Hi. Remember me?

Can someone please leave me a comment letting me know where on Earth December went? I lost an entire month, but am quite sure that I don't want it back! Let's see, the last time I posted, it was Thanksgiving and I was getting ready to descend head-first into a month of chaos. For simplicity, I'll try to summarize, so feel free to skip to what you're interested in hearing about:

Work
Ah, yes. That thing that gets in the way of my knitting. Er, I should say, that thing that supports my knit-addiction. Anyways, I had a large report due this month that I was desperately trying to get off of my desk. If you happen to drive past my house in the wee-hours of the mornings and noticed lights on, it was likely me (in my p.j.s, no less) trying to get the stupid thing out the door. The appendices consisted of 200 pages of tables alone (which consisted of data used in one software package, pasted into Excel, then on into Word; and formatted by me since we have no student interns or publications staff in my office). Don't get me wrong. I love my job, but this was a particularly stressful time.

And I should mention our office party. For a while, we used to have quite a nice Christmas party, sure it was Dutch, but we would usually go somewhere (Trippers or Old Chicago), have a nice dinner, open gifts, and hang-out outside of the office. I organized it for a few years and we had a white elephant exchange as well as door prizes. Well, over the past two years, these parties have morphed into in-office pot-luck luncheons with a white elephant exchange. Ours was at the beginning of December so that one of our managers could be there, but then he ended up not being able to attend. The pot-luck is always trouble to me b/c it truly is a rare occasion when you don't end up with double dishes. I must've drawn the short straw on that, as far as Fate was concerned, and ended up being the one with the double dish. The girl in my office organizing the party posted a sign-up sheet, which everyone signed-up on (including me), but then she ended up forgetting to check it before leaving the office and decided to bring barbeque meatballs, which is what I made -- 5 pounds of meatballs! Needless to say, I came hope with about half left, which lingered in my fridge until earlier this week.

As for the white elephant exchange, I gave away a new Mary-Kate and Ashley Christmas VHS movie (don't recall which one) within in fugly felt Christmas theme bag. And I received a foot-stool in the shape of a buffalo, which is fitting since the Department of Interior mascot is a buffalo...

Crazy Folk
So, I have only a few to write about this month and my first, I wouldn't necessarily consider her crazy, but she was definitely horribly confused. I had stopped by the Okemos Post Office to mail my package of hats to Chuck's friend Adam, and found that the post office was closed. That's okay, there's an automated postage kiosk that I could use and the package was small enough to fit in the package slot. Besides, I wasn't in any hurry b/c I needed to finish taping up the box with freshly-purchased packaging tape. There was already two other people at the mail-prep counter when I arrived: an older man placing stamps on letters, and a middle-age woman writing Christmas cards. While taping my box, I kept hearing the woman's cell phone go off several times with a Christmas theme and kept thinking to myself that she should just tell whomever to stop calling. With a loud "Wrrrrt", the tape was coming smoothly out of the spool and onto the box. When I was done, I looked over and realized that the poor woman was trying to record a message in her card while I was making all of my tape racket. I started to feel bad and quickly purchased my postage and stuck the box in the mail slot. Then I realized that the card she was working with wasn't correctly recording her message b/c it kept cutting her off. So, feeling like I should at least apologize for being so loud, I asked her if she needed any help. It turns out that the recorder had slipped out of place and she needed to press just below the "Press here" spot on the card in order to record. Good deed for the day done! Though I may just be her crazy person to blog about.

Crazy person #2 was encountered at my second favorite crazy person place -- the movie theater. Mark and I went out the day after Christmas to see Valkyrie (more on that later). As we were walking into the theater, he gasped b/c he recognized someone he and some other friends had run into before and had affectionally dubbed "googly-eyed girl". She had drawn their attention due to some erratic behavior they had witnessed, and this time was no exception. The theater we were at had stadium-style seating, so when you enter the theater, you're already towards the center-aisle of the room. It's one thing to hang out at the entrance waiting for folks when you're not sure where to sit, and it's another thing to hang out at the entrance and watch the whole movie from that vantage point. She seemed to be oblivious that she was standing towards of the middle of this entrance, forcing folks to walk to either side of her, but it seemed as though the usher said something b/c after the starting credits, she took to leaning against the wall. We did notice that she seemed to be taking notes. About what? One can only guess....

I met Crazy person #3 at my all-time favorite place to meet 'em -- Meijer. Maybe I shouldn't call this person crazy, but maybe shopping frazzled and space challenged. Over the two weeks or so, Meijer has been a hopping place and the day that I ran into this person was defintely a busy day. Being a creature of habit, I was looking for an open lane in the high-20s which is near the entrance that I usually park at and found one with someone placing their groceries on the belt and a full grocery cart with no one around left in the center aisle. I looked around to see if there was someone grabbing gum/magazines/batteries from a nearby lane and didn't see anyone, so walked on up. Just as Chuck was joining me after perusing a different part of the store, a woman walked up carrying bread in her hand. Giving us a dirty look, she took her cart and stood behind us. If you've ever been in this store, you'll know that the bread is no where near this lane, and I was getting a little peeved b/c it seemed as though I was expected to stand behind a ghost shopper. At any rate, the lady kept pushing her cart closer and closer to my back even though the line wasn't moving. What? Intimidation now? With a shopping cart? I love the holidays! It brings out the best in all of us, doesn't it?

Movies
So, like I mentioned above, I saw several movies this past month and here's what I thought:

At the theater:

• Australia: I actually liked this one. I'm not a huge Nicole Kidman fan, but love Hugh Jackman. Beware that this movie is very long, so hit the restroom far in advance. I enjoyed Luhrman's Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet, and left the theater wondering about how much was fictionalized (such as the orphan island off the coast of Darwin and its role in the Japanese invasion). The boy was cute and did a good job with his character.
• Valkyrie: This one was okay. If you're interested in seeing this one, then you may want to rent rather than pay the big-bucks for the theater. There isn't a whole lot of blow 'em up action, so the surround-sound theater quality isn't necessary to watch this. I'm also not a big fan of Tom Cruise, but thought he did an okay job. The story was interesting, and Mark was filling me in with the German folk hero bit. Disturbingly, Chuck's cousin Colin looks remarkably like von Stauffenberg.
• The Curious Life of Benjamin Button: I love Brad Pitt, so I'm not sure I can give you an honest opinion here b/c all of his movies have value and should be watched (yes, even Cool World, which I have on video if anyone wants to borrow it). Cate Blanchett was her usual amazing self. This is also a long movie, so take it easy with the beverages. I didn't and needed to go to the bathroom by the time Tilda Swinton's character was introduced, but held it. If you saw this, then you know that that was a feat. Also, sadly I must say that although this was Julia Ormond's second movie with Brad, her character was completely un-necessary and the story could have been told in a better way with out the flash back and forth business. It might work for Lost, but doesn't feel quite right here.
• The Spirit: I tend to enjoy comic book movies, but save your money and stay at home rather than see this one. Don't worry, it'll be on TNT or USA soon enough, so veg out then. The only other Frank Miller movie I had seen was Sin City and found that one entertaining. I drug both Mark and Chuck to this stinker and was apologizing to them before the movie even ended. We were openly mocking the film (yes, we were those annoying jack-asses, if you happened to share the theater with us) and I made quite a bit of head-way on a baby afghan I'm working on (more on that later). I like ScarJo and Samuel L. Jackson, but they seemed to provide most of the comic relief in this film. Scarlett was reciting her lines as though she wanted someone to save her from this movie. And at any moment, I expected Samuel to break out into his "Ezekiel 25:17 The path of the righteous man..." monologue. Actually, that would have been far more entertaining than the crap we sat through.

At home:

• Disturbia: While at visiting my brother, we watched this one on HBO and I have to confess that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I was disappointed in Shia in Indiana Jones, but found that he pulled off a troubled teen on house arrest quite well. David Morse always does a good job playing a creepy guy, and no one would believe me that Carrie-Anne Moss was the mom, though she's come along ways from her Trinity days....And while this isn't acknowledged as a remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window, has anyone watched this movie and not noticed how alike they are? Basically, this is a contemporary version of the same film....
• Cube: A suspense/horror/sci-fi movie....with math at the center of it! Caught this one on IFC late-night and was hooked. It's about a group of people who are kidnapped and stuck inside of a maze consisting of moving cube-shaped rooms that each have a small doorway in the center of each wall. Some of the rooms are booby-trapped, others are safe and the only way to tell the difference between the two are to determine the prime factors of numbers imprinted at the entrance-way of each door. They need to move quickly b/c the doors can close on them (with not pleasant results for some); and one-by-0ne the group is whittled down as some start to go insane and others are caught by traps. There wasn't anyone that I recognized in this movie, but I didn't look it up on IMDB to make sure. I'd recommend this movie if you enjoy movies like Event Horizon, science-y and somewhat gruesome.
• Eagle Eye and Burn After Reading: Movies that I picked up for "free" from Blockbuster but ended up returning b/c I ran out of time on them. Chuck watched Eagle Eye and was disappointed; and his sister Debbie had a poor opinion about Burn, but since it has Brad, it's an automatic must-rent again.

Birthdays and The Holidays
So, how did I make it this far without even mentioning Chuck's birthday and the holidays? Chuck's birthday was at the beginning of December, and I truly believe that's when my month fell apart. His family came up from Cleveland (both sisters, brother-in-law, mom, dad, and even the family dog). To celebrate, the group of us had dinner at A.I. Fusion and quite a good time. Afterwards, Sylvain previewed for the group his talents on the bass and showed off music for a concert he was to be in the following week. Always a ham, Debbie's husband Rob stepped-up and did his best to show Sylvain how it's done.

While they were in town, we picked up our Christmas tree, but didn't put it up until after they had left b/c our living room would not have accomodated all of us plus the tree. This was a good thing b/c the tree ended up being a complete pain to place into the stand. It ended up crashing to the floor and bending a stand that we've had ever since Sylvain was a baby. I guess it was time to invest in a better one. By the time we had the tree together and up to its beautiful self, I was no longer in the mood for the holidays and didn't even get Christmas cards sent out this year, let alone set-up the portrait/cards that we usually have taken of Sylvain each year. So, if you usually receive a card from us, don't fret -- I didn't forget about you and still have my mailing list handy. I just plain ran out of time and don't believe in the Miss Manners theory that it's okay to send holiday cards, as long as they're sent before folks have gotten into the habit of writing the new year on checks....

I am happy to report that all of my holiday knitting was completed, with Mary's shawl being the last of my three shawl gifts this year. As an added bonus, I can brag that it was ready and dry from being on the blocking board by the time Chuck needed to take it Cleveland, so no worries of her receiving a fabric mess gift-wrapped with wet tissue paper. I also had a marathon baking day, spending approximately 10 hours baking cookies on the Sunday before Christmas. Can anyone please tell me how such a straight-forward, simple gift turns into a nightmare consisting of 3-lbs of butter, 5-lbs each of flour and sugar, and 96 oz. of chocolate chips, among many, many other ingredients? I couldn't possibly give away a nice little tin of cookies, but needed to make it into a complete schmorgasbord of indulgence. In the end, I made chocolate chip, chocolate-chocolate espresso bean, oatmeal, peanut butter, ginger-pecan, and chocolate no-bake cookies; rum balls; white chocolate peppermint bark; and peanut butter and chocolate fudge. The rum balls and peanut butter fudge didn't turn out as I liked; and the ginger-pecan cookies was a new one this year and will likely not make a come-back next year.

So, now I realize how much I've written and I feel like I haven't really said much of anything. I'm going to call it quits for today and will have to pick it up again soon. I haven't even mentioned the stocking I was commissioned to knit within a week (no pattern, but an original stocking I was asked to duplicate), the actual Christmas event, New Years fun, and the baby afghan and sweater/hat/bootie ensemble I've given myself, oh, two weeks to complete....