dissonance

Hometime

Things I'm looking forward to during my Christmas week in San Francisco:

- Seeing a lot of my friends!
- Eating.  Particularly eating my mom's kimchee soup, Crepevine, pho, tapioca balls.
- Artfibers
- Watching The Nutcracker ballet (my Christmas present!!)
- Flexing my British pounds for weakling dollars and feeling momentarily rich before I realize it's still money.
- Seeing my wee cousins who aren't that wee anymore.
- Sneaking in an appointment at the W's Bliss Spa.
- Introducing Craig to everyone and having My Worlds collide.
- Coffee. Glorious, strong, heavenly, coffee.

w00t

STFU

Yes, w00t has been named word of the year.

Is it just me or are most of those words negative in connotation?  Besides w00t of course. Yes, I consider facebook to have a negative connotation.  :P  And ohmygod you can verb the word facebook? Its obnoxiousness doesn't cease.

It was like Cristal vs English Breakfast

I'm not a fan of boxing.  The physical violence makes me squeamish.  So it surprises me that I stayed up until 5am this past Saturday to watch the Hatton vs. Mayweather fight.

I can understand the fascination that draws an audience. It's just two people testing their brute strengths and wits.  Also the buildup surrounding the event was just amazing!  You couldn't find two more disparate opponents (flashy bling Mayweather vs humble Manchester Hatton), but at the end of the fight it's obvious that so much of it is just hype and the two probably have more in common than not.  For people who watch boxing regularly this is not an epiphany but this was the first time I've actually paid attention to and followed a fight all the way to the end.  I'm still not a fan of boxing, but I'm not dismissive of it anymore.

Also, I miss Vegas.

Also also, I saw Golden Compass on Friday!  I am a HUUUGE fan of this trilogy and heartily recommend it to anyone.  (As an aside, now that they've made Golden Compass into a movie maybe there's hope yet that the Bartimeaus trilogy will be in the works as well!)  I won't say anything about my impressions of the movie so as not to spoil it for others, but if you've seen it, I'd love to hear your opinions! (spoiler-ish comments won't be published so go ahead and comment away safely).

The cheerleader skirt doesn't fit anymore

Ok The Reunion has been going in and out of my radar for the last couple of months and despite my hesitation, I think I'm going to make an appearance after all. I think... I haven't actually bought tickets yet.  The reason for the change of heart is that, as much as I loathe the idea of spending 5 hours in the "ego-bursting, name forgetting, quarter-life crisis inducing, paper streamer nightmare we call the high school reunion" hell, Craig is really curious to see what they're like, bless his foreign heart.  I've been coy about this decision and reading this post will be how he finds out we're probably going.  Um, Merry Christmas, babe?

That said, Help! What are people wearing to reunions these days?  The Little Black Dress?  Top Shop prom dresses?  Versace gowns?

Tigers and typhoons, please contact me

I miss updating my blog as much as I used to (what, you don't?) It's a combination of things in and out of my control that's causing ... meh actually it's all in my control, saying that I can't update my blog because of uncontrollable events is a baldfaced lie. It's not like I'm facing homelessness, typhoons, or man eating tigers.  Although, come to think of it, those would make pretty good blog-fodder.

Truth is, I just need to give it the priority I think it deserves.  I suppose I could wait until January and add this to the list of resolutions to break.  I'm already planning on failing to call my mom more often and not go to gym once a week. But this is part of my problem, putting off blogging until all conditions are perfect:  I have some spare time at home, there's a good internet connection, I have pictures to show, and (most importantly) the stars are aligned wherein Jupiter is not crossing the path of Venus and Pluto is in retrograde.

You can see why updates are so rare.

Anyway, this is probably just another false restart so don't hold your breaths. In the meantime, check out Mimi smartypants who was the inspiration for making me wish I wrote more often.

Thanksgiving abroad

My second Thanksgiving in Britain has come and gone.  The guestlist was slightly different from last year. Last year Craig couldn't make it because he was in Amsterdam but this year both him and his sister joined the feast so the Klelks were in attendance (um not his actual last name) in addition to Mike and Chris who were making their 2nd appearance at the table.

The menu was the same: Turkey, cranberry sauce from scratch (which Craig made!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts with pancetta.  All coordinated by the chef of the day:

The tshirt is from a Maximo Park gig and it says Ignorance isn't bliss.  I bought the apron years ago at some thrift store and I finally got to get it out.  In my hand is my trusty Shun knife, which brings chopping to a whole 'nother level.  The hair, I don't know what's going on with the hair.

Turkey went in the oven upside down as per my usual MO:

And it came out as juicy and tender as ever.  Look at how excited I am, even my hair is standing on end.

Somebody else has the 'before' shot, but here's dinner after it's been demolished:

See that one empty serving dish?  That was the brussels sprouts.  Honestly, they have such a bad reputation it's a shame. 

I know it might be hard to convince you guys with that shirt but I swear I'm not pregnant.  At least I somehow managed to wrangle my hair into submission.

Back in the states, usually after the Thanksgiving meal we sit around the livingroom, watch some dvds, play board games until the coffee and pie comes around.  But this is not the case for get togethers in Britain.  Instead, we proceeded to finish off the two bottles of sparkling wine, 4 bottles of red, various beers, then took a taxi out to town where we continued the job in a most un-family friendly manner.

Needless to say I had such a ripping headache this morning I'm surprised I was able to make these beauties for lunch:

Happy belated Thanksgiving!