New Years Eve, Borrowed

My New Years Eve, in borrowed Facebook stuff...

See ya next year. 

Crazy Winter

It's colder here than on the east coast.

I didn't see any snow and sleet but there was a lot of frost on the roof. 

Now it's raining.

Yule Log

From the Storybook (warning, spoilers!)

I was going to share "Granny Glittens and her Amazing Mittens," but The Tall Book of Christmas Tales was too tall to fit into my scanner! I'll just share the illustrations with bad cell phone photos.

**SPOILERS. Please GO AWAY if you don't want a reveal.** 

The bookstore had to put up a spoiler warning sign over the Star Wars books because one little boy opened up a book and got upset -- guess what, opening a book is full of spoilers!!!!!

Please leave now if you don't want to read my summary of the story. Because I will reveal things. 

I hope this was enough warning. I am not responsible for any trauma here.

This is your final warning. 

Ok. 

The gist is, every year Granny Glittens knits delightful colorful Christmas mittens for the neighborhood children.

One year, she can get only white yarn. 

What can she do? She spies jars of colorful and tasty candy in her cupboard. So she dyes the yarn with candy.

The kids EAT the mittens and parents keep buying more. 

This disturbed me as a child. My rational young self could imagine chewing the mittens like gum and sucking out the candy sweetness but to actually eat the yarn? "A Story You Will Not Believe," indeed.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Stories

I found these treasures in my trove. 

I'll share a favorite story from one of them next time. 

Ouch

1) when kitten needs his claws trimmed

2) and jumps on your back

X) when said kitten knocks the fruit bowl off the counter and it breaks...the bowl made by husband in high school  

Y) When you put the fruit in the fridge so it won't roll off the counter because you don't have a fruit bowl any more but people don't remember they just bought fruit and can't see what's in front of them when they open the refrigerator door so they write fruit on the grocery list.

#) When the cat (Homer) lying next to you starts to snore (and you are sleeping in the guest room to avoid snoring) 

*) and then said cat wakes up and starts licking and grunting at 2:38 am. 

3) when the pain that is migrating around your head makes your ear hurt every time you swallow. 

Z) Now the ear is stabbing continuously. 2:48 am. 

4) to distract you from your ear you read about poisonous water in Flint MI and celebrity yoga pants fails. 3:15 am. 

&) And now the cat is purring 3:16

But the aspirin has kicked in. 3:29 am. 

Signs of Winter 2015

Handy's birthday went smoothly, with my delicious prime rib...

and Ina Garten's carrot cake cupcakes. Nuts or no nuts? Some of each. 

Hunter the kitten is very kittenish. We had forgotten what that was like. 

Because said kitten is into everything, I do not have a tree. Only this--

This wreath has shriveled some, but it was lovely when I got it. Hand made by a former Hogwarts student. 

Almost everything in my yard is dry and dead, so this rose was a surprise. 

My heart is a little shriveled and dry, too. I'm missing Ernest who is staying East this winter.

The Actual Version

I recently saw a new adaptation of Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at a local performing arts center. It was a delightful show and received rave reviews except for this lady:

"Wish the play was more similar to the actual Cinderella story, including characters."

Huh?

"Lucifer"

"and Pluto"

Wha??? (Pluto was not even in Disney's Cinderella)


"were such big characters and were not even included in ----'s version of the story. The play barely emphasized the mice characters. My daughter was confused and sad 😞"

I really hoped she was joking but I doubt it. 

Well. I controlled myself from correcting her on Facebook. Someone much nicer than me commented about the Rogers and Hammerstein aspect and the Lesley Ann Warren and Brandy versions. Although she forgot to mention the Julie Andrews version.

The actual story? There are many versions. My first recollection is the grim Grimm's version, which was pretty gory what with the step-sisters amputating parts of their feet. Oopsie, spoilers.

So hello Mommy, sorry your Mini-Me was disappointed. It's such a provincial life. Lucky for you, next year they are doing a Disney Musical so you won't be so confused.

We Are Not Amused

While Homer has mostly tolerated the newbie, Francine became the Queen of Mean. I started calling her Leona.

But suddenly, she discovered she could steal his food. (It's only fair, he's been eating out of everyone else's dishes.) And since then she's been a lot nicer.  

Humph. 

Meatballs

The Skandi Kitchen cookbook has been on display on the front counter of the book store for a few weeks. One of my sterling coworkers keeps opening the book to the Swedish meatball page. Don't these look good?, he says. OMG stop it! 

He's a great book seller. Of course I eventually bought the book. I am pleased to say it does NOT mention lutefisk. One of those cultural things you definitely DO NOT want to try. Or maybe you do. You have my permission to appropriate it, just keep it away from me. 

On the other hand, these meatballs are absolutely delicious.

 

I think the allspice and grated onion give them the special flavor. I never had anything as tasty from my scandinavian family. 

I made twice as much gravy.

I'm Putting on My Angry Eyes

I've been having an ordeal with my new glasses. First they were made wrong. When I eventually got them home I realized they were crooked. I finally went back to have them readjusted and when they were handed back to me they were scratched. "Oh, they're under warranty." Now I am waiting for another set of lenses. I love my optometrist but the optical shop leaves something to be desired.

I'm In Treble

I mean trouble. If I could just spend half as much time practicing as I do goofing off...

My music binder looks really nice, though.

Sometimes They Get Along

My wine glass was concerned.

But after🍷's escape, the situation did not escalate. 

Maybe they were having a sleep-off. 

Both squinty at the same time.

They are more alike than they wish to admit. 

NaBloPoMoDone!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by during NaBloPoMo! I appreciate your views and comments.

I especially wish to thank my vacation photos for making daily posts possible!

When I Grow Up...

I want to be THIS big!

(Photo borrowed from somewhere online.)

That doesn't appear to be a full-sized person holding that cat, but still. That's how big Hunter wants to be.

He is so eager to go outside. We were hoping to introduce him gradually, after the 6 weeks indoors the shelter insisted on.

Yesterday he snuck out on his own (twice!) and was so proud of himself.

Our babies, they grow up so fast.

Sigh.

Poulard en Papillon, Fermière

Claudia at Idiot's Kitchen has been extolling the virtues of spatchcocking, which reminded me of a recipe I collected early in my married life. I located it in an old binder, relegated to the back of the cookbook cupboard.

I used to collect recipes from magazines and, to keep my typing skills sharp, I would type them out. Later I got lazy and just taped them into the binder. Then the internet was born.

This looks so complicated now! But I remember it being very delicious. I believe it was the vermouth!

Bad Kitty

He spilled my coffee and broke my favorite cup. Then he looked at me with sad kitty eyes. I still love him. 

4 am

It's 4 am and there's a kitten hogging the pillow again. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. 

A Different Kind of Hangover

After the cookie-kitten-nightmare night, I tried to take a nap the next afternoon. I would say I had a hangover because Hunter was hanging over my head.

There wasn't much pillow left for me.

We Are Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On

My dreams are made on ordinary things. Last weekend it was kittens and cookies. But they were nightmares.

I spend a frustrating Friday making cookies for the book store's annual holiday party. It had to be from a cookbook for sale, it couldn't be something tried and true like Frank's Famous Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

So I picked Romeo's Sighs and Juliet's Kisses.

And it was a comedy of errors.

The butter for the Romeo dough was not soft enough, so the dough was dry and crumbly. I microwaved it a bit to melt it. After I had the Romeos laid out on the pan, I realized I'd forgotten the parchment paper. I reasoned that the cookies were so buttery, they wouldn't stick. They looked OK.

I made the Juliets with softer butter. Boy, the recipe was not kidding. They spread a lot. They looked horrible.

I decided to remake the Juliets, using some extra flour. I used parchment paper this time. They looked pretty nice.

Then I decided to remake the Romeos using parchment paper. They looked even nicer. But they were bigger than the Juliets.

By this time I was out of butter, so I had to go with what I had. In the morning I melted some chocolate chips and stuck them together. I did hear from a reputable source that they tasted good.

During the cookie making, I was fending off the kitten right and left.

It's no wonder I dreamed about cookies and kittens. At one point in the dream I had bandaged hands (from kitchen accidents and kitten clawing) and was scrabbling through a giant bin of trail mix in front of Costco, trying to pull out just the chocolate chips for the filling. I was surrounded by a herd of skinny injured kittens.

My Current Stack

It's a wonder there is any pay left at all. This isn't even all of them. There are more stashed elsewhere, plus the ones I've read already.

What is on your "to read" list?

The Last of the Red Hot Boston Photos

Apparently, no trip to Harvard is complete without seeing the glass flowers. You can visit both the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology for the same price.

Harvard has a hobbit too. 

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was so beautiful. 

Giant baby's head behind the MFA. 

Wonderland exists, at the end of the Blue Line. 

Press here to Cat Walk. 

Got the Bye Mom and Dad picture!