Hot Tub Time!

All done. Except for the brownies. And you know what? Forget brownies. They were coming from a box anyway. Everything else was done by me and it's better that way.

Here's how they came out...

Cookies covering every flat surface in the kitchen. Now that's Christmas! And I learned to love Silpat this year. Those Peanut Butter Blossoms slid right off.

Here's Moe and Moe...

And here's the tree that Rachel made beautiful...

And I didn't really think there was anything that would get in the way of us going over the hill tomorrow. But Rachel checked the weather and now she's worried about it. So we'll just have to see what tomorrow brings.

And, I guess, what Santa brings.

Christmas Eve Still...

...barely. And I am beat. Despite the soft cushiony (yes, cushiony) floor mats strategically placed around my kitchen at work areas, my feet are killing me. So far I've made Reindeer Poop, Mexican Wedding Cakes, (My) Triple Chocolate Disaster cookies, and Peanut Butter Blossoms. I unwrapped 30 Hershey's Kisses in less than three minutes - a new record.

Rachel is wrapping and I have Pumpkin Muffins and Brownies yet to make. And some wrapping of my own. And I don't care what time we wrap up or how nasty it is outside, I am taking a hot tub when I'm done.

Speaking of how nasty it is outside...

Watches and Warnings
Middletown Forecast /O.EXB.KSTO.WS.W.0012.081225T0600Z-081225T2000Z/

CLEAR LAKE/SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY-
INCLUDING THE CITY OF...LAKEPORT
140 PM PST WED DEC 24 2008
...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO
12 PM PST THURSDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SACRAMENTO HAS ISSUED A WINTER
STORM WARNING FOR SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM
10 PM THIS EVENING TO 12 PM PST THURSDAY.
RAIN WILL MIX WITH SNOW AND CHANGE TO ALL SNOW BELOW 3000 FEET LATE
THIS EVENING. SNOW LEVELS WILL CONTINUE TO LOWER TO 1500 FEET
DURING CHRISTMAS MORNING. 3 TO 6 INCHES OF SNOW IS POSSIBLE AROUND
3000 FEET BY CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON...WITH AN INCH OR TWO DOWN TO
2000 FEET. GUSTY SOUTH WINDS UP TO 40 MPH MAY CREATE AREAS OF
REDUCED VISIBILITY IN SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW LATE TONIGHT AND EARLY
CHRISTMAS MORNING. SNOW AND RAIN WILL TAPER OFF TO SCATTERED SNOW
SHOWERS CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON AND WINDS WILL DECREASE BY LATE
MORNING.
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE FORECAST
THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ONLY TRAVEL IN AN EMERGENCY. IF
YOU MUST TRAVEL...KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT... FOOD...AND WATER IN
YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.


And they must be serious because they used ALLCAPS.

Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to driving over the hill and seeing family. But there is a part of me that wouldn't mind if it snowed 10 inches and the mountain was closed and we could hunker down here by the fire and read all day.

Anyway - whether I see you or not, Merry Christmas. May you get some Ray Conniff on your iPod this year!

Wrong Joe!!!

I mean, right about Heroes. But wrong about the test. All groovy. A month of eating dirt and berries and the Meds worked. My cholesterol went from a really good bowling score to a good bowling score for me. And I lost 7 pounds. So if I just keep eating like this, I wonder if in 5 years or so I will be a whole new sort of me. Can you imagine me at like 180? That would be so weird.

But this weekend, it's cel-e-bration time - come on! I am grilling red meat!!!

Oh - and tonight, it's Family Movie Night - Pizza and Dark Night. I think that's the only thing that can get the foul taste of Heroes out of my mouth.

And again...

...where does the time go? And why does Blogger insert so much white space now?


OK, so sorry I didn't get Thanksgiving pictures up. I may still get to that. But tonight I have two things to share.

First, I made up my mind watching the Season Finale tonight. Heroes blows. They should quit wasting money on stupid online and Sprint phone only crap and focus on the show itself. They used to have near move quality special effects. Now it's like watching Star Trek. And not recent Star Trek, I mean good old Kirk fires his phaser to heat the rock and it glows red Star Trek. And oh - Syler's dead? Sure he is. And oh, sure, she can run so fast she goes back in time. Right. OK. I can't beleive that somebody who thought that was a good idea still has a job. I hate to bag on someone else's creativity, but man, it is disappointing. I must have missed the episode where one hero has Super Shark powers and another with Super Jumping power jumped over her.






Did you like how I ended that with "her?" I'm working on gender equality. Reconnecting with my Cal friend got me thinking about that again. Once when we were walking to class, she looked at the Campanile- possibly the most famous campus phallus anywhere -and she said, "Look at that thing- it looks like a giant tampon." That is SO Berkeley! Or at least so Berkeley when we were there. I still have trouble writing s/he though.







Anyway...that wasn't the second thing.







Second, a guy at my work sent me this picture...


I think I know how that went down - somebody didn't take the time to put the lights away properly and somebody else expressed his or her frustration.

I learned how to properly wrap cables when I went through local cable access training years ago. Plus, we put each strand in it's own plastic bag so they don't get tangled with each other. So the outside lights are fine.

And we had a great idea last year - why not leave the lights on the tree and store it under the house. Here is the result...





It reminded me of that picture from work. Once Rachel works her magic on it, I'm sure it will look great. And I'll let her be the judge of whether this was a great idea or if it took longer to make pretty than it would have to restring.


Also, I got up early today to go get my blood drawn again. Follow up cholesterol check. I'm actually looking forward to finding out how much my diet changes will affect it. But it sucked. It was literally freezing cold out, and when I got there, two different nurses tried and could not find a good vein. Then when they finally got something s/he said, "That should be enough."

Why do you think the nurse was a woman? I mean they both were, but still. At least one of the nurses could just as easily have been a gay man.

So anyway, tonight for dinner, I sort of celebrated by cooking a Mexi-Feast - with real cheese and sour cream and everything. And there was a message on the machine saying they didn't get enough blood, so I have to go back tomorrow. Man, my arm is still throbbing from this morning - it's like my arm was a dart board in a rowdy Irish pub. But dinner was fantastic! I just hope it doesn't screw up my results.

And I'm taking some time off between Christmas and the new year. Once I get these gender issues resolved, I will sign up for some GLBT Sensitivity training.

Well, GLB anyway. I still have trouble with the T.