the other things -- Netflix, YouTube, movie and TV rentals -- weren't a selling point for me. But, I do like the Netflix interface on Apple TV better than the one on TiVo. On my TiVo HD (I don't have the new Premiere, so I don't know how well it works) the only thing I can do with Netflix is play what's in my Streaming Queue. And I have to manage it on my computer. But, on the Apple TV, I can manage it from the menu. Not as easy as I can on the computer, but at least I don't have to go to the computer to manage it unless I want to; with Tivo, I have to.

TV rentals may come into play later. I'm looking at the cost of taking all my content from the Internet and dropping cable and TiVo. If I did that today, I'd save $171.04 a year, but I'd lose some programs: six network shows, local programming, and all live sports.

Let me add that I'm talking about watching on the TV, not through a browser. I'm talking about a full TV experience: content on the big screen where everyone in the living room can see it. So, watching online (Hulu standard, ESPN, etc.) isn't a viable solution.

Still, talking about Apple TV, I can sum it up in one word: I like it. Okay, that's three words. But that's how much I like it.

The content is clear, much clearer than through the TiVo for similar content. Probably because it connectes via HDMI connection, and not the component connection as the TiVo does. In fact, the only way Apple TV connects is via HDMI. And, setup is rather easy. The only issue was, as I mentioned, when you try to Home Share with multiple computers on multiple iTunes accounts.

It's worth the $99 it cost.

What about and alternative device? Like the Roku?

I can't say. I don't have one.

Yet.

Ice Box Fruitcake

I'm not a fan of traditional fruitcake. But there is a fruitcake that I do like. Wife's grandmother passed her Ice Box Fruitcake recipe to her years ago.

Ice boxes were what people used before refrigerators became more widely available and affordable. And, you may have seen an ice box without knowing it. On The Honeymooners, the Kramden's didn't have a refrigerator; they had an ice box.

One of my grandmothers -- my father's mother -- always called her refrigerator "the ice box." When I was a lot younger, I just figured it was because the top part (the freezer) had the ice. Later, I came to understand that it was a hold-over term from when she had an ice box. And that's true of many southern families.

Ice Box Fruitcake is similar to fruitcake. It won't keep as long as regular fruitcake, though. You must refrigerate it -- or, as they use to say years ago, "put it in the ice box."

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• One box (approx. 12 oz.) of vanilla wafers
• One pound of candied cherries (red and/or green)
• One can (approx. 14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
• One cup raisins
• One cup coconut
• One cup pecans

Directions

1. Finely crush vanilla wafers. A food processor works great!
2. In a large bowl, add the vanilla wafers, sweetened condensed milk.
3. Hand mix until wafers are moistened.
4. Add remaining ingredients.
5. Mix well by hand.
6. Press mixture into a buttered tube pan.
7. Cover
8. Refrigerate overnight, until firm.

Keep it refrigerated; it will spoil. This isn't your traditional fruitcake. It's so, so much better!