follow-up

Quick follow-up to yesterday's blather (I'll probably add more later): for those interested,
here's a picture of the award. :-)

cold

It's darned cold in Toronto.

Ruth read my blatherings yesterday and said that even though there isn't much snow in my area, there is a ton of snow a bit north in Toronto. People have had to dig their walks and cars out from beneath a lot of snow, and kids are going tobogganning in the playgrounds.

Sara just called me yesterday to announce that there were only two days left until Christmas. We commiserated briefly about how exciting everything was, and then I asked her if she would teach me how to skate someday.
Her answer: "It's very easy, Auntie Debbie. You should put your left foot out, then your right foot, then your left foot, then your right foot."

Our friend Andrew (from California) is in town, and a bunch of us are getting together for lunch at Babur on Queen St. today.

Although I still haven't brought up our Christmas tree (will do that for sure today, though), I did buy a ponsettia yesterday and set it proudly atop our piano. I was also up until 3 am last night (insomnia) and finished wrapping presents as well as stringing up our Christmas cards on ribbon and hanging them across the bookshelves behind the piano.

Blatant PR Plea: If any of you have seen an issue of my newsletter for writers, Inklings, could you possibly take a moment and give it a Ezines Database rating of 1 to 5? You can vote using the form at the bottom of my Inklings webpage. Thanks!

yuletide greetings

Hey look, I finally brought up our tree from our locker today! It was a bit wrinkled-looking so I had to straighten the branches and reorganize the decorations. Then I added a few new ones I've accumulated recently and ta-daaa...good as new! And just in time...

Also, I forgot I still have Allison's Randolph-the-Edible-Reindeer replacement in my office! Last year, Allison gave me a candy cane reindeer with pipe cleaner antlers. Having Randolph staring at me all day was just too much, and I began eating him, a bit at a time. Allison and others were horrified at my cannibalism, and Allison gave me a NON-EDIBLE reindeer replacement, which I've kept in my office the year 'round. I'm going to hang him on our tree.

Went wandering through the underground mall for some extra stocking stuffers, and was surprised at how deserted the stores seemed.

Jeff and I are having dinner at home tonight (salmon and asparagus, yum), then it's off to start the familyvisitstuff beginning tomorrow. Not sure how much I'll be online between now and Sunday, so just in case...

HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON, EVERYONE! :-)

boxing day

Happy Boxing Day! Did Christmas dinner with my family last night, doing the Christmas dinner thing with Jeff's family tonight. I feel like all I've been doing is EATING lately. :-)

My family Christmas dinner was sukiyaki, with the cooking done in a common pan in the middle of the table. Ingredients consisted of whatever you felt like throwing in the pot...thinly sliced meat, vermicelli noodles, mushrooms, sliced mountain potato (that's what my dad called it, was sort of rubbery and pale yellow), bean sprouts, spinach, cubed tofu, all cooked in a thin soy-based sauce, with steamed rice on the side.

Traditionally, my family used to make something called mochi on New Year's Day. My grandfather would add water to rice flour (there may have been other ingredients, but I can't remember), then mix it thoroughly using an electric drill with mixing attachment (!). The drill was poked through a hole in a cutting board, which covered the mochi pot to keep the mochi from escaping during the mixing process. We kids got the job of holding down the board while my grandfather did the mixing.

After the paste was smooth and thoroughly mixed, Grandpa would pour the hot mixture out in thin slabs on waxed paper that had been spread out on the table and sprinkled with flour by my mom and my grandmother. When the mochi slabs had cooled, they were cut into squares. At that point, you could prepare/eat the mochi in a number of different ways...fried, boiled, added to soups, etc. My favourite way was to have a square of mochi fried so that it puffed up in the middle and the edges crisped a bit. Then you could take it and dip it into a mixture of sugar and soy sauce (sounds healthy, doesn't it? :)) and yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

After my Grandpa died, we stopped making mochi on a regular basis. I think my mom did it once or twice, but after she died we had to rely on store-bought mochi, which isn't nearly as good. :-)

Ok, so now I wanna hear about any of YOUR holiday or New Year's rituals!

back to work

Jeff and I are back to work today, though I'm taking a couple hours off this afternoon to see a movie with my dad (but back to work through the evening). Buckling down and doing a thorough (and way overdue) business plan. Bought BUSINESS PLANS FOR DUMMIES, which is actually pretty good so far. :-)

Saw SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE yesterday with Jeff and Andrew, and I loved it!

Andrea's chatter page has a new url: http://merlynproductions.com/zencuppa.html.

Update: whoops, looks like no movie with my dad after all...he had to cancel
at the last minute (turns out the traffic's way too crazy and he won't make it in time for the showing he wanted). We're going to reschedule.

Well, there goes my last attempt at procrastination. :-) Back to that business plan...

Yet another update: felt draggy late afternoon, went to the health club to try to work off some of the chocolate I've pigged out on over the holidays. Felt much better after.

Officemusic: The Ultimate Bobby Darin, Fleetwood Mac: Rumours, Stan Rogers: Northwest Passage.