Thursday, December 28, 2006

I took a couple of pictures of our favorite tree ornaments the other night just after we'd decorated. I thought I would share, and put out an open invitation for my readers to do the same on their own blogs. Can't wait to see your special ornaments! (Provided of course, that you are as lazy in the week following Christmas as I am and haven't already taken your tree down, or that you just happen to already have the appropriate pictures.)

This baby is my favorite. I got it for Ryan the first Christmas after we started dating. It's a Hallmark, and it's called "Stuck on You", which very much described our budding relationship. If we weren't physically stuck to one another, our minds were stuck on each other. I'm amazed that we both made it through that period with our jobs intact. Totally and completely driven to distraction darn near 24/7.



This here is Monkey's favorite. This year, as soon as we dragged out the boxes of ornaments, she was searching for it. I was surprised that she remembered it, because she hasn't ever made a big deal about it in the last couple of years since it was given to us, but apparently she finds it very special. It was given to me by an online friend as part of an ornament exchange the year that we all moved in together.



That's it for now, but I'll finish with a picture of our massive tree all decorated - I know I'm a couple of weeks past showing off your tree time, but we got a late start.

I'm crossing my fingers as I hit the publish button, because I'm not sure if my formatting is going to work out. If the pictures are on the left, and most of the writing is on the right, I'll be ecstatic. Simple minds, simple pleasures.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Funniest Flash animation ever. Not safe for work or small children. I never get tired of this one.

End of The World
Posting from my new toy!

That's right folks, we've finally invested in a laptop.

It's going to be immensely useful for me for school - instead of coming home between classes to use my desktop computer and wasting time and gas on the drive, I can just set up anywhere at the college and work away. Most of the campus is wireless, so I'll even be able to get online.

Yay!

My Christmas Dinner Contribution

Here's the recipe for the lentil loaf I took to Christmas dinner. I would cook it for a little longer than it says, because mine didn't really "loaf". It was more of a lentil slop. Tasty lentil slop, but slop none the less.

1 onion
1 clove garlic
2 stalks celery
2 teaspoons sage
3 cups cooked lentils
3 cups cooked wild rice
1/4 cup dry whole wheat breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 eggs (Use egg substitute to make this dish vegan).
2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
fresh ground black pepper
sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Chop onion and celery finely, and crush the garlic clove.
3. Spray a frying pan with non-stick spray, and saute the onion, garlic and celery until onion is translucent.
4. Add the sage.
5. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
6. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and fill the loaf pan with the mixture.
7. Press down.
8. Bake 30 minutes covered, 10 minutes uncovered.
9. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

I served it with Mushroom Gravy, which is so disgustingly simple to make, and extremely tasty.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas from a bad bad blogger

Hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas!

See you sometime later this week once the sugar buzz and Christmas dinner hangover wears off!

Monday, December 18, 2006

A sigh of relief and a brag

Another semester almost over. My final portfolio of papers for Contemporary Moral Issues is one (or maybe two) editing sessions away from being complete, and when I hand that in at 3 o'clock on Wednesday, I will officially be on 'winter break' (which really just means more time at work, but at least my evenings will be a little clearer).

I've been obsessively checking the college's web site to see if any of my marks have been posted yet, and sometime this afternoon my mark for Auditing went up. 97%. Yay me! Seeing that kind of number pop up really makes all of the homework and studying and lost sleep feel much more worth it.

And now, I must sleep.

Hopefully we'll get the monster Christmas tree decorated tomorrow, and I can share some festive pictures with you all.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Some light reading and a reminder link for myself...

Just got through reading this article, and I thought I would link to it both for the enjoyment of (some of) my readers, and as a way to remind myself to try the recipe which comes at the end of the article. It's an oldie but a goodie by Peter Singer.



If you're not a vegetarian, interested in animal rights, or open minded in any way about the aforementioned topics, you might want to just skip it.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

The Plague

The Husband and I have recently found ourselves struck down by the plague.



You know what I'm talking about - that nasty head cold that goes around during the Christmas season that leaves you feeling like a walking snot machine with a vice clamping down on your head and a tourniquet ever tightening around your throat.



And it's right on time to interfere with exams and getting ready for Christmas. You'd think I would have figured out by now that this will happen EVERY YEAR but apparently I'm not that quick.



Wugh.