Let the good times roll

Yesterday was the first day of the Lunar New Year (fire monkey, for those of you keeping score at home).
Today is Fat Tuesday. Between the Hunan Chicken and the red beans with rice and andouille sausage followed by paczki. I'm feeling a little too fat.
But we are supposed to be whooping it up with one last drunken revel before lent begins. So if you didn't get your pancakes or your paczkis, perhaps the Garden of Earthly Delights [note: link has audio] will suffice.

On the 12th day of Christmas

Did your true love give you 12 drummers today?

"XRF 12days" by Xavier Romero-Frias - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

 

Quite an impractical gift anyway. I'd rather have a pear tree. And I know LSH would prefer the nine ladies dancing.

Vacation, day 2

In celebration of the shortest day of the year, I spent it in my kitchen baking no less than a gross of Christmas cookies in five varieties. Quite possibly the worst way to spend a day off. But another box checked on my list of things to do.

It's not really a vacation.

Day one of vacation and I have 7 wrapped packages and all my groceries (except I forgot cereal!) purchased. If I can get a few batches of cookies baked tomorrow I will consider the time off a success no matter what else might happen.

Photogenic

Christmas trees don't photograph well. Much like myself. It must be one of the reasons I like Christmas. We all know both of us look better in real life.






















(At least I like to think so!)

Haul out the holly

I've got my Christmas tunes going. Every year we get a fresh crop of recordings from artists as diverse as the Vienna Boys Choir to Keith Urban to Queen Latifah. They all re-do the classics from the 1700s thru the 1950s, but new holiday songs have slowed to a trickle. I will admit to being woefully underinformed about the music industry in general and "cool" music specifically, but on my iPod, I have precisely three songs that were written in the past decade.
Shouldn't there be more than that?


(Although, frankly, I'm a sucker for the Carol of the Bells in any rendition.)

Fa la la la la, girlfriend

When did nutcrackers come out? Or am I jumping to conclusions?

Not judging. ;)

Back into the fray

Yes. I took a week (or so) off. I will probably do so again at Christmas. Tomorrow, I hope to return to regularly scheduled blogging. And NO, I can't bring myself to comment on the events of the past 10 days. It's all so disheartening.
I've been lobbying my representatives for better gun control laws since 2003. Twelve years. And nothing has changed. (Primarily because I do not have a "voice" --read: money-- as loud as the NRA.) But if all 78% of Americans who ALSO think guns should be regulated (just like it says in the Bill of Rights --"well-regulated militia") then maybe, just maybe, we can drown out the voice of the NRA.

Pie!? We don't need no stinkin' pie!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am fortunate enough to have a TON to be thankful for. (Health, happiness, family, a beautiful and accomplished daughter, a considerate loving spouse, a precious little house, a few affectionate cats, very dear friends, etc, etc, etc.)
To celebrate, we are gathering at mom's for a big dinner and I am bringing dessert. Not pie. I know I've already committed the ultimate holiday solecism here --on par with politics at the dinner table-- but there are only eight of us so we don't need to go big. And while there are only eight of us, all of us like something different, so in order to please everyone I would have to bake at least three pies. For eight people. Ridiculous.
Also ridiculous: the piecaken (although frankly I'd eat it). Maybe next year...
But now I hear from Slate that apple pie is "wrong" at Thanksgiving. The author advocates strongly for pumpkin and pecan pies, so she will be hugely disappointed if she comes to our Thanksgiving dinner where dessert will be a caramel-apple cheesecake.
If I'm going to do Thanksgiving dessert wrong, I'm going all-out wrong.

Formerly known as Armistice Day

Thanks, vets.

Still on a sugar high

There are a few holidays that Americans have twisted into a sugar-coated  version of themselves. All prettied up and sanitized. Easter is one, with its bunny and egg hunts. Thanksgiving is another; all pumpkin pie and football games.
Most of the time, we manage to diminish the holiday in question. But we did a pretty good job with Halloween. Creating magnificent works of art with pumpkins instead of just lantern gourds. And trick-or-treating for candy is a decided improvement over begging food in exchange for prayers for our dearly departed.
Curiously, mankind has always like to cosplay and America just whole-heartedly embraced it.

Achievable goals

The work Halloween party is tomorrow and once again (although I left it 'til the last minute) I will be achieving my goal of sweatpants (or its comfort-equivalent) at work. Ah. the glory that is creative costuming. And I haven't even exhausted the simple "baby," "cranky old lady," or "crazy cat lady" options yet. (Realistically, cranky old lady is remarkably close to my everyday look so time is running out on that one.)

Thank you Internet for "how to make a costume with a hoodie" becoming a thing.

Make note

I took some time off from writing/posting here. I was feeling an end-of-summer lull. There wasn't much to comment on that hasn't already been beaten into the ground.
But now summer is over.

• All the kids are back in school. (I know this because I'm trapped behind at least two school buses every day on my way to work.)
• The monarch butterflies are migrating south. (This is an amazingly cool thing to see.)
• I haven't seen a hummingbird at the feeder in two days. (A true harbinger of fall.)
• All the garden centers and local shops have mums for sale. (At least it's not wreaths and holly.)
• Great Lakes Oktoberfest beer is on tap everywhere. (I think there's an Ohio law.)
• The Browns are losing games that actually count. (Like this is something new.)
• LSH went to a clambake. (I do not do bi-valves.)
• People are wearing jackets. (Even in their Instagrams.)

So in honor of the coming change-of-season (just one week away), I am wearing socks and shoes to work today.

Sock and shoe on my feet.

Hey. Baby steps.

What I did on my summer vacation

Today is the last day of my staycation. The weather was perfect. I read three books, and time really does fly when you're having fun.

Happy post 4th of July

Due to the fact that my entire head decided to fill with mucous on Saturday, I missed the 4th of July festivities. Instead I went to bed at 5 o'clock and tried to sleep in between, nose-blowing, barking neighbors' dogs, and loud firecrackers. (For a state in which setting off fireworks is illegal, there sure were a lot of boom-boom-boom on Saturday in my neighborhood.)
I'm still not quite right in the head (right sinus and ear plugged 90% of the time), but I'm feeling on the mend.
One of the things I did do, was watch the hummingbird feeder outside my big front window. I have seen (and likely you have too) the videos where someone in a never-neverland of hummingbirds has about 80 birds hovering over feeders in her yard. This is an empirical impossibility based on my observations because these birds are ridiculously, fiercely territorial. I have witnessed hummingbird grudge matches that would put professional wrestlers to shame. There is a ton of nectar in my feeder and four feeding ports spaced a good two inches apart from each other, but these little critters will be damned if they have to eat with a partner.  Maybe they slurp?

Also, the next time a guy with a microphone and video camera walks up to you, please be able to tell him that on the 4th of July we celebrate our declaration of independence from England, ratified on July 4, 1776. 

Zootastic

I took a couple of days off. We went to the zoo. I may have mentioned once or twice, how much I love the zoo. Even better: the Cleveland zoo has a carousel now. That's right. A merry-go-round/zoo combo is nearly a perfect summer pairing.
I had such a hard time deciding which animal to ride, I went twice. Really. The clown fish? The bald eagle? What about a classic like the tiger or lion? A fruit bat? A cuttlefish? Seriously, you can ride a cuttlefish--

both photos courtesy of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

In the end I chose the naked mole rat and the octopus. Because how many times can you say you've ridden a naked mole rat?

Remembrance

I'm just going to take a moment to remind you all that Memorial Day is a day to honor and remember those who gave their life in service to this country. It is not a time to reminisce about just anyone who has passed away, or even any veteran who has.
My father served in WWII, but he survived it and went on to marry and have children (thanks, dad!). He did not die as a result of serving in WWII. And while I appreciate the Boy Scouts who put a flag on his grave every year because it says USMC on his stone, they are missing the point.
And, while no day is inappropriate to be appreciative of the service of every veteran -living or dead- look to the vets who recognize that today is for the ones with whom they served but did not return.
Rejoice in the freedom you have, be thankful to all who helped secure it --even those who fought in wars that were contrived, because their sacrifice is no less if the war was deemed unjust. And remember solemnly that there were many who volunteered and did not come back.

Be nice to the earth today --and everyday!

Find out what kind of creature you are for Earth Day thanks to Google.
I am a squid.

Idiot cat

Our cat's favorite "toy" is used q-tips.
And that is no April fool,  --as anyone who has stepped on a half-chewed wet cotton swab in the middle of the night can tell you.

His second favorite is bread bag twist-ties.

A different kind of pat

I'm not a big fan of corned beef. And I don't know anyone who can't live without cabbage (certainly everyone over 30 ought to give it a pass). So this St. Patrick's Day I ate butter. Lots of butter.