Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

Our gift policy: We don't just buy gifts for everybody we like. So if you don't get a gift, it *doesn't* mean we don't like you, just that we didn't see anything. If we see something that really reminds us of somebody, or we get a brilliant gift idea, and it costs <$15, we buy it. We don't expect gifts from anybody but family. But if you talk about the kind of things you like? We're more likely to be reminded of you when we see something.

Socializing:
1. IF YOU HAVE A REGULAR SCHEDULE, WHAT IS IT? I don't have a regular schedule right now. My work is unpredictable, sometimes involving weekends, sometimes not even there during the weekdays. I have most evenings free, since I can't do martial arts right now. We are frequently found at Cahoots on Saturdays.
2. DIETARY RESTRICTIONS (VEGAN/VEGETARIAN/CELIAC ETC): None.
3. FOODS YOU HATE: Bell peppers, pineapple, and onions (unless they're minced and sauteed).
4. ANY FOOD ALLERGIES? None.
5. ARE YOU COMFORTABLE BEING LEFT ON YOUR OWN WITH NEW PEOPLE? Yes
6. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES YOU LIKE: Seeing movies in the theatre, going out to eat at a new place, potluck dinners, going to a zoo or museum, playing card games, hanging out and having a couple of drinks.
7. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES YOU DON'T LIKE: Undirected hanging out at other people's places. It makes me feel very awkward. Playing trivia games, because I always lose.

Gifts:
1.FREE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY: Food made by somebody else that I can freeze and then just stick in the oven or whatever. Somebody offering to edit my writing--short stories or novels (some of you have already given me this gift!). Good photographs of myself (I really don't have any recent ones at all). Random things sent in the mail (OK, it's almost free!). Pretty cards.
2. CHEAP, SMALL THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY: Fancy smoked or hard cheeses, flowers, fancy soap, movie tickets, a gift certificate to a restaurant, bath salts or fizz-balls, international foodstuffs, stud earrings (the kind that Claire's et al sells in packets of six, with different colors or tiny little sculptures), tea (not decaffeinated, and I have plenty of green for now), hats, sparkly things, large ceramic mugs, a good insulated mug that is dishwasher-safe and easy to sip from.
3. MEDIUM-SIZE THINGS THAT YOU WANT: potted plants, wine, new toaster oven, jeans, tea-kettle, a large USB thumb-drive.
4. BIG THINGS THAT YOU WANT: A 150-lb. punching bag, a new microwave, a small weight bench, a really nice manual digital camera (DSLR), something to record TV shows broadcast in HD, and a bed.
5. DO YOU COLLECT ANYTHING: Owls carved from semi-precious stone, books of fairytales, cameras, those weird swirly-colored glass paperweights (at least I want to).
6. WHAT SMELLS DO YOU LIKE? Vanilla, cinnamon, apple pie, sugar cookies, and most spicy or fruit-based smells. I can't stand most floral smells--rose is an exception that proves the rule. I hate lilac.
7. WHAT COLORS DO YOU LIKE TO SURROUND YOURSELF WITH? Rich colors, the kind that go with wainscoting and old mansions--dark greens and reds and umber and gold. The colors of urban decay - rust-stained and copper-patina green.
8. WHAT COLORS DO YOU LIKE TO WEAR? Fall colors. Greens--moss green, forest green, kelly green. Red and gold and brown.
9. CLOTHING SIZE: One Size Fits All--doesn't! Shirts - Medium. For long-sleeved shirts/sweaters, I can't wear women's clothing unless the sleeves are extra long. Skirts/dresses - 10 (Tall). Pants - 34/34, regular fit straight leg, or 12 Tall. Gloves and socks also have to be larger than standard women's sizes. Shoe size 10 1/2 Wide. Underwear size--well, nobody's buying me underwear but me.
10. GOOD PLACES TO GET YOU GIFT CERTIFICATES TO: bookstores! Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Dreamhaven, Kerasote Block E theatre in downtown, Victoria's Secret, Newport News, Target, Williams-Sonoma, restaurants in the area, and sad but true, Rainbow Grocery store (I promise I won't spend it on anything practical).
11. MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS YOU ALREADY HAVE: I've really cut down. To nothing.
12. MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS YOU WOULD LIKE: Writer's Digest, Poets & Writers, Popular Photography
11. NOT SO GOOD GIFTS: Shoes, most fiction books (if I want it, I probably have it), jewelry (except for earrings), non-specialty cookbooks, pictures of small children, candles (I love candles, but I have a drawer full now, so I'm good).

Planted in June. Ripened after Christmas. Strange odd fruit born of an unnatural love and unfit for human consumption. Children two and three. Though the first tomato that ripened tasted pretty delicious on a BLT!
( What was that unnatural love? )

Taken en route to gunn's New Year's Eve party.

( Another )

It looks so warm and cozy. Observe my Christmas mug in the bottom right hand corner. As for the tree--every year, my parents hike out into a farmer friend-of-a-friend's pasture and chop down a scrub pine for their Christmas tree. It makes the sort of trees sold in parking lots seem tame and too bushy to hang ornaments on properly.

( More pictures of the Christmas tree )

Sugar cookies made and ready to bake. I got to use my new Christmas cookie cutters!

( Afterwards, of course, there was some clean-up necessary. )

DIY ornaments made from photographs. Sometimes I think the best thing I could do in my study when I eventually get around to actually painting/decorating it would be to just mount a massive cork board to the ceiling to allow me to stick things to it. Like, say, hundreds of swirling photo ornaments.

I should try to go to the Rice Park Winter Wonderland in St. Paul before it closes on January 1st. I've really enjoyed wandering around and photographing the ice sculptures in the past. Of course, it did rain this afternoon, and there's no snow on the ground, so that takes a bit of the fun out of it. I used to live right around the corner from this, and I'd walk past the ice sculptures every day on my way home from work.

The in-laws will be visiting from Wisconsin this weekend, bearing early Christmas gifts and venison summer sausage, so probably not much will be seen of myself and the Mad Scientist. We declared our inability to visit them for Christmas this year, so they decamped in our direction. However! I like it when my in-laws visit (as opposed to the parents). The in-laws always bring food, gifts, and adequate funds to stay in a hotel. Also, we can drink with them, and they take us out to restaurants on a regular basis. The plan is to visit the History Museum and the Museum of Russian Art and to celebrate Christmas by unwrapping the (as-yet-unwrapped) gifts sitting underneath my Post-Modern Christmas Tree. Yes, the Mad Scientist presented sufficient arguments to back up the nixing of a real Christmas tree, so I decorated the strange metallic shoe-tree-sculpture-thing. It looks gorgeous. Pictures will be forthcoming. Despite not being able to socialize or probably play the monthly poker tournament, the in-laws' visit will be beneficial--it has got me out of working the full weekend at Job #1, and it will keep me from going to Hwa Rang Do classes tomorrow, which is probably a good thing, as on Tuesday I either repeatedly hyper-extended or partially dislocated my right shoulder while doing a two-hour class. Don't worry; it feels better after taking Thursday off, by which I mean pain isn't waking me up in the night, though I'm still far more aware of my shoulder than I'd like to be. Also more prone to snarling at people who try to hug me.