Prolific

In addition to the things I mentioned earlier, I've decided I'm going to make some other low-carb appetizers. This is because I'm trying to make the Zone diet work and my family tends to eat mass amounts of carbs. And they aren't going to make protein-rich appetizers, so I might as well. One is Mexican Pinwheels from the Zone website.

Another is an appetizer that uses yogurt cheese. To make yogurt cheese, you need a 16 oz container of low-fat plain yogurt, a strainer, cheesecloth, a big bowl, minced garlic (I use a lot of garlic), good olive oil (maybe a 1/2 cup or so), and some chopped fresh herbs (you decide how much you want to chop). And 24 hours. The day before you are going to serve this appetizer, put the cheesecloth in the strainer over a big bowl. Put the yogurt into the cheesecloth-lined strainer. Cover with foil or plastic wrap and stick in the fridge overnight. This is going to drain a lot of the moisture from the yogurt and leave a creamy cheese. You may want to dump the liquid if the bowl is getting too full. The next day - put big spoonfuls of the yogurt cheese into a 9" x 13" pan. Then, in a separate bowl, stir together the olive oil, minced garlic and chopped herbs. Pour the olive oil mixture over the yogurt cheese spoonfuls. This is now a yummy dip. Put some crackers or veggies next to the pan and dig in!

Another dip I'm making uses low-fat cottage cheese as the base. Put a 16 oz container of cottage cheese in a food processor. Add herbs, salt, pepper to taste. And maybe some skim milk for consistency. Process until the consistency is like dip. Serve with chopped veggies as an appetizer.

Cooking up a Storm

I'm in the process of making sauce for my high-protein veggie lasagna. I've decided to make a double recipe because it looks yummy and my brother isn't called "the garbage disposal" for nothing. Also because I realized once I started making it that the recipe makes double the sauce so I might as well make two lasagnas.

I've also made a double recipe of my peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. And then I'm going to make a chocolate oblivion torte. But that will come after I take a nap. And then we are heading over to my brother's house for New Year's. Both sisters, their husbands, my brother's wife and us. Not sure if we are going out on the town or if we are staying in. The tradition is to drink mass quantities of white russians and play cards or board games. Perhaps I'll have an update in the morning. If not - have a most fabulous New Year's celebration. I'm still working on my New Year's resolutions so they will come later.

The Kitchen is Alive

...with the smell of brownies.

Dunkin Hines Chocolate Double Fudge Chunk Brownies. Or something like that. My family's official Christmas celebration starts tomorrow evening. I made a double batch of brownies tonight. And was going to make my chocolate oblivion torte, peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies and a veggie lasagna tonight - but my boss gave me tomorrow off. In addition to Friday off. So, first thing tomorrow morning (which translates to: as soon as I wake up and force myself to take a shower), I'm going to walk into town, deposit my paycheck, buy Baker's chocolate chunks, cheesecloth and then also Boston Baked Beans candies for my sister. And then walk back and make the cookies, lasagna and torte before heading to my brother's house for New Year's. I may or may not be blogging starting tomorrow through Sunday. If I can sneak onto my mom's computer, I will give you an update on activities.

In other news, I still have the itchies. Something in either my apartment or car is setting them off. I, at first, thought it was my sister's house, but now I've had them for the past two days. And not at work - only as soon as I get home. I think it might be my Christmas tree. Does anyone out there have an allergy to pine trees?

If none of this made sense, it is because I have imbibed too much wine. More tomorrow.

End of the World

Hilarious movie about the end of the world. (via le petit hiboux)

Sick?

I found out yesterday that my little nephew has strep throat. And the incubation period is 2-7 days. Which means that he was highly contagious the whole time we were at their house. Now my hubby and I are paranoid. Could my throat be sore because it is first thing in the morning and I haven't had a glass of water? Or is it STREP?

Tie - the movie

Tie, by Alejandro T. Rojas. (via five3.com)

Recap

As promised, here is a photo of the pocket monsters I made for my niece and nephew. They were a hit. But we had to convince my niece (she's 2.5) that they were tickle monsters. Please excuse the quality of the image - I don't have Photoshop on this machine at the moment.

The weekend was fun. It was great to hang out with my sister's little family. I'm exhausted now and I've been having an allergic reaction to something all weekend. I keep getting little itchy bumps and red splotches on my face and body. They go away when I take Benadryl. We have not been able to figure out what is triggering the reaction. Hopefully whatever it is will go away soon. Maybe I'm allergic to Christmas?

Happy Holidays!

I'm off to my sister's house for yummy food, great company and maybe some presents. Our actual Christmas celebration is going to be next weekend. This weekend is Chrismukkah - latkes, candle lighting, etc. Have a happy and safe holiday weekend.

Pocket Monsters

I managed to sew and finish 8 little pocket monsters. My niece and nephew are going to get 4 each. They turned out really cute - I might look into making more of them in the future. We shall see how they are received. No, I haven't taken pictures yet. But I'll make sure that my sister takes pictures with her digital camera this weekend.

Also, I think I have an idea for the Indie Crafters show on HGTV. Now I just need to get my shit together so that my sister can film my little introduction over New Year's. I was going to do my magnetic calendar thingy - but I have a feeling that everyone is going to be submitting magnetic marble ideas. So what I'm going to submit is totally unique. So there. I'm ready for my 15 minutes.

Cheesecakes!

My mom just called to order 4 cheesecakes from me for Tuesday! One pumpkin caramel for her neighbor and three english toffees for my dad's vet assistants. She's going to add other goodies and wrap the cheesecake boxes with colored cellophane and ribbons. And my dad's clinic is paying for it - so no family discount! Now I need to finish the pocket monsters for my niece and nephew before I start cranking out the cheesecakes. Guess now I need to take a shower so I can be presentable for the grocery store patrons. And maybe I should get out of my pajamas.

Evil

Say you are wrestling with your hubby. And he is extremely ticklish and much bigger than you. Leggy, long arms; all elbows and big feet. And when you tickle him, he flings his arms and legs around wildly. And, say, he gets you in the eye by accident. Or maybe you just want to end the wrestling match because you need a rest. And so you yell "OW!" and hold your eye. And then you go into the kitchen to get some frozen peas to put on your hurt eye. And then maybe you head up to the bathroom while he sits downstairs and feels really, really guilty about hurting you. And while you are in the bathroom, looking at the nonexistent wound, maybe, perhaps, you start applying purple and pink and brown eyeshadow to your eye. And you put the frozen peas bag back on your eye as you head back down to your very guilty-looking hubby. And he insists that he wants to see how bad it is. So you remove the frozen peas and try not to giggle.

Good times. And a very gullible hubby. Because this is the second time I got him with that one.

Books

Books I have finished in the last couple of weeks:

"What was she thinking? Notes on a Scandal" by Zoe Heller
I loved this book. It was a bit creepy, funny and odd. The narrator is a very strange woman who latches on to the cause of the scandal. I really enjoyed Zoe's writing style. I highly recommend.

"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood
I love Margaret Atwood. However, while I enjoyed reading this book, it was not my favorite. She does a great job of creating a very strange, very possible future world and then switches back and forth between the present and the events that led up to the present. My hubby and I read it to each other when we drove down to my sister's house and also on the way back. It led to a lot of interesting discussions about bio-engineering and her scary future does not seem that far off. Again, not my favorite Atwood book, but still a very good read.

I'm in the midst of "The Namesake: A Novel" by Jhumpa Lahiri. And I'm really enjoying it. More on it later.

ROTK

The movie was most excellent! So LOUD and exciting. Lots of nail-biting moments. The spider queen was so scary! And I LOVED the ghost warriors! When they appeared behind Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli near the ships! Chills from all the beacons being lit. And Aragon - wouldn't kick him out of bed. Also loved Legolas and the elephant-thingy. We went to see the movie at 5pm and I made sure not to drink anything after 1:30. I didn't have to pee during the movie! That is surely a record. Now I've had a couple of glasses of wine! And I'm feeling GREAT! Have a great night!

On a side note: I only wish I hadn't looked at the gay porn hobbit site Styro sent me. I could not stop giggling near the end of the movie with all the meaningful glances and the jumping on the bed. I had tears running down my face and was shaking from trying to hold in the giggles. And also, the guy sitting next to me was a very loud nose-breather. And when he actually used his mouth to breath - HORRIBLE stink of death breath filled the air. Luckily the movie was pretty exciting so I was able to block all of his annoyingness out for the most part.

Update: Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The main Orc leader - pink, piggy-looking guy - looks just like Lunk from "The Goonies".

Last-Minute Holiday Trampling!

I love this line: "Some store managers try to pacify crowds with free coffee and doughnuts." Yeah, that makes sense. Give the mad shoppers caffeine and sugar before unleashing them in your stores.

Crazed Consumers Shop 'Til They Drop

Update: a Mark Fiore cartoon along the same lines.

Friday Plans

The cat toy for my niece is almost done. It's pretty cute. I still have to attach the button eyes, nose, whiskers and mouth with little fangs. Hopefully that will make it look less like a chubby black teddy bear.

We are going to see ROTK tonight. I'm heading out of work early-ish and meeting my hubby at the theater where he will have the tickets and will have been waiting in line for hours. Such dedication. I also plan to stop imbibing liquids after 2pm today as my bladder? she's the size of a golf ball. I'm pretty excited to see this movie. Viggo and I have a thing. Or more, in my dreams, Viggo and I have a thing. Anyhoo, from everything I've heard - this movie is great.

Other plans this weekend - I'm going to be sewing little pocket monsters for my niece and nephew for Hanukkah. Or, actually, more like Chrismukkah this year. Our actual family Christmas celebration is going to be over the New Year's weekend. We alternate actual Christmases every year. Last year was supposed to be celebrated on Christmas but we "screwed it up" according to my younger sister. We were still in California at Christmas time. Planning and packing for our long drive to Massachusetts. So this year, we are heading down to my older sister's house to celebrate Hanukkah with them. Or Chrismukkah because my mom likes to do Christmas-y things on actual Christmas. Confused yet?

I love staying with my older sister and her little family. They have a gorgeous house, their kids are lovely and there is always lots of laughing and good food and wine. And my brother-in-law is also a Scorpio, so things tend to get very silly, very fast. My sister and I have been looking into Hanukkah recipes - like latkes and sufganiyots and rugalach.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Little pocket monsters first - 8 for each of them.

Ugh

In the midst of trying to make client edits to the fancy search tool, my computer completely died. Kernal 32 Error. Disk Read Failed. Oy. I have half a mind to just say fuck it and not try to finish their edits until my boss gets back on Monday. The software program we are using (i.e.: I am using) was on that machine. There is another copy of it on my boss' computer but...oh there is no but. I just don't feel like working at his desk. I can use his computer 'cause he's still in Thailand. Now I'm sitting at another computer working on my blog. Nice. And I brought in the stuffed animal cat I'm sewing for my niece from one of my old t-shirts. And I really want to work on that instead. They're all lucky I'm such a good employee 'cause that cat is calling my name right now.

Attention Crafty People!

Absolutely Vile has information on a new HGTV show featuring indie crafters!

UPDATE: here's the link to the HGTV information as well.

Driving in Winter

Some notes on driving in winter (and in general):

- Your 4-Wheel Drive Extra Hemi Deluxe 40 million ton SUV is not going to do shit for you when there is ICE on the road. Slow the fuck down, asshole.

- If it is raining and very foggy and dark - turn your headlights on! We can't see you, jerk-off.

- When we get a lot of snow and your car is covered with all the pretty white stuff, please remember that there are other people on the road and brush ALL the snow off your car! This includes the snow on the top of your vehicle. When you start driving - that huge sheet of snow/ice is going to fly back onto MY WINDSHIELD and render me temporarily blind, asshole!

- Also, when we get a huge amount of snow/ice - you can take the time to scrape off all the windows on the vehicle. Just because you can see through that little section of your windshield does not mean you are a safe driver. Why not take the time to at least scrape off your back window - maybe then you'll see me when I'm flipping you off.

Thanks.

Guinness

Since I've been getting a bunch of search hits for the Guinness "Brilliant!" commercial - I thought I'd help people out. Here's the archived entry about the commercial. Cheers!

shhh

Top secret happenings today. Can't tell you where, who, why or when due to possible spying on this blog. Wish me luck!

Snow Day!

All the local schools are closed today. We'd be staying home except my hubby still has his Anthro exam at 10:30 this morning. That's right; everything is closed except for the University. And since I finished the search tool this weekend, I'm bringing in a couple of books to read.

welcome to my world

Well, it's snowing again. We went to my office in the morning so I could do some last minute edits to the search tool. Partly because it needed to get done before the client got in tomorrow morning. And partly because we heard that we were supposed to get over a foot of snow this afternoon. It was just starting to snow as we made it out of the grocery store. We also bought a Christmas tree today! Our apartment smells excellent. Crazy that we've lived together for maybe 6 or 7 years at this point and this is the first Christmas tree we've bought. Our California apartment was too small to manage a tree. We have a bit more space in this apartment. The kitties keep going over to check it out.

On a side note: I've been totally stressing about the search tool this weekend and most of last week. Because the client said it needed to get done first thing next week (i.e.: tomorrow). And when I sent her an email today with the link - I get an autoresponse back that she won't be in until WEDNESDAY!!! AAAAAAGGHH!

Here's a picture of the snow storm in case you are interested:

stress be gone

Well, after a few days of complete stress and panic attacks - I kicked that search form's ass! That is right, folks. I read the manual, did a lot of Google searches and basically figured the whole frickin' thing out. Hopefully my client hasn't found my blog - 'cause they think we have a whole team of programmers. But, no. It's just me and my boss. Who is in Thailand. And who dumped this whole mess in my lap before he left.

Did I mention that I kicked the search form's ass? ;) Too bad I can't tell you the client's name or the website. 'Cause you would love it.

So, now I'm celebrating with my 3rd (okay, 4th) glass of wine. I thought I was going to have to work on this all weekend - but I finished yesterday before 5! Who rocks? I do.

Happy Birthday!

It's my hubby's 31st birthday today! Unfortunately, I'm more excited than he is. After being in the Navy for 7 years, he came to expect little or no celebrations. And he has, instead, decided not to get his hopes up. So he downplays the day and ho-humms about what he wants to do. This extends to most holidays, actually. I'm the opposite. My hopes are always high that this year will be fun. It's not so much about the presents (although I do love me some gifts), it's more about having a special day. Doing something outside of the routine. Adding some sparkle. So I'm going to keep working on him until he can't help but look forward to holidays.

My sisters and mom are the same as me. Christmas is filled with silly traditions - like waking my parents up with the "Muppets Christmas" (the one with John Denver). Their bedroom is upstairs from the livingroom and we blast the "12 Days of Christmas" until they come downstairs. When we all still believed in Santa Claus, my mom would make a big production about leaving cookies and milk and carrots and a note for Santa and the reindeer. And she would eat the cookies that night and leave a note from Santa near the empty plate. She would also leave notes from the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. She would put a little trail of glitter from our beds to the window on the nights that the Tooth Fairy visited. She still gets excited about the Easter Bunny leaving us baskets. And we get gifts every year at Christmas from Mrs. Claus and Frosty and Rudolph. Mrs. Claus always gives clothes. Santa gives the big gift.

Coming from that kind of childhood and family, it is hard for me to be bummed about birthdays. So it is hard for me to understand my hubby's resistance. But I will win him over, I promise. And our kids will have a mom like my mom. If you have a moment, please wish him a Happy Birthday! Thanks.

Boogers

Okay, my mood has improved by mass degrees. Firstly, because I heard back from the client that they are hoping the search tool goes live by next week. Which I translate to "by Monday". Which means that I have a day to learn how to create the correct databases and then use the CodeCharge software to create the results I need. And then one day for them to review and send edits, and then the weekend to do any last minute changes. Still pissing me off to no end, but at least I think it is doable. Considering I had what felt like an almost fatal panic attack today over this - this is good news.

And then it didn't take much hubby convincing after work to get a bottle of wine (a BIG bottle of wine). And then he was doing the laundry and I kept telling him that if he didn't wash some of my underwear STAT, I was going to pick one of my boogers and make him eat it. Which resulted in us running around our apartment, screaming, me with a booger on my finger. And then I totally got him on the face, only he didn't know. Until he looked at me, smiling, and I saw it hanging from his upper lip. Much cackling and screaming ensued. [side note: we are on a second floor with very poorly laid wood floors that squeak even with tiptoeing]. Our neighbors must lurve us. Anyhoo, I'm feeling much better.

Rat Bastard

I have been left by myself at work for the next 8 work days. Which would be wonderful except I have been left with a mess. A big client is expecting a search tool on their site. And the person programming it is the one who left. It is now in my hands. So, not only am I taking phone calls from the client who is not seeing the changes made in a timely manner, I'm trying to read the frickin' manual as to how to program this myself. Because there is no way I can let it sit until he gets back. I know a fair amount about HTML and programming forms, but he had decided to buy a software program that connects to the database and is sort of a WYSIWYG tool for creating search functions. And on first glance, it seemed rather easy-ish to program. But now I'm stuck and frustrated and I have a sinking feeling in my stomach about the whole thing. I'll probably have things figured out in the next day, but right now, I'm a boiling mix of pissed off and nervous.

On a side note, the mass amount of caffeine I've already ingested is not helping things.

UPDATE: Now I'm reading a MySQL & PHP book because I don't think he set up the databases correctly. Loverly.

Funny Video/Ads

(via styro's website)

Har Mar Superstar ads - haven't seen these on tv yet.

And a crazy video from Kelis. The first time I saw this, I was sure it was a joke. And then I heard the song on the radio. And then styro had it on her site. So it must be legit.

New Beautiful Print

I just received my "Finding my heart" print by Alex Beauchamp. It is absolutely gorgeous. You can read more about the print here.

Cat Stroller

This pet stroller is just about the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. And you just know that cat is giving the photographer the "death to all humans" eye.

The Truth about the War in Iraq

As previously mentioned, we went to a brewpub in Greenfield today to watch the documentary "Uncovered, the Whole Truth About the Iraq War".

I just felt so angry and upset by what was on the screen. After the film, they opened up the room of about 35 of us to discussion. And people talked about their frustration that the majority of Americans weren't listening to the truth. As a side note, my hubby saw a bumper sticker in town that said "If you aren't pissed, you aren't paying attention" and that really struck a chord with me. A lot of the discussion in the pub after the film was about how do we get this film seen; how do we get the message out that the administration is lying to us? I made a statement during the discussion about why wasn't this being shown on the networks? Are they being bullied? On one hand, it was exciting to be part of a community discussion (yes, I understand that 35 people does not make a community - but at least people are getting together to discuss this). This whole thing is making me very sick to my stomach. I, personally, am going to try and get this documentary seen on network television. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to accomplish this - please let me know. Thanks.

Update

It is about noon and the snow has stopped and the sun is out. We were treated to about 18" total here. We got up and outside around 7:30 this morning because the bulldozer was here to clear spaces.

In other news, we are heading to Greenfield this afternoon to watch a screening of "Uncovered: Whole Truth About the Iraq War" at a local brewpub. Should be interesting.

Snow!

We woke up with only about 2 inches of snow. We are now at about 4 inches or so (it's 2:30 p.m.), and it is now really starting to come down - pretty much a white-out at the moment. Areas south of us are getting hammered (18" by this morning in parts of Connecticut) and it looks like the system is moving north towards us.

In other news, I'm steadily piecing together the fish-shaped cat house for my brother. It is more complex than I anticipated and most of it has to be hand-sewn due to the foam pieces. He better appreciate it. I'll hopefully finish it this week. We are going to be cat sitting for him next weekend and we'd like to give it a test run. Their cat is a smallish, gray Siamese/Tiger kitty. He's long but very thin. Nowhere near Otto's heft and girth. I think he'll fit just fine, but it will be fun to bring the fish house over for him to try out.

I've been simmering water and cloves on the stove and it smells great in our apartment. An added benefit is a bit of humidity. I can tell our apartment is really dry because every time we try to pet the kitties - arcs of electricity.

Uh oh

Here it comes. We are expected to get about a foot over tonight and tomorrow.

We are planning to get a big bottle of wine and settle in tomorrow. And be thankful we don't have dogs who need to be walked.

UPDATE - I just changed the photo to the most recent weather map. We are the orange dot on the map.

UPDATE2 - It is now 10:20 p.m. and it has just started snowing. For all my talk about how much I hate snow, I'm going to be very disappointed if this thing peters out. It's a weekend, we have nowhere to go and there is supposed to be a lot of snow.

It will be the death of me

As previously mentioned, one of our vendors sent us a 10 pound bar of chocolate for Christmas. There are two of us in the office. My boss has moved the bar into my office where it sits, taunting me. Because the bar is too big to just break off pieces, we have been hacking at it with a pair of scissors. And by hacking, I mean stabbing. The bar has scissor stab holes in it from our efforts. We get to realize our violent tendencies and then eat yummy chocolate-y-ness as a reward. We have been working at it for 2 weeks and it is only 1/3 of the way gone.

Christmas Parties

It just occurred to me that I'm not going to any office Christmas parties this year. Because I moved from California and now work with only one other person.

I'm going to miss the mass drunkenness, the ladies dancing with the CEO in their made up faces and fancy hairstyles, the Controller showing up in sequins and a full fur coat (she's Russian), my former boss starting a food fight with one of my coworkers and having the bitchy accountant lady shoot eyes of death at him, the open bar, the good food, the gifts on the table for everyone and the CEO announcing that everyone was getting a Christmas bonus.

We also had a white elephant gift exchange every year. We would draw numbers and bring gifts. Some of the gifts were great and some were awful. There was a worm jigsaw puzzle that made an appearance every year. You never knew what you were going to choose from the pile. And I will miss feigning indifference about whatever stupid present I'm going to get stuck with this year but, inside, be secretly coveting that huge bottle of Grey Goose vodka that Kim from Accounting is holding and hopefully, since my number is one of the last ones, I'll be able to steal it from her. And then getting stuck with the bleeding skull candle.

Guinness - Brilliant!

I love this commercial. It makes me giggle every time I see it. And since I'm the one who watches more tv while my hubby is in the other room playing his computer games - I have seen it a lot. And every time I yell out "Brilliant!" - he yells "Brilliant!" from the other room. It's the little things.

(you have to verify your age before they let you see the commercial)

All Nipped Out

Oy Vey - it is cold out there. This is the forecast for the upcoming week. Ugh.

Sign the Affidavit

From the MoveOn.org website regarding the leaking of Valerie Plame's (an undercover CIA agent) name to the press:

"Today we're giving you a chance to clear your name. We're asking you and tens
of thousands of MoveOn members to sign an affidavit affirming that you
didn't leak the identity of an undercover CIA agent to the press last July.

Here's why:

President Bush told the press on Tuesday that he doesn't "have any idea" whether
the senior administration officials who blew a CIA operative's cover will ever
be found. But if he just asked his staff to sign a legally binding affidavit
confirming that they weren't involved, and referred anyone who wouldn't to the
FBI, it's possible he could flush out the perpetrators in a day. To date, the
President hasn't even discussed this matter with his staff.

We've already done the President's homework for him by writing the affidavit.
Now let's show him how easy it is for innocent people to legally declare their
innocence. You can sign the affidavit and send it to the President in under a
minute by going to: http://moveon.org/affidavit/"

Amazon

Yesterday, Styro had a link on her site to the Pop-up version of Kama Sutra. Now Amazon is recommending that I check out this book: MenOpop (A Menopause Pop-Up and Activity Book). Um. What sort of activities? "From the 3-D Uterus, to the board game MenOland, to the centerfold starring Miss Maperiod..."

Presents

I am going to be making presents for everyone this year. We pulled names in both of our families. Well, in my family, I have the name I pulled (my brother) as well as my niece and nephew and my parents. Hard to make presents for my niece and nephew, but I'm thinking handmade stuffed animals. I'm doing a mural for my dad on the back of his shed. Not sure about my mom yet. My brother is getting a homemade cat house that is shaped like a fish (pattern 9004). My husband's mom - not decided yet. Maybe a birthday/anniversary calendar for her? UPDATE: I think I'm going to use Erica's idea and make an angel tassle for her - she loves angels and I know she would love something handmade. My brother-in-law has been trying to start up a little home brewing thing - so I'm going to take Styro's idea and etch some designs onto pilsner glasses. And hopefully none of them will find my site before then.

In other news, still in a bit of a funk. I'm bloated, pissy, it's cold out, I'm out of shape, etc., etc., etc.

Snowing!

It is now snowing outside. Humongous flakes whirling everywhere. And just when I was about to head up into town for lunch. I guess I'm going to have to get used to this.

Recap

All in all, it was a fun weekend. Lots of great food, drinking, full belly laughing and family. Highlights include trying to convince the Scrabble players that "queef" was a word (it was worth 42 points!). Also still convinced that "stook" is a word. Of course, we were playing after many Jack and gingers and Mexican coffees. Putting tennis balls down the back of my little niece's pj pants and having her just drop trou right there and grab them out. Much funnier in person. Turkey cooking went really well - finally convinced my mom that baking a turkey in one of those bags is not the best idea. We ended up not driving with my brother and cat and wife and, instead, left on time and read "Oryx and Crake" to each other on the ride down. Haven't done that before - reading in the car to each other - but it was great. The trip seemed much shorter and for once we didn't get in an argument. We seem to save our arguments for long car trips and it was a relief not to experience it this time.

In other news, I'm in a deep funk. Maybe it is because it is gray outside. Maybe it is because I hate my job. Or maybe it is because I realized this weekend that I'm the only one of my siblings who doesn't own a house.