Future Classic

1. I spent yesterday shopping, cleaning, and, cooking for members of Cary's family who rarely visit and were coming over for dinner.
2. Soon after they arrived it became clear that my brother-in-law was quite ill. (He mentioned on the phone that they were a little under the weather but was pretty non-specific and since we see them next to never and all were hesitant to postpone the visit).
3. Before long he was under a polar weight wool blanket, or otherwise indisposed, and mentioned he wouldn't be eating.
4. Everything else seemed to be going relatively OK, except Henry kept telling their five year old that she looked "sleepy," and I thought he was being rude...
5. Until she vomited all over my (just cleaned) kitchen floor.

So now they are caring for sick children very far from home with the prospect of a plane ride tomorrow, and we are wondering how much celebrating we will be doing on New Years this year. Stay posted, gentle readers, this could generate volumes of blog-worthy material.

Cookie Disaster Update

I can't even give the "cookie cereal" to my sister-in-law as a joke because Sufi clawed her way into the bag in the middle of the night!

Sliced Lime Cookie Disaster

1. Every year I make a particular type of lime cookie that my sister-in-law, of whom I am very fond, happens to love. And every year they get harder and harder to make. They are a recipe from Martha Stewart (back when The Big House just meant her place in Connecticut).
2. Last year I attributed the cookies falling apart to my sloppy measurement of flour, and I wrote myself a stern note, "Measure flour with care!"
3. This year I was dreading making these cookies, but I don't really do much baking, and I have very few "special" recipes, so I hated to give up. My Mother-in-law once called them, "Little slices of Heaven." And the woman can cook, so she would know.
   
4. I measured with care. And I am sure I furrowed my eyebrows too.
   
5. The damn things fell apart again.
6. But at one point in time my sister-in-law had said something like, "These are so good, I wish I could eat them as breakfast cereal." I told her I was not mass producing them for a.m. consumption. Even when they turned out I still hand dipped each one in powdered sugar.
   
7. But this year when I lost an entire tray to mysterious crumbling, I thought, why not sprinkle some powdered sugar on them, give her a bag full and call it breakfast.
8. Of course this is a joke, but I think two years of miserable failure is enough and I am retiring the recipe.

Because nobody else asked, that's why!

My Top Ten Albums of 2006
1. The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine
Endless repetition doesn't lessen its brilliance. "How could I get so far with a head so empty?" Indeed.
2. Head Like a Kite - Random Portraits of the Home Movie
Discovered by me through pure luck (thanks, Danny) and criminally overlooked by everyone else except my Mom.
3. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Who knew I would enjoy returning to my 97 Rock roots?
4. Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, and Wives and Raised by Wolves EPs
Two EPs, yep, and I am counting them as one because it's my list and I can do whatever I want.
5. The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love
I am truly a sucker for anything with cowbell. "Whoo! Alright Yeah Uh Huh" was the best dance song of the year.
6. The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control
Dear Beth Ditto, Please get your driver's license and bring your fabulous band to Buffalo, 'kay. Love, Em
7. Cat Power - The Greatest
I was fully prepared to dislike this record, and to distrust Chan's recovery, but both appear to be completely wonderfully for real.
8. Johanna Newsom - Ys
She plays the harp, and was I ever prepared to hate it. And lo, it's actually really great.
9. Roommate - Songs the Animals Taught Us
Why oh why has no one heard this record??? Will someone please buy it now!
10. The Lovely Feathers - Hind Hind Legs
"Pope John Paul, Where You From? Krakow, Poland! Krakow, Poland!"

Damn you, Gravity!

1. Last night I was so tired, but I needed a snack. I would have happily just taken a pill to stop being hungry -- I didn't even feel like chewing and swallowing.
2. But I went to get a granola bar out of the pantry when in my holiday, slightly hypoglycemic, post-virus haze I knocked a jar of hot chili oil out off of the shelf and onto the floor where the lid popped off.
3. Although the jar didn't break the oil did run all over the floor including under the refrigerator!
4. I cleaned up as well as I could. I used an old chopstick to force a paper towel under the fridge to get the oil up, after spraying the hell out of the area with clear Windex.
5. Then, exhausted and defeated, I ate my granola bar and went to bed.
6. But this morning our house smelled like a cheap Noodle shop, which isn't exactly what I had in mind for the holidays. My mom offered to take the kids so I could mop the floor.
7. Fortunately the story has a happy ending. I had forgotten to take out the trash, which was full of chili oil soaked paper towels. So after mopping and trash removal (and a thorough trash can cleaning) nearly 24 hours later my one stupid mistake was finally behind me.
   

Beyond the Olmec Dude

File under What Went Right:
Check out my first published review that features an acutal byline, not that I don't love the Oversized Olmec Dude to pieces. And while you are at it, check out the Venuszine in both its print and online forms because the magazine is one of my favorites, which makes having even a small piece published under its umbrella that much sweeter. Hopefully I will be able to manage a repeat performance. Special thanks to Aliza for clueing me into Venus' existence.

File under What Went Wrong:
The Hold Steady is playing in Buffalo tonight and I had already basically opted not to go (9 am Drs appt., and a dinner party tomorrow night make staying out until 1 am on a school night seem unappealing), but even if I had decided to go I wouldn't be at the show right now because I am sick.

A glimpse of what will go wrong in the future...

Young@Heart sing 'Schizophrenia' by Sonic Youth

Sometimes I worry about what will happen to me when I am too old to go to shows, or listen to music because I will have gone deaf from too much headphone time. Yep, I am still worried.
This also happens to be my favorite Sonic Youth song of all time, but having people near the end of their lives sing it definitely gives it a different spin.

A Message From Santa

1. I am posting from Em's blog today to say there will be some changes taking regarding the way I deliver presents to Henry and Lucy.
2. Because the Christmas tree is visible from the upstairs and Henry can no longer be trusted to stay in bed until a parent collects him on Christmas morning, all presents from the North Pole will now be wrapped.
3. However, in order to distinguish my handiwork from Em, as is her wish, I was shopping at Michael's today for a way to really set my gifts apart.
4. I have decided to wrap all of the presents delivered by myself and my reindeer in plain brown craft paper which will be accented in red eyelash yarn for Henry and green for Lucy. If the present is to be shared I will use both. Tags will be rubberstamped so my identity will remain shrouded in mystery for years to come. I am certain this will be a troublefree and aesthetically pleasing method and bloggers everywhere will laud my craftiness. Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

A Message From Em:
What went wrong here? Do you even have to ask? My blog has been hi-jacked. My personality was split. And I found myself involuntarily making not one but two trips to Michaels for polyester eyelash yarn. And Lucy did not nap. And Henry knocked my shoe box full of Christmas cards in progress down off of the bookshelf and everything went everywhere!

Good Times

1. My 50th review was posted on Amp Camp, and it's for the Lovely Feathers, a band I really like too.
2. I have been migraine free since November 11th which is some sort of personal best.
3. I think I just paid off our car yesterday.
4. And we got our Christmas tree up with a minimal struggling and swearing

Of course, I am fully aware that a "what went right" post means that things are about to go wrong, very, very wrong...