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....

Thanksgiving down, Christmas to go....

My Thanksgiving was fairly typical (ate too much, fell into food coma, did requisite shopping on Black Friday, etc.) and I'm happy that it's behind me. Chuck and I did have a good time on Saturday going to dinner with Chuck's cousin Nicole and her husband Leo at Lolita. [If you're familar with the Food Network show "Iron Chef America", Lolita is owned by Michael Symon, one of the Iron Chefs.] Chuck wasn't all too familiar with the Tremont area of Cleveland and I've never been there before at all, so we left Westlake pretty early and arrived well before our 8:30 reservation. Our hopes to wait at the restaurant's bar were dashed as soon as we entered to find the place packed. The hostess recommended that we head up the street to 806 (a martini bar) as a place to catch a pre-dinner drink. The club was nice enough with a private lounge (and it was fairly quiet); Chuck had a Long-Island and I had their "PB&J martini" (Stoli Vanil, frangelico, chambord, raspberry puree, and a mini-Reeses cup sunk to the bottom of the glass). After our drinks, we headed back to Lolita to catch-up with Leo and Nicole.

Before I describe our dinner, let me start by saying that I made the mistake of asking our waiter if I could keep a copy of the paper menu b/c I was writing notes on it so that I can remember details for this blog. Apparently, he took that as a cue that I might actually be a critic of some sort, and resulted in me being picked on by my dinner mates for the rest of the evening. Since I took fairly good notes, I'll put them to good use here. If you're not into the food-thing and are here for the yarn, just skip on down a couple of paragraphs to the good stuff....

The restaurant was small, and louder than I care for. Once we were all seated, we were given a basket of bread-sticks that tasted like soft-pretzels (though not salty); and we all ordered a round of drinks: Mad Hatter for Chuck, "Zeta" (champagne, cranberry juice, and peach nectar) for me, maternity martini for Nicole, and Amstel Light for Leo. For an appetizer, Chuck ordered the Hungarian stuffed peppers (which were good, but I didn't have that much b/c I always tend to ruin my dinner by over-eating); Leo and Nicole had roasted bone marrow, which I'm happy to have not had, though they seemed to enjoy it pretty well. While waiting for our dinner to arrive, I headed off to the ladies' room; when I returned, I was happy to see that the waiter stopped by not only to clear plates, but to also refold my napkin and set new silverware (used or not). Classy! For dinner, I had the cheese board (pats of 2 hard cheeses, 2 semi-soft, dried fruit, and truffle honey) and polenta; Chuck had the gnocchi; for Leo, an order of three meatballs and stewed eggplant; and Nicole had a pretty good-looking potato pizza. I was pretty happy with my dinner, though I just described confusing orzo and risotto in a previous entry. Chuck later complained that he thought there wasn't enough food, but (really) what do you expect at these types of places? Gut-busting portions are just wrong...

After dinner, we headed around the corner to the Lava Lounge for dessert and after-dinner cocktails. The place was totally loud, empty, and were out of dessert. That's okay, as it was past my bedtime and I was ready to call it a night. Hanging out with Nicole and Leo definitely inspired me to kick into gear projects I've had in mind for their baby (who is due early Feburary).

So, Saturday, I headed over to Avon to French Creek Fiber Arts and give Peggy Strang a visit. I bought tickets from Peggy to the Indians' Stitch-n-Pitch this past June and will defintely give her my business whenever I'm in the Cleveland area since she was so easy to work with. I decided that I was going to make the "Rippled Baby Blanket" and needed a good yarn to work with. The designer used two different colors of Dream in Color Classy. It just so happened that Peggy had several colorways of Dream in Color, so I just needed to figured out which to go with. I don't have that much imagination when it comes to mixing colors, so chose to do the blanket in the Peach colorway. I also wanted to work on some sort of baby-wear and decided to go with a hat and matching kimono (ala Mason-Dixon knitting) out of Knit One Purl Too cotton. Oh, and did I mention that the baby shower is January 11th? I really need to get done with Christmas presents and get them done this week!

Speaking of Christmas, why is it that my "to-do" list is getting longer and longer? I've finished making a couple of chemo caps to send to a friend, but am trying to wrap up on the Evening in Eden shawl, start my Guild hat contest hat (due Dec. 16), and start and finish a quick shawl that Chuck's mom has asked me to knit for a family member who is currently undergoing dialysis (using a quick pattern that Peggy had written and also knit in Dream in Color)! I'm afraid that my hands are going to be quite sore before the month is out....

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Am I in the minority when I say that I've had enough of the Adam Sandler Thanksgiving song? It's funny the first time around, but during our trip from Lansing to Cleveland, there came a point where I was channel surfing the radio and not one, not two, but four channels was playing that song at the same time!?! That's enough to make me elbow my way through throngs of people at 3am tomorrow morning at the local Best Buy just to purchase the on-sale satellite radio receiver!

So, yeah, Chuck and I are in Cleveland visiting Chuck's relatives. We're scheduled to head downtown to his uncle and aunt's house for dinner around 3pm. The great thing about being the out-of-towners is that we're not expected to bring anything but wine. That, I can handle! Besides, I wouldn't enjoy cooking anyways, so I'm not at all put out about not sharing my kitchen prowess. Earlier this month, I happened to get risotto and orzo confused (please don't ask how, but needless to say, the recipe was not enjoyed by all). As Chuck related this particular cooking debacle, I was validated when one of Chuck's cousins saved the day by saying that using orzo for risotto is a new food trend and, apparently, I was ahead of the curve. Who knew?

And since it's Thanksgiving, I should list things that I'm thankful for:

• We have our health. Sure, Chuck's back could be better and Sylvain could take his scalp psoriasis a little more seriously. All in all, we're doing pretty good.
• We are employed. So the economy isn't great and it's tough to get environmental research funded when there's other needs for tax dollars that are more pressing [say, education and health issues, or even bailing out multi-billion dollar corporations, but I won't go there], but it seems as though Chuck and I are in no imminent danger of losing our jobs. Sorry that I can't say the same for local auto-industry employees, but things could be worse.
• We have each other. Okay, there are times that Chuck and Sylvain drive me absolutely crazy and I can be the biggest flaming-bitch. But at the end of the day, we're doing fine as a family.
• I have great friends. Seriously guys, if I didn't have you bunch to vent to, to go to for advice, or for help when stuck on a particularly nasty knitting problem, I'd feel very much alone.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I found out just how badly I sing

Usually while doing chores, I'm known to don my MP3 player and sing along (mainly to Madonna, but there's an eclectic mix of other music on there too). This afternoon was spent cleaning my house, and as I was picking up the living room, I came across Sylvain's tuner for his bass. I took it into the spare bedroom where we keep his instruments and decided to turn it on to see what happens while I sang along to "Ray of Light". Yikes! There's a real reason that I go by "geoknitter" and not "geocrooner". Let's just say that I was out of tune far more than in tune.

Have you ever lost a ball or two of yarn? I'm completely bothered over the loss of two balls of Comfort yarn. Last weekend, Erin and I went to the Detroit-area Shop Hop. I was very good and only picked up two balls of Comfort (one green and one brown) with the thought of using them with two balls of black Comfort that I already had to make several chemo caps for a friend. However, I can't seem to find the black skeins anywhere. I'm quite embarrassed to say that the photo you see is my yarn stash. Thankfully, we have a 4-bedroom house, so the yarn stash can hide in a spare room that isn't used for much else. So, if you're bored and feel like playing a little "I spy", please let me know if you happen to notice any balls of Comfort in the photo...

Needless to say, I couldn't wait for those two balls to surface, and have decided to make as many hats as I can in brown with green stripe and green with brown stripe, etc. The pattern I'm using is called "The Boyfriend Hat" (though, in this case, it's for a friend of Chuck's). I saw someone on Ravelry had knit this hat and ended up decreasing the CO number from 100 to 90; I totally agree with her b/c I started out following the pattern, but ended up having to start over with fewer stitches too since it was very wide. I followed the rest of the pattern to the T, and ended up with a hat that was far too short. Oh well. The Guild's hat drive is coming up in a few weeks anyways, so this hat'll go towards that event. But damn! Now, I'm rushed to see how many hats I can squeeze out over the next four days. Why, oh why do I have these good ideas, but not enough time to pull them off? At any rate, I started a second hat with the intent of knitting it for 6.5" before beginning to decrease, rather than for 5.5" as the pattern instructs, but I wanted to try out the invisible cast-on method from the Fall 2008 issue of Interweave Knits. I failed twice at this, then decided to stop by Schuler's for the third Sunday Charity Knitting the Guild informally holds in the cafe there for help. Sarah helped me figure out how many stitches I really needed [36] (b/c I mis-calculated since the instructions were for single- or double-rib and the hat is worked in K3, P2 rib; Thanks Sarah!). At any rate, I forced the third pick-up in between the two that were supposed to be worked and that resulted in a really taught-feeling CO row. Yuck! I'm not giving up on it though b/c I think it would give this hat a cool look and make those in the know wonder "how did she do that?" if they looked closely at it. I think the problem is that I used the project needle size (#8) and should use a larger needle. So, I'm going to try again tonight and, hopefully, will be able to report back some success!



I'm nearly done with shawl #3 (Evening in Eden) and put shawl #2 (Clapotis) on the blocking board. Also, I couldn't find my pair of Pop-up Paws from last winter and am working on a new pair for this winter, but that's going slower than ever. Naturally, this project was just too plain and needed to be made as complicated as possible, so I decided to mix in some color using scrap yarn from my last fair isle sweater. I had one glove well on its way a while ago, but quit working on it by the time I got to the pop-over top. So, I finished that part up and started the second glove. While I was working on that, I got a little fed up with the tangled mess that my colors were quickly becoming and decided to sew-in ends that were left from the first glove's top, but found a large loop of orange just hanging out in the top (!). So, I ended up tearing that part back, but then couldn't find my size 6 double points (b/c the circulars were tied up with the second glove). Why doesn't it seem as though I have enough pairs of needles?!?

I have space issues

There, I said it. Whether it's dealing with close-talkers, seat-hogs, or tail-gaters, I hate being around folks who have absolutely no sense of personal space. Okay, I'm not someone who needs to walk around with a 5' hoop around me to define this space, but it's just the loss of common courtesy and the obliviousness that tends to accompany this behavior that makes my blood boil.

Case in point: After Sylvain's Scout meeting last night, we went over to Meijer (which I'm quickly coming to realize is a hot-bed of looney-tunes) to pick up some groceries for tonight's knit-in I'm hosting. The shopping part was fine. I was prepared with a well-written list and actually had a pen in my purse to cross stuff off with. The checking-out part was hell. Of course, Meijer doesn't keep many lanes open at night, and I had a full-enough cart that I didn't feel like dealing with the no-limit number U-scan. After standing in line for a minute or so, the lane next to me opened. I should have passed it up, but no, into it I walked.

[Let me pause my story for a minute to tell you a little bit about a shopping quirk that I have: I like to watch my purchases being scanned. It gives me a chance to make sure that I'm being charged the right price. I've been hosed more than once by having the wrong item or size for the sale price. No matter how careful I am, these mistakes still happen to me. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm just being set-up to pick up the wrong sized item, just so that I'll pay more for something I really didn't want. Chuck's to the point where if he finds a sale flyer next to the wrong sized item, he just pulls the flyer off the shelf and places it on top of the products that are on the shelf .]

So, mistake number 1 was that the cashier was scanning as I was placing my items onto the belt. No matter how fast I moved, I couldn't put my groceries onto the belt fast enough. Mistake number 2 was the pushy-ass bitch behind me with her little cart of groceries, who grabbed a divider and started putting her stuff onto the conveyor belt before I even had a quarter of my stuff out of the cart. Before I knew it, I had quickly run out of room and was seeing her garbage groceries float past (y'know: chips and boxed macaroni & cheese; yes, Chuck's food snobbery is rubbing off on me). At that point, the nails came out. Shoving her groceries backwards onto the belt, I very brusquely said, "Listen, I need a minute here," and gave her my best "who the hell do you think you are?" glare. Snidely, she started putting her stuff back into her cart, then turned to her friend and said, "I guess I'm not supposed to unload my cart yet." Bite tongue! Bite tongue! That poor girl had no clue what kind of barrage I was ready to unleash upon her sorry, self-important ass.

The only thing that stopped me was manners. While I may have been well-justified, rudeness cannot be paid back with yelling. It's not likely that anything I could have said or done would have changed that girl's future behavior, so now that I think back about it, hopefully giving her less was actually giving her more. And, just maybe, the next time she feels like barrelling on through a line, she'll take a look around first.

Besides, I shop at Meijer a lot (two to three times a week). I recognize most of the regular employees (and even joke with a few every now and then). So, the last thing that I needed to become was a known crazy to them.

As for the knit-in: I am cooking my pants off today. I usually spend Thanksgiving with Chuck's family in Cleveland, and am on the bottom of the cooking totem pole there. As such, I'm not really expected to bring anything and don't get to flex my muscles at cooking a big dinner. With that said, tonight I'm making a Thanksgiving-like dinner. I phrase it that way b/c it's not a true Thanksgiving dinner since I'm not making any stuffing. On the menu: roasted turkey (from the Nov./Dec. 2008 Cook's Illustrated issue), stuffed portabello mushrooms (for my veggie friends), mashed potatoes, baked brie, and 2 pies (pumpkin and pecan -- paying homage to my Southern heritage), in addition to the usual salad, cheese and crackers, and wine.






Since I have the day off today, I have the "luxury" of spending the day cooking. And as my PSA today, I'll close by asking, "Have you hugged a vet today?"