Christmas Day - Thursday 12/25/2008

Another overexposed photo of a Christmas tree! I'll bet the Internet is just buzzing with these right now.

Next year, maybe I'll think to set up a tripod rather than settle for another shot like this. The cousins arrived from Orange and San Diego counties bearing gifts.


The roast beef was tender and delicious, the salmon--which I poached in the microwave--surprised and impressed the diners, and these simple cheese crisps--which were requested--were a hit again at least amongst the women-folk.

It was a good day. They arrived around 11 am and stayed until almost 6pm. It rained a little and gusted a lot, which kept us from our traditional walk between dinner and dessert, but it was a very nice day inside.

Hmm. There's an awful lot about food here around the build-up to and celebration of this holiday. I love cooking for people.

Christmas Eve - Wednesday 12/24/2008

Hydra sneaks past with some last minute gift wrapping.


I prep the rib roast for tomorrow's feast. It pleases me wildly that I can step out my kitchen door and snip fresh rosemary from my herb garden.

Wreathiness - Saturday 12/20/2008

Ooh! Hearth and Lights sent us a beautiful L.L. Bean wreath for Christmas. It dresses up our gate nicely.

These two stood up with us at our wedding, and in the past couple of years we've attended their sons' weddings. It's good to have old friends, even if you live 2,000 miles apart. (sniffle.)

Tree in the House - Monday 12/15/2008

We put up our tree yesterday. One of my favorite parts is looking at all the decorations we've bought or been given over the years.

My first tree of my own, I decorated with little bundles of cinnamon tied in red ribbon and fuzzy brightly colored hair ribbons. I think I bought one fancy decoration in the museum gift shop across the street from my apartment. It was a mirrored apple that reflected a lot of light, which I still have. I strapped a yellow stuffed Woodstock doll to the top instead of an angel.

I found out today that it's hard to take photos of ornaments. Either they're too reflective or it's too dark. This may end up being a project!

Decorations and the Economy - Saturday 12/13/2008

The skiing bear makes another appearance, but we are slowly replacing regular lights with LEDs.


Yeah, yeah. It's a manufactured home, as we like to call it.

In just two days, we'll have lived here for eight years. And you know what? When they offered to loan us half again what this house cost, we said no. We wanted to be in a position where either one of us could cover the payment on this house and land if the other should not be able to work.

We could have taken more money and struggled. We could have opted for some kooky balloon payment scheme. But we're not gamblers. I really don't understand how people can have deluded themselves into home loans for houses they just couldn't afford.

So what do you think?

In another 10 years, when we send in the last payment, should we put up a sign that says: "Don't laugh. It's paid for." ?

Life in the Slow Lane - Friday 12/12/2008

The puppy's loving it. Me too.



After I got on the 14, the sky turned into a light show. I kept wishing I could easily stop and snap photos of the clouds and the mountains and the moon rising. Jumped out on the drive up to our neighborhood and took this one.

Good thing, too, because all the color was gone by the time I picked up the mail.

We started the weekend by going for sushi and picking up a Christmas tree! It's the freshest tree we've ever had. We had to be careful of the sap dripping out of it, and it was so heavy!

When you're living life in the slow lane, you don't feel compelled to decorate the tree as soon as you bring it home. Aaah.

Lookin' a Lot Like Christmas - Wednesday 12/10/2008

They've decorated the little pot plants-- er, potted plants at the coffee house downstairs from my office. All around town, there are signs of the season.

I like all the lights and extra doo-dads. I like the Christmas music on the radio at Andrew's. I like planning surprises for my friends and family.

Ooh, and today I met with Los Angelista for lunch and she gave me the printer I won on her blog! Remember to go there and enter to win the Wii Fit she's giving away! And then read her blog. She's doing cool things and she writes about them well.

The Corporate Card - Thursday 12/4/2008

I have a corporate card!

Well, anyway, a corporate generic holiday seasons greeting card that everyone in the office signs, which gets mailed to our clients. It reminds me how important I am in the grand scheme of things.

When, in my dewy youth, I envisioned signing this many autographs in a row there was a bookstore involved, and a small but eager line of people with eyes aglow.

And a title page, dammit.

If the universe grants the realization of this vision, I vow that all my autographs will be legible.

Unlike Jens, the office manager, whose signatures on the last few cards imply that a person named Gerbil Horvanian works here.

Happy HouseDay! - Tuesday 12/3/2008

I took this two years ago. It's the stairs leading to the back deck at my Mom's house. This is where I grew up. (Though admittedly, it was a concrete patio when I lived there.)

Today is the house's 48th birthday! It's the day my family moved in, about six weeks before I was born. (Did I make the math easy enough for you?)

My parents designed and built it themselves. I really like the way Mom laid out the kitchen, with a built in oven and a stove top built into the counter that divides the working kitchen from the dining area.

Also very cool: There's a secret passageway! One pair of closets was never sealed off in between, so you can crawl through over the shoes and under the hanging clothes.

You're not supposed to. But you can. Trust me, this will win you major points with young friends.

Today's the day we start celebrating Christmas. Used to be with an ornament or a special favorite food next to your plate at dinner on December 3rd. My favorite was my own jar of maraschino cherries and the little glass bird ornaments that clipped onto the branches and had a little spray of stiff plastic threads for tails. (Cooler than I am describing, honestly.)

Happy Birthday, House!

No Pix of Pasadena, Redux - Thursday 12/27/2007

I seem to have some sort of mental block about taking my camera with me to Pasadena. This happened last time I was there, too. In lieu of shots of Vroman's and Tomasina's house, here are some photos taken at my house after I got home.

This is my current writing notebook--in which I write fiction, creative nonfiction and your basic self-involved journal entries--against a backdrop of the breathtakingly lovely vintage hand-stitched tablecloth (and matching napkins) that Braveheart gave me for Christmas (along with other treats.)

Since we were all off work, my writing group (now just Braveheart, Tomasina and I) met at Tomasina's house in Pasadena. The day was planned to last from 10-3, but we ended up being there till six! It was nice to just move from one thing to another and do all the things we wanted to do.

We talked about our writing since the last time we met; lunched on Tomasina's delish turkey chili (I WANT that recipe, T!) and lots of leftovers, cookies and candies; read to each other from our current projects; opened presents; took Tomasina's dogs for a walk; wrote together for 40 minutes; read that to each other, and then set the date for our next meeting and made commitments for the work we'll do by then.




I am known for having the fastest jammies in the West. I can get into my pajamas within mere seconds of coming through the front door.

Hence the pantlegs in this shot of the amazing bottle of olive oil Tomasina gave me for Christmas (along with other treats.) It will remain to be seen if we can hold off till we have guests to share this with before we crack this open and try it.

Great day.

Somebody please remind me to ask Tomasina how to get to the 210 West from her house next time. I lucked out with the inter-holiday light traffic, but I don't expect that'll always hold true.

Christmas Day 2007

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!

You can't really see them in this light, but we switched to lower-energy-use LED lights on the tree this year.

We had a great Christmas. Hydra woke up at 3:15 and there was no more sleep to be had. We opened packages that had arrived from people in other states, and a couple from each other. Did a little prep for dinner, set the table, etc. Most of the prep was done the day before.

The cousins arrived from Orange and Riverside counties around 11:00 and we broke out the Mimosas and the-- Let's call them Pimosas. Champagne and peach juice cocktails, for a change. Appetizers: homemade shrimp spread, cheeses, crackers, TJ's Sun dried tomato/pesto torta, kalamata olives, nuts.

Opened gifties from one another. Lots of goodies!

Dinner was pork tenderloin roasted with garlic, rosemary and sage; P's killer mashed potatoes, V's delish spinach pear and Gorgonzola salad, apple-sage stuffing, shaved Brussels sprouts with bacon.



Now the birdhouses I painted (but did not build) can be revealed. I had a lot of fun with these. Ended up doing two more. Green and another pink/lavender in another shape.



After dinner we drove over to Shambala for the traditional viewing of the lions. Okay, it's not a tradition yet, but it may be... It's only about 7 miles from us. This guy was in an enclosure near the road.


This big fellah huffed and puffed for us from down in the canyon. We just stopped along the road to look in.

Back to the house for apple pie and mincemeat pie, and tea. Everyone stayed till about dusk.

We felt really good about the day. And I have to admit, it was nice not to have to drive anywhere!

An Avian Christmas Eve - Sunday 12/24/2007

I have had this pie bird for years and finally used it!

It's an old-fashioned tool to vent the steam from the crust (which this didn't really need, because there is a hole in the crust that is kind of gaping.)

I made this from an apple pie kit that Dana's boss and his wife gave us for Christmas. Forgot to even try to make a decorative edging on the crust, but I did cut little leaves out of extra dough and put those on.





Okay, sad to say, although Dodger had vowed to remain uncute on the Internet for the duration of the WGA strike, he couldn't help himself. He committed this random act of cuteness and I...well, I accidentally videotaped it. And then I tripped while carrying my laptop, and it ended up on YouTube. Sorry, WGA.

His original YouTube appearance, not being cute in response to the video Sorry, Internet, has been viewed 1,339 times since it was posted three weeks ago!

Wrapping Up Christmas - Sunday 12/23/2007

Our tree-topping Santa. We like him.


I picked up these reusable totes at Target for less than the cost of a lot of the gift bags they sell. Perfect for oddly sized gifts, and good for the environment, too!

Fruitful Friday - 12/21/2007

Whoo! Festive, huh?

Why don't I ever think to take a "before" picture?

Maybe because they tend to be kind of humiliating.

I am forced to admit that I might have a slight compulsion about saving paper and plastic bags and glass jars. It was like ankle deep in here when I started. Naively, I thought it would take about 2 hours to clean up.

Har dee har har har. Six--count 'em--six hours later, viola! No jars that have no lids, no lids that have no jars. No boxes full of bags. Just a renewed conviction to not mindlessly accept the paper and plastic our friends the cashiers want to give us.



Outside the pantry door things are a little more jolly. If we've received your card, it's here! Thanks so much for helping us decorate.

My cousin Bells, reminded me that our grandma put cards up on the inside of her front door. My mom did this too. I guess I've always done it. Except that we have a big leaded glass window in the front door, so I wrap the pantry door with gold paper and tape the cards on that.

I had a very productive day. Wrote just a tiny bit in the early a.m., completed two more hand made gifts, and started two more. Yay!

Christmas/Birthday Tea - Thursday 12/20/2007

Yeah, it would have been nice if I'd thought to take a photograph of this before I and my coworkers descended upon it like hyenas on voles.

Wow, was the food at The T Room in Montrose great! Most of us ordered the traditional tea and you could substitute other sandwiches from the menu. Mmm. The Lingonberry Chicken was surprisingly good. Watercress & cucumber may have been my favorite, with the Olivade coming in a close second.

Big pots of tea--we ordered the Noel blend and the Russian blend--on the table. Happiness. We celebrated Christmas and Momalisa's birthday. Food was wonderful, service was slow for our party of eight. It took about 20 minutes before they even brought us the tea, which came when the sandwiches and scones were ready.

My only food complaint was the fruitcake style candied fruit in the scones. I mean, yuck.

Everyone rose above the ominous fact that this is our last meal together for the foreseeable future. We will be working on kind of an on-call basis in January, a day or two a week maybe. I don't want to write about it.



The top of the Christmas tree, which everyone encouraged me to get a shot of... Scarily over-decorated for my taste.


Weens exhibits the classic tea room decorum one would expect of a lady. We're so proud!

[Hey, she reads this blog. She knew the risk she was taking!]




Looking up Honolulu Avenue from outside the T Room. Didn't get any good pix of the outside of the T Room. It's not terribly photogenic.


Weens pointed out this angel down the street, in front of an art gallery.

We went back to the office and opened our Secret Santa gifts from each other, and our gifts from the owners. Lovely cashmere scarves, all different colors. So soft and lovely.

I'm sleeping in mine.

Bah Humbug? - Wednesday 12/19/2007

Okay, is this a good sign or a bad one? I went into work today--I'm always there first--and the only lights on in the place were these on a string next to the door toward my office. I Laughed Out Loud.

It's just so half-hearted! Kind of expresses the atmosphere around work this year. We're still basically upbeat people making the best of a situation, but it's becoming hard to maintain the big grins.

Tomorrow we have a meeting and the Christmas/Momalisa's birthday celebratory lunch, this time at a tea room a few cities away. We often go to the festive Smoke House at this time of year because it's within walking distance and it's wonderfully old school. George Clooney named his production house after it (it's across from Warner Brothers.) But it'll be fun to do something different since we have the time to go further this year.



I know, I know. You've seen enough sunset from behind my house to last you a lifetime. But I haven't. Not quite yet.

Busy Day - Tuesday 12/18/2007

Oh my gosh! I had to crop this image out of a larger one because I spent a good part of the day working on Christmas gifts and some of the recipients read this blog from time to time!

You'll have to wait till after Christmas to see what I did with these colors.

Hee hee!

I also baked a bunch of Scotch shortbread today. The house smells so good.

There were a lot of clouds over the mountains across the valley. I made myself a one-egg omelet with avocado and cheddar cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and took it out to the deck and watched the sky move overhead while I ate. With my hood up. It was like 50 degrees out.

But it was sooo wonderful to be home to witness the storm moving in.

Carolers! - Sunday 12/16/2007

How cool!

As I hoofed it up the hill toward the house at the end of my hike/walk this evening, I heard these kids walking up the street talking, gearing themselves up to sing, but I thought they were just goofing around.

They knocked on the door as I was walking into the bedroom in my sweats to change into p.j.s.

"Oh, no," I heard, "That's the second one!" I hadn't clearly heard their knock and I wasn't sure they were on the front porch.

"She's coming back!" I heard as I popped back into the library. I guess you can see right through those sheers when you're outside in the dark.

This excited bunch from the Vasquez High School Service club also left me a candy cane with a note of cheer and a couple of little pom pons attached... and no strings! They didn't ask me to contribute to anything.

[EDIT: Oops! Forgot to mention that they sang a cheery "Jingle Bells" while they were here. Thanks, Raul V!]

Very cool. I'll write a note of thanks and send it over to the high school. And to think only yesterday I was dissing their namesake!

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my little town?

Holiday Bob - Tuesday 12/4/2007

Large festive balls hang threateningly over my table.

"Write about us," they whisper, "Write about Bob's Big Boy and the fascinating array of waiters, waitresses, regulars and novices. You know you want to."

I refer to my notebook, hunch over my keyboard and try to focus on the scene I'm working on. I know what I want to accomplish in it, it's just a manner of concentrating.

It's a party scene. Hey, maybe it's a Christmas party. Maybe there are gigantic decorations hanging threateningly over the heads of the revelers.



Maybe our eccentric antagonist has decorated his home like a fifties diner, complete with happy statues!

Naw.

Scratch that.