Now I Don't Feel So Bad

OK, last week I was sort of regretting the decision to not do a Christmas party this year (it seemed a little like overkill with Soup Night tonight and having people over for Christmas), but now that the holiday party invitations are pouring in, I'm relieved. I thought there would be fewer parties this year with the economy the way it is and all the job uncertainty, but we are double & triple booking on weekends from now until Christmas. The food! The merriment! The extra hours at the gym to burn off the food & the merriment!

Ho! Ho! Ho! No wonder Santa is fat. 'Tis the season!

A Nice Little Surprise

We've been married for over two years now, and when I say that we received a LOT of gift cards for our wedding, it's almost an understatement. In fact, we still have some of them, which is a really bad idea as many merchants continually decrease the cards' value over time (Johnny Carinos is really bad about that). Today I discovered we still had a card for Linens & Things, and as they are going out of business, it was now or never.

I was a bit concerned that they wouldn't honor the card as they are in liquidation--or that it had decreased to a value of about 37 cents, but I am pleased to report that they indeed honored it AND without decreasing the value at all. I know it's a bit too late for them to be of any help, but KUDOS to Linens & Things anyway.

It's quite an interesting experience to shop in a store that is ready to sell you ANYTHING in the store--light fixtures, shelves--anything that was physically in the store that didn't have a pulse. I decided to pass on the industrial shelving--we're trying for more of the "home" look than the "Home Depot" look--but a cash register might have made an interesting centerpiece....Of course the things we need--towels, a larger stockpot, hangers, a bathroom vanity set that isn't held together by superglue--were mostly sold out to shoppers who were smart enough to do the vulture-swoop shopping early, but I did manage to find enough items to use up our gift card WITHOUT resorting to a singing trout. YAY! Free AND tasteful shopping!

'Tis The Season Of Friends

As I sit here with writer's cramp from addressing Christmas cards and juggling our schedule to get in all the holiday invitations, I am just overwhelmed by the good fortune to have so many wonderful friends in our lives. We should be having a bad year having both gone through layoffs and having to rework our budget a few times, but between being surrounded by great people--and having an attorney to keep the ex wife away from us so we're not receiving the hateful letters every week/day--we're having the most marvelous holiday season I could imagine.

Thursday night we had dinner with some friends--an older couple who grew up during the Great Depression--and besides just being wonderful people, they could teach us all a lot about being happy with who we are and what we have. They grew up with large families and little money, and learned to enjoy card games because cards were inexpensive. Board games were not. They taught us a marvelous game called "Hand and Foot," and we're going to have them over here shortly for another round. We're also getting a group together for pinochle and they've invited us to join a supper club. How cool is that?

Monday is the next Soup Night, and we have ornament exchanges, Dutch Oven cooking parties, Christmas parties, and even a Winter Solstice bonfire party to enjoy. We might have had to cut back on spending money this holiday season, but we still have what's truly most important in life. I hope you do as well.

The Countdown Begins....

January 1 begins the "Year of No Processed Foods," which makes December "Use Up Forbidden Foods" month, also known as "weird casserole month."

Our rules for next year are:
1. No corn syrup in anything. (That's just a personal thing for me because food manufacturers slip it into almost EVERYTHING and I find it highly annoying in addition to being unhealthy)
2. We are each allowed 2 "forbidden" items a week, which might very well translate into 104 diet Pepsis.
3. Processing that we could do ourselves is allowed, such as canning, freezing, dehydrating, washing, pickling, making butter, making cheese, etc.
4. No ingredients that we can't identify. Chemicals really aren't food.

I'd like to say we're trying to lower cholesterol counts or something measurable, but we both had physicals when we took out life insurance, and all our scores were actually very good. Andy's could maybe be better, so we might use him as the benchmark, but I've eaten pretty healthy most of my life and my scores were phenomenal so they don't really have much room to improve. Not that I'm trying to brag or anything, but when one makes a sweater out of bad yarn, one gets a bad sweater. When one builds a body with bad food, I think one can only expect a bad (unhealthy) body. It's the old computer thing: Garbage in--garbage out.

That being said, it is Christmas and I am SOOOOOO going to have one last fling with potato chips and Lipton onion soup mix dip. (Technically, potato chips will be allowed next year since they are just potatoes, oil, and salt, but I doubt Lipton onion soup mix would qualify and I'm seriously not deep frying anything). Still, 26 days left.....

Philosophical Thought for the Day

"If you need to know the measure of a man you simply count his friends."

--Muppet Christmas Carol

Have You Ever Noticed....

that the stupider the injury, the more noticeable it is?

Tonight I have a big knot on my forehead which is brilliantly visible even to the pretty much clueless. Did I get it while roller blading or even winterizing the garden? Nope. I was putting up Christmas decorations. I can't even explain it exactly, but somehow I walked smack into a door--a door which has been in the same place the entire time we've lived in this house. And of course being December, the holiday party invitations are already stacking up, so over the next couple weeks I'll be explaining this beauty to almost everyone I know.

I wish I were a good liar. Then I could say I was slalom skiing or doing a tricky ice skating double-axel. Instead, I get to explain how I got my arse kicked by a door.

Let the holiday fun begin!

Random Updates

* Until the last week, I'd never given much thought to how often a cat might need to pee, or how often a cat should pee, or how much a cat should pee. N0w this consumes much of my day.

* At some point, one has to simply decide "enough" on Christmas decorations. Otherwise it could go on indefinitely.

* Now that the "experts" have finally announced that the country has been in a recession since December of 2007, I can't help but be optimistic that the bottom is near. Economists are generally the last to know anything.

* I have promised myself not to find a cat sitter when we're out at holiday parties this month. Theo really is fine in the kitty cage at least once in a while.

* While I love that one of our "easy listening" radio stations plays Christmas music continuously from Thanksgiving to Christmas night, Delilah really just makes me want to drink.

* When I don't have a lot of time, my ability to live on soup and salads knows no limit.

* If the vet tells me to continue to keep the cat calm and quiet after the next visit, I will try to refrain from smacking him.

* To go to bed knowing I will not be presented with any live animal gifts in the middle of the night is quite relaxing.

* When I wish our lives would return to "normal," I am apparently referring to a 30-second span that occurred in June of 2005.