Saturday, December 31, 2005
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Yorkshire pudding, pie, small dogs
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Sometimes you win...
Friday, December 16, 2005
white elephants
But it's the white elephants that make the party. Simple rules. Draw a number. Number 1 goes first, and anyone who follows can take your gift or one that is wrapped. Not complicated. The tackier the gift the better, with the occasional tasteful, appropriate relapse. The gift I brought went first to a librarian and then to a science writer. I escaped the orange plastic Florida Marlin's night light and came home with a cookie jar that I bet no one in my family would ever think to give me. I see the beginning of a collection.
Recipe from another party. Take a cheeseball. Layer it with cream cheese and score it to look like bricks. The penguins are two olives each. Split the bottom olive and fill it with cream cheese for the stomach. Slices of carrots for the feet and a sliver of carrot for the nose. There were women struck speechless when they saw this.
No silly hats for this cat.
Monday, December 12, 2005
boxes, hats with flowers
Delivered to the post office this morning. Two packages are going to Olean. I ran out of boxes, so I hope you all make it to Little Valley over the holiday.
No snowboarding for us this weekend, but we did go to a concert at Strathmore Hall Saturday night--the Messiah as arranged by Quincy Jones for a symphony orchestra, jazz band, and gospel choir. It worked. Lots of strong women with great voices. I think the director was about 18 years old. The audience was filled with women who know how to wear interesting clothes--red suits, hats with flowers, long minks, and a fair amount of jewelry. I went as a subdued suburbanite.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
snow, lunch, bargains
Tom came in to our holiday lunch at headquarters today (I think there's a law against mentioning the place where one works by name). Tenderloin beef, spiced shrimp, rockfish, asparagus that was tender but not mushy, mashed potatoes with garlic, squash, some kind of vegetable mix that looked like potatoes but was spicier, steamed dumplings, salad with pecans and sliced pears...things I am leaving out, and then a dessert buffet--creme brulet, chocolate cake with raspberry filling, an espresso bar, wine, flowers, and then we closed for the day.
So I went shopping, with the intention of making some progress on Christmas gifts, especially those for siblings. I went to Target and bought a clock radio for a church donation, went to Costco and checked out every aisle, but bought nothing, went to Pier 1 and checked out ornaments and place mats, but bought nothing, went to Staples and checked out paper shredders but didn't buy, and went to Michael's and checked out all the possibilities (how many different ways are there to do a scrapbook?) and bought nothing. By that time I was getting depressed, so I stopped in at a consignment store right near us and spent $8.
They probably aren't worth much, but they're not plastic.
According to the weather report, we may have snow, sleet and ice after midnight. We're ready. We had the snow tires put on the car today.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Henry's Happy
I'm hearing that Olivia doesn't look like the happiest animal. Not that a cat can smile either, but Henry does a pretty good imitation of being content, probably because he never gets dragged outdoors, never follows orders, and pretty much has the ambition of a hot water bottle.
Lots of mud around the construction site at St. Rose, but word is we will be in the new church by Easter. And lots of turmoil unassociated with the construction. We now have a Monsignor as a pastor, and he's having a hard time learning how to communicate. At least the larger church is solving problems...limbo will be looked at.