Who, me?

Snickollet gave me an award!


As she said, "Aw, shucks." It's funny, the small core community that all used to leave comments on each other's blogs has two break away blog stars: Snick and Mama Nabi. Both are amazing writers who have had dramatic stories of late. From 8-12 comments, each of them now get 25-45 per entry. Aside from the "I knew them when" feeling, I am constantly amazed that they each still find time to leave comments on my blog. How do you keep up with 50 new friends?!

Ze rules are these:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

7 other blogs:

1. I'm excited to introduce an amazing blog: Sam's Rainbows and Unicorns. Sam is a high school student in New York. By itself, that's interesting, but there's much, much more. On 9/11 her Mother, Grandmother and Older Brother died in the World Trade Center. She went from one of four children to functional head of household. With two younger sisters, she lives with an aunt who seems to do nothing but sit around smoking and eating the food her nieces purchase. As someone with a tendency to editorialize, I'm impressed by Sam's ability to show not tell.
2. I've linked to her before, but Mama Nabi rocks! She must type a million words a minute to fit her witty, detailed blog entries into her busy life.
3. One of my best friends is living the life I thought I'd live. In her blog, Middle of the World, she writes about teaching English, serving people in some surprising ways, loving and worshipping God. I love and respect her more than I can say.
   
4. Another close friend from Baltimore started a blog, Swallowflight, in the last year. We bonded over city life, ethnic food, Bible studies and prayer adventures. Just before we moved to California, she moved to Manhattan where she works as a home visit nurse. She's also a great writer.
   
5. My Mom's best friend started out leaving comments here signed "otr mama", she now has a blog of her own: Mr. Beachy's Dream. She's an amazing artist, naturalist, mother and grandma.
6. (and 7). Reading this blog makes me feel a bit like a stalker. One of my friends in Baltimore gave up a baby for adoption. These two blogs are by the adoptive mother. Adventures in the P-Pod is a relatively standard Mommy blog, pics of the baby, chats about what's happening in their world, but her meditative posts about open adoption, how to be a Mom and wife are great. I don't know if she'll have time to keep up with both, but she started another blog about redoing a foreclosed house. As someone stuck in an apartment, it's fun to live vicariously through Circle Drive.

I have other blogs worth honorable mention. I love their writing, who each of them are, and I would love MORE: Walk On, Harmless Drudge, Beloved Babbling, and Sane Transitions.

Second category: blogs that Snick already nominated. Kitchen Fire and Et. Al.

The other category are password protected blogs; I'd link there, but I can't: Imaginative Musings and Finding My Faith Again.

Phew! Now I'm off to leave comments...

Potential New Addiction?

My sister has been trying to lure me into the forest. It may have worked:

So THAT's what it was!

On Tuesday morning I woke up and it felt like I'd slept on my right arm so long that the whole shoulder had gone to sleep. When I moved, it felt like I had toxic sludge moving up and down my arm and back. Yuck. I went climbing that night anyway. Had no issues with strength and felt like the exercise would help clear out my arm.

However, every night since then, the pain wakes me in the middle of the night and the sludge shifts and attacks unexpectedly throughout the day and it's been miserable.

I still went running with the dog Tuesday and Thursday mornings. (I've been meaning to post about the running thing. Angie mentioned podrunner.com and I downloaded his interval training "First Day to 5k" and have been using it every other day ever since. I take the dog and the 'run' only takes 10 minutes more than walking her would. The sad truth is that running has nothing to do with wanting to be healthy or whatever, it's purely a desire to get the nice lean build that most runners have. Yup. Vanity is a much bigger motivator for me than health. Sad, but true. It also might relate to a quick prayer a month ago or so, "Jesus, you've got to change my mind so I get in shape. I just don't care, but I'm starting to hate how I look." Totally tangential post, the ways God uses our crazy minds to motivate us.)

Anyway, my Dad was still here as I pouted around full of toxic doses of pain, "Did you consult your doctor?" he asked in concern.

"Dad, I live with one!"

I suspect Jrex thought it was a bit in my head and I was being a little over dramatic. Since that would be the first time in our marriage I've EVER dramatized, I don't know why he might suspect such a thing.

Saturday morning, I called one of my best friends. She's a massage therapist and asked me a different set of questions:

"Have you been doing anything on a regular basis that might have added up to the point where you suddenly felt the pain? Especially a new activity?"

Hmm...like running with a dog who likes to think she's The Great Squirrel Hunter of All Time and has to chase after each bugger she sees until she yanks up short on the end of the leash? Do you mean that sort of pulling for 30 minutes every other day?

After her diagnosis, Jrex did a series of muscle strength tests to figure out what I'd damaged. Looks like it's the top of my right shoulder (the deltoid, to be precise). I spent much of yesterday afternoon looking for a hands-free leash system and a good harness for the dog. I now know far more than I ever wanted about weird sports like skijoring and the Iditarod, but still haven't found one I'm ready to buy. She's a weird shape and has a very pointy chest-bone. Most harnesses look uncomfortable for her build.

Now I know I've become one of those dog people.

A little link love from a bored designer

It's a very slow day at work. Which is great (until I do my time sheet...)

A couple interesting articles that I've read today:

A perspective from Egypt on the nomination of Obama for nominee from a New York Times columnist.

A website by a couple that is achieving "Equally Shared Parenting". The New York Times has a great cover story about this. It mentions that in most households, despite working equal hours, women still do three times as much housework and at least twice as much childcare as most men. (The author defines childcare as the non-fun stuff: feeding, cleaning, correcting). Some couples are working hard to meet in the middle. For both partners to work part-time, to share in both the mundane and the quality time as parents and partners.

As I read the article, I realized that's what my sister and brother-in-law are doing. She goes into work in the afternoon, he works in the morning and they only do one day of childcare a week. I'm really proud of the choices they are making and the parents that they are. It's also strange to reflect that it's unlikely that, after 20 years of training for Jrex, any form of ESP would be possible if we do have children. I don't really mind, I like the idea of working from home or running my own firm without really having to worry if things are slow. Having a sugar daddy works for me, but after reading the article, it seems sad he might not get as much time with any potential kids.

Just for laughs

I have more to write about the Boston trip (dinner with an old boyfriend, lunch with Snickollet, dinner with another very dear college friend, observations about how anti-social I've become in crowds of strangers. I'm at my quota of long-distance friendships and don't seem to want to risk bonding with anyone anymore. I know how to chat people up and be friendly, I just choose not to most of the time. Very disorienting in the middle of hanging out with so many friends from the era when I was uber-friendly). 

In the meantime, my church did a series of hilarious videos to try to recruit people to help with the set-up and tear-down teams on Sunday mornings. The Godfather, Empire Strikes Back and The Presidents Men, all reconfigured. 

Here's the Empire Strikes Back:

Set Up / Tear Down | 'The Empire Strikes Back' from Ryan Kingsmith on Vimeo.

But, I'm SO normal

I've been tagged in a meme on 7 weird things about me. I don't know HOW I'm going to think of anything...(the sarcasm is so thick it's like lava oozing all over the room)

Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
   
2. Post the rules on your blog.
   
3. Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
   
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
   
5. Leave a comment on their blogs so that they know they have been tagged.

I haven't done one of these in a while. It's good to be distracted from whining about work.

1. I have really ugly toenails. In my mom's family, 7 of 9 sisters have these same toenails. It's a hereditary sucker punch to get fungal toenails. If I file them down and paint them, it looks like I have little wads of gum squished where toenails should be. A few years ago, one of the aunts started doing fake toenails over the bad ones, "What's the worst that could happen, I get a fungal infection in my nail!?" she smirked. I've been doing summer nails ever since. It's such a relief for my feet to NOT be noticed. When I don't have fake nails, adults notice  and then carefully look away, but little kids exclaim, "What's wrong with your toes!! Eeew!"

2. I don't like chocolate cake or ice cream.

3. I'm starting to get a laugh wrinkle that will extend from my slight double-chin up and around to the bottom of my nose.

4. I love swimming the breaststroke, but hate forward crawl/freestyle.

5. Jrex and I always analyze the food over dinner. No matter which of us cooked, we assess what worked and how to improve it. This frequently disconcerts our dinner guests.

6. I still bite my nails.

7. I put all the impressive books in the living room. In our bedroom we have a smaller bookcase that extends the width of the wall. It contains the romance novels, the intensively religious books ("Listen to me, Satan!") and the sci-fi/fantasy books. I don't really care what people think, but I figure we might as well make a good first impression before showing 'the freak side'. 

As for linking to seven other blogs, feel free to do the meme if you want (otr mama,...great white adventurer...ahem). If you don't have a blog, you could answer in the comments (anonymous/dad).

I'm alive!

I have all sorts of ambitious posts in my head, but haven't been able to sit down and put words on them. 

In addition to developing the look and feel for a big show, I've been put onto a second show that piggy-backs off the first. Long story, but there were lots of politics involved and lots of potential weirdness. In essence, the client likes me and didn't like what they experienced of one of our other designers last year. However, we need to use our in-house talent and I don't have time to lead two concurrent shows. Given the concerns with her, they put me on as the 'face' of the design department, but in the end, the idea will be that I start it off and gradually step back.

I was nervous about the dynamic between the two of us, but she's been very professional and I like to make room for other people's ideas, so it's working out well. Phew! Obviously, that drama has been consuming my hours at work. At home, I've often been just collapsing and reading a book rather than doing anything on-line. Long hours staring at a computer means I just don't want to do that in my free time. Today is finally a little slower, so I can breathe and check into what's happening in the blogosphere.

One of my co-workers just found this video of amazing soccer stunts.

And here's a chat with the person who designed the Google logo.

I've drifted through two weeks at work with most of my clients and many of my co-workers out of town. The days are never so long when I'm busy. This is BORING! (I'm sure I'm going to be eating these words and kicking myself later) I thought everyone would be back today, but it's even worse than last week

You can always tell there's not much going on at work when I have time to "clean house" on the blog.

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Our CD player (read: boom box from 10 years ago) finally died two weeks ago. I finally caved and rode to Target on Monday (I have a cousin who works for them, have to 'keep it in the family') to get a new box. Once there, I discovered it's impossible to find a quality CD player anymore! It's all home theater systems or iPod docks. I found a cheap one with both a dock and a CD slot, got it home, and found out it sounds awful.

To my shock, Mr. Thrifty (I tend to be the spender in the family compared to his saver) suggested we look into getting a Bose system instead. Hey, I'll spend the money, babe, just say the word! He suggested I check the reviews on Cnet first. They actually preferred a mini-system that plays DVD movies, CDs, MP3/WAV files, etc. Better sound, separate speakers and available at Amazon (one of my close friends works there, see above...). In fact, Amazon was having a sale so we were able to snag the system with an iPod dock for $100 less than a Bose player.

In many ways this isn't that big a deal. I know that, but it feels similar to when we bought a washing machine the first time: we're not in college anymore, Toto! It's very silly, but I'm excited. We skipped all Christmas gifts this year, so I guess this makes up for those savings... It's not "fair trade" though, is it?

My kind of shopping

I found out about this site today at church. A guy who lives here in Silicon Valley worked with Mother Theresa for a while. One of the guys there told him, "Don't come to the frontlines of poverty, we have plenty of foot-soldiers here. We need you to be a catalyst between people in the West and the poor here who want to work." It changed his life. He's created a website that sells goods produced by people who have come out of dire poverty. They work specifically with vulnerable women: single mothers and many women who have been involved in human trafficking.

I know it's too late to do your Christmas shopping there, but please bookmark the site (TradeAsOne.com) and consider it first when you're looking for purses, toys, bags, journals or housewares. Give a gift that tells a story and helps lift women out of slavery.

You can see the video I saw today at this link:

http://tradeasone.com/who-we-are/Watch.html

Das Leben ist gut

Copying Rachel...

I'm thankful for a wonderful and varied Thanksgiving week:

-For a job that decided to give us Friday as a holiday without using up a PTO day.

-For wonderful Pakistani food (though the wait to order truly made it feel like we were in another country...).

-For the chance to finally see Into the Wild. A movie that truly makes you feel thankful for life, warmth and a good family.

-For the chance to see Jrex's cousins and uncle in San Francisco Friday night. I'm thankful that I spent $60 on three kids books (Extreme Dinosaurs and How Many racked up the cost) since they turned around and gave me a Dior purse.

-I'm very thankful that Jrex's cousin owns a GREAT Korean restaurant just north of Golden Gate park. As I told Jrex, of all the 'typical' immigrant business to own, I'm very glad to have a restaurant in the family instead of a dry cleaner or a store.

-For the chance to hang out with one of my close friends for the weekend. And for her dog-walking abilities when we abandoned her both Friday night and all day Saturday.

-For access to an Urgent Care center and the news that instead of gall stones or kidney stones, it was just severe constipation.

-For the chance to bike into the Presidio and picnic on the beach under the Golden Gate bridge with another couple. For so many great friends after such a short time here. For both on-line and real-life community.

Only in San Francisco

We picked up Gentle Man at 7:40 at his home in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. Bernal Heights is surging toward full gentrification after a seedy past. As we drove through I tried to give Jrex character sketches of my coworkers, “Gentle Man is in his forties, I think. He’s one of the sweetest men I’ve ever met. Not that it matters, but I’m 90 percent sure that Gentle Man is gay. Like you, dear, he’s very soft-spoken, so I’ll sit in the back so you can hear as he navigates you to the restaurant.”

We drove up to the Mission to meet two of our current and two previous co-workers at a Senegalese restaurant. Eeyore had NOT been invited. Gentle Man had suggested that was not the kindest thing to do, but had also quietly confessed he wasn’t sure he was up for an evening with her. Most of us had our significant others along for the fun.

As we shared pitchers of tamarind margarita, mango cocktail, and sampled each others delicious meals, someone mentioned the Folsom Street Festival and asked who was going. Gentle Man laughed and said, “Definitely.” British Designer also nodded and said he and his girlfriend were going. People started talking about what they’d seen at the fest in years past. My third co-worker, Fireball started laughing at the look on Jrex’s face. He told me later that he’d overheard British Designer say, “I have a leather mask, should I wear it to the festival?” and someone answered, “I wouldn’t get dressed up unless you’re willing to be an active participant. People take the fest very seriously.”



After dinner as we drove Gentle Man home, we somehow started chatting about Halloween on Castro Street and all the drag queens that come out to party. I laughed as I said, “One of my friends in college was horrible. When he dressed in drag he was more gorgeous than any of the women. Well, he was gorgeous either way.”

Gentle Man smiled and softly said, “Well, most of the people in the office know about this anyway, but I do that occasionally. Mostly for Halloween on Castro Street.”

I asked, “Does it feel mostly like dress up, or does she become an alter ego?”

He nodded and said emphatically, “Definitely an alter ego. We rent a hotel room right by Castro so we can just have fun and not worry about driving home or anything. But last year there was a shooting there. It’s just not safe anymore. Too many people just watching and not enough people there to participate. The street doesn’t even want to have it anymore and the city is actively discouraging the event. It’s very sad.”

After we dropped him off, I looked at Jrex, “OK, so make that 100 percent.” He grinned and nodded.

-----------------------------

The next day I reflected on the fact that only in San Francisco would a dinner with co-workers have involved a discussion of teaching in bi-lingual schools, a recent honeymoon to Vietnam, drag queens and S&M.

Then I thought about the fact that when he was in Israel, Jesus horrified the establishment by the people he chose to be around. He was often accused of partying with sinners. I was struck by the notion that if he were here physically, he’d be hanging out with the drag queens and loving them. It made me glad to know him.

WAY too much info for the men...

I'm telling you now, Dad, Uncle Quip, Uncle Deer Slayer, move away from this blog post. Do not proceed any further...

(though, Uncle Quip, as a family doc, this might be good to pass on to your patients)

Saturday morning, Snickollet mentioned The Diva Cup in this post. I checked out the website and decided I should try it. An easy bike ride gets me to a Whole Foods which sells it. However, as a woman skilled at Good Intentions with little follow-through, I would have normally have forgetten about it by Sunday.

Friday night I'd called Workaholic's Wife to see if she had time to hang out on Saturday. This new friend is married to a guy who runs a start-up company. She's struggled a great deal with what marriage is supposed to look like when an 'early' dinner is at 7:30 pm. Hey, welcome to my world, sistah! Needless to say, she was quite happy (and available) to hang out.

Now, SHE's the one who suggested window shopping at Anthropologie and wandering around Palo Alto. The fact that we walked by Whole Foods on the very same day as my Diva Cup Discovery meant that she had to endure my quest to procure it. I told her what I was looking for and was surprised she'd heard of it from another friend. She said, "You have to let me know if it works. They must be really popular if I've heard about it from more than one person," she paused as a thought struck her, "Oh wait, we live in California."

[Gentlemen: Don't complain that I didn't warn you.]

All that is to tell you that my cycle started today and I LOVE The Cup. You only have to change it twice a day, no risk of Toxic Shock, no leaking, no more land-fill contributions, no risk of running out of supplies and no smell. I can't really run around work and evangelize my new discovery, so I'm inflicting it on you. As Snick said, 'you have to be comfy with your girly parts, but then, shouldn't we all be comfortable with them?' I feel like I've entered a whole new era of freedom from the tyranny of Bloody Bondage!!

OK. Sorry. I got a little carried away there. Um. What I meant to say was, you should check it out. NOW! I mean, that is, if you want to.

Because I'm a lemming

I mean, hey, I'm in the marketing/design world. I get it, self-promotion is good.

This guy is really good cause he's sweetening the pot with a digital camera. A nice one, not just the bootleg version he's trying to get rid of because his Mom couldn't manage to learn to use it.

He's doing the Stay at Home Dad route, Geek style. He's even coordinated with SmugMug to give away a bunch of prizes. Have I no shame? Will I do anything if the price is right? Um...is that a trick question? I've already designed for the military industrial complex--I've have no moral high ground.

From the quick overview I had today (it's FINALLY a slow day at work), Mike seems like a neat Dad who's using his web design skills and writing ability to make it work from home. Never an easy challenge. Check it out and help me win a camera!

Sunday Link Love

With this witty respose to the haircut 'drama', I might have to forgive him for becoming a millionaire at the expense of innocent doctors:


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For projects that need a fine art touch, download from artchive.com. I spent time today drooling over details of Gaudi's architecture. Who has ever thought of decorating chimneys as though they are sentinels?

Finally, here's a fantastic short animation created entirely in Flash: Little Foot.

The Prize

That was fun! I feel like an evil genius, or else a good liar. Hmm...

A few of you guessed correctly, but you hedged your bets, only the fabulous K stuck to just one—that mechanic? He’s a no good, dirty, rotten lie. Your prize is this link to K’s fantastic grammar guide. She needs to give Grammar Girl a run for her money—cause she’s hilarious. I don’t have a fabrication about her; a fabrication about K is impossible since her life is already stranger than fiction. Robo-leg? Check. Finnish-Native American? Check. Musician husband? Check. Knitted a scarf a mere seventeen feet long? Yup. Death threats from the Arab world? They “know where she works and have people watching her”—it’s hard out there being a word pimp (she works for a dictionary).

Instead of a vain attempt to add to such a bio, I have a dream for her.

K and her peeps are moving to Philly soon. I’ve been reading a book called The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. He’s part of The Simple Way, a church of ordinary radicals, based in Philly. My dream for K is that she and her hubby would start to hang out with the author and his peeps. Then I could live vicariously through them. (Cause it’s all about me, right?)

Five Facts Game

I saw this over at Korean Goldfish and thought I’d give it a try. I’ve modified it a little into the Five Facts Game.

Basically, I’m about to tell you Five Facts and one Fabrication. You get to figure out which one is the fabrication.

1. In my klutz factor, I came one misplaced foot from falling off a 30-foot cliff while setting up a climbing anchor. I’ve never a paler face on a trip leader. I never told Jrex.

2. When I was a teenager I had a dog that had been trained to be racist. At the request of neighborhood kids we would throw rocks for her to chase. Usually she didn’t care about the kids, just the rock, but it made them feel like they were being chased by a dog. One day she actually got excited by the running pack of kids and, to their horror, easily jumped the chain-link fence to continue the chase.

3. Growing up in a neighborhood where it was common to be talked to on the street by older guys (cars slowed down every time I waited at a light to cross the street. Damn Johns), I gave myself a fake name. “Yo, slim! What’s your name?” I’d toss out my pseudonymn. If a guy called out, “Hey, Amy!” I knew to just wave and keep walking.

4. I once dated a guy who’d worked briefly as a car mechanic. He refused to teach me to change the oil and the break pads. Not because I was a woman, or ditzy, he just didn’t want to deal with the klutz factor.

5. I’ve always been afraid of heights.

6. When asked to describe a perfect vacation day, I remember a trip Jrex and I took to Scotland. In the morning we shopped for gifts in the only town on the Isle of Skye. After a lunch of Fisherman’s Pie we hiked up to the Old Man of Storr in gale force winds. We then drove to the northern tip of the island and changed into fancy clothes in the car so we could go to dinner. We still compare every seafood restaurant to the fresh-caught seafood platter we ate at the Floragarry Hotel. None has yet measured up. During the 40-minute drive back to the B&B the deep blue twighlight lingered enough so we could steer around sheep basking on the asphalt and gasp at gorgeous views of the ocean and craggy rocks.


The winner will get a free, all-expense paid link to their blog, or if they don’t have one, I’ll make up a fabrication about them in their honor.

Saved from the brink of starvation

Phew! Just had a phone interview (with the people in the gray building). I've got a three-week gig creating trade-show graphics. Now I have to run out and get a really fast external hard-drive to supplement the measly 3 GB of free hard-drive on my famous $99 (cost of shipping) laptop. Let's just say, it's good to have a sister who also works as a designer and just happened to have a leftover laptop when I needed one. I dedicate this freelance job to you!

And, for the fun of it, in case you ever wondered, click here to see San Francisco in jello.

He's too good looking to be a cartoonist

Saturday we walked down the street, ‘picked up’ another couple from church who live at the end of the block, and wandered to Keplers. As one of the largest independent bookstores in the country, they have a stream of amazing authors who come to lecture and do book signings.

This time the speaker was the creator of Bloom County and Outland. Berke Breathed (Burke Breathe-ed) spoke about the children’s book he’d just published, Mars needs Moms. During his lecture he spoke of how a cartoonist’s job, especially a satirist, is to deconstruct. To find something hypocritical and tear it down. The natural job hazard is to become profoundly cynical. On the other hand, a children’s book is naturally constructionist. You want to leave the kid feeling better than when they started. He’s found it to be a nice balance, esp now that he’s a father. And yes, he named his son Milo, after the blond kid from Bloom County…

Here are a few tidbits that came out during Q&A:

• He was fired from four jobs at his college paper cause he always embellished stories. They finally put him at the cartoonists desk and told him to embellish away. He didn’t grow up reading comics and was never trained to be a cartoonist. He quickly consumed all of Doonesbury to learn satire and all of Peanuts to learn heart. As a result, he didn’t realize he kept breaking the rules. No one had mixed talking animals and humans before. No one had characters break from the script and talk to the audience. No one else stole four of Trudeau gags and used them for his own nefarious purposes. Apparently Trudeau has never forgiven him and they aren’t on speaking terms.
  
• When someone wondered if Gary Larson or Bill Waterson would ever come out of retirement, he doubted it. He sees no future for cartooning in this country. “The median age for newspaper readers in this country is 58. No kids grow up reading the funny pages.”
  
• He called on a boy who’d raised his hand. The kid piped up, “My Mom made me raise my hand so you’d call on her.” The blushing blond woman stated she’d gone to high school and college with Breathed. He gasped, “Did I date you?” As everyone laughed he continued, “Cause that’s happened before on this tour. ‘Sure, of course I remember you!’ But I didn’t date you? Whew.”
  
• An Opus movie was in the works for 5 years at Miramax, but the president just couldn’t grasp the talking penguin premise. “He’d never read the strip, of course. I was overjoyed when the whole project fell apart. I don’t think you’ll ever see Opus in animation now. I’m done.”

Is it cool or just crazy?

Just found out about thesixminuteproject. It's a "collaborative photo project in which people upload 24 hours of their life, six minutes at a time". Basically you take a digital photo every 6 minutes for 24 hours. Frankly, most of the photo albums are really boring! The challenge would be to create art from the mundane. And to stay creative every six minutes. Yikes.

Merry Christmas to us!

One of my best friends is coming tonight to stay with us for a week, so we did our personal Christmas celebration yesterday. Three things made me cry while overall the day was wonderful.

• I read this article over breakfast. It’s about a building in Chicago that’s impacting one of the worst neighborhoods in the city.
• We watched this show on PBS about an intergenerational housing solution for seniors and foster kids.
• For our movie selection we saw The Pursuit of Happyness. Powerful, thought provoking and very well done.

For dinner, let me just say that I like to learn a new skill by jumping off the deep end. I’ve never roasted a turkey, or even a chicken, but I decided to make Cornish hens coated with a balsamic glaze and stuffed with porcini & shitake mushrooms, veggies and wild rice. Jrex walked to the wine store around the corner and picked a smooth, slightly earthy Pinot Noir for our wine.

I almost forgot to take a picture of dessert. I managed to make a delicious crème brulee.

Thanks to this cook book, the hens were tender and juicy while the crème brulee was crusty and smooth!

Jrex wrote me a great poem about home and us. All in all, the perfect Christmas. We hope each of you enjoy as wonderful a day tomorrow and for the rest of the Christmas season.