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December 31, 2003
Happy New Year!
All in all, it was a good year. The recap is in order, I think.
1. Married the best boy in the entire world! In Vegas, no less!
2. For the majority of the year, I worked at the best job I ever had.
3. Ended the best job I ever had working for the worst boss I ever had.
4. Landed new cool job that could end up being the best job I ever had yet again!
5. Bought a new car.
6. Fell down the back stairs and hurt myself badly....a week before the wedding. There is a weird, permanent bump under my skin on my shin now.
7. Traveled to Vegas, Denver and Montreal.
8. Saw Elvis Costello.
9. Turned 32.
10. Became a NaNoWriMo winner.
11. Drank two bottles of Dom Perignon this year!
12. Created (with my dear friend, Greg) Plum Ruby Review.
13. Published a poem in the Rose & Thorn as well as one forthcoming in the Winter issue of Astropoetica.
14. Romeo had six teeth pulled.
15. Joe shoveled more snow this year than probably ever...over 75" all together through the year.
16. Re-united with a long lost friend.
17. Had my parents visit for the first time from Boise, ID...dragged them all over Massachusetts for a week.
18. Began my Master's thesis project in developing creativity exercises for advanced writers...will carry me through the entire year of 2004.
19. Cracked one of my back molars.
20. Celebrated three years together with my best friend, Joe.
Posted by crystallyn at 08:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
love is
when your husband boils all the silverware he's washed in the last few days so that you won't catch his flu. ;-)
Posted by crystallyn at 06:48 AM | TrackBack
December 30, 2003
It's been 833 days
since President George W. Bush promised to catch Usama bin Laden "dead or alive". Needless to say, Usama has not yet been caught. From Warblogging.com.
Posted by crystallyn at 09:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 28, 2003
and so
i find myself making the obligatory blog since it's been over ten days now and I'm not sure I have a lot to say. I went away. To the Berkshires. Saw Ventfort Hall which was pretty nifty. Read the whole Dragon Mage series by Katharine Kerr. Got steak knives, a gorgeous bracelet and a new pocket PC. Played Civilization the board game. Started on my writer's notebook for my independent study next semester. Drank Bellinis, lots of red wine and cherry lambic beer. Now...I'm sleeeeeepy.
Posted by crystallyn at 09:35 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 16, 2003
HOLIDAY DISTINCTIONS
Courtesy of my dear Jewish friend, Paulette.
1. Christmas is one day--the same day every year: December 25. Jews also love December 25th. It's another paid day off work. We go to movies and out for Chinese food, and Israeli dancing. December 25 is also National Jewish Ski Day. Chanukah is 8 days. It starts the evening of the 24th of Kislev, whenever that falls. No one is ever sure. Jews never know until a non-Jewish friend asks when Chanukah starts, forcing us to consult a calendar so we don't look like idiots. We all have the same calendar, provided free with a donation from either the World Jewish Congress, the kosher butcher, or the local Sinai Memorial Chapel (especially in Florida) or other Jewish funeral home.
2. Christmas is a major holiday. Chanukah is a minor holiday with the same theme as most Jewish holidays. They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat.
3. Christians get wonderful presents such as jewelry, perfume, stereos... Jews get practical presents such as underwear, socks, or the collected works of the Rambam, which looks impressive on the bookshelf.
4. There is only one way to spell Christmas. No one can decide how to spell Chanukah: Chanukah, Chanukka, Hanukah, or Hannukah?
5. Christmas is a time of great pressure for husbands and boyfriends. Their partners expect special gifts. Jewish men are relieved of that burden. No one expects a diamond ring on Chanukah.
6. Christmas brings enormous electric bills. Candles are used for Chanukah. Not only are we spared enormous electric bills, but we get to feel good about not contributing to the energy crisis.
[what happened to 7?]
8. Christmas carols are beautiful. Silent Night, Come All Ye Faithful....Chanukah songs are about dreidels made from clay or having a party and dancing the horah. Of course, we are secretly pleased that many of the beautiful carols were composed and written by our tribal brethren. And don't Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond sing them beautifully?
9. A home preparing for Christmas smells wonderful. The sweet smell of cookies and cakes baking. Happy people are gathered around in festive moods. A home preparing for Chanukah smells of oil, potatoes, and onions. The home, as always, is full of loud people all talking at once.
10. Women have fun baking Christmas cookies. Women burn their eyes and cut their hands grating potatoes and onions for latkas on Chanukah. Another reminder of our suffering through the ages.
11. Parents deliver to their children during Christmas. Jewish parents have no qualms about withholding a gift on any of the eight nights.
12. The players in the Christmas story have easy to pronounce names such as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The players in the Chanukah story are Antiochus, Judah Maccabee, and Matta whatever. No one can spell it or pronounce it. On the plus side, we can tell our friends anything and they believe we are wonderfully versed in our history.
13. Many Christians believe in the virgin birth. Jews think, "Joseph, Bubela, snap out of it. Your woman is pregnant, you didn't sleep with her, and now you want to blame G-d. Here's the number of my shrink".
14. In recent years, Christmas has become more and more commercialized. The same holds true for Chanukah, even though it is a minor holiday. It makes sense. How could we market a major holiday such as Yom Kippur? Forget about celebrating. Think observing. Come to synagogue, starve yourself for 27 hours, become one with your dehydrated soul, beat your chest, confess your sins, a guaranteed good time for you and your family. Tickets a mere $200 per person.
Merry Christmas!
Posted by crystallyn at 10:51 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
December 13, 2003
karma is a funny thing
shortly after having my kitty's teeth yanked, I chomped down on a particularly crunchy french fry at a nice restaraunt and my back molar on the bottom cracked, taking a nice chunk out of the side of my tooth. Fortunately for me it doesn't hurt at all, just is fairly sharp...sigh. And so, holding out till January if I can to go to the dentist. I have a terrible fear of the dentist, sigh sigh sigh.
Romeo is doing much better, finally. He hated me for a long while. Would run when we came near, would hide behind the couch and wouldn't sleep with us at night. It was awful, seeing him so changed. He's better now, and every day he is becoming more like his old self.
Posted by crystallyn at 04:16 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 09, 2003
romeo || bumble
We're eating dinner tonight (the wrong pizza from Bertucci's) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is on TV and Joe suddenly says,
"Romeo is like the Bumble!"
That's because poor Romeo spent the day under anaesthesia having SIX teeth yanked.
And the Bumble had his teeth yanked. It made him less dangerous. Except that kitty wasn't very dangerous before he had his teeth pulled. And he's definitely not now. He's super groggy and he is really unstable when he walks. He won't close his mouth all the way, understandably.
He really needed to go in. The pictures don't really show how bad they are. His large fang there was nearly hanging out of his mouth...3/4 of the tooth was terribly infected. You can sort of see how the third tooth in has a hole in it. A lot of them were like that. He still needs to have 3 more pulled but they just couldn't overwhelm him like that. Poor little kitty.
There was a woman there who said her cat had to have a lot of his teeth pulled and that he was like a whole new cat afterward and that mostly she didn't even have an idea how miserable he was until she saw the new pain-free personality emerge.
Oh, and like the Bumble, Romeo LOVES pig dinners. Can't wait till he feels better to enjoy one.
Posted by crystallyn at 08:48 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 07, 2003
let it snow more?
Here are the photos from this morning's outdoor foray (helping Joe get the snow off the cars!):
This is a picture of our two cars (both Kia's) and our landlord's car (in the foreground). Note that the snow pretty much just flows from the yard to level with the front window on our landlord's car. Look at my pretty snow shapes on my car windows!
Here is a shot up the street. There is no snow on most rooftops because of the intense wind the last few days. It was good because the snow didn't accumulate on trees and powerlines which prevented a LOT of power outages I'm sure. Note the buried cars. The cars you can see in the front have snow drifted on the other side of them:
For more pictures, keep going...
And the front of the house. Check out the stairs, which you pretty much can't see. Ignore the fact that the picture is crooked. :)
Lots of people shoveling!
This is the car that parks on the lot next to our house (see the crappy green garage/monster storage building thing). See the way the snow drifted around it? It's hard to tell but basically it drifts up high against the house, higher than the top of the car door is.
Joe shoveling. The snowbank is at shoulder level. He's going to hurt tomorrow!
Another shot of the cars from the other side. Weird how the wind will drift out those funny little tunnels.
Just be glad this isn't your car!
Posted by crystallyn at 01:12 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
let it snow! let it snow! let it snow!
Paulette woke me up this morning asking how bad the weather is here. She's stranded in Washington D.C. and since the airport is still closed it might be awhile before she is home.
The drifting snow is the strange part. There are weird trenches around some of the houses and piles against some sides of the buildings and cars. The neighbor's car across the street is invisible with the snow and the car on the other side of the street has been divided in half...snow piled high on one side and barely any on the other from the wind.
Joe shoveled yesterday morning and by mid-day you couldn't even tell...and he removed nearly a foot. The landlady was so pleased though that last night she asked me to come down to the cellar so she could give me something (that way we didn't have to go outside). She made us a blueberry pound cake. Half the time in the winter when Joe shovels, she makes pasta with meatballs. Yummy.
The shut-in weekend is gorgeous from the inside, however. The way the snow falls on the windows along the drifty side of the house...it piles up and gets caught in blotches in the screens and looks beautiful. Yesterday I made the usual holiday treats, peanut butter logs, sugar cookie dough (making the cookies today) and a Martha recipe in the December issue for vanilla crusted hazelnuts, which turned out great.
But the best one that I made were the Mayonnaise Sugar Cookies, always my favorite. They sound icky and the dough tastes weird and unappetizing, but the final product literally melts in your mouth. DEE-LISH!
Mayonnaise Sugar Cookies
1 cup mayonnaise (no substitutes...lowfat makes them taste and act like rubber)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cup flour
1 tsp. soda
Mix together mayo, sugar and vanilla. Add flour, soda and salt. Roll into 1" balls and roll in sugar (you can use colored sugar if making around the holidays). Flatten with fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until crispy (they shouldn't be brown, just barely golden).
Posted by crystallyn at 10:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 05, 2003
methinks
that Mr. Cohen has no clue about being a Presby and I can tell him that at least I CAN EAT THE FILTHY PIG and thus enjoy pure unadulterated bliss.
You poor Jews. Don't know what you are missing when it comes to bacon. ;-)
And tonight, after a fabulous meal of pork chops in bourbon cherry sauce--a bottle of Dom Perignon while we trim the Christmas tree and watch It's a Wonderful Life. Being a Presbyterian isn't so bad. Sappy, but good.
Posted by crystallyn at 10:51 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 04, 2003
monkeys monkeys monkeys!
I HAD to share this photo.
According to Yahoo News: "A monkey drinks cola on a round table 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter in Lopburi Province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2003 during the annual monkey festival which has been hosted since 1989 by a local businessman who believes the monkeys were behind his family's good fortune. A total of 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of fruits were offered to the monkeys roaming the area." (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
What I thought was even more interesting was that they opened up the first hospital just for monkeys! (Niki, maybe you can specialize?)
Posted by crystallyn at 11:18 AM | TrackBack
December 03, 2003
i am once again
gainfully employed!!! Woohooooo!!! And right in Cambridge near where I used to live, so no massive stupid commute to Salem anymore. Plus I'll be near my pal Melissa so it will be easy to hook up for lunch and drinks.
Just in time...severance runs out next week. ;)
Posted by crystallyn at 05:16 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
i have
this great recipe for Cathedral Windows, a chocolate, coconut concoction that uses colored marshmallows as the core of recipe. White ones wouldn't do it justice at all.
There is one problem I have found.
They don't seem to sell colored marshmallows in Boston!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is that bizarre? I have been all over! They sell fancy shmancy ones at Whole Foods that cost $7.00 for ten of them, but no regular plain ol' little marshmallows. I don't understand. :(
I was wigging out because I can't find flavored oils either to make the hard candy recipe that my mom always made...I was even feeling a little sadness that eventually no one would probably be able to make it anymore because you can't get the oils (we always had to get them at a pharmacy or drug store, weird huh?). Then my mom pointed out that I could probably find them on the Internet. DUH! Here I am, with over 12 years of Internet under my belt and I don't even think of that.
Wilton's carries a small selection, but Happy Cooker carries every flavor you can imagine! Whew! I feel better now.
Let the candy making begin!
Posted by crystallyn at 08:29 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
December 02, 2003
grumble grumble
I don't have health insurance. Neither does my husband. We can't afford it on our unemployment. LOTS of people can't afford insurance, even if they are working...small businesses have high premiums and self-employed individuals have the same hurdles in obtaining something affordable. Don't get me started about how messed up the health insurance is in our country. My pills cost me $39 a month since I don't have insurance...
I know someone who recently had to have a mammogram (she is worried about a lump) and couldn't afford to do it because the medical insurance through her company costs too much money. She had to rely on the goodness of foundations such as The American Cancer Society and the Susan G Komen Foundation. They helped pay for her tests, which she couldn't have done alone. The good news is, we can help. Go to the following link and click through...your click helps bring in funding from sponsors and helps thousands of women to be able to have early detection if there is something amiss.
Help Support Mammogram Funding
Click once a day. Pretty easy way to give this season, in my opinion.
Posted by crystallyn at 10:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 01, 2003
Launched!
Posted by crystallyn at 10:57 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack