Hi There.

So, yeah, I pretty much skipped over blogging about Christmas this year, but today I realized that it's my blog's anniversary, so perhaps a post was in order. Luckily I haven't gone completely feral so I still more or less know how to type. Mostly.

Christmas was really nice - I got to hang out with family and friends and ate a lot of cookies (like, a lot of cookies). It's been too gross out to ride but eh, I'm not much of a winter biker. I've spent my week off sleeping in and generally having a good time. That's what vacation is for, right? I have not finished painting my bathroom (sorry, Emily.)

Every New Year's Eve I blog about how it's my whatever-year-blog anniversary (7th, now, I think) and link to my very first incredibly stupid entry, so if you want to read that you might want to check my archives from last December 31. It's basically this post all over again, really. But I'm glad, I'm glad that in a fit of boredom at my temp job seven years ago I up and decided to start a blog. I'm glad that you still bother to read it, even though it's changed a lot from what it originally was.

So right now it's Thursday afternoon and I can smell the salsa chicken I have slow-cooking for tonight's taco extravaganza. It's cold and grey today and I spent the afternoon out shopping with my friend Nina. I have cute new red slippers on that I just bought and I'm already thinking about the glass of wine I want to drink while I make the guacamole. I'm trying really hard not to think about how quickly this week has gone and how before I know it I'll be Monday back at work, weeping weeping.

This hasn't been the most stellar year ever, but I've had worse. I'm healthy, I'm lucky in love and have the greatest friends anyone could ever hope for. I mean, really, I have AWESOME friends, y'all. They definitely make me want to be a better person and I just love them all and I'm so fucking lucky that they love me back. Aw.

And as always, I ask that you spare a moment of thought for Kathryn, Bryan, Stella and Ruby Harvey, who are dearly missed by all. They gave a lot to my hometown and I don't want anyone to forget. A local blogger and friend has written more about them here.

Happy new year, you guys. I hope it's a good one.

Stuff I Like: Thursday edition

I'm doing this a day early because I have tomorrow off which makes today my Friday! Woo. Before you throw things at me in jealously please know I have a really busy day tomorrow - no relaxing for me. So! Here is some stuff I like:

Mint M&Ms. These are seasonal and not exact new, but they're new to me. I bought them on a whim last Saturday (while lamenting the demise of the mint cookie Hersey bar) and WOW THEY ARE CRAZY GOOD GET AWAY FROM MY DAMN CANDY. Kenny and I snorfled the whole bag over the weekend and I was still thinking about them on Tuesday so I picked up another bag only to discover Kenny had done the exact same thing so now we have LOTS. Get your own because I'm not sharing.

Daniel Craig Tea Towel. My friend Marianne told me about this and I need it SO MUCH. Unfortunately shipping would be something like $40 and for that much money I would expect Daniel Craig to hand deliver it. In a Speedo.

Handmade Holiday craft show! YOU SHOULD COME. I will be there selling jewelry I made with my very own hands and there will also be more than 40 other local crafters selling really cool stuff. I've been blogging about it on the Handmade Holiday here, here and here. There are also great crafter interviews on the blog, so read those too. And come to the show or I will never, ever speak to you again. Awesome!

I Like Mike. And stuff.

I enjoyed making Friday be all about stuff I like when I was doing NaBloPoMo, so I've decided to keep going with it, at least for now. Here we go:

My friend Michael's spinning class. I look forward to it every week because he is hilarious and fun and says crazy shit to make us laugh. Plus, he's totally cute:

I'm cute!

Topics covered in his most recent class include:

- Days of Thunder with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
- Desserts Eaten Last Week

- The weirdo brilliance of Lady Gaga.
- ADD and the lack of drugs to control it.
- Smokey after-hours dance clubs
- Gee, I Really Hope Someone Blogs About This (hard look at me)
- A dramatic reenactment of the "Catch My Breath" move originally performed by another instructor.

How could you not want to take Mikey's class? It's the best.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. This is the only book that could follow The Thirteenth Tale, really. It's similar in some ways (weird, slightly Gothic, easy to fall into) but different enough to not confuse me or crowd the bits of TTT that are still in my head. It's like a grown-up, grittier Harry Potter with added angst. I like it a lot so far. Favorite bit:

"Are you kidding? That guy was a mystery wrapped in an enigma and crudely stapled to a ticking fucking time bomb. He was either going to hit somebody or start a blog. To tell you the truth I'm kind of glad he hit you."

Fancy no-stir polenta aka CHEESE GRITS. Whatever you want to call it. I made this recipe a few weeks ago as the base of a chicken sausage/greens dish and we liked it so much I made it again last week with a shrimp. Shrimp 'n Grits! The recipe (second one down) is completely full proof and crazy delicious. I used Bob's Red Mill polenta/grits because you can't do better than that.

Neutrogena Moisture Shine Lip Sheers. I recently ran out of my favorite fancy lip gloss (Lorac Gloss Stick) and was horrified to discover that it's been discontinued. Why do they do that to me? It was perfect. I couldn't find anything I liked nearly as much and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a sub-par replacement. So, against my better judgment I bought a drugstore lip color. It's not that I'm a snob, I just hate that there are no testers and drugstore brands tend to go completely fuchsia on me (which is so attractive.) Anyway, I picked Blackberry Ice and was pleasantly surprised: it's sheer but not too sheer, slightly minty, and not fuchsia at all. And! The packaging looks and feels way more expensive than it is. YAY.

That's it, kids. Oh, except please leave me a comment and tell me about your latest favorite thing.

Road Raging.

Oh man, you guys. I almost killed some lady yesterday just using the power of my mind. I was waiting in a line of cars waiting to exit a parking lot and another row of cars on the right was waiting to turn (and merge into our main line). I let the first guy go in front of me and then pulled up behind him. That's the way it works, right? You take turns. I learned this in kindergarten. Well, the snooty snot behind him decided that she wanted me to let her in too, nay, she DEMANDED I let her in by inching...inching...inching...forward no matter how far I pulled up. Finally, the guy in front of me got his chance to exit the parking lot and I'll be damned if that bitch didn't peel out in front of me, forcing me to slam on the brakes. When I slammed the heel of my hand into my horn she gave me a smirk. OH NO YOU DINT.

OH. NO. YOU. DINT.

(Just FYI, her license plate said, "LOV LIF" and she had those horrible pink polka-dotted initial stickers, so if you see her around town, please give her the finger for me.)

Y'all, I lost my shit. I was that red-faced angry screaming harpy that you're all afraid of. If I'd had a Callaway driver I would have taken out her SUV's windows. I was deeply pissed. I continued along to my destination, all the while having an angry one-sided conversation that went something like this:

"I let the first person in because I'm A NICE PERSON."

"That's right, I follow THE RULES. Some people just have no MANNERS."

"I swear to god if one more of those west end ladies-who-lunch fuck with me I am going to BUST THEM UP."

Yeah, good stuff. I kept driving and as I was headed towards the intersection before the bridge, who should I pull up behind? Oh, you're gonna be LOVing LIF alright. I made sure to give her the finger as I passed her on the bridge and then I did the most incredibly passive-aggressive thing I could think of:

I got in front of her.... and went one mile under the speed limit. The whole way across. YEAH I DID.

High five.

Oh, you thought that was it?

I'm not done. Look at me! Posting in December even though I don't have to.

Yesterday was hard, as I mentioned. At 5pm I left work with the intention of going to the gym as usual. I pushed open the door to find it cold, pitch black, and pouring down rain. Fuck this. I drove...right past the gym and kept going until I was home, in bed, with a good book, a cat and a glass of wine. It was everything I'd hoped it would be, especially the book which I finished.

I know I wrote about The Thirteenth Tale a few weeks back and at that point I'd only just started but kids, let me tell you, I think it's the best book I've read this year. It is really just a perfect story with every element I love: England, stories within stories, suspense, Gothic intrigue, eccentric characters, books, books, and more books. It was written by a serious reader and that made me love it all the more. This passage is one of my favorites:

"Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes–characters even–caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you."

And that's what I'm dealing with right now. I'm still reading The Broken Teaglass but it's dragging a bit. I've also started The Magician and it has promise but The Thirteenth Tale is still with me, still tugging at my brain. I cannot wait to read it again.