New Years

In lieu of a 2007 retrospective, I bring you two snapshots of our life today:

1. Sometime last year, Charlie got put on a mailing list. But instead of his proper last name it somehow turned into "Charles Blown." I laugh with adolescent glee every time we get a new credit card offer for this fictitious person, or an envelope of random coupons. In the mail today was the funniest offer ever. It was an invitation for a subscription for a Conde Nast magazine, complete with travel agent discount. Charlie obviously has never held that position in his illustrious career. But somewhere, somehow, Charles Blown has helped people to realize their dreams of travel. And because of him we now are in possession of rather fancy heavy glossy luggage sticker-tags that proclaim His Property. Oh, go ahead. Laugh. You know you want to. Read the sticker out loud and guffaw.


2. We weren't really in a mood to celebrate the new year with fireworks and party kazoos. After Christmas excitement and veterinarian shenanigans a quiet evening at home sounded like just the thing. Charlie's assignment was to pick up something for dinner on the way home. We already had a bottle of champagne to drink at midnight. Instead of chicken cordon bleu, or fancy steak or lobster, tonight we dined on a completely delicious meal of vegetarian corn dogs, sweet potato french fries, onion rings, and an absolutely gorgeous local syrah. I retained my gourmet standing by not making the freakish ketchup-yellow mustard mixture that Charlie has to dip corn dogs in. I have my standards, you know. Spicy mustard all the way.

Happy new years!

Harry

the cat is on more medication than I am!

The past few days have been full of cat-related drama. Things appear to be mostly resolved now, but only after another middle of the night trip to the emergency vet which resulted in a 24 hour stay for mr. continual vomiting Harry.

feeling a bit better now, thanks

Instead of doing a barium-and-repeated-xray cycle we elected to try more iv liquids and more aggressive medication. Harry now sports festive shaved wristbands on each front leg, kind of like reverse terrycloth tennis bands. He still didn't have any interest in food, but with the help of an appetite stimulant he managed to eat a little bit while at the vet and didn't throw it back up. He's home again now and seems much better, constantly yowling for food and acting more like himself. Once he makes a, ahem, deposit in his litterbox then I can completely relax that there isn't a blockage. He's only getting tiny meals but eventually mother nature should help out with that last necessity and the poor guy can come out of the bedroom and play with his brother.

now FEED ME, WOMAN!

I was very impressed with the vet. The office was really pleasant and clean. Both times I showed up in the middle of the night and was greeted by a pleasant lab tech and a veterinarian that was smart and obviously good at what she did. I didn't feel at all like I was getting some swing-shift bottom of the barrel doctor. No dozing vets at the front desk! I will say that it was not inexpensive, but I frankly have no comparison point since the cats haven't been to any vet at all since they were young.

6.45 pm update: I have never been so happy to see cat poop in my life. Yay, Harry!

Gumbo Interruptus

We started out today with lazy intentions. After pottering around, Charlie made crepes for lunch with a heavenly Mornay and spinach sauce. Divine! Then he read a book while I chrocheted by the fire, and mid afternoon we began the turkey gumbo. The smoked turkey carcass had been languishing in the fridge and it became the star player in one of Charlie's best recipes. It is from an Emeril cookbook and usually features the thanksgiving turkey. This time we had not only a *smoked* turkey body but also quite a bit of leftover heavenly ham to add to the final stew.

The day was interrupted a few times by Harry throwing up. It's something that he does with moderate frequency, kind of annoying but it's an unavoidable part of cat ownership. When he started mewling piteously before hurling, I began to think something was wrong. He hung out at the water dish drinking water, then a half hour later would cry and vomit all of it. The mewling was bad enough (one never wants to hear their loved ones in pain) but during his last epic retch the resulting liquid was pink-tinged. Enter: efficient first aid mode. An all hours vet was procured (hovering on the cusp of 5pm, the local vet told me they were booked with emergencies until closing) one town over and we turned off the fire on the gumbo.


Poor Harry. We made it to the vet and they did bloodwork and xrays on him. Neither of us could think of a single thing that he could have illicitly ingested. After so many years we are militant about the particular kind of christmas ribbon that both cats can't resist eating. There weren't any bits of stuff in the vomit, as is usually the case with eaten plants and other items. It was a mystery. He was dehydrated, obvious because of all the lost liquid, but nothing else seems wrong. The vet gave him some IV liquids and a prescription for pepcid and another stomach soother. In hindsight, when I have bad stomach acid I also drink tons of water and occasionally throw up. Poor Harry! No one will know what set him off, but with all of the holiday cooking and treats given to him it could have been that heavenly ham after all. He's quarantined up in our bedroom for the night with no food or water, and will have a little tomorrow with boiled chicken. And some pepcid. Who knew it would work for cats!


We got home after 8 and resumed work on the gumbo. I super-whisked up the roux and charlie did the other prep while the rice cooked. Then we sat for forty agonizing minutes while the flavors melded. Charlie sat in a chair in the living room and read me recipes out of his new Spanish cookbook while I tried not to drool all over my crocheting. Then we stuffed ourselves and it was worth the wait. Sorry Harry, that we couldn't share with you.

Christmas

Charlie was up to greet the dawn, and take pictures

I slept restlessly, awakened by Charlie at 8 am shaking me and saying "I can't wait any longer!" I tumbled out of bed and onto the couch and mug of coffee-in-hand we opened all of our presents. Family presents are always so much fun. There is a subtlety of humor, a special thoughtfulness, gifts that are more than just things. Mom sent some great photos from her parent's younger days for our family photo wall. My grandfather has so many brothers and sisters that they had separate photo sittings for the boys and girls! We got a great photo of our niece Sienna, lovely clothes and awesome jewelry, movies and music, tidbits from Italy, and so many more wonderful things.

jelly

My gift from Charlie was a type of blown glass art that I swooned over on an Hawaii trip years ago. He found a local gallery that carried them and I am now the proud owner of a moon jelly. It's sitting on top of my computer desk, illuminated in the darkness of the room. While in the Sydney aquarium I mentioned that if I ever had a fancy fish tank it would only be for globed jellyfish, and he remembered!

Our friends fed us well at dinner tonight (thanks Andrew and Kristie!) and we played Rock Band until my foot hurt in a good way. I'm going to steal one more gingerbread man and go up to bed. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Christmas eve

3pm:
The smoked turkey is done unexpectedly early. I think it looks a bit freaky, dark and lumpy and kind of pulled back from the bones. I am unable to make any more complaints because suddenly Charlie has shoved a piece of it in my mouth and I am cooing with pleasure. So tasty! So subtle but very sophisticated. Tender and juicy like a regular baked turkey but with an elusive taste all through it. Verdict: success!



6.30pm:
Food! The kitchen is stuffed with food on every surface as people load plates and cram into the dining room. Fit twelve adults and four children around the table? Sure! We managed to do it. Everyone has been liberally dosed with milk punch and in the holiday spirit. Many ham-related quotes are bandied about, including a reference to Hamlet.



7.30:
Crazy present exchange. Charlie plays Santa while wearing his cork-festooned aussie hat. So many wonderful thoughtful gifts! Tonka trucks and cookbooks and baby shoes and remote thermometers and movies and bottles of wine and crepe pans and shirts and cheese books and bread puddings. Santa certainly came early for all of us tonight.



midnight:
Everyone has made their way home and Charlie and I have finished cleaning the kitchen. It's technically Christmas now, but I think somewhere it is a rule that you have to actually go to sleep in order to get Santa to come. And that's where I'm going! Must leave some cookies out on my way up to bed...

Christmas eve

12.45 pm

Ups truck rolls down the driveway. Yay! There is a driver and a package runner---must be busy today! Luckily the turkeys were hanging out in the coop and not underfoot. They like to mill around in the driveway and sometimes are a bit slow about getting out of the way of cars.

Two boxes for us from my parents. One chock full of presents and a few treasures from my grandparent's house. So exciting! There is a small granny square afghan that my great grandmother made, and a spectacular tablecloth. It's mostly an ivory color, delicate lace, but on one side gold threads have been woven through and it positively shimmers. It was a wedding present to my grandmother and I hereby promote it to heirloom status. I can't wait to put it on my table! Thanks mom for shipping, and thanks mom-mom for letting me give it a new home.


The best part of the box? The second one contained only one item. Growing up, our family typically spent the days before Christmas and Christmas morning at my grandparent's house. I loved rearranging the nativity scene under the tree, and gazing at my favorite Christmas decoration of all time: the ceramic tree. I've seen them in stores but newly made ones are nothing at all like mom-mom and pop-pop's tree. They aren't just tiny lights on the branches, they are shaped like delicate little candles. I am so excited to have it! Over the next year I'm going to refurbish it and re-wire it and will have to pick out the perfect place for it to be displayed during the holidays.

Christmas eve

8.26 am

Coffee has been joyously consumed. I got to put the star up on the advent calendar. It's a copy of the calendar that Charlie's mom made when he was small. I loved it so much that I made one for us. It has a few personal touches, like batman and a little cat head, but still has the more traditional candle and santa head. After Christmas, the ornaments will all be put willy-nilly into the date pouches except for the star. That always gets put up on Christmas eve. By next year, I won't remember where I put all of the ornaments so every day is a surprise.

Charlie took a few pictures of our nativity scene on top of the piano and we experimented with a photo stitch utility to make a panorama. Every year there are a few more additions to the creche. This year was a plumber, a unicorn, and just yesterday a diving man (you can see him peeking out of the port-a-potty). After this evening's festivities it will be interesting to see how things are rearranged. Who knows where that baby jesus might end up!

Christmas eve

7.30 am

I light the grill while Charlie does the dishes for what may be the first of one bazillion times. We have not yet turned on the Christmas music, but the tree is lit.

Must....have....coffee.

Christmas eve-eve

pretty white cornbread and one round of honey seed bread

We didn't leave the house today. It was a frenzy of cleaning and cooking. Fun, but a frenzy. I made four loaves of bread (two honey-seed and two buttermilk). Charlie made cornbread and then crumbled it up to make Mimi's sausage stuffing. He also made the yams with candied pecans so they can just be popped in the oven tomorrow to finish.

gobble glub glub

The turkey got put in brine and is out on the back deck keeping cold. This year our turkey is only 10 pounds so it was small enough to fit into a big plastic brining bag. Charlie made the astute observation that it looked like a bloated drowned corpse. Technically, I suppose, it is. But hopefully after almost 7 hours of smoking on the grill tomorrow it will be the tastiest corpse ever eaten.

There are still many things to cook for tomorrow but it's not overwhelming. Charlie cleaned the living room and took the opportunity to rearrange all of the presents underneath the tree. It's pretty crowded under there! I took a break tonight to finish up making a few more fabric bags and now all of the gifts have been wrapped.

Less than 24 hours until milk punch!

Christmas eve-eve-eve

We finished up grocery shopping for our Christmas Eve feast today. When cooking for guests, we usually try not to spring new recipes on them that haven't been tried before. Even when the guests are under ten years old. Tonight: macaroni and cheese. Charlie tried out a new recipe and it was absolutely delicious. He added some andouille sausage (which the kids won't get) and made some spicy fresh black eyed peas with jalapenos on the side. MmmMMmmM. The best part? The part we won't be able to test until Monday night? Right after finishing his plate (Charlie eats faster than I do) he mumbled something like "must laaay dowwwwwwn" and staggered into the living room and onto the couch. After my last forkful several minutes later I followed him, clutching a kitchen timer set to 20 minutes. The couch was full so I just fell gracefully to the floor with my feet up on a chair and my head under the christmas tree. I managed to think "what pretty lights" and then the timer was going off. We made narcoleptic macaroni and cheese! Parents, rejoice!

how big are the turkeys? Huge!

I also made some turkey stock from bits and pieces in the freezer stock supply and two absolutely enormous turkey wings bought at the grocery store. Charlie is smoking a turkey and I am going to brine it tomorrow. After brining the drippings aren't good for gravy because they are super salty. So you have to remember to make a few cups of turkey stock ahead of time or else your homemade gravy dreams are dust.

My foot is improving slightly. I can hobble around much better now. I'm beginning to see how it might be all better in two weeks when the stitches come out. I hope!

warm

The main road outside our house, last year

This time last year Charlie and I were rather cold. We had been without power for a few days and were still trying to get the house ready for the families to come visit. I remember laughing because we were using a hacksaw and miter box to trim the runners for sliding doors in the guest bedroom. We were installing closet doors, for pete's sake, and wearing hats and long underwear in the house because it was getting super cold. When it got dark every afternoon at 4pm we were forced to stop working and sat by the fire and played cribbage until we couldn't stay awake anymore.

Our road, a few miles down. We got all new power poles!

Today is much nicer. The furnace has warmed the house up to my morning treat of 70 degrees (before it slowly starts cooling off for the day). My foot is killing me, but I'm taming it with ice packs and have one more day of doctor's orders to not walk on it much. When I do walk, I now have a super snazzy cane that doubles as a cat-poker. Fun!

my hoof

Charlie's batman pillow grants me super healing powers

Foot surgery yesterday was a breeze. I went in, had IV sedation, got my foot shot up with novacaine and the good doctor sliced me open and shaved my bone down. See the bump on my left foot next to the base of my big toe? I had a much larger one on my right foot. I am not sure how much he removed, because when I asked to see the bone bits shortly after regaining consciousness, he looked at me like I was a little crazy and told me he had unfortunately already disposed of them. What can I say! I like to see my inside parts whenever possible. I was tickled, though, by the fact that everyone noticed my pedicure and was fascinated that I had made my feet pretty for surgery. In my mind, when going in for foot surgery the least you can do is make sure the doctor has something pleasant to look at!

Recovery seemed preposterously easy because my foot was pretty much completely numb until late this morning. During discharge the nurse kept asking me about my level of pain and the only thing I could tell her was that the IV site stung a little. I was told to keep the pain pills by my bed just in case I couldn't sleep through the agony.

Well, I couldn't sleep but it was because every time I heard something I would wake up because I thought it was one of the cats leaping onto my foot. They never did, but I was awake Just In Case. This morning after standing up a bit more than I should and taking a shower, I'm starting to feel like a horse stepped on my foot. It doesn't hurt where the incision was, but rather the rest of my foot. I imagine that during the surgery they must have torqued things strangely and my poor arch is trying to cope with it.

So here I sit. Charlie is feeding me on demand and we played a bit of halo 3 yesterday just for some mindless co-op. It was not horrible, but after playing Charlie's games I'm really spoiled and now demand that game designers actually make their character models distinct so I can tell who the hell I'm supposed to be shooting. Especially since friendly fire is on, and I never can quite tell if that moving blob I'm firing at is a bad guy or someone on my team. Yes, we're playing split screen co-op on an average size tv, but really what did you expect people to be playing your game on? A movie theatre screen?

My fifteen minute timer just went off. Time to put the bag of frozen corn back onto my foot!

Australia, the trip

Quantas supplies wee bottles of Australian wine

Maggi had already flown out to Sydney with Isaac several weeks beforehand, so it was just Charlie and Robin and I on the flight over. Whenever you mention going to Australia people always make a big to-do about the really long flight. Yes, it was very long. Robin I think managed it the best of all of us. He managed to sleep almost the entire time. Since we took an overnight flight I managed to sleep 5 hours or so because my body clock was agreeable. Charlie (the non-sleeper) took full advantage of the Quantus on-demand movies that you could watch on a screen embedded in the seat in front of you. It was a pretty slick setup and there were lots of movies to chose from.

Then suddenly we were in Australia. I was all a-twitter in customs since I wasn't sure if the two jars of jam I'd brought would cause me to be thrown into jail but all went well. We were off to Maggi's parents house right outside of Sydney. I cannot emphasize how lucky we were to go on this trip with people who had lived there. Maggi was a genie at public transportation. I love cities that have comprehensive public transport, but when you're trying to juggle different currency with not knowing any place names then it can be baffling. Maggi just forged ahead at every turn, telling us what bus or train or ferry or taxi to get into and how much to pay. It was fantastic!

wild sulphur-crested cockatoos

We had met Maggi's parents when they came to the states a few years ago so it was like visiting old friends when we got to their house. I sat outside in the backyard and listened to birds screeching. When I saw the first parrot I thought "oh! Someone has lost their parrot!" And then an entire flock of them shot overhead and landed in a neighbor's tree. A handful of huge white cockatoos with lemon yellow crests jabbering and crabbing away. Even after the different money and the summer weather in November and the driving on the wrong side of the road, those parrots were the first time I truly realized I was in a different country altogether. Parrots! Wild! In the trees! One evening we took a walk to Maggi's old school to see bigger flocks of them. At dusk they congregate in the trees and around the athletic fields.

The new gang

The turkeys have finally sort of figured things out. After their next-to-the-coop loitering act they spent one night out somewhere in the trees with Gladys. The turkeys follow her around constantly like two dimwitted thugs, and I know that when she went to her customary tree at dusk they were right behind her. They probably stood under that tree all damn night, wondering where she had gone.

Cold weather helped. After one night out in sub zero temperatures that heating lamp in the coop was looking mighty fine I'm sure. Every night since then they've needed a bit of a nudge to get in there at dusk but the bonus has been that I've managed to herd Gladys in with them. I can only hope that this pattern will imprint itself on their tiny pea brains but who knows. For now, the three of them are sitting on the same perch for the night. I can sleep well knowing that only a raccoon with wire cutters could eat them. Another interesting side effect is that I may find out if Gladys is laying any eggs. She's certainly old enough, but I've never been able to find any.

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Had the pre op appointment for my foot surgery today. On friday I'll have some bone shaved off of my right foot where a hideous bunion has been plotting evil deeds. After three weeks of showering with a goofy looking bag over my dressings, my foot will hopefully be more normally shaped. And most of all not hurt like a bastard any time I wear shoes. Yay, science!

tree

Finally, blogger is letting me upload pictures! Here is the aforementioned freak-tastic tree.

It's beginning to look a lot

like it's finally Christmas. Yesterday I busted my bottom cleaning up the front yard and putting up colored lights in the tallest pine tree in the driveway. Much of the busting involved moving lots of lumber from the front of the porch to the side, where it will hibernate under a tarp till spring. My limits? I have found them with that damnable aviary. It's too big for me to build myself, and with the days so short and rainy it is difficult to get Charlie to help me except on the weekends. Being a person who works on a computer all day (and sits in an office without a window, no less) he loves that it is dark for much of the day. It isn't very conducive to construction however. So the turkeys are free-ranging during the day and closed in the chicken coop at night. They are getting big enough that they can't flap around in the coop, and I don't want to imitate factory farming here on my own land.

And what did they do tonight? When I got home after dark, I saw two white blobs loitering in the yard approximately 20 feet from the coop. I half expected one of them to furtively scrub out a cigarette and pop a piece of gum to cover up the smell of alcohol. They were like two rebellious teenagers 20 feet from where they were supposed to be, but defiant till the end. I had to herd them into the coop and lock them in. I told them a bedtime story about enormous drooling bears but don't think it will make a difference.

We got a christmas tree today when Charlie got home from work and I had great fun decorating it. I had the bright idea to use my little tripod to take a photo of it all lit up and pretty, and for some reason the camera decided to make it look like a Totally Alien Christmas Hedge of Craziness. I am not even going to bother to try to fix it in photoshop. Take my word that it appropriately pine-colored in real life.

Bah, our internet connection is freaky and it doesn't like me uploading photos. I'll get that in tomorrow I hope!

Auntie again!

Why no Australia posts? Well, upon returning home we were greeted with a snowstorm and then the mother of all rainstorms. The result: me last night in the front yard wearing galoshes and a slicker, trying to create a dam out of wood, rocks, and bags of sand to divert the river that was suddenly flowing under our porch. No damage done to the house, but after seeing the news footage of mudslides and entire apartment complexes in downtown Woodinville underwater, I thought it prudent to do something. The rain has abated, and we are looking forward to a few calm days so the earth had better start soaking this stuff in. I was pleasantly surprised that no trees fell on our property, and we never lost power.

Eros once again, limb-loosener, whirls me
sweetbitter, impossible to fight off, creatures stealing up.
--Sappho (the ancient greek lyric poet)

In more exciting news, I am an Auntie again! Sappho Isolde was born at 3.30 Monday morning to my amazingly pain-tolerant viking sister. While chatting to my mom on the phone during her unmedicated labor, she casually passed the phone to her husband during the most intense contractions. Sappho, I cannot wait to meet you. And clothe you, of course. More dresses to make!

Back from the Outback

We have returned from our Australia adventure. Jet lag is kicking my tender posterior, so here is a quick glimpse at the fun. More tales to come!

While in Melbourne, we visited a wildlife park where I got to fulfill my dream of petting a kangaroo. (approximately two weeks later, Robin's mother served us an absolutely delicious kangaroo dish and I have to say eating was almost as fun as petting)

There was a nice british chap on the waterfront in Sydney taking pictures of his lawn gnome. He was kind enough to let me borrow him to take a picture of my own, since I'm such a gnome fan. Must say that I'm jealous, since it's really difficult to find these types of gnomes in the states. They have to be in the style of Rien Poortvliet.