crrrrrrrrafts

I am in deep with crrrrrrfts right now - here's something I made over the weekend with a little help from my mom - we had so much fun sewing together in my sewing/guest room. This one was a family project with help from M as well, who made the template for the numbers. I ironed those on using that iron-on adhesive stuff.

I'd seen a lot of designs for advent calendars but, frankly, I like mine the best. The pockets are 4" high and 20" wide, then I just sewed up between the numbers to make the pockets and sewed on the ribbon and felt flaps. Mom had the idea to put on tassels and I think they look great.

Thanksgiving weekend

Well, for Thanksgiving I made a goose, mostly because I was inspired by Two Fat Ladies who made one ages ago. None of our party had ever had one before, and we were all quite delighted with the way it turned out.

The other exciting thing I made was a liver paté, which was disgusting to make (boiled livers!) but the results were also delicious (and quite cost effective, I might add)! Here's my plate, pre-brussels sprouts, I notice, and pre-goose gravy, which G handily whipped up. She's the sort of person you can ask to make the gravy and she says, "Gravy! No problem!"


And here's that goose:

And here's G & G:

We went downtown to do a tiny bit of shopping (although I think I just bought things for myself! Whoops!) Macy's windows are pretty boring this year - Yes, Virginia, which I think is merely a desperate plea to validate the newspaper industry. And we had lunch at the Italian Village, one of my favorite restaurants downtown, where my mom made the shocking disclosure that they had the "best lasagna [she'd] ever had".

Thanksgiving 2010 Menu

Cheese plate with fig jam
Paté*
M's Agreeable Pickles
K's Disagreeable Pickles

Roast Goose
Sage Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Indiana Sweet Corn
Brussels Sprouts with Roasted Chestnuts
Broccoli au Gratin
Bread Rolls

G's Petit Gooseberry Pies
P's Pumpkin Pie

And, a lot of wine.

* I made it myself! It was unpleasant...

this one's for KHM

KHM's looking for a pick-me-up - this is the best thing I can think of, my favorite beverage of late...

American in Paris
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
1/2 ounce creme de cassis
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Shake with ice, serve up in a martini glass.

via

joining the fray

I thought I'd go ahead and way in on the TSA "body scanners" (or, "nudity machines", as I like to call them) since everyone else is. Two flights ago, I "opted out" of the body scanner because I didn't want the radiation, and so I got the "pat down" which, yes, is rather intimate. There's all this "now I'm using the front of my hand/now I'm using the back of my hand" nonsense, which doesn't really matter when someone's hand is all up in your business. Then, after they're done, they wipe their gloves with some kind of explosive-detecting wipe, and I came up positive (insert joke). So, they had to give me another pat down. Positive again. Then what? Then nothing, that's what. So, if you ask me, the whole thing's B.S. Meanwhile, guess what? They're all, "The amount of radiation you get in the machine is equal to what you get in the plane in one minute." But, of course, I don't believe them. So, I ask my friend, who's an honest-to-God rocket scientist. And, she says: Ah, that's probably correct. So, that why I just get in the nudity machine now.

Anywho, I ask the people, who's looking at all our naked pictures? And they're like, some guy, in a room all by himself. Oh, sure, I says. I mean. Seriously. No one believes that.

I'm not kidding you

Had a lovely little weekend with my husband ... We saw Harry potter, which I thought was great. Really exciting and moody - thanks to my terrible memory I was like omg! What's going to happen?????? Also totes gorg shots of England ... Reminded me of when I went to England myself and drove around the countryside.

Also bought some shoes... I'm not kidding you... These shoes.... These shoes are going to make you cry when you see them on my feet. One pair is sandals, which is mildly outrageous considering where I live and it's the eve of winter but they wre too perfect and we will most likely go on that all-too-important visit to a warm weather location sometime in February in order to actually a make it through the aforementioned winter.

I'm working on a lot of crrrrafts right now and finally managed to finish one today- a scrapbook of my trip to Bangladesh. That only took... 17 years!

Hope you have a fab thanksgiving. We're cooking up a ridik menu at casa Roark. Oh my. More later.

Glee (Spoilers) (from last week)

So, you know last week on Glee (yeah, I write about shows that are a week old because I'm on top of stuff)? I totally loved that song Teenage Dream by the local hoity-toity-zero-tolerance-policy-all-boys-school. The original is catchy too, I didn't know that song... BUT, the whole bit with Coach Beiste was so gaggy. First, it's like, Schuester finds out the kids are imagining her as a cold-shower replacement when they're too excited. Then he's all SHE MUST NEVER KNOW ABOUT THIS and then he's all THE KIDS ARE TOTALLY IMAGINING YOU WHEN THEY'RE FOOLING AROUND BECAUSE THEY THINK YOU'RE DISGUSTING. So, A.) I find it very unlikely that a grown woman, who works in a school, would give two shits about whether a bunch of teenagers find her attractive and B.) I was all, Don't you kiss her Will Schuester, even though she just told you she's never been kissed, DON'T YOU DO IT, YOU SONNUFABITCH! And then he kisses her, and I was like... God, I hate that guy. And C.) all the boys sing a "we're sorry" song and she's like, aww, that's nice, kind of????????? No.

Sometimes I think that show is really smart, but sometimes it's really idiotic. I want to mock Schuester and his stupid hair like I'm Sue Silvester. Basically I just want them to sing one song after another and lay off the preachy stuff (although I'm interested to see where they go with the bullying angle, but I don't have that much faith that they will NOT screw it up). I do not have high hopes for Gweneth Paltrow episode. BTW, why is Gweneth suddenly a (country western?) singer? We have not forgotten Duets, Gweneth. No, we have not.

Item! Music and fashion

Item! When we were in France, I was hot on the lookout for trends because I am, as you know, a total trendster. Alas, no glaring French trends jumped out at me beside fancy tights which I already knew about and, you know, all-black outfits, the de rigor uniform of the city girl. Do you want to hear something AWESOME???? One day, we were in the Pompidou, and this girl took a picture of my legs (because I had on super-cool tights and an all-black outfit, natch). I didn't see it but M told me and then I got REALLY EXCITED!

We went to a Virgin Megastore (I thought those were totally extinct!) - we used to love going to the VM in SF because they had all those listening stations. Anyway, I found this CD by The Constant, I Blame Coco, which I really love. Update: my fave song is probably SelfMachine - here's a link to the video and info on this Coco. Hint: it's not Conan O'Brien.

Then I saw this video once in a bar (Plan B, She Said). But, I can't seem to buy the song on iTunes. SUCK!


This song (Camelia Jordana, Calamity Jane) is really sweet, I love that little melody. Her voice kind of reminds me of Gillian Welch.
I also heard a few song by this band called Coeur De Pirate, but I can't decide if I like them or not.

Oh, snap! Did you see that boys-school Teenage Dream song on Glee? O.M.G.

My other hot French tip is ham and cheese sandwiches on baguette with butter. You heard it here! (:

it went like this

Me: Hey Sweetheart, did you know Uncle M was a Frenchman for Halloween?
Adorable Nephew: WHAT? Uncle M was a FIRE ENGINE?!
Me: Ha ha ha!
Adorable Nephew: Why are you laughing?
Me: Because that's so funny! Uncle M was a French man. A man from France! Not a fire engine. Ha ha ha!
Adorable Nephew: HA HA HA!
ME: HAHAHA!
Adorable Nephew: HAHAHAHA!
Sister: That's enough, you two.

evil cupcakes

I've been wanting to make be-flagged cupcakes for ages now, and finally did it! Fun! Gee, these are really nice.