Month: November 2008

Thanksgiving Eve

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

In the years I lived in Champaign, Thanksgiving Eve was always the best night to go out.  The sorts of people who go out on Thanksgiving Eve can be generally broken into two camps: those who are home for the holiday and happy to be out seeing friends and loved ones, and those who are avoiding either the friends/loved ones or don’t have them to begin with.  In short, it’s an ideal night to go out if you want to have one drink with people, or if you want to sit at the end of the bar with your beer and read your book for a while.  I miss that.

It’s Thanksgiving Eve here in Alexandria, and our apartment is humming with laundry and dishes and puttering as we get ready for Jason and Sonya to arrive in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.  We’ve dispensed with tradition, so tonight we made no pies, prepped no mashed potatoes.  Instead, we hit Rustico’s happy hour, where we split a fantastic grilled cheese, then ran a few errands, visited Michigan and Iko (two of our four pet wards for the weekend), and made pumpkin ice cream for dinner #2 over the weekend.  Even though it’s been a 3 day work week, it feels like it’s been a loooong 3 days, and I’m delighted for 4 days off.

In the morning I’ll post my list of thanks, probably over my morning cup of coffee for which I’m ALWAYS thankful.  What are you thankful for this year?

23 November

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I haven’t really posted anything of substance in a few days.  Sorry about that.  I blame it on the fact that despite having to work yesterday, we managed to have a productive, fun, and friend-filled weekend.  Friday night’s date plan devolved into separate workplace happy hours, followed by an (always) awesome pizza at Rustico, where we scored a table just when we thought all hope was lost.  There’s just no explaining how good the pizza is there.  It’s THAT good.  We haven’t had one we didn’t like, though some seem to reheat better than others.  Anyway.

Yesterday we picked up our Thanksgiving stuff – a pork shoulder, wine, misc veggies, Nutella – and then had a fun-filled night of beer, wine, video games for 7 year olds, cats, and Sipes.  We were defeated at Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy, but made a really decent showing at Katamari.

This morning we revelled in our! new! coffeemaker!  It’s a crappy $25 deal from Target, but it brews FOR ME and also has a thermal carafe, both of which perfectly met our vaguely hung over needs.  The day was devoured by a trip to IKEA (resulting in a colorful new duvet, a cast iron casserole, and other miscellany), rearranging the house to accomodate the new miscellany (and discovering wonderful order in the process), leek and cheese soup, and tv while working on projects.  Mina sat in my lap without kneading for at least two hours.

Despite (or perhaps because of) all this, I really wish that tomorrow weren’t Monday – but at least this week is a short one, and I get to round it out with lots of time with visiting friends.  What are YOUR plans for Thanksgiving?

20 November 2008

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This just in: SB has fallen in love with Baltimore.  He was up there for a couple of days for SPARC and stayed with CSers in a very awesomely goth rowhouse near Johns Hopkins, and is now a little bit convinced that we need to move there.  Jackie and I drove up Tuesday night (despite my illness) to join him to see Iron & Wine at the horrible horrible Ram’s Head LIVE! – my first time in Baltimore other than drives by en route to Philly or BWI.  The show was great, despite the smelly large man standing directly in front of me, and we had amazing  yogurt in the morning at Carma’s Cafe before heading home.  I’m not sure I’m in love with the town, but I am eager to go back when we have more time to explore.

In other news, Basil has figured out that he can get Mina to give up her prime spots by bothering her with love and affection.  In the last 3 days I’ve seen him lick her head until she moved, climb on top of her until she moved, and also head-butt her until she moved.  What a jerk cat!

Brita® and Preserve® Announce Filter Recycling Program

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Brita® and Preserve® Announce Filter Recycling Program:

“In a nutshell, beginning in January, folks will be able to drop off filters at Whole Foods Markets or mail them in. Preserve, a U.S. company manufacturing household products from recycled plastic, will recycle 100% of the plastic casing. And the filter material will be regenerated or converted to energy.”

I’m randomly pretty excited about this, in no small part because I joined a listserv dedicated to collecting Brita filters and returning them to the company in order to convince them to start recycling. It apparently worked!

18 November 2008

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Not much to report today, sadly, and not a whole lot on my mind that I can expound upon at great length.  I woke up feeling lousy, and spent most of the day either in bed or on the couch, though I did attempt to get some work done on a couple of Christmas projects.  Mina staged a three ring circus in order to cheer me up.  It mostly consisted of heroic leaps between pieces of furniture, and also her knocking things over.  I appreciated the effort.

17 November 2008

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I really intended to get things done tonight, but instead I had hot chocolate with whipped cream AND chocolate syrup AND marshmallows and took a long bath to soak out the frustrations of the day.  Tomorrow will be another long one at work, followed by a drive up to Baltimore with Jackie and then IRON AND WINE!

SB has been in Baltimore since yesterday afternoon at a meeting/conference thing, which seems to be going well for him.  It’s odd to be home without him, though it’s happened with greater frequency in this apartment than either of the last two.  Something just feels – off – when he’s away, and I can’t wait for him to be home.