My Top Chef Moment

It was just like on TV. While preparing a lovely Christmas dinner I managed to cut a lovely smilie face type smile into my left thumb, a flap about 1 cm wide and almost as deep. It bled like a son-of-a-gun. Fortunately we had given my middle child an emergency medical kit for Christmas, so when I called "medic!" she was quite prepared, lol. I probably should have gone for a couple or three stitches but she got it taped down nice & smooth and held in place. I gloved up and finished the coq au vin with crisp baguettes and a spinach/cranberry/goat cheese salad. Who wants to go to the ER on Christmas?

The cut looks just fine now. A barely visible smile but I really have to keep any pressure off it or it hurts. And I don't want to pop it open.

Santa was good to me. Thanks for the cards. And yes, Kim. You should not say "ass end" in a Christmas card. Unless it is a card to me of course!!!

B.Y.O.S.

Bring Your Own Shovel. That was the only way to get to a holiday show in St Paul Sunday night. The 17+ inch snowfall was mostly cleared from the roads - but left piled 3 to 5 feet high along the sides of the road and blocking access to crosswalks from every single sidewalk. Which is how I discovered that I am still able to climb a small dam of plowed snow - but then I get stuck on top, lol. My bad knees let me go up okay but coming down is a whole other and much scarier story. All praises to Mr Swami with his steady hand and shoulder, and to DD's partner for his steady hand and shoulder. It was kind of a group project getting me across the 3 intersections we needed to cross in order to reach the Landmark Center.

As always - The Klingon Christmas Carole was entertaining.

Also? I love my new scarf. So warm!

Thanksgiving Was Complicated...

Caution: longer than my usual posts.

Most of my life I have lived 2 days drive from (or 8 hrs flight time from) my immediate family members. If Thanksgiving or Christmas visits were to be made, I was the one who travelled. Lately, this has changed & people are suddenly quite willing to come to, or, in the case of my oldest sister, actually move to balmy Minnesota. So I am learning the joys of hosting concealed familial warfare late in life. I don't like it!

Turns out, my daughter visiting from NY detests my sister, who thinks she is actually the beloved auntie to daughter. But daughter does not want to sit next to her, talk to her, go to restaurants or theaters with her, be in the same room with her or include her in anything social if she can possibly avoid it. (She is never rude or obvious about this, just avoids these situations as best she can. So it could be worse.)

Anyway, this drove me nuts. How to be fair to everyone? I did decide to take my daughter & grandson to the Children's Theater production of Robin Hood without telling sister. Sister loves theater so she would have gone, even to a production aimed more at children. I felt bad, but then I really just wanted to enjoy this event drama-free with my grandson. We went. Had fun. I thought the mild deception was pulled off without a hitch. Then the very next night when sister was over for dinner (she lives in a Senior Housing complex about 15 minutes drive away) sister picked up a program for Robin Hood which was just laying on the bay windowsill right by the kitchen table.

"Oh. Did you guys go see Robin Hood?"

So I lied. I said I sent the kids because I couldn't afford to take everyone everywhere like I did last Christmas. Sister accepted the lie but damn I felt bad. Daughter swears the program was in a bag and sister shouldn't have snooped into the bag and found the darn program. I pointed out that it was a brown grocery bag full of snacks and of course my snackaholic sister would take an inventory of such a bag as it sat on a "counter" (windowsill) in the kitchen. So stupid.

So I told daughter that the next time she comes for a visit I am not even going to tell the sister, unless the visit involves a major holiday family dinner event. Which it probably will. Sheesh.

Now I know what other people put up with at their large family gatherings all the time. What a nuisance! How do you people do it? Maybe we will have a super-duper, chilly winter trhis year - colder than Dante's Ninth Circle of Hell - and scare everybody away again. I can dream, can't I?

Damn Deer

Every time I look out my window a doe or three is casually grazing through my yard. I fear spring of 2011 will be The Year Without Azalea Blooms. So sad.

In other news, I have done all my catch-up blog reading (because anything is better than watching Obama be an idiot on the teevee) and I plan to be back to blogging. You know - really.

Checking In

I'm still here - where else would I be?

I had a little ER thing, but I'm fine. Then I had an almost-flu which was annoying. Then I felt grumpy for a while. Then my other mother (childhood BF's mother) passed away and I was sad. You're always sad, even when the person has led a good long life and passed fairly easily. Still sad.

Now my daughter from NY & grandson are here for Thanksgiving. She will do the cooking for everyone, being a better cook in general. First time I haven't made a Thanksgiving dinner since the 70s, lol. I'm looking forward to it.

The only complication for turkey day is that daughter isn't fond of my sister - who thinks she is daughter's beloved auntie. So I need time off from cooking to keep all the family drama balanced & happy. Daughter is also splitting up with her husband of about 15 years (he stayed in NY) and moving to Arizona in January so lots to think about there.

Tom is fine. Had a big fight with our bank which started charging a fee for some kind of account transfer thing he did almost every day. So he had to bang desks or something and make them reverse the fees, then restructure our our finance stuff to be fee-free. Until the bank figures out how to charge fees for the new set-up. I hate banks. Even though I'm married to a banker-type person (he works for a bank holding company, not a commercial bank) I still hate banks.

Now I have to go play cards with the grandson. I am teaching him Railroad Canasta - the biggest, baddest canasta there is! He is pretty good at chess too. Soon he will be beating me at that. Even when I'm trying, lol.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!
XOX <-- a Swami rarity.

Driving Mr Swami

Mr Swami has had a Very Bad Week. He came down with a bad cold on Monday. Tuesday he got a speeding ticket (49 mph in a 30 mph zone.) Wednesday his cold escalated into an eye infection necessitating gentamycin eyedrops. Then his right leg, which has been plagued with leg cramps ever since he tore his
Achilles tendon last spring went into cramp overdrive. He is not a happy camper. So I have been driving around to meetings & errands & such while he sits there with his eyes closed. Which is fine with me since he is the worst backseat driver sometimes.

Today is his first day back at workity-work this week. After lunch today he was supposed to be part of a pie-eating contest for United Way - with his hands held behind his back, lol. If he couldn't get out of pie-eating on humanitarian grounds then I sure hope someone films it so I can see!

I Love Sundays

Because Mr Swami makes me breakfast. He makes a world class fried egg sandwich. This is also about the only thing he makes, lol. Well - he is very good at frying cured meats. So fried ham, fried sausage, like that. Sometimes with potatoes. I have mixed feelings about potatoes for breakfast because growing up we never had them. But Mr Swammi is a solid, midwestern farmboy capable of eating potatoes 3x a day.