All I want for Christmas

[pbray]

A time-machine. Somehow I missed most of the past summer. I'd like to go back and enjoy it, and if you could arrange it so the weather was seasonal instead of cold & rainy that would be a plus.

Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes, preferably chained to my bed. jpsorrow has promised to deliver, but I fear that he means a ticket to see the movie rather than the actual character.

Book contracts. For myself and all my friends. For those who already have contracts to keep them busy for the next few years, movie deals (with casting approval and action figures) would be lovely stocking stuffers.

And would it be too much to ask that I win the lottery? New York, Mega or PowerBall, I'm not picky. I just want enough cash that I can quit my dayjob, rent a large house somewhere on the Atlantic shore (I'm partial to the Outer Banks) and invite all my writing friends to come join me for a retreat. We'll put suricattus in charge of stocking the wine cellar, ask mizkit to supply fudge, and jpsorrow would be in charge of hiring a houseboy who would pick up after us and look decorative while doing so. Make the jackpot big enough and we'll make the retreat an annual tradition.

So what's on your list?

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Enough of a bump in the 401(k) that I can retire. A house somewhere in New England with a BIG kitchen and a BIG office and a BIG yard for the pups. Continued good health for me and everyone I know. Contracts for my writers friends who don't have them and continued contracts for those who do. A Robert Downey Jr lookalike.

Any more, and I will start to sound greedy.

::halo::

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Your list sounds really good.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That sounds like a very reasonable list.

[karen-w-newton.livejournal.com]

Personally, I would like for someone to invent a new kind of broccoli that doesn't have any extra calories but tastes exactly like a hot fudge sundae. Next I would like 5,000 shares of stock in the company that owns the patent. That way I could get thinner and richer at the same time!

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Yeah, book contracts for me and all my friends.

A mysterious windfall (winning the lottery would be fine, as long as it happened without my having to remember to actually buy tickets), not enormous but sufficient to make a big-ass mortgage payment and thus significantly lower my household's monthly housing costs.

An all-expenses-paid trip to some part of the world I've never been to -- New Zealand, say, or Costa Rica, or Iceland.

The miraculous return of SP's lost toy Wombat.

One week at the office totally free of catastrophe.

And, finally, the success of a certain super sekrit project (not a writing project) on which I will soon be embarking.

That last one is the really, really, really important one.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

We could sell you a big house in New England, big kitchen, big office, etc. But no big yard, I'm afraid. Just a big heating bill . . .

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

A fully illustrated 15th-century fightbook, but in Old Scots and proving that the claymore was used in German Longsword style.

An editor/agent for my novel.

Cheap easy-to-get body armour for Western Martial Arts.

A lifetime's supply of weissbier.

A pair of radio-controlled tanks with lasers for tagging each other.

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a most excellent rule.

I'll take all four... except I'd like to use the time machine to stay longer in Italy this fall.

And it doesn't have to be a hUGE win, just enough to quit the day job.

I'd also like a personal organizer, to tidy up my house, and keep it tidy, while also keeping me and Honeybear where we're supposed to be, when we're supposed to be there.

And a playroom. Gaming table, and lots of shelf space for games....

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I thought so!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you even have a plan!

Do you think it would sell better if it was the purple kind of broccoli?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm rooting for Wombat's triumphant return, but also send best wishes for super sekrit non-writing project.

[karen-w-newton.livejournal.com]

Euw! I can't even eat the purple kind.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

An awesome list, though I'd hold out for more than one variety of beer.

And for the final item, a friend of mine builds these, and sells circuit boards for making your own to other tank afficianados check him out at tankhobby.com (http://tankhobby.com). He's planning a scale model battleground at his new place.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Sounds reasonable. But if you stayed any longer in Italy, your cat would disown you.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Well then, plain green it is.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

nope. she loved spending time with the pet-sitter. and cried the first day she didn't show up. of course, the pet sitter also played "chase da bird" for a full hour....

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

>An awesome list, though I'd hold out for more
>than one variety of beer.
Why? There are many many varieties of weissbier. :)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

so would your dad. just have him fly out...

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

A diagnosis for why my left arm's been numb since July?

Oh, and for the troops to come home, all of them, all safe and sound.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Both of those would be good things indeed.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

My list is simple, yet impossible to attain in a house with three kids:

sleeping in on Christmas morning.

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Do you think Santa will bring them to me?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I have a better chance of snagging RDJ than you do of sleeping in.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Sign me up for the weissbier, with the caveat that the calories never count.

Hey, it's a Christmas list, right?

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Are we taking bets? Because we cold totally make off with the kids to create the "sleeping in" situation. If anywhere was open on Christmas morning. Otherwise, we'd just have to stand outside with them, which could get cold.

[vespican.livejournal.com]

I'd like the time machine. Perhaps not one that would enable me to travel in time, but one that would slow time down as one grows older. I'm at the age where I'm finding the old adage comparing life to a roll of toilet paper to be very true.
Dave

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Which help explains why my summer disappeared in the blink of an eye, while when I was a kid, summers lasted for geologic eras.