Changing the Traditions of Black Friday

I’m a little annoyed about Black Friday this year.

Last year, after Black Friday, I wrote a blog complaining about how irritating it was that Walmart had two sales- one at midnight on Black Friday and one at 4 a.m. Due to the midnight sale, those of us who got up early to make the 4 a.m. sale were screwed out of most of the good bargains. I know it served both me and my sister right for being lazy for not wanting to stay up really late after a day of spending time with the family, helping cook a massive meal, wrangling dogs and entertaining children. Instead, we chose to sleep a little and then got up super early to go to the Walmart 4 a.m. sale and then go onto the other 5 a.m. sales.

So, imagine my irritation this year now that Black Friday has become Black Thanksgiving. Walmart is now starting their sale at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Toys R’ Us are starting at 9 p.m. Never mind the fact that some people actually want to spend the day eating turkey and relaxing with family without having to plan on how they’re going to be able to make it to the store at 9 p.m. in order to try to compete for bargains.

I suppose the easiest thing for me to do would be to just shut up and not bother going to the sales if I really am that irritated at it.

It’s just that, well, I don’t like having to make that decision. Most of the stores are opening at midnight this year- Target and Macy’s come to mind. This means that shoppers can celebrate Thanksgiving and then, after probably drinking wine with their meal, heading out to wait in line for the stores to open. Alternatively, they can spend a portion of their day sleeping so they are refreshed in order to go out and about and shop.

Either way, it seems a little bit rude to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Ironically, I’m British. My family wasn’t raised with Thanksgiving. We only started celebrating it because we moved to the States and it was part of the culture. Now we celebrate because we have American ‘interlopers’ in the family who do celebrate.

Still, given that Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time for relaxing, reflecting, spending time with family and/or friends and, you know, BEING THANKFUL, isn’t it a little disrespectful to interrupt the day making people have to decide between tradition and bargains?

I’m not the only one who thinks so. A Target employee from Nebraska started a petition online requesting that Target open at 5 a.m. like always because opening at midnight is ruining Thanksgiving for the employees who have to work.

I agree with him. I don’t work at Target but I did work in a video rental store that was open 365 days a year and, let me tell you, it sucks to have to bolt down your Thanksgiving dinner and then go listen to people complain because you don’t have a copy of “Dumb and Dumber” in stock. It also sucks if you go home and you have to have your Thanksgiving dinner reheated on the plate ‘cause you had to work while everyone else in the family had time to eat.

Also, it’s just awkward timing because there are stores opening at 5 a.m. Now the choice becomes do you want to go do some shopping on Thanksgiving night, get home at 1 or 2 a.m. sleep for two hours and go back out or do you want to stay up all night?

Either way, I don’t like it. I’m not a late night person, I prefer to get up early and get out and about. I liked it when people called my sister and I crazy but getting up at 3:15 a.m. in order to get to Walmart and be there when it opened at 4 a.m. Sure, it was crazy but it was the beginning of a day where we’d move on to other stores, pause for lunch somewhere and be done by 2 p.m. Now, if we follow this plan, most of the stores opening at midnight or earlier will most likely be out of the doorbuster bargains and it really won’t be any different to shopping on a regular day.

I’m disappointed, I admit. Granted, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a small thing to be disappointed about. It’s just that like Thanksgiving itself, the 4 a.m. shopping trips were tradition for my sister and I and I don’t like it when people mess with tradition. I love the time with my sister because we don’t get to go out together as much as we used to and this has become our day.

I just don’t like that it’s not a straight shot anymore. You can either eat turkey, shop, go to bed and get up again, you can eat turkey, run to Walmart, run home, sleep for three hours and then go out again or you can skip the sleep entirely and most likely be quite unpleasant the next day.

Still, even with the petition, the circulars are printed and the store hours are set, at least for this year. The sad part is that now the stores have changed the tradition, they’re probably going to keep the new one for a while.

Is it so wrong that I want to enjoy my Thanksgiving day without having to think about fighting people in Walmart for a $3 chopper a few hours after eating my turkey?

Happy Friday and thanks for reading!

Christmas Shopping...in November....

As always, this weekend has gone way too fast! It actually seems like life is going by too fast. When you get to Autumn and Halloween passes, suddenly it seems like there are very few weekends between now, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sure, in terms of days, it seems like a lot but in terms of weekend, there's not as many as there could be in order to get things done.

It's not like I'm even that much of a busy person. It's more that I like to drag out celebrating Christmas and when it's broken down into the cold hard facts of there being about 8 weekends between now and then, it really doesn't seem like much particularly when you're already getting invitations to do stuff, there are birthdays in there and work, as always, might get in the way.

So, I'm trying to get a head start. I actually started Christmas shopping in August. Yes, I know it's early but I'm a firm believer in being prepared and even if it's four months early, if I see something someone I know will like and it's at the right price, it will keep for a few months. I still have a lot to buy, however.

The funny thing is that there are quite a few days until Christmas. Even though I work every day, that's not to say I can't do stuff after work. Also, there are still about eight weekends until Christmas. It might be seven or eight. If I had a calendar nearby, I'd count but...I don't and I'm lazy.

Regardless, I'm feeling oddly...panicked already about Christmas which is...wierd. Normally, I don't get that panicked about the holidays because, as I said, I like to be prepared. It's only when you're lying in bed, two days before Christmas Day, running through the checklist of what you've bought and for whom you've bought gifts and you realize, oops...you still haven't got that thing for person X. I know, I know...Christmas isn't really about the gifts and there's more meaning to it than that. I'm not saying there isn't. Yet the cold hard fact of the matter is if you're passing out gifts to your family and you realize that, crap, you forgot to get something for your sister-in-law, etc...you feel like a complete loser of a twit.

Thus, even though it is about much more than gifts, gifts are a part of the celebration. So, buying gifts is part of Christmas...

No, I think my feelings of panic are entirely the fault of retailers who decided that the day after Halloween was a perfectly fine time to overly bedeck the halls, slam us with Christmas advertisements and start having Christmas sales with great prices.

My mistake is that I went shopping on Saturday. I went innocently- one of the warehouse outlets near me was having a great sale on a fold up table and I'd offered to go get one for my parents who are officially starting a Kids Table at Thanksgiving this year. Since they have no actual table at which to sit the kids, the one I saw in the ad would have been perfect.

I got the table with no problems. However, the store was also having a huge sale on Christmas decorations and toys. Even though I try NOT to jump into Christmas until at least Thanksgiving, I usually resist. However, it's quite easy to get sucked in. My strategy is to try to buy ahead so that there's not too much financial stress right before Christmas. I figured it wouldn't hurt to look.

So I did. I found a gift for my niece. It was a great price and I think she'll like it. However, this find of a gift coupled with the Christmas-bedazzled store and the strange, distant sound of Christmas carols flipped a switch into my brain. Immediately, I began to scour the shelves to find gifts for my other niece and my two nephews. I couldn't find anything that jumped out at me and for one moment, I had that brief urgent distress signal flare up: WHAT IF I CAN'T FIND A GIFT FOR THEM? WHAT IF IT'S THE WRONG GIFT AND THEY HATE IT.

Fortunately, I am actually a mostly rational human. I immediately had an internal dialogue with that side of my brain in which the Christmas switch had flipped that went something like this:

"DUDE! CALM DOWN."
"I CAN'T! I NEED TO BUY GIFTS."
"Sweetie, it's November the Fifth. It's Guy Fawkes Day."
"Thanks for reminding me. I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING THEY'LL LIKE!"
"My point is- It's THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER."
"Yes. And?"
"YOU HAVE EIGHT WEEKS! In eight weeks, I'm quite sure that you'll be quite capable of not only buying gifts for the kids but the adults as well."
"Oh. Ok. WAIT! Should I look for gifts for the adults?"
"No."
"No? But.."
"Shut up and go buy shampoo."
"Oh. Ok."
"And you need drain opener too. Have a look for that."
"Ok. Do you think...?"
"No. Go buy drain cleaner."

You get my point, right? I know that one of the reasons for Christmas saturation beginning so early is that the retailers know that with the economy still being pretty bad, people are trying to stretch out their spending...much like me. It makes it much easier to buy gifts if you're thrust into the season as soon as you walk into a store even if it is only the first week of November.

It's just that, for the first time, even though I have some gifts, I'm already feeling behind which is ridiculous.

It's not just me. The pups and I were walking today and we noticed at least one house that had their decorations up. I get the need to start shopping earlier but, really...decorations? Really? It's quite hard to understand when it's a balmy 65 degrees out, the trees are still quite leafy- albeit splendours in their autumn colours and there are still tomatoes on the vines.

Ah well...I'm sure in a couple of weeks, I'll be contemplating putting my decorations up too...I suppose it doesn't matter really what the date is, does it? When you're ready to start celebrating Christmas, you're ready to start celebrating Christmas...I think I just need to stop fighting it.

It doesn't mean I'm going to go into full panic mode though...not yet, anyway. There's still plenty of time...as long as I keep telling myself that, I'll be fine.

Right?

Happy Monday!

Don't Rush Me Through the Seasons!

I never did see any fireworks last night. Instead, as expected, I had two rather frightened dogs curled up next to me- woofing and jumping each time one of the bangs and whistles of the fireworks got too loud.

Now, the skies are silent and Independence Day has passed again for another year. Summer is solidly underway.

As I said in my blog from the other day, I’m learning to appreciate summer a little more with age. Without the heat and humidity, the bright neon shades of plastic tablewear and the sound of children biking through the neighbourhood, I wouldn’t appreciate the other seasons. That’s always the way.

However, there’s a time and a place for appreciating the other seasons and sometimes, it’s just too soon to start doing so. For example, I went in a store the other day and they were selling all their spring/summer merchandise at a discount and were already displaying Halloween and Autumn décor.

Don’t get me wrong. When it comes around, I’m a huge fan of Autumn. I love the cooler, crisper nights, the leaves as they turn colours and the smell of pumpkin-scented everything.

Yet, it’s not time yet. We still need the intense heat and humidity of summer to oppress us to the point that we feel we can’t take it anymore. The grass is still green and healthy. When it’s a dried shade of greenish yellow because the dryness and heat of the summer has taken it’s toll, then it might be time for the autumn décor.

It’s much like seeing Christmas merchandise in stores at this time of year. It has no power over us. In July, the Santa Clauses, the cuddly snowmen and the sparkle of tinsel are just items that might register in our awareness but they don’t matter. Not yet. I don’t know about you but there’s something that happens to me when I find a clearance shelf in a store that’s riddled with super cheap Christmas stuff in July. The thing that happens to me is that my brain simply doesn’t pay it any mind. It simply is just ‘junk’ that has most likely been sitting there so long that it’s broken, chipped or just not worth buying.

It’s interesting because when it’s in season, I love Christmas. I’m always sad when it’s over and I hold onto it as long as I can. Yet, as the weeks pass, so does the urge to eat candy canes and drink eggnog.

Well, actually, since I think eggnog is quite revolting, that’s a bit of a fabrication but you know what I mean.

My point, and I do have a point, is that while time passes quickly, more so as we get older, it doesn’t help when things are unnecessarily rushed. I know there are crafty folk out there who like to get a head start on the seasonal stuff and it makes sense that you can buy supplies for that whenever you need to do so.

However, for the rest of us, it’s unnecessary to be looking at a jack o’ lantern or a witch holding a jack o’ lantern in July.

I know I’ve blogged about similar things before, primarily with the holidays. Stores now start stocking Christmas stuff before the Halloween candy is even needed. I fully expect to go to Target in a month and start seeing the first red and green tones of the festive holiday season creep in and take over the space formerly occupied by lawn chairs and grills.

The thing is, life passes quickly enough on its own. No matter how hard we try onto certain moments, feelings and memories, time keeps moving forward and creating new ones. We don’t need to be rushed forward any more that life already manages to do.

Seasons should be organic and natural. When summer is really winding down, we know. Here in the Midwest, it comes with the slow and gentle fading out of the crickets and cicadas. The grass, as I mentioned, starts to lose it’s green sheen and becomes lackluster. There’s the slightest hint of a chill to the air though it hasn’t arrived yet. The summer clothes and flipflops start feeling wrong. The appeal of a thicker sweater, socks and closed-toe shoes grows.

At this point, it’s time for Autumn décor. It’s time to bring out the scarecrows, the cider and the pumpkins.

The same goes for every season. With winter, no matter how much I love snow, the sudden appeal of daffodils, sunshine and blue skies arrives. The bulky winter clothes start feeling like too much. The taste of root vegetables and gravies is no longer as pleasurable and the longing for a fresh, sunwarmed tomato and the smell of fresh basil grows.

You get the idea. It’s an organic thing. We just know. We don’t need stores to try to force the process. As consumers, we know when it’s time. It’s just as when we go in the store, see Christmas displays and suddenly feel a leap of pleasure at the cute snowmen, shiny Santas and peppermint stripes.

As I said, we just know when it’s time. It’s an innate sense of knowing when the seasons are changing and we must keep up. You can’t force it.

This is why I can continue to enjoy the sounds, smells and taste of summer without feeling a sense of panic that it’s almost over already. There are still several moments of heat. We haven’t even hit the ‘dog days’ yet.

By that time, I might just be ready for pumpkins and scarecrows. But for now…I’m not. I’ll stick with my butterflies and flowers.

Happy Wednesday!

Rainy Days and New Shoes...

I'm hoping I actually get to publish my blog today. I wrote one on Friday and tried in vain to publish it but, alas, my blogging site was down all day.

I'm trying again tonight. Hopefully, I'll have more luck.

It's one of the Sunday evenings where I can't believe that the weekend is over. It feels like it was just beginning on Friday when I came home, kicked off my shoes and enjoyed some down time with the dogs.

Now, I've finally finished cleaning my house, am finishing up the laundry and I feel like I've barely had time to do half the things on my mental list.

Ah well, that's the nature of weekends. Unfortunately, this was another rainy weekend. It's becoming a little frustrating that since spring began, we've had maybe one weekend where it didn't rain and that was right at the very beginning. It's a nuisance for us gardeners. I currently have a forest of weeds in what I was planning to make into my vegetable garden and it's simply too wet to get out there and do anything about it. In addition, I have a patio rug and furniture that I've yet to set out because we haven't had more than two non-rainy days together in weeks and I have an unused firepit that I bought on sale for $35 just sitting in the box.

In short, I'm completely sick of rain. I know I'm not the only one. My parents' have had rain too and my mother is starting to get frustrated that she can't get outside to work on the weeds and do some planting.

Still, each weekend I have a little seed of hope that this will be a nice one, this will be the weekend I will Get Things Done Outside.

I'd also settle for finally getting to lay my Tuscan vinyl tile in my redecorated room but, alas, I can't have rain for that either since it's the passageway to the pups getting outside and them walking in and out with wet and muddy feet on my attempts to tile would not work.

So, I wait and I shop. This weekend, at least, I shopped. I finally feel satisfied that I have a decent selection of summer sandals. The problem I found is that when I lived in California, I could wear casual footwear to work, even flip-flops. So, I built up a lovely collection of flip-flops. Then, I moved to Ohio and worked for a very casual software company where I could wear flip-flops. Now, it's my third summer back and I have a new job where I can't wear flip-flops. My sandal collection is quite sad. I had a go-to pair of sensible but stylish sandals that I bought at K-Mart over ten years ago. They finally died at the end of last summer with the straps coming detatched and the soles falling off. The only back-ups I had were a pair of sandals I bought from the Naturalizer store in a mall that went out of business over ten years ago. I think I bought the sandals a few years before that.

So, given that a pair of black sandals is a pretty necessary staple in a business-casual wardrobe, I went on the hunt. I also decided a pair of white ones would be useful as would a natural coloured pair that could go with either casual capris or a nice skirt.

I was successful in my shoe shopping. It took a while and after finding my black sandals, I was having trouble with the other pairs. When I lived in L.A., my roommate/good friend was always my shoe-buying companion. We both liked shoes. We both liked to shop. Whenever I was looking for something very specific, it was always my friend who spotted them in the muddle of shoes. So, when my luck was down on this shopping trip...I called her. Lo and behold, her shoe-karma works, even from 2000 miles away. Literally, within ten minutes, I had found the perfect shoes for my needs and they were all on sale. In the end, I managed to get four multi-useful pairs of shoes for a whopping $80. I was pleased.

There's nothing like a successful shoe-buying trip to make you feel like a rainy day isn't such a bad thing. As for the rest of my weekend, I spent it cleaning avidly and organizing. I finally decided it was time for a purge o' the lotions.

I think most women will know what I mean. Lotions and body sprays and other 'girlie' products are a universally acceptable gift. They're fun to have. They're fun to give. Thus, most of us, over the years, build up a collection. In my case, it's a mix of lotions and scents that were either gifts or I bought myself at Bath and Body works.

The thing is, over the years, they go a little nasty. Thus, there comes a time when you have to do a purging o' the lotions and go through your collection to see how long you've actually had some of them. In my case, many of them I've had for, uh, maybe ten years and, well, it was time.

Sometimes, something as simple as a good purge can make a rainy day feel productive and, in my case, that's exactly right.

Thus, I found ways to spend the rainy day. The pups have contentedly been working on the chew treats I had stored for them on rainy days. I find if Rory has a project, such as a filled chewy bone, it stops her little tantrums of boredom and keeps her busy.

Now, the rainy day is a rainy evening and Monday draws slowly closer. Maybe it was because last week, I had a long weekend but this time around, I'd be more than happy to take another Monday off. That would be a grand plan but, alas, I must go to work. Work pays the bills and helps me buy shoes on my rainy days off.

It's a vicious cycle but it's one I can live with because, well, I like being able to buy new shoes on rainy days.

Happy Monday and thanks, as always, for reading!

The Befuddling Quest for Curtains

Sunday evening is here again and as I always seem to say, I can't believe the weekend went by so quickly.

Nevertheless, Sunday it is and thus we begin the downward slide towards the workweek. I'll start it with a nice weekend under my belt. I spent the weekend with my parents which was a spontaneous visit that ended up being wonderful, as my visits with my parents usually.

My mum and I spent the day together Saturday. It was a nice early spring day with just a touch of chill in the air. We spent most of the day on a quest for curtains.

This may sound dull but it's actually quite fun to have a quest. It doesn't mean that we spent the day avidly and obsessively looking for curtains but, instead, we browsed for other things while keeping curtains on the list of things to look at in each shop that sold them that we visited.

It turned out to be fruitless. I have learned that curtain shopping makes you feel rather befuddled. You see, according to most curtain makers who sell to commercial retailers, all windows much be 84 inches long. Also, you apparently only want to buy one panel at a time.

I am aware that there are other options. You can, for example, get custom made curtains which fit the window perfectly. These tend to be quite expensive. I could also make my own which is a perfectly reasonable alternative and something I'm not opposed to doing. After all, I have a sewing machine and several fabric stores nearby. I've made curtains before. They're not complicated.

Yet they are time consuming and I tend to make a mess while I'm sewing in that all the little pieces of thread that I snip gather on the carpet. I have to be careful not to drop pins. I don't have a dedicated sewing room so the fabric takes over the living room. I have dogs that love to play with large pieces of fabric.

So, while making my own curtains is definitely an option, it's not the easiest one. Also, the curtains I had in mind didn't need to be anything complicated with an effect I could only achieve if I made them myself. I simply wanted either a natural, off white or taupe set of panels that I can tie back with red raffia. Sounds simple, right?

Not so much. As I said, most of the time, the off-the-rack curtains are exclusively 84 inches long. My windows are only 48 inches wide and high. Those are long curtians. I could get some and hem them but that would involve chopping off a lot of fabric and still having to sew which defeats the purpose of buying them in a store in the first place.

Also, most of the time, they're sold one panel at a time. This is ok until you need six panels because you have three windows. This gets very expensive. One of my other reasons for not wanting to sew them is because I'd need a fair amount of fabric and it can get to be quite expensive to make my own. Thus, I figured, if I bought ready-made ones, it'd be easier.

There's that word again: Easy. Curtain shopping is not easy.

I don't understand the logic in making curtains come in 84 inch lengths. How many people really have windows that long?

In the end, after much grousing, I didn't find any curtains that day. I ended up finding some today at Walmart of all places. These are only 63 inches long, came as a set and were very inexpensive. They're not meant to be functional curtains, just decorative. Walmart saved the day which is not something I can say very often.

It was nice to resolve the curtain issue. When you start a quest, it's fun. By the end, you feel a little bad tempered and embittered if you can't find anything remotely close to what you want. However, along my quest, I did also manage to buy a book, some herb shears, some hand sanitizer and a tea bag rest and my mother purchased some shoes and some seeds so, really, it wasn't a wasted day.

I'm just glad I found my curtains. I had visions of spending next weekend hunched over my sewing machine. That's a great winter activitiy but when it's springtime and there's things to be done outside, it's not so fun.

So, for once, I have to say thank you to Walmart. They did something right. I'm glad about that. I'm also glad I have my curtains.

Quest accomplished.

Happy Monday!

Festive but Fast Weekends...

This weekend went by very, very quickly. Perhaps it's because it's the last weekend before Christmas but even compared to other fast-moving weekends, this was exceptionally quick.

However, for me, it was a very festive weekend which made it nice. Friday, I had a relaxing evening though I did do a little work. The thing with being a recruiter is that sometimes I get phone calls in the evenings from consultants who can't talk during the day. I never mind. It's nice that people feel comfortable calling me during their off-times. Still, I managed to kick back with the puppies, enjoy the season with some mulled wine and just relax.

Saturday began early. I've discovered that the key to a successful shopping trip is to beat the crowds. Since my parents' had planned on coming down this weekend for their annual Jungle Jim's Christmas Shopping Trip, this meant I got to prepare lunch for them. As an aspiring cook, I might get a wee bit too excited about this. I don't get to cook for people too often so when I do, it's an event.

This, of course meant that I had to take a trip of my own to Jungle Jim's on my own. I have learned through my time in living in fairly close proximity to the store and in being a foodie that it's hard to be a hardcore shopper when it's crowded with newbies and visitors from afar. Thus, when armed with a list and a purpose, I go during times when it's less busy. For me, this means before 10 a.m. on a Saturday or on a week night between Monday and Thursday.

Thus, I arrived at Jungle Jim's around 9 a.m. It was quiet. I managed to not only get everything on my list but also have time to look without being surrounded by too many people. Being the holidays, I did have a few splurges. I had to buy some nice wine, for example.

Then, of course, there was the chanterelle mushrooms.

I've been looking to try these for ages. They're popular on all the cooking/food shows I love. They're used a lot on Iron Chef America and I've been longing to try them. I even emailed Jungle Jim's to find out when they would have them. Thus, when they did have them, I bought some. I couldn't resist. I haven't tried them yet but I can't wait. I love mushrooms in general and they look fantastic.

And, on the plus side, I did resist the black truffles that were sitting beside the mushrooms even though I've been longing to try those too. In time, I'm sure I will. For now, I'll work my way up.

I managed to complete my Jungle's Jim trip by 10:30 a.m. and finished up my Christmas shopping by noon. By the time I was done, the crowds were beginning to be out in force. There's nothing more satisfying than getting ready to leave just as everyone else is arriving.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning my house. Then I got to spend the evening with a good friend having a lovely festive time ordering pizza, drinking wine, watching "The Holiday" which is one of my favourite Christmas films and drinking spiked hot chocolate. It put me in the Christmas spirit. I love that feeling.

Today, I got to spend the day with my parents. I made them lunch which was a nice treat for me. I tend to go a little overboard but I think it was worth it. Today's menu was:

• Arugula salad with toasted walnuts, roasted pears, gorgonzola cheese with shallot vinegarette
• Spaghetti with brown butter and Mizythra cheese (yes, the Old Spaghetti Factory recipe)
• Gingerbread cake with vanilla whipped cream (thanks, Ms. P., for the whipped cream suggestion!)
• A nice chianti

I had no liver and fava beans to go with the chianti but I think it was probably better and less bloody my way. It turned out pretty well, I think. We all ended up rather stuffed.

Afterwards, we went to Jungle Jim's. It was a nice trip but far more hectic than the previous days' visit. That's the thing with the holidays. Everyone has to shop. This means the shelves were more sparse, the crowds much thicker and it took a lot longer. Still, I always enjoy looking around with my parents'. It's always a new perspective. I think as a 'local', I get a little jaded as to the luxury of having such a nice store so close by. With my parents', I can appreciate the fabulousness of having such a place at which to shop.

Now my parent's are headed home and I'm ready to relax with the pups. They're currently out frolicking in the snow, hunting bunnies. One was sighted this morning and thus Sookie has been standing guard all day. Rory, meanwhile, got board with standing guard and has taken to licking the ice patch that has refroze after some icicles on the roof melted onto the patio this morning. I'd chastise her for it but...it's ice and she's a dog. There could be worse things she could be doing. Just as long as her tongue doesn't freeze.

It's just hard to believe that in a week, Christmas will have passed by already. It's sad. I'm trying not to look ahead and simply appreciate the now so that I can appreciate the time I can spend being festive and enjoying Christmas before it's all over for another year. I, personally, would be quite ok if we could also spend January baking cookies, decorating the house, watching Christmas movies and having parties.

I suppose we could but, well, it's just not the same, is it?

Nevertheless, there's still almost a week until the holiday and I, for one, intend to be horribly festive and twee in my efforts to salute this time of year.

I love Christmas!

Happy Monday!

Nostalgia for Days of Yore....

I think that, when the holidays are upon us, it's inevitable that we look backwards in time to Christmases that have come before.

Or, at least, for me it is.

It's hard not to, really. It starts with the brochures, I think. This year, the Toys R Us Toybook came quite early and it's been at my parents' house where my nephews and nieces can leaf through it and decide what they'd like to add to their Christmas list. I leafed through the book and many other brochures this past weekend. It's amazing to see the toys that are popular now and compare them to the toys that were popular in my childhood.

Some of them are the same. Strawberry Shortcake has made a comeback, Cabbage Patch Kids are still around and Calico Critters bear a striking resemblance to the Sylvanian Families of my youth (and of which my younger sister was a collector). Heroes like Batman and Spiderman never really go out of style.

Yet there are new toys as well- Bratz, Monster High, LaLaLoopsy and other weirdly named dolls seem to be in vogue. Toy Story 3 is everywhere although those toys are actually Disneyfied versions of mine and even the generation before's youth.

It's not just the toys that are different. It's the world, really. Now's the time when, if I had a child, I'd be saying, "When I was a child..." and telling the stories of having to walk through snow and rain over the miles to get to school. Actually, I did have to walk a mile to school in the snow, thank you very much. It was freezing especially when you had to wear a school uniform that required a skirt.

But the world is different now. It was different in my youth from the generations that had come before me. It's constantly evolving. The places I notice it this time of year is in the stores.

When I was a child in England, there were toy shops. There were butcher's shops, a greengrocer, a fish market. There were bakeries and post-offices where you had to go to get stamps. To go shopping was an event. I'd wait patiently for my mother to order her merchandise from the vendors. The butcher's shop, for example, smelled of sawdust that masked the odor of meat. Behind thick strips of hanging plastic in a doorway, we could see the racks of meat hanging, waiting to be cut to order. In the greengrocers, the scents of apples and oranges, of onions and leeks and cabbage would blend together and I'd wait while my mother bought her potatoes and whatever else she needed. In the newsagents, they'd sell sweets and snacks, newspapers and soft drinks. We'd go there to pick up our weekly comics. That was my favourite shop because I had a sweet tooth and I'd spend my 10p of pocket money on 'little sweets' from the penny county counter.

What I'm getting at is that the world isn't like that anymore. The stores of my childhood are gone. They've been boarded up or replaced by cellular phone stores. If you want meat, you go to one of the mega-marts that are everywhere. The same goes for bread, for produce, for sweets.

It's the same in England as it is in the States. Here, you buy toys at Walmart or Target or K-Mart. Sure, Toys R Us is there but that's a megamart of a different kind. It's not a little toy shop with hand carved puppets, deluxe softtoys or collector-quality trainsets. It's a store full of what's popular. They sell FAO Schwarz toys in there now which makes me sad because I think FAO Schwarz is almost gone from the face of the world. That was a toy shop to see. I went to the New York Store which I think is still there and it's just something else. Even as an adult, I felt like I could be a kid in there again.

Speciality stores have become a novelty nowadays, oddities that are fun to peruse but more expensive to buy from because they have more overhead than the big chains. It's like in the movie, "You've Got Mail," in which Meg Ryan's delightful little children's book store is overshadowed and overpowered by the big chain bookstore.

I'm as guilty as the next person for helping this happen. I mean if I see something in a specialty store or catalog, the first thing I do is go to Amazon.com or other website to see if I can get it for less.

It's just the way of the world. It's economy and convenience. It's not wrong it's just...a little sad that this is what's happenend. Sure, we can blame Walmart but it's not all their fault. They wouldn't succeed with out us, the consumers who are eager for low prices with less hassle. Of course, personally speaking, these days I almost always find Walmart to be a hassle but the point remains.

It's just sad to look back and look upon a world that's lost the personality of individual stores and given way to 'all-in-one' types of places. It's hardest, I think, at Christmas because shopping is such a part of the experience. Nowadays, it's entirely possible to get all your shopping done in one store if you're careful.

Me, I like to spread the shopping around. This is probably why I enjoy spending time shopping online. The digital stores have become our speciality stores. I don't know if that's a scary thing or something that's just plain interesting to contemplate. I'm going to have to think on that.

In the meantime, I'll continue to look back through my rose-tinted glasses on past Christmases where Christmas shopping meant getting to look round the expanded toy sections of each department store and, as a special treat, to go visit Father Christmas in one of them. While I enjoy the scrimmage and chaos of early-morning Black Friday shopping, I like the idea of spending a day shopping. It means going to more than one store to get the shopping done and even though the stores carry much of the same products, it still feels different in each one.

I suppose that's the closest we can come nowadays to the forgotten days of speciality stores where each store sold lots of types of the same thing. I miss that, in some ways but it's quicker these days to shop and get the job done in one or two stores.

I suppose it's all a trade off. The world has moved on and we've moved with it.

But sometimes, wouldn't it be nice if time could stand still for a while?

Happy Tuesday!

No Mini Chopper for Me!

Well, Thanksgiving has already come and gone and it seemed to be far too quick. It seems like it was just Wednesday morning and I was loading the pups into the car and driving off to my parents. I love being able to do that. For too many years, Thanksgiving involved a red-eye flight from L.A. and landing in the wee hours of the morning on Thanksgiving day, being tired and irritable and never recovering quite enough to really feel like eating a ton of turkey.

Nowadays, it's a luxury to hop in the car and be there in just over two hours. It's nice to unload the puppies, sit down and relax the day before Thanksgiving so that when the day arrives, I can help cook.

It was fun this year although, as always, when it came time to serve up, everything got chaotic. Trying to get everything into serving plates while 14 hungry people await including four young children leads to a bit of chaos. In the end though we were all fed to our hearts' content, even the puppies who were treated to a little bit of turkey of their own.

Traditionally after Thanksgiving, we all retreat into the living room and pour over the ads for Black Friday. This year, my nephews and nieces decide to have a lot of fun running around, burning off energy. They weren't any trouble...just a little loud.

By the time everyone was gone, I have to admit the silence was a treat. My parents and I sat in a bit of a haze, letting the calm wash over us. The puppies were also a little traumatized. Usually, it's just me, Rory and Sookie at home. It doesn't get very loud and chaotic. The most chaos they're usually around is when they rile up the neighbour dogs or, if we're visiting my parents, when my pups chase around my parent's dogs and make them all hide.

Thus, a Thanksgiving evening filled with the squeals of childish joy, coupled with the overloud sounds of the TV as my older nephew watched "Kung Fu Panda" combined with a room full of adults conversing....well, it was no wonder Sookie was a docile as a teddy bear and needed to be soothed from her slight case of trauma.

Still, it was a fun day as was the next day. My sister and I followed our annual tradition of getting up for the Black Friday sales. Aside from the fact this year I managed to come down with a nasty cold on Thanksgiving night, we had a lot of fun.

We were a little irritated, however. We generally start at Walmart at 5 a.m which is when their big sales usually start. After that mass of chaos and confusion, we usually venture up to the other stores and do the rest of our shopping there. This year, however, Walmart decided to start at midnight with most of their specials and put only their electronics on special at 5 a.m.

This may not seem like a big deal but when most of the other stores we frequent on Black Friday don't start their sales until 5 a.m., the midnight specials are a little...inconvenient. We'd either have to go at midnight and then try to catch a couple of hours sleep before heading out- an idea which in theory sounds good but, in reality, would result in us being groggy and crabby all day- or just head out at 5 a.m. as planned and hope that they still had some of their sale items left.

We opted for option b, although my sister did send her husband out at midnight to Walmart for one item they absolutely wanted to get. He was successful. My sister and I...not so much. I didn't have a huge list of items but I've been wanting one of those mini choppers for a while. Every year on Black Friday, Walmart has a ton of them on sale for about $3. I was excited and had decided to buy one. I didn't think there'd be an issue. After all, for the past four years, at least, these choppers have been on sale on Black Friday for that price and every year for the past four years, you've been able to go to Walmart several hours after the craziness of the 5 a.m sale is over and still get yourself a mini chopper for $3.

Not this year, apparently. No, the one year I really want one, there seemed to be a run on the blasted things. There wasn't one to be found. Nor crockpots. Nor hand mixers. They were all $3. They were all sold out by 5 a.m.

Needless to say, I was rather perturbed. Why this year was there a run on mini choppers? I was so annoyed that when my dad went to Walmart later in the day on Black Friday, he asked an employee if they had any. By this time, my sister and I were deep in the middle of our shopping but I'd called my parents to check on the puppies because they were kind enough to puppy-sit and relayed my woes of not getting my chopper.

According to the store employee, people were buying the choppers by the cartfuls. Apparently, many were going to put them on ebay.

To this I say, um....really? Ok, so it was a great deal. Who doesn't want a mini food processor that can chop onions in a matter of seconds? Obviously, I wanted one so they're a hot item.

However...eBay? Really. As much as I want a mini chopper, it's not the kind of item I'm going to go try to outbid someone for on eBay.

All I can say is people are a little crazy. Granted, I was up at 5 a.m. to buy a $3 chopper so I also may be a little crazy but buying them for eBay? Huh. All I can say is that when my parents' town hosts their annual Garage Sale Day in May of next year, I guarantee there might be a few mini choppers to be had.

Still, even though I was thwarted in my chopper as well many of the other items I had on my list, my sister and I managed to put in a good, solid ten hours of shopping and managed to take care of much of our Christmas shopping. It was a lot of fun, rather productive and worth every minute of having to blow my nose, wait in line and freeze while we ran into stores. For some reason, every year, Black Friday tends to be the first really cold day of the year. This year was no exception. When I got up at 4 a.m., the ground was frozen, the rain that had poured down for most of Thanksgiving day had frozen into icy puddles and the wind cut through us like a nice.

Still, we persevered, we shopped and we conquered. It was a good Thanksgiving and a good Black Friday.

Even if I didn't get my mini chopper.

Stupid Walmart.

Happy Monday!

Thanksgiving Traditions...

Today was my "friday" at work. I decided to take tomorrow off so that Thanksgiving wasn't so rushed and quick and the puppies and I could take our time as we drove to my parents' house tomorrow.

Weeks like this are nice but usually slightly frustrating because everyone's already slightly in 'holiday' mode and everything slows down. It's harder to get people to return phone calls, harder to get people to commit to meetings/interviews and harder to get people moving forward.

I can't blame them, I suppose. I mean, this is a short week for me and all day today, I had that sense of an internal 'countdown' that didn't stop ticking until the clock hit five p.m. and I was officially on vacation until Monday.

Of course, it's not going to be the most restful vacation but, really, is thanksgiving ever really restful? As the self-appointed soux chef to my mother in the kitchen, Wednesday is usually spent with me and my notebook, planning each stage of cooking Thanksgiving Dinner in a Dinner Impossible style. My mother and I plan how long things take to cook, what needs to go into the oven when and how we can keep things moving so that we don't run out of oven space. This is usually coupled with trying not to panic because people are arriving and coming to say hello by standing in the kitchen and being social. Since my parents' have a relatively small kitchen, this makes movement and smooth sailing quite impossible.

Also, there always tends to be the issue of the carving of the turkey. My dad, naturally, likes to do this. We generally let him because otherwise, he sulks a little. One time, we let my older brother do it but he ended up taking three times as long as my dad usually does because that's just the way he is. He's very meticulous and quite a perfectionist. It's the same when you ask my brother to put lights on the Christmas tree. It ends up taking him several hours to position each individual light correctly on the tree branches. It ends up looking fabulous but by the time he's done, you're just wanting him to hurry up and you've sort of stopped caring how it looks.

Anyway, when it comes to carving the turkey, we let my dad do it. He usually picks the most inconvenient time possible. He's either much later than he should be or he decides to come and claim it when my mother and I are doing a graceful dance around the kitchen, moving plates, dishes, etc. to get everything in order.

Still, in the end, it all comes together. The meal always turns out delicously. It gets eaten far quicker than it gets prepared but that's always the way, isn't it?

After thanksgiving, it's become a tradition for everyone to grab the newspaper ads and start talking about what they want for Christmas, particularly the children. This is quite handy since my sister and I are Black Friday shoppers and it gives us ideas for our shopping trip.

We're planning on being at WalMart at 4 a.m. I'm not a huge fan of Walmart in general but it's a tradition. It makes you feel like you're part of something to be there at 4 a.m. waiting for the announcement that it's time to start shopping. That you're not be something sane per se is irrelevant. It's a tradition and it's fun to see all of the other nutcases who are there for the early-morning deals. It's just best to stay away from the big screen TV's. Big Screen TV buyers are a little scary.

I don't know where else we'll end up but I know we're likely to make a day of it on Friday. Chances are by Friday night, we'll be exhausted but in the meantime, it will not only be fun to be shopping all day but also to spend time with my sister and act like a crazy person.

Of course, she'd probably say that I generally act like a crazy person year round which may or may not be true but on Black Friday, I'm not alone.

That's a Thanksgiving tradition I just love.

Happy Thanksgiving- I'll be back next week!

Men and Women: Perceptive differences

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. It's been a long week, as I said yesterday. Fortunately, it's also going to be a long weekend which should make up for it.

It's been a quite social week for me. I've had lunches out and a couple of dinners. This is unusual for me. Generally, I tend to go home after work and stay there with the pups but I had a friend come into town this week and he wanted to have dinner as well as a coworker who wanted to get together and chat.

Both dinners were nice albeit different. I suppose that's the difference between dining with a male friend and a female friend. With male friends, most of the conversation tends to resolve around safe topics like pop culture, meaning movies, television and music. With female friends you tend to discuss more...real things. Things like men, work, life and everything in between.

It was interesting to contrast the two evenings. Tonight's was actually short because I had an eye appointment beforehand. It turned out to be one of those marathon appointments where you feel like you're going a little crazy because the doctor makes you wait forever in the exam room. Why is it they never leave you anything to do in there? There's always stacks of magazines in the main waiting room but, for the most part, the minute you pick one up, your name is called or you're handed a clipboard full of forms to fill out. Then they send you back, you do the initial tests and such...and then you wait. And you wait. And you wait. And there's nothing to do, no magazines, nothing. I usually check my facebook account on my phone but that takes two minutes. The rest of the time, I twiddle my thumbs and look around. In tonight's case, they made me take out my contact lenses, naturally so it was rather blurry to look around the room.

By the time the doctor came in, I was climbing the walls and also a little anxious because I was going to be late to meet my coworker. I endured the usual tests of, "which is better...one or two? Three or four? Five or six? Seven or eight?" and so on. I also have to look at my doctor's ear a lot while he looks at my eyeballs. He's a really nice doctor but he repeats everything so he always says, "look at my ear. My ear." Then, "focus on my ear. My ear." He doesn't have bad ears but sometimes I think it'd be fun if eye doctors wore fun ears for you to look at like goblin ears or elephant ears. It'd make it more fun to look at them.

By the time he was done with me, I still had to withstand the whole, "pick out frames for your glasses," thing. Since my contact prescription hadn't changed but my glasses prescription was a couple of years old, I figured it'd be nice to get new frames since my insurance gives us a great deal on them. That took forever because the glasses-picking-out-assistant-lady was very adamant I pick five frames I liked. It was actually nifty because they have this system where they take pictures of you in all the different frames so you can see what you look like in each pair, side-by-side, to see which ones looks best. It was nifty...but slow.

By the time I met my friend, she almost had to leave to meet her husband. It was a quick, but nice, dinner.

Last night's dinner was much different. It was also nice but since it was with a male friend, it was very heavy on the movie/TV talk and less on the, "So, what's going on in your life?" front.

The difference between male and females was also more fun to notice when we went walking around the mall last night after our meal. My male friend likes to walk so since we were eating at a place in the mall, we decided to take a walk. When we got to Bath and Body Works, I noticed they had their Halloween/Autumn scent collection. I got excited. You know I love Autumn. My male friend asked if I wanted to go in. I said no because it wasn't time to actually buy the scented stuff yet since it was still summer.

My male friend was perplexed. You see, he couldn't understand how I could get excited about the autumn stuff but not want to buy it.

For the most part, my female friends would totally understand that. It's not about the fact that I want to buy the scented things. It's that they're there which means the promise of Autumn is not far behind and when summer fades and Autumn begins, the scents and reminders of the season will be there.

It sounds like I'm stereotyping, I suppose but it's just something I've noticed over the years. Women tend to shop as though it's exciting, it's something meaningful. To buy new clothes is to make a change, to do something new, to make a statement. To men, buying new clothes is often an obligation- "I need shirts therefore I have to shop for them."

I used to have a friend who, on Tuesdays, when the new DVD's were released, would go to Best Buy or Costco and buy them all. He'd spend at least $100 because he wanted them. In contrast, it would take me days or even weeks to decide if I really needed a movie that I really loved. To him, building up his movie collection en masse was just something he did. To me, buying a single movie was a commitment. It was not only about spending the money but about needing to know if I loved the movie enough to own it.

I suppose that sort of mentality can be applied to all areas of life. I know there are a lot of exceptions to my generalizing but, in my opinion, with two brothers, a father and a lot of male friends, there are similiarities that do lead to stereotypes, just as I can say the same about myself and the other females I know.

One thing I do know is that life is more interesting with such different perspectives on things. I don't think life would be the same without them. It's something to ponder, anyway.

Happy Friday and have a wonderful long weekend!

Overpriced Pasta and Another Ode to Jungle Jim's...

So, sometimes when I sit down to blog, I have to do a check to find out how much I've ranted, raved or rambled about a certain subject. It seems that the last couple of months have been a little bit too much full of work. I also mention snow rather a lot but I'm afraid that's not likely to change. I love snow very much and will never get tired of writing about it. You'll notice that I've backed off Twilight and Stephanie Meyer. Having found out that there are some pretty fabulous snarky places out there that salute the awfulness of the book, I've found it cathartic to know I'm not alone. If you're bored, check out this fabulous parody. The illustrations are worth it alone but I couldn't have written anything quite so simply that nails Twilight the way this site does.

Anyway, I've also noticed that I blog a lot about Jungle Jim's. I don't think I can help that. I'm actually contemplating starting a new blog to replace my poor neglected TV blog. It's not that I don't like writing about TV but, lately, there's not much on TV to write about. Also, I watch more Food Network than anything else and I think that might get a tad boring. My new blog would take one of the new ingredients I bought at Jungle Jim's and detail what I did with it. I suppose it would be a bit Julie and Julia like except, well, it would have the Monkeypants spin. Also, I'd be completely honest if I accidentally dropped it on the floor and ruined dinner. Chances are, that blog would read:

Bought endives. Attemped to make a Batali recipe. Accidentally dropped endives and recipe contents on floor in dish. Dish=failure.

I went to Jungle Jim's tonight. I haven't been in over a week. It's shocking, I know. I received two lovely Mario Batali cookbooks for Christmas/my birthday AND I also got a great new copy of the Food Network magazine (if you don't subscribe, you should- it's excellent for recipes and tips). So, last night, I went through my cookbooks and magazine and picked out recipes I wanted to try. Then I made a list of what I lacked to make them- primarily fresh vegetables- in one of my handmade notebooks, courtesy of RadLinc Crafts that has bananas on the cover. Bananas are my secret symbol at work although my "sarcastic banana doodle" that was over my HP logo on my PC to parady the fact that I am the only one in my area to lack an Apple PC has mysteriously disappeared.

So, tonight, armed with my banana book, I went to Jungle Jim's. I was a good little Monkeypants and only bought three items that weren't on my list. I bought some chocolate covered Gingerbread pretzels that were left over from Christmas. They were only 99 cents. Also, I bought some salsify because, well, frankly, I was so excited to find it, I had to buy it. In case you're wondering, salsify is also called 'the oyster plant'. It is a root vegetable that has a faint oyster-ish flavour. I've never had it. To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it but I saw it and I wanted to get some. The reason being...I saw it on Iron Chef America in the hands of none other than Mario Batali and I was fascinated. I'd never heard of it, you see. So, I did the Monkeypants thing and researched it. Immediately, I wanted to try it because it's related to the parsnip family. I adore parsnips. They're one of my favourite vegetables. If you've never tried them, let me know. I'll be happy to tell you how to use parsnips. They're a staple of the British traditional roast dinner.

The last item I bought was wine. My new budget favourite- Kenwood red table wine was on clearance! They only had a couple of bottles left. I was both excited by the reduced price and dismayed that I might have a hard time finding it in future. I bought the bottles they had left. How could I not?

Anyway, aside from the salsify, I stuck to my shopping list. Granted, it was quite a long list but it covered at least six to seven recipes. My shopping listed included cardoons which might not be familiar to you, as Lady Aero pointed out on my last blog. They're a bit spiny and they're related to artichokes. Last time I used them, I made a beschamiel sauce and fresh breadcrumbs, grated them with pecorino romano cheese and roasted them in the oven after blanching them in lemon water. It sounds like a lot of work but they were delicious and worth every minute. I have a couple of other recipes that use them so I got two bunches. I also got some beets to make some beet bruschetta. I bought fresh herbs, peppers and a radaccio lettuce. The nice thing about learning to cook is there are some pantry staples that you're never without so when it comes to cooking, the fresh stuff is the only thing you have to buy.

I can't believe I'm blogging about my shopping list. It's not that this is the only thing that I have to blog about, it's just that it's so much fun to learn to cook. Finding the ingredients is sort of, uh, thrilling although if you don't cook much, that probably sounds a little...scary...and odd. I can't help it...cooking is my new favourite thing to do.

Anyway, I digress...The only ingredients I lacked were small cipolini onions- Jungle Jim's only had the large- and the never-present fresh quail eggs. Ok, so I really didn't need the quail eggs but it's become a quest and Captain Monkeypants does love a quest.

The thing I was truly amazed at was that I didn't really spend that much money. I probably could make, without exaggerating, at least eight meals from what I bought tonight. I like to make a dinner and then have the leftovers at work for lunch the next day. Sometimes my attempts to cook aren't that successful but, for the most part, if I follow a recipe properly, it usually turns out pretty well. If you think about how much it would cost to eat something similar at a restaurant, it's a brilliant way to save money. For example, yesterday, I went to Romano's Macaroni Grill with the girls from work for my birthday lunch. Because I tend to prefer cooking Italian food, it always amazes me how much restaurants charge for a plate of pasta. For example, many of the weight-conscious girls ordered capellini pomadoro. Essentially, capellin pomodoro is angel hair pasta, basil, olive oil, fresh tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Retail cost of that, provided you cook enough to keep olive oil and pepper flakes around is, seriously, probably less than $4 per person. If you bought the ingredients, you could feed three people for what you'd buy in the store to make it. Total estimate would be about $6-$8 total to make it for three people. At the Macaroni Grill, it was $8.99 a plate or something like that. That's $27 altogether.

I know- sometime it's nice to go out to eat and not have to cook. I just find myself, more and more, figuring out how to make dishes I buy in restaurants. There are some things I just can't be bothered to figure out because I'd rather go out and get it. Yet pasta is fast becoming something I don't order because I resent the inflated price of it on a menu. Apparently, I'm not alone. Even after I started figuring out that pasta is one of the easiest and cheapest things to make, I read an article that interviewed chefs and what they expected when they ate out. Several of them said they refused to order pasta because it's so overpriced compared to the cost of making it.

That's not to say that if I went to a really good restaurant, I wouldn't order pasta. I might, if it was tempting enough but you better believe I want it to be homemade pasta that's something special. I admit, I even make my own pasta at times. It's really not as much work as people think and it tastes amazing. It takes time so I wouldn't resent paying for that in a nice restaurant. No, what I'm talking about is the Olive Garden/Macaroni Grill type of places that use Barilla pasta or whatever brand they prefer and serve it with pre-made sauces. They might taste nice but, trust me, you can make it at home for pennies compared to what they charge.

However, on the flip side, there are some things I'd rather get in a restaurant than make for myself but have no choice. Tonight, for example, I made Vietnamese pho soup. It's one of my favourite 'comfort foods'. When I lived in Los Angeles, there were pho places everywhere. You could get a bowl of pho- noodle soup with meats and herbs in a spiced broth- everywhere. It usually only cost about $5 for a bowl and I could never finish my helping. Here, in Cincinnati, it's hard to find. I've tried several places that claim to have it but it's just not the same. Thus, tonight, I tried a Food Network Magazine version. I have to say, it was pretty tasty. Not the same as the restaurants in L.A., of course, but still pretty nice. It wasn't that much work either. However, even though it tasted good, it just didn't give me that satisfied feeling that I always had when eating it in a restaurant.

So, there are two sides to every recipe, I suppose. Some are two easy and simple to make to merit paying restaurant prices and some are so hard and complex that it's just worth it to pay the price and eat it in a restaurant. For me, I'm still working on which is which. However, I'll keep trying new recipes. As long as I have Jungle Jim's to provide me with the ingredients, I'll happily keep experimenting. And keep shopping because, let's face it, that's just half the fun.

Happy Wednesday!

The Spirit of the Shopping Season

Christmas is getting closer. A couple of weeks ago, I was miles ahead of the curve with my shopping. Now, with less than a week to go...I'm behind.

I'm not quite sure how that happened, to be honest. I think it's the fact that my family is growing exponentially and every time I think I'm done, I realize that there's still one person for whom I need to buy a gift.

As I've said earlier, I love Christmas. I love shopping. I accept the commercialism because it's part of the season. I love the scents, sounds, vibe....you know all this because I've said it before. Yet, there are times, I confess, as a Singleton, that Christmas is slightly lonely. I have some good friends who are also single so it's always nice to commiserate. Yet when Christmas Day rolls around, I wonder where, exactly, I went a little wrong.

It's a purely passing frame-of-mind. Once Christmas Day is over, I'm ok again. Well, at least until New Year's. Then I start to wonder where my year went and whether it was really worthwhile to spend the year trying to come to grips with a job, write a novel and buy a house.

That's really a trick question to myself: I've had a pretty good year, even if I don't particularly adore my job.

On a normal day, it's easy to look back and reflect upon the good things that have happened over the past year. I wrote a novel, I bought a house, I came up with another novel in my head, I had some minor writing successes, I managed to stay in touch with my good friends, I managed to spend time with my family. All in all, it's been a good year.

Yet there's something about the holidays that make it just a little harder to realize that I'm alone. I've dated more this year than I ever have which, admittedly, isn't exactly a world record. Nevertheless, I've tried. I did finally accept that I'm a wee bit of a commitmentphobe and I needed to move beyond that if i wanted to find someone. Unfortunately, the someone's just don't seem to be matching up.

Nevertheless, I don't want to say I need a significant other in order to enjoy Christmas. I don't. I know this. However, I do sort of wish they'd stop playing all those jewelry commercials on TV. You know the ones I mean, the ones that show the man placing a necklace around his wife's neck while she sleeps soundly. Yet, somehow, when she wakes up, her hands immediately go to her throat and she smiles with pure love and adoration and kisses her husband even though she hasn't even seen the bloody necklace!. I mean, what if, to her, it was the most hideous thing she's ever seen? Yet, they don't show that. They just show her smiling lovingly at her man, knowing he bought her jewelry without even seeing it.

Ok, I know...that's not the point. It's still a stupid commercial. It's not intended to make me feel lonely because I don't have a man to accidentally almost strange me in my sleep by trying to be romantic. It's meant to make men say, "hey, look! I could do that to my wife."

Sometimes I wonder if there are statistics on "Near Death Experiences of Women Who Are Victims of Their Husband's Trying to be Romantic."

Perhaps it's no wonder I'm single.

Yet it's not just jewelry commercials that annoy me. There are plenty of other ones. For example, they're now commercials that tout "Give the Gift of a Lexus."

I'm thinking there should be an entirely different TV network for rich folk because when I hear that commercial, the first thing I want to do is laugh somewhat insanely. Then I want to hit the announcer with my shoe. I mean, ok, so our economy is slowly improving but do you honestly think that the people watching the commercials can afford a Lexus? Yes, I thought not. Those that can afford a Lexus generally can also afford a DVR so they don't even watch commercials.

I hate commercials where the gift is a car with a big red bow on it. I'm guessing that the largest percentage of the audience for those commercials could barely afford the bow, never mind a car. I, personally, don't think a car is a good gift. First of all, it's a bit of a money trap. Ok, so in the beginning it's shiny and sleek. Then it needs gas. Then it needs an oil change. For the richer folk, the driver gets fed up of it and trades it in thereby making the gift slightly redundant. If it's not driven by a rich person, it's driven by a normal person who, most likely, puts off the oil change because they're overpriced. They need to get new tires but don't bother until the tires are bald and scary. Then it starts to cough...then die. Then the owner may decide to enroll in AAA or, more likely, not. The car dies. The owner gets mad...

You get the picture. Cars are NOT good gifts.

It's also like cell phones. Every year, there's a plethora of commercials for cell-phones as gifts. This is just lovely except...cell phones aren't easy. First of all, a real cell-phone needs a plan which means it needs a provider. Every provider has a 'catch.' Secondly, when you buy a phone as a gift, where does the commitment end? You're considered cheap if you just buy the phone and don't bother with a plan. If you get the plan, are you also responsible for overage charges? Do you pay for that extra text message that cost $2.00 to send because the phone-user had just reached her limit when it was sent? Does the recipient of the cell-phone-as-gift hand you the bills to pay? Do you pay up front and assume the user will be obedient and never go outside the limits of their plan?

You can see why I would never, in a million years, give a cell phone.

Me, I prefer to give non-conventional gifts, gifts that aren't necessarily on a Christmas list. I've run into some slight problems with this. I've had friends who have raved about an item they'd love to have and I've made a mental note. Yet, by the time Christmas has rolled around and I've bought them a gift I thought they wanted, they tend to act like I'm crazy for buying it. I also try to buy gifts for people that I know they almost bought themselves but ended up being practical and saving their money. Sometimes this works out but, occasionally, you run into the friend that accepts the gift but seems to think it slightly odd that you actually bought the gift for them.

I suppose it is easier to use a Christmas list. Yet, I confess, I have a slight problem with lists because, to quote my father, "mail order Christmas's aren't right."

I agree with this. I don't like using the holiday as a chance to restock someone's video game supply, movie shelf or book collection. I like to go out and think what it might be that the gift recipent might actually want rather than what they need. I like to think of Christmas as a time to give gifts that show that I actually know a person rather than just feel obligated to buy them something.

I think, perhaps, this may be why I manage to retain my love of Christmas: I blantantly find ways to ignore the commercial side and I make up my own version.

Whether or not my gift recipients agree, that is another story. At the very least, it's fun to shop, to wrap and to remember why I'm buying gifts. At this point, it's not an obligation, it's a fun past time in December that I look forward to every year. Perhaps it's a rebellion against the fact that I'm still single and my obligations are relatively few but I'd prefer to think of it as being strong in the fact of intense pressure.

Either way, it's still Christmas and I still love it.

Happy Friday.

A Whirlwind Weekend...

It’s back to work after a good weekend. Flying to L.A. is always interesting because of the time difference. You wouldn’t think that three hours makes that much difference but on a workday when you’ve been up since 6 a.m. EST and you don’t get to sleep until 3 a.m. PST, that’s a relatively long day. Nevertheless, it was worth every minute.

L.A. at Christmas has always seemed odd to me. At night, it doesn’t look that different than the Midwest, light-strewn trees and bushes everywhere, inflatable yard decorations glowing from within and neighbourhoods dressed up for the season. In daylight, it’s a different story. The trees are palm trees, lights tossed into them. The ground is green, the trees are leafy and full.

When I left Dayton to fly out for this trip, it was, literally, freezing. We had a windchill that made it feel like six degrees outside. The hike from the car park at the airport to the terminal was so cold that my ears numbed in the wind, even with my hood up. When I landed in L.A, it was a balmy 50 degrees. I used to consider that cold when I lived there. Now I know better.

Yet, it wasn’t all balmy. It was a very wet weekend, the type I used to long for when I lived in Southern California in which the raindrops pound against the windows, the wind sends waves of rain at you and the roads are wet and shining.

It made Disneyland interesting. The rain mostly held off although there were a couple of downpours. During the fireworks at night, the rain poured but we still stayed to watch. As the fireworks ended, so did the downpour but it was still too slick for the ‘snow’. This usually drifts out gently into the night air after the fireworks, bubbles so fine and tiny, they really do move like snowflakes on a breeze. Yet when it’s raining, these soap bubbles make the ground slippery so they have to hold off on making it snow. When I lived in L.A., I would have been sad about it, deprived of snow and longing for something that even just reminded me of it. Now, I get to go home to the real stuff, freezing cold as it is. There’s nothing I love more than a snow flurry around the holidays.

The rest of the trip was also wet. Going to an outdoor outlet mall was a little wet but still rewarding. It was nice to lay in the comfort of my friend’s room and enjoy the sound of the rain at night. Even if it was a wet weekend, it was well worth the trip.

It’s an interesting thing to do, reverse that which I used to do annually. Once upon a time, this time of year, I was counting down to hop on a plane to go back to the Midwest to visit. Now I’m heading back to L.A. for a visit and going back home to the Midwest.
I can’t say it isn’t a little surreal. Everything’s backwards: The airports, the flight routes, the time change. Yet no matter how much I miss my friends who live there, I can’t say I don’t regret the decision I made to move back to the Midwest. There are things I miss about Southern California. There is something rather nice about being able to walk outside, coatless, in the December air, go to the farmer’s market for fresh berries and eat them while walking on the Santa Monica pier without having to bundle up to fight the cold. Most of all, I miss the people who made it hard to leave in the first place. Yet, one thing I have learned is no matter how far apart you are, friends don’t really go anywhere.

Happy Monday.

In the Kitchen with Captain Monkeypants, The Sequel

It's a week until Christmas, can you believe that? I'm having a hard time realizing it, actually. I've been shopping for a while- I start looking for gifts early so that I'm not pinched for funds or time by the holiday. Of course, this doesn't mean I don't still have last-minute stuff to do. I do a lot of online shopping. Unfortunately, this can be a bit of a nuisance. I'm still waiting for two gifts to arrive. Even though there's a week until Christmas, I have to put one of those missing gifts in a box to ship to California. I was hoping to do that this week. Actually, I HAVE to do that this week, missing gift or not. I'm heading to my parents for the whole of next week and this means I won't be able to get my mail while I'm gone.

Still, aside from that, the holidays are sliding nicely into place. Last night was the Great Fudge Making Event of 2008. I cheated- my friend over at RadLincCrafts forwarded me a recipe for easy fudge because she's awesome. It's a website by engineers with really easy ways of baking and cooking. You can look at it here. Rather than have to do scary stuff with sugar crystalization and all that, I just melted chocolate chips, bunged some condensed milk and butter in there and melted it all. Voila, fudge! It looks like fudge. It even tastes like fudge. I put some peppermint extract in there along with some creme de menthe chocolate chips, sprinkled it with crushed peppermints and, well, it sort of looks like I knew what I was doing. I even used a pizza cutter to score the fudge. I even know what scoring the fudge is. Although when I put it like that, it feels like I should add "That's what she said" to the end of that sentence.

However, I now have something that looks like fudge in my fridge. It tasted pretty decent. I'm shocked. I also even baked sausage rolls. These are a British savory snack that are remarkably easy to make and are always a hit at parties. They consist of...sausage meat and pastry. They're quite tasty, if I do say so myself. My only calamity there was realizing I lacked a rolling pin. Naturally, this realization couldn't occur when, you know, I could do something about it. Also, given our recent ice-storm, running out to Walmart isn't as easy as normal. So I improvised. I used a bottle of wine.

Surprisingly enough, the wine bottle made a great rolling pin. I was very careful not to relive the Great Wine Disaster of 2008. I made sausage rolls. It was nifty. I even had a couple because, well, frankly, it is, as my grandmother used to say, "cook's privilege."

I had a bit of leftover puff pastry so I decided to get creative. Why waste good pastry? So I had a bit of ham in the fridge and I used that in place of sausage meat. I put a bit of mustard between the ham and the pastry and you know what? It tasted like one of those fancy hor d'ourves thingies you get at parties. HA HA! Captain Monkeypants baked!

If it sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, I'm not. Trust me. The fact that I managed to emerge from baking in my kitchen with no fire, no burnings and a complete set of edible goods is a little frightening, actually. I didn't break anything. I even got to use my meat cleaver to cut the sausage rolls. It's a bit excessive but I imagined I was Dexter and it was sort of fun.

Not that I have Dexter fantasies because that would just be weird.

However, this morning, contrary to normal happenings, the sausage rolls still look like sausage rolls and the fudge is still looking like fudge.

Now that the scary Cookie Exchange is taken care of, I can now look forward to Christmas. With a week to go, I have to squeeze in a lot of traditions. I still have to watch "Love Actually." I still need to have a mince pie. I need to finish shopping. I need to just enjoy the fact that it's Christmas and sit by the glow of my tree and take it all in. It's the small things that make me love this season most, the warmth, the lights, the snow, the food, the family and the friends.

I love Christmas.

Happy Thursday

Friday Quickie...(not THAT kind of quickie)

Just a quick blog today since it's Friday. Also, I want to prove that I don't always have to use so many words. I just like to. Words are fun.

It's been a weird week, up and down. I'm not sure why that sometimes happens but it does and nothing you do can stop it; you just have to hold on and go along for the ride. But next week will be better. For one thing, it's the last week I have to work before the holidays. That means I have plenty of time with my family before Christmas in which to help them do last minute shopping trips and preparation.

My family is big on last minute shopping. It used to be the tradition that my dad and I would go shopping for my mum on Christmas Eve. I loved that but it got to be a little hard to wrap gifts as well as get the shopping trip in. I always wait until the last minute to do my wrapping. So last year, we did it a little earlier. It was still fun. The thing was, I think I ended up going with my brother on Christmas Eve instead. I tend to be the shopping fiend in my family. I love to shop. I especially love to help other's shop. Watching other people spend money is almost as fun as spending your own.

I'm just glad it is the holidays. It's my favourite time of year. I love the lights, the colour, the snow, the music (except the annoying Christmas songs that I talked about the other day). I just love the overall mood.

This weekend means we're moving closer to Christmas. I don't mind if it takes its time in coming. I always love the days before Christmas more than the day itself. Christmas Eve is my favourite, it's the anticipation that is so wonderful. It's a magical day to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the traditions on Christmas Day but on Christmas Night, when you go to bed, you have that sad feeling that suddenly it's over, all that preparation is finished and you're suddenly on the other side of Christmas. I like the climb towards Christmas better.

I've been weirdly random in my blogging this week, just rambling on about whatever I choose. Thanks for sticking with me. Next week will be better...I hope. Have a great weekend.