all I know is that if you have the program loaded and on, it will tell you who's on. There's a little running guy icon on the bottom right of my screen. I click on him.

I'm sorry I missed the IM goodness. But since my computer at home has effectively died, I wouldn't have been able to join in anyway. Also, I wasn't home. My old philosophy professor was giving a lecture on "Religion in Ancient Greek Poetry" and after that I went and watched the new Buffy episode.

Weezie - here's what the http://www.gambinosbakery.com web site had to say about King Cakes: (mmmm, king cakes)

In European countries, the coming of the wise men bearing gifts to the Christ Child is celebrated twelve days after Christmas. The celebration, called Epiphany, Little Christmas on the Twelfth Night, is a time of exchanging gifts and feasting. All over the world people gather for festive Twelfth Night celebrations. One of the most popular customs is still the baking of a special cake in honor of the three kings..."A King's Cake."
Tradition has now evolved through time to obligate the person who receives the baby (inside every King Cake!) to continue the festivities by hosting another king cake party.
King Cakes were originally a simple ring of dough with little decoration. Gambino's has developed its own special recipe as a signature item to become The King of King Cakes.®
The King Cake is made with a rich Danish dough, baked and covered with a poured sugar topping and decorated with the traditional Mardi Gras-colored sugars. The end result is a delicious and festive cake in traditional Rex colors: Purple, representing Justice; Green, representing Faith; Gold, representing Power. Hundreds of thousands of King Cakes are consumed at parties every year, making the King Cake another fine Louisiana tradition. A Mardi Gras party just wouldn't be a Mardi Gras party without a King Cake!

most or all of the demo should be posted online by this time next week. Hard copies might take a little bit longer.

I like this pale yellow.
I have been craving King Cake all week. Luckily my parent's are coming to visit in a few days and have brought two! for me. Well, one will be brought to work as a goodwill gesture. Oh, so yesterday my supervisor comes up to me and says "we have a travel budget this year - any place you'd like to go?" So I wrote a proposal about going to a picture editor's workshop in Maine this summer (the same place I wanted to go work for last summer but didn't get the job - oh, well) and I feel like they're dangling a carrot and my proposal might not get approved but if it did - wow! That would be so so rad.
Angie - what an amazing trip. I'm glad the concert was so great. And, man, you did like one million things.
Zach - very cool CD.

ok, Angie. Next time you go to Blogger.com to update, hit the "view web page" link in the black bar right under the posting space. If that doesn't take you to http://lakeeffect.blogspot.com, then I have no idea whats going on.

I think you have to download AIM to be signed up there. ICQ is fine (and actually my preference) but no one seems to have it. And, to tell the truth, file transfers are tons easier with AIM.

Anyone interested in seeing the cover of the Dirty Version's demo should click here.
The drawing was done by our English mate, Gavin Jones and the designering was done by your's truly.

my AIM = ShellyKIlloggs
i have an icq number around here somewhere too if anyone uses that...

Upma - I hope your post-birthday week goes well.
Here's how the Iron Chef party turned out:
First, I decorated a yellow pepper like Chairman Kaga (drawing little black gloves and black cape). Four hours of cooking. Six courses. The Ginger Battle. We played Ginger Spice's solo CD. We ate the following: vegetarian spring rolls, deep fried, delicious. Ginger and chicken broth. Ginger curry with rice, eggs and a cucumber mint salad. Hollowed out red and yellow peppers filled with lemon ginger rice, with ginger spiced beef and green beans. For dessert, ginger snap cookies with tangerine mousse and freshly made whipped cream with sliced strawberries and ginger crepes with ice cream floats made with ginger ale. Whoa. My stomach didn't know what hit it. After dinner, Paul and Ted had a Galaga competition. (Paul had a higher score, Ted got to a higher level). Stephmo and I had haiku writing competition.
Here's one of mine:
ginger, spice of life
the root of my appetite
I will eat you up
And one of hers:
talk trash, eat ginger
all worries will fly away
a night with great friends
I ended up writing about 10 more haikus - one an ode to Paul's pants
purple velvet pants
are you the rock'n'roll chef?
purple velvet pants!
We declared all competitions a tie and everyone took home prizes. It was a great party.

I'm sorry I missed your birthday, Upma, but I'm glad you're safe.

I hate this color.

Blog redesign plans coming along. How many of you have photos of yourself (or photos to represent yourself) that you can send me? I'm probably going to use one of the Blogger templates with some personal touches. I'll make up one or two and we can vote. It might be a few weeks though.

Purple PUrple PuRple PurPle PurpLe PurplE Purple

I had (or have, I guess) an IM account, but I never use it. Sorry. Maybe when I get a better machine.

Angie, switch your bookmark to:

http://lakeeeffect.blogspot.com

And that should fix the problem. If it doesn't you might have to take your computer to an exorcist.

The goldenrod is nice.
Weezie - I have two friends who did Teach for America the last few years. Would you like their email addresses? For application writing advice?
My butt is dragging today. Last night I worked late, then went to a lecture on Perspectives of Religion, then caught a later, free screening on The Thin Man (plus a short by Buster Keaton). It was a great night, but then someone's out sick today, so I'm covering their meetings, and I really want to crawl back into bed.
Here's the invite to the Iron Chef party this weekend - you're all invited:

If memory serves me correctly.... it's time for the Iron Chef Challenge...starring

Paul R. - known for his French style of cooking and penchant for Willie Wonka Candy
against
Kristin H. - known for her ownership of a Kitchen Aid and having a "grown-up" refrigerator

The face-off will be this Saturday starting at 5pm in the kitchen of Mr. R.
The secret ingredient will be one of the following...

Will it be MINT? - used in everything from jellies to tea to garnishing your plate. Just how fresh do we want our breath to be?
or will it be GINGER? - it looks like a knobby hobbit's cane, but not in these capable chef's hands
or perhaps it will be LEMON... jewel of the Mediterranean, pucker up friends...
or perhaps, the secret ingredient will be POMEGRANATE... ooh, a wild card

At the same time as the cook-off there will be an intergalactic challenge between
Ted "I got to level 32 until they turned the power off" M.
vs.
Paul "it's my game system and I've been practicing for weeks" R.

Also possible events include: a skit by the Stephs, fabulous prizes for the winners, and a watching of the Sat. night Iron Chef episode on the Food Network

Now for the responsibilities/who is bringing what:
Steph F. - provider of the secret ingredient and all other thematic necessities (prizes!!!!)
Steph Mo. - charm, good taste, and savoir faire
Paul - kitchen host, staple food buying
Kristin - challenger, staple food buying and plate/dish/cookware lending
Ted - je ne sais quoi

In case anyone would like to start the smack talking now, please feel free to email your competitor. Let the champions emerge!

Your chairwoman,
Steph

I can't wait!

Let's compromise and call it gold. This color is my favorite so far.

Two jobs opened up on campus. I'd be happy to have either. Finger crossed.

Orange you glad I didn't change it back to pink?

We had the day off yesterday for MLK. I spent the morning reading the New York Times at the Flightpath Coffeeshop. Drinking a smoothie and eating a bagel with feta olive cream cheese (mmm, feta olive). Then since it was in the 60's and beautifully sunny, I went and walked two miles around the Town Lake hike and bike trail. Then cause, I felt like I was on a vacation, I went and got a seated chair massage cause my shoulder's been all wonkadoodle from the gym this week. Then since I was at Central Market (Angie - if they build one of these in Houston - you must go - it's the Rolls Royce of grocery stores at Honda prices), I bought some fresh flowers, and practically skipped home. It was such an Austin day.
I am currently a bit overwhelmed by how many different books I'm reading right now.
The Iron Chef book - fantastic - I'm a recent acolyte to the Food Network, despite not having cable. I'm even helping to host an Iron Chef party this Saturday. My best cooking friends, Kristin and Paul are competing. I'm suppose to come up with the secret ingrediant. I'm currently leaning towards ginger, mint or lemon. Something that works well in a main or side dish or dessert or beverage. Any other suggestions from the crowd? There will also be a Galaga competition going on at the same time. I'm the judge, in charge of buying prizes this week at Toy Joy (shelly - that's the place you and JT went in Austin that has the fabulous toys).
Also reading, The Two Towers. Never got through this as a kid - but I'm inspired by the movie to try and finish it. Very slow in the middle. I have higher hopes for The Return of the King.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - the book club choice - usually having to read a certain amount of pages per week puts me back in school mode - procrastinating and picking up everything else to read first, but this one, I have to keep stopping myself from reading on and ahead so I can contribute without giving stuff away in our discussions.
Lenny Bruce is Dead - this is written by one of the This American Life NPR commentators. I've liked his short stories in the past - but this work - it seems like a less well done version of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I hope to get it finished soon, cause I'm not enjoying it that much.
Emergence - Ted lent me this book. It's about how societies and structures form. I just learned about slime molds. Well, then I put the book down. Maybe I'll get back to it soon.

Here is a slightly edited excerpt from an email to Louise. I think it may be late enough at night that my crappy connection will work to let me post. Here's hopin'.

Let's see I'll try to start at the beginning of my
accidental disappearance which I believe is near the
last time I went out of town. With temp work, since I
don't have any paid vacation I have to scurry to
overbook myself before I leave and after I come back
so that I can make up the money I lost from not
working while I travel. This year was really tough
financially because of all the wedding travel I had to
do. After the most recent trip in November it was even
worse because I still hadn't caught up from being
stuck out of town unexpectedly in the middle of
September and business has been slower since then too.
So I was working double time especially since I knew
that I have two more weddings at the end of this year
(my sister and close cousin) and I wanted to build a
nest egg for those trips.

In the meantime I participated in a program where
artists decorate bras to be auctioned for breast
cancer research. There ended up being a show and my
venus doll that I built around the pink satin bra won
in the category of "Most Risque'." It wasn't supposed
to be risque' but, whatever. I was a little bit upset
by the process because I never saw my Venus de Mammo
in any of the displays or auctions, so I don't know
what they did with it since THAT was what I donated it
for.

In December, I participated in a group show called
Restart. It was an artist run show in alternative
space that runs like a party for two nights. Friday is
performance art night, Saturday is DJ night. It was a
lot of fun. There was a little intrest expressed in my
paintings, both fairly small figurative numbers, but
no potential buyers in sight, though a good amount of
the stuff in the show DID sell, one even to a gallery.
The intrest in my works was mostly limited to a
creepy stalkerish guy who already knew where I lived
and emailed me a bunch of times allegedly about buying
one of the paintings but actually about getting a
date. I didn't sell the painting to him. On the whole
it was a positive experience and I met a lot of
interesting people and "networked" a lot of contacts.

I submitted some proposals for murals at a new Gilda's
club in my neighborhood. Gilda's club is a nonprofit
started by Gilda Radner. They build clubhouses for
people with cancer and their families and friends. All
of the clubs have at least one entryway mural with
Gilda in it. Some of the clubs, including eventually
the Seattle one, are full of murals throughout. I
submitted ideas for two areas. I should find out soon
whether either or both were chosen.
The woman in charge of it was really nice. It turns
out she's an art therapist. So I made a separate
appointment to pick her brain for future "when I grow up" type plans.

From some contacts with the art show and Jacob's work,
a painting was commissioned from me. I'm working on
that now. The concept of making money off of art is
still a new one to me. I'm really excited about it.

Through one of my jobs at an art school I meet fashion
design students. I've had a running debate with a few
of them as to why they always design clothes and draw
people much taller than most people are. The answer is
always that it looks more elegant that way. I feel
that this is stupid and part of the reason that women
can't buy clothing off the rack. Because anyone who
knows anything about proportions knows that if you
design something three-fourths and try proportion it to
make it fit four-fifths, it will never work. I assume
that this works similarly in clothing size dimensions
as well and when they are cutting the patterns down to
normal people sizes you wind up with pants that fit no
woman's body. So anyway I've been trying to rally a
cause among the students (most of whom are NOT 5'8'
120 lbs.) to make clothing for short people (like me)
or more broadly, fashionable clothing for REAL people.
I seem to have made my point with one similarly shaped
designer who is tired of spending hundreds on making
the clothes for the annual fashion show only to wind
up with outfits she could never wear. So I'm going to
be a model in a fashion show in March. I'm about six
inches shorter than the other models and six to ten
years older. It should be fun.
I also got a sewing machine which I plan to use to further my cause. JT, here comes a run for your money.

And on the job front, I seem to have gotten one. I
have reservations about it. It starts soon part time
to be full time at the beginning of March. I'm nervous
about having to be at the same place at the same time
every day for the first time in two years. Other than
that I don't want to talk about it too much just yet.
I'll provide details after I start. The money is where
I want it and that is my number one priority right now
given the econmoic state. So I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, it is good hearing from you via the blog and I'm sorry I've
been so absent. The longer I'd been silent, the more
overwhelming the post seemed to be. I hope I haven't
rambled on too embarassingly.
Incidently I'm an INFJ. Zach, I hope you feel better. I can relate to the crappy days. Upma and Weezie, you'll do just fine where ever you are. JT, I wish I were in Paris too. and the only problem with macs, weezie, is that they don't play well with PCs hence my long blogging lapse. au revoire. I love you all.

Shelly

Hey everybody. Grace sends a message and here it is:

nb h b g vc 2:55 PM 1/21/02jumh n yn6t yn mm

I'm not sure what she means.

When life hands you vomit, make vomitade.

Zach - my condolences as well. I hope today is better.

It ain't easy being green.

I am simply in awe of how shitty the past 48 hours have been. Honestly, telling it sounds like I'm exaggerating. I'm not. Here's the play by play.

I get up today way too late again. My bank deposit still hasn't cleared, therefore, no lunch. My dad convinced me last night that I had the skills to fix my car myself. His faith in me was not misplaced I'm proud to say. All I had to do was remove the thermostat. Take out two bolts, pull the sonofabitch out and put the bolts back. I manage all of this smashingly. Except, in the process, I managed to break one of the bolts in half... STILL SCREWED IN. So now I have the busted thermostat out, but I can't get the housing sealed back on. So, it leaks. Which means Saturday's trip to Hickory should take about twice as long as normal, because I'll have to stop every twenty miles, wait twenty minutes for the radiator to cool and fill it with water, then repeat for about 90 miles. Butt-ass shit crack...

Tonight we had a show at College Hill with my old friend Chip's band, Port Huron Statement. Krystal calls and says she's too sick to sing. Being an insensitive bastard I only think about the fact that that leaves us with only five songs practiced and ready to go. Grumbling and pissed, Benji and I load up our stuff into Dave's truck. About a half a mile from the house and, maybe, two hundred yards from the bar, the back gate opens and two amp heads and one speak cabinet fly out in the middle of the intersection of Spring Garden and Tate St. I jump out. One of the heads, Krystal's, is busted to fuck. The other stuff, Benji's, looks beat up but okay. It probably won't work, but it looks okay.

The night is dark.

We finally get there, break the news and arrange for me to play through Chip's gear. Krystal is really sick. I didn't realize how sick when I was talking to her on the phone. She looks bad.

Port Huron Statement sets up. I hadn't seen them before, but I believe in my pal Chip. I knew he'd be doing good stuff. PHS is got a heavy Flaming Lips vibe going. They're really great, but they need a real in-house PA with a mixing board, which we didn't have. There sound was good in places, terrible in others. It all depended on where you stood. I felt terrible, like I failed them, because the place wasn't really digging it. Some kids were. I wish I could have booked the show at a better venue.

Midway through their set, Benji comes up behind me and whispers, "Krystal just threw up." I nod, because I could feel something like that was coming. Two songs later he's back. "Krystal went home. We're not playing." I have very little reaction to this. I'm glad she went home. I'm totally disappointed, but she shouldn't have been out. I knew that. A few songs later, Benji waves to me through the door. I head outside. He and Nathan are wondering if we couldn't do a few songs as a three piece. Of course, I'm all for it. Calmer head intervene as Andrew Dukek, our conscience, tells us not to. We should quit before shit gets worse. He's right.

So we load out after Port Huron Statement. In the middle of this, Kelly C comes in and tells me that she lost her job at Pace Publishing, which is terrible for her and crappy for me as it means no freelancing work, mostly likely.

At the end of everything, I'm standing there, talking to Chip, and out of nowhere, I start to faint. I have no idea what brought it on. My eyes went black and I start to wobble. Fortunately, I know I'm about to black out, so I grab a seat on the steps and try to catch my breath. I don't know I how I managed to not pass out, but I shook it off and rested. Now, finally, I'm home. All the gear, broken and whole, is downstairs. And I'm sitting up, stinking like cigaretter. Soon, I'm going to have to take a shower.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. But, if it's worse, I'll let you know.

I'm an ESTJ

I went to the gym the other day, tried to get all about the weight machines, now I can't move my head back.
Work has been fun but stressful this week - a photo shoot everyday. This morning it was jam thumbprint cookies (I was at Target this morning buying a cooling rack, for the cooling rack shot) and an editor dressed as Friedrich the Great holding a horseshoe (yeah, I had to have the context of that explained to me, too. Some story about the king not getting a good enough horseshoe and breaking it at the blacksmith until he gets a good shoe, and then the King paying the blacksmith in silver, the blacksmith breaks the coin and ends up getting paid in gold - which doesn't make sense because isn't gold more malleable than silver, but whatever, that was this morning). Yesterday is was kids making paper mache pinatas, day before that, girls at basketball practice.
But the overtime has been nice. I may go to Alaska this summer. So I'm starting to save now.
I'm not sure what my kiersey temperment is, I may go check that out now.

What a crap-ass day. First, I sleep waaaay too late and wake up feeling like the Mummy. Then I eat a lunch of black-eyed peas with a dollup of Vegannaise in them (black-eyed peas and mayonnaise is a southern tradition), that make me feel all funny and sick. In most cases, Vegannaise actually kicks regular mayonnaise's ass, but not on the peas. I've learn my lesson. I had an job interview at 2. My car got ticketed, IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE, not once, but TWICE, sometime this morning. I take a wrong turn to my interview and never get there. About ten miles out of town (and in the wrong direction) my car starts smoking like Junior High and stalls out. So, now I'm trapped way the hell out of town waiting for Benji (bless him) to bring me some oil. He does. That's not the problem it seems. My thermostat is busted somehow. I finally get it home and dad tells me how to fix it myself, but its way too late to do anything tonight.

So, now I'm waiting for the icing on the cake. What will it be? Will I fall down the stairs? Will the sky fall on me?

Sigh.

Here's a blue. The more I look at this template set up, the more concerned I am that I won't know how to change much. This color change might be the best we get for a while.

So... we're keeping the pink, right?

Zach - I like the lighter blues and greens. I hate reading out reversed text on dark backgrounds.
I went to a painting party (as in watercolors not room walls) last night. I wasn't too happy with my finished piece. I thought it looked like a vase. The guy next to me asked if it was a scene from WWII.

hey, folks. I think with the group's approval, I'd like to change the look of the blog a touch. I feel comfortable enough with web stuff to change some things. I'll try to design a masthead and maybe some other graphics.

I changed the background color, because I was tired of looking at the grey. I'll change it every few days until, I finish with the masthead. Please, tell me if you see a color you like. Or you can make suggestions. About anything.

Check out the colors we can choose from here.

If you loved the grey, don't be afraid to say so. I don't want to do anything with out the group's approval. I chose pink to change it to first, because we've been talking about doing the cover of the next magazine in pink. And because I love you. And because I thought Louise would hate it.

I talked to Shelly the other day - I'm sure she'll reappear on the boards soon.
Weezie - my favorite philosophy professor from college is in Waking Life, towards the beginning, his specialty is existentialism, a Dr. Solomon, but that still didn't keep me from staying awake through the whole movie (hang my head in shame). I couldn't get into it.
I'm happy Ethan won as well. It's the first Survivor where the person I was pulling for actually pulled it off. There was lots of yelling and excitement at the party I was watching it during last night. Five girls screaming Ethan's name in joy.
So I now have tickets to the Elvis tribute show, it's billed as SINsational. I need to pick out a good dancing outfit.
My department manager was fired (unjustly) yesterday. It was all eggshells the rest of the day. Then another co-worker and I were in charge of taking down all his personal stuff in his office cause he wasn't allowed in the building. Very surreal. Not how I wanted to spend my afternoon. I tire of office politics.
I have a photo shoot tomorrow - girl measuring the circumferance of a tree - did you all know that every 1/4 inch represents six months of growth or some such equation.
Plan II - my major in college (sort of a Liberal Arts honors program) offers a class every spring that alumni can audit. So I'll be studying, starting next week, Perspectives on Religion (the year before it was Perspectives on Love, and the one before that was Perspectives on Truth). It's a panel of PhD's in English, Philosophy, Science, Law, etc. I can't wait. I think Ted wants to be snuck into a few of these.
I got back ridiculously cornball photos from our trip to Michigan. Lots of frolicking around in snow. Goofing at the local science museum. Me next to some bored looking reindeer.

Got your reviews Mike. They look great. Thank you.

Job hunt has begun in ernest. So far no luck whatsoever. Kelly has promised to hook me up with her editor about some freelance writing for Pace Publishing. I hope that works out. I managed to stand her up tonight, not thinking about what I was doing. D'oh. I'm surprised my legs don't stop at the ankles I shoot myself in the foot so often. I was talking to a woman from another publisher in town today and somehow ended up breaking off what I know realize was a "sizing up" conversation. I'm a dolt.

If any of you know of any work in the Greensboro-High Point-WinstonSalem area, let a brother know. I'm nearly out of food and I can't think about how to get more until I figure out how to get rent money.

I wish I were in Paris. Maybe someday. Have fun JT. Tell em I said Bonjour.

I listened to the band's 8 track recording last night. At least, that has turned out well. I'm a little afraid my singing (which we haven't recorded yet) will screw it up. When I can post some tracks, I will.

Is Shelly still with us?

Weezie - what movie were you referring to? I think I missed that entry.
I went and saw A Beautiful Mind last night. That Russell Crowe, he has some acting chops.
I think I'm going to an Elvis tribute show this weekend at the Continental Club. The local Krispy Kreme has peanut butter and jelly doughnuts all this week in honor of his birthday.

TELEGRAM

In Paris. stop
May never return. stop
Food = Chocolate, Cheese, Bread in any combination, then repeat. stop
Jet Lag has opposite effect on me. Stop
In last 48 hours have had 6 hours of sleep. I'm awake for the first time in 6 months. stop

Zach, I'm so sorry. Colds are awful. I'm snotty and flemmy and hacking and red-nosed and red-eyed and ready to be healthy again.
Weezie - congrats on your burgeoning crochet business. That's awesome. I wish I had such skills. I started knitting a scarf about a year ago (for a now defunct ex-boyfriend) - can't seem to get motivated to finally finish it.
Upma - what's the latest status on all things Philly?

I've got a cold. I feel like I fell out of something's butt.

Like Upma said, it snowed last night. About 6 inches, which is a pretty good snowfall for this area. Snow is always fun here. Nearly everything closes down. Not quite as much as year's past though. This area has become more wealthy and become the home to more and more people from the North who insist on showing us bumpkins how a real American deals with a little snow. I'm always very impressed.

Last night, we drove in the snowstorm to Burlington. Burlington is about 25 minutes away. It took us an hour, but it was fun. Our friends Uwarria were playing at Stage 18. Opening for them was an amazing band from New Jersey called the Assistant. They ripped it up. Uwarria is a really great band too. Their gimmick is that they only do songs about environmental issues. So they have songs about the Outer Banks ecosystem and about South American Howler Monkeys. They do it all with a lot of humor though. "Jaguar" is a song about how much it would benefit the billions of species of the world if jaguars ate all the humans. Funny.

Today, we made fajitas and watched O Brother Where Art Thou and about seven episodes of Friends on DVD. Then we went sledding over at Lindley Elementary. They have the best possible hill for sledding. It's steep and long and at the bottom there is another little hill to launch up on. There were tons of families out, with little kids crashing into each other and just getting wrecked. Those kids were tough.

I made a flyer for our show on the 17th and I'm so pleased with it I'm posting it here.



Tomorrow more snow. And the Royal Tenenbuams opens. Whooo.

Weezie: I love your letter of intent. I'm at the gushing stage, so I'm not ready to offer suggestions yet. But I think it sounds wonderful.
Yesterday at work I got the travel bug - but more of a go different places and do different odd jobs for short stretches - like work on a research vessel helping scientists, and work in a national park one summer and take a group of kids, give them cameras and go on fun adventures together.
But today - back in my cube, with a runny nose, stuffed up sinuses and a sour disposition. Well, just a little sour.
One year, huh, happy anniversary everyone.

Happy New Year everyone. (this post has a definite gluttonous theme)
My New Year's Eve was all about the eating.
Lobster soup, fresh spinach salad with spagetti squash and sundried tomatoes, wild mushroom risotto, roasted duck with greens and mashed potatoes, and finally blood orange sorbetto with fresh orange slices covered in champagne.
Any party would be anti-climatic after that.
So my New Year's Day was all about the sloth.
I spent four hours on my friend Paul's couch while he catered in junk food from the kitchen. It was like having a manservant. Friends Stephmo, Liz and I were wrapped up in blankets, watching the Twilight Zone marathon on the Sci-Fi channel and switching back and forth from the Food Network. We saw episodes on the making of ice cream, hot dogs, movie candy and soda pop. It was very nice. That night I had green beans for dinner I was so not hungry and then finished a book, watch some tv and was in bed by 10:30. It was hell getting up this morning. I sounded like a pterodactyl I was so cranky.
Goodbye vacation.

We estimate that there were about 40 people here two nights ago. It was quite a scene. So crowded that there was no place to sit in the living room or stand in the dining room or kitchen. People were sitting in the hallway.

Upma, we'd love to eat anything you make.