Last Gig of 2005

Guess what I'm doing all this week? Prepping for a New Year's Eve dance gig! Maybe I should get my music together at some point? At least it's making me sew up a skirt out of that black silk chiffon I bought about four years ago. Talk about procrastination...

Merry Christmas!

All the best to you and yours on this magnificent holiday!

Dreaming of a Green Christmas

It's so warm outside these days a trip across the yard to the barn gets me thinking about garden planning. After our cold snap of a few weeks ago it's downright Spring-like...as in it's almost 60f right now. I've gone from breaking the ice on the water buckets to opening windows to let the breeze through. Talk about micro climates...

Santa Time

I just stumbled on this while looking for another photo on my hard drive! About this time of year, usually a bit earlier, when I was little, mom would dress us up and take us to the department store to be photographed with Santa. Back in "the day" it was the Frederick & Nelson in Bellevue, WA. Frederick's, home of Frango's, no longer exists, alas. Now you have to go elsewhere for a quality Santa photo. This one looks like it was shot when my bro' was going on two years, so that puts me at age six or seven. I'm terrible with this age/date stuff. The bunads on sis and me are from Grandma's trip to Norway. Nobody is crying, for some reason. Is that allowed?

Well, for what it's worth, here's my 2005 Christmas list (don't laugh):

Serenity DVD
Complete score for Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers & Return of the King (OK, I know I'm dreaming)
Vacuum cleaner
Serger thread
Tickets to the Bellydance Superstars
A leopard print beledi dress
A massage
Dark chocolate mint Frango’s (Bon-Macy’s) (or any other good, dark chocolate)
Firefly series DVD set
New spark plugs & fuel filter for the VW

Five on Friday: Bookish

1. How many books do you read per month? How many are for work/school? I read a couple of novels every month, mostly to help me relax before sleep. And I always have a couple of study things going on, mostly history and/or theology. I listen to a lot of recorded books while I clean house/sew/cook, usually novels.

2. What is your favorite genre of book (fiction, self-help, etc...)? Romantic adventure/mystery (includes contemporary, historical, fantasy, etc.) Favorite authors are Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters, Laurie R. King (her Sherlock Holmes novels), Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, Jasper Fforde...etc.

3. Do you subscribe to any magazines? Which? Are there any you'd like to subscribe to but haven't? Sunset. I'd love to get Smithsonian and Threads, but funds are tight.

4. Where do you get your reading materials? Online? Bookstore? Library? Library almost exclusively. Next is the used book store.

5. List 5 books you recommend people read: The Bible (technically it's 66 books...however it's an "integrated message system"* so I'm listing it as one work), The Lord of the Rings, The Great Divorce (C.S. Lewis), Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis), The Screwtape Letters (also Lewis).

*Chuck Missler

Kicking into Holiday High Gear

Having company is a great way to kick-start me into cleaning house, decorating for Christmas, and generally getting things done. This weekend Gordon's oldest daughter and her hubby are coming up for a visit, which will be cool, so it's forcing me to put some more work into the guest apartment and tidy up the house. Since my folks are in Kona with the sister/niece/bro-in-law units, I've appropriated mom's vacuum cleaner. Unlike mine, it actually vacuums. We're going to a Renaissance feast Saturday night, which is forcing me to finish up a a couple of sewing projects, too, which is forcing me to work on the sewing room.

Of course, I wasn't motivated to do anything in there until I had painted it. Yes, the last of the deep, dark, dusty rose paint is gone! GONE, I tell you! Then I'll be set to finish the Christmas gift sewing I've been putting off (because the sewing room was non-functional). It's the dreaded domino effect: I can't do X until I do Y until I do Z, etc. By the time our New Year's guests arrive we should be swimming along nicely.

As far as baking goes: I've learned not to do any serious baking unless I know people are coming over, because I have a tendency to eat all of it. Gordon will get about three cookies (or whatever I've concocted) and I just graze the rest over a period of two or three days. Then I feel icky. I'm a baked goods addict, and, unfortunately, I'm a good baker.

The Christmas List: #1

In no particular order, here's the first thing on the list: DVD of Serenity (even though the cover art is unexpectedly ghastly as well as having pretty much nothing to do with the movie). I like looking at other folks' Christmas lists, because it tells me a lot about them. Anybody who looks at mine is going to find out really quickly that I'm a total geek. People who know me already will find no surprises, and probably also know that I'm not expecting any, let alone all, of these items to magically appear under the tree. It's just fun to play the "what if" game!

Angels We Have Heard are High

Last year it was the Cavalcade of Bad Nativities. This year Going Jesus brings you: Angels We Have Heard Are High. Lighten up your Christmas season with these terrifying examples of angel kitcsh (kitsch? ktschxshch? aaaaagh!)

Home Sweet Kitchen

Another gloomy winter day in the great Pacific Northwest: ha! Sunglasses are NOT optional. I haven't put up a tree or many other Christmas decorations, yet...but I at least have the happy Christmas tablecloth in place: so there! At any rate, the house is coming along. Mom gave me a lace "insta-valence" from her house, and just putting that up on the giant, ugly aluminum kitchen window made a huge difference. It's not perfect, but it's starting to look like home instead of "weird non-committal drywall infested shoebox house one step from trailer park". Oh, yes, that is massive condensation running in rivulets down one side of the window. Why? Because I guess the previous owners felt that only one side of the double-paned window (that they apparently got at "Bargain Clown: Home") needed to actually have two panes of glass.

Someday, when I'm feeling perverse, I'll post a picture of the window over the sink that has three and a half panes. Yes, one of the outside panes is only half there, so only half of one side is running with condensation. Go team!
And now, the stock report: A little teeny hawk had a go at my chickens this morning. It did not go well for the hawk when little Emma Seabright shrieked and ran around to the aforementioned kitchen window and I darted out in time to see Mr. Chickenhawk swooping up into a nearby tree. Gordon shot at it with the BB rifle and it flew off toward the horses (no, it did not attempt to stoop on them, though I think it might have crossed its little bird brain).

Slush

It's wet, and there's not very much of it, but it's snow, dagnabbit!

And now: snow

What next?!