4083

Not blogging much these days. Stuff going on. Y'know. I've actually been spending a lot of time doing chores around the house, and preparing for Christmas. The vast majority of our shopping is done, and stocking assembly has begun in earnest. The list of things left to get is incredibly small, so I'm very excited.

We've also made a slight change in the manner in which we'll be giving gifts this year, which will ultimately allow us to finish our preparation even earlier than normal. This will allow us even more time to fully enjoy the holidays without any of the gift-related stress. It is indeed the most wonderful time of the year (favorite version, Andy Williams, though I love the warbly happiness of Johnny Mathis's interpretation).

This year's addition to my holiday music collection started early with the purchase of three albums -- a reissued/remastered classic that I never got the first time around, a new release from a seasoned veteran, and the ethereal sweetness of a newer artist (well, "newer" relative to the first two artists).

Although Bette and Herb are on CD, I procured Sarah through iTunes. It was daring and bold and unconventional for me to go virtual on that one, because for some inexplicable reason, it just feels like my holiday music collection should be tangible. Obviously, I got over it by about a third, so perhaps by 2008, I'll have kicked the CD habit altogether.

These newest additions have all been added to my iTunes library, but I've only listened briefly to bits of the songs. For as much as I love holiday music, I'd still like to have a little time to savor autumn (my favorite season). I'll have plenty of time to saturate the air around me with Christmas tunes in the weeks before December 25th. That said, I did listen to the entirety of Sarah McLachlan's "Christmas Time is Here." It is stunningly beautiful and a respectable tribute to the Vince Guaraldi classic.

Adding these new purchases to the collection was the simple part. And I can rest easy knowing that -- when I'm ready to delve head-first into the Holiday genre shuffle -- I'll be prepared. Considerably more challenging is converting the rest of my music collection to digital form. I'd delayed doing this in the past because of an inadequate computer system. That has been resolved, and now the time must be spent importing CDs.

As of today, when I was only able to import six CDs (other chores and a nap induced by an oncoming cold beckoned), my iTunes library numbers 4083 songs (note: approximately 1000 of those are Christmas songs). By my no-doubt-inaccurate guesstimate, if I am able to get everything from all my CDs and records onto the computer (sometime before I die of old age), that number should rise to about 40,000. I'm curious to see how close I come to being correct on that estimate. But it's going to take a very long time (and the addition of a new piece of equipment) before I'll know. Drops in a bucket. Watch for updates to see the number grow.

Post-script: I went heavy on parenthetical phrases this entry. What gives?