Ode to my Christmas Tree...

(sung to O Tannenbaum)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

How deadly are your branches?

You gave me hives, on my forearms

Never mind, your Christmas charms

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

How deadly are your branches?

I’ve just imbibed some Benadryl

And that’s not just for some cheap thrill

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

How deadly are your branches?

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

How deadly are your branches?

We’ll wait and see, what we will do,

But pretty soon, we may be through

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

How deadly are your branches?

This year is the first time I've ever gotten a real tree for Christmas.  The husband swears by real trees and since I didn't really care either way I just went with it.   Too bad sometime in the middle of decorating it I noticed I was getting hives on my hands and arms. It is fabulously beautiful though.  A little wide, but fits quite well in the corner where we have it hanging.  

'Tis the Season to give thanks...for office closings and other things.

Cool thing about this office...we close for the holidays.  Bad thing about closing for the holidays...we're required to use PTO.  Oh, I suppose I could just not get paid for those days, but what's the point in that?  Good thing I get 15 PTO days every year.

Now, I've only been here for 3 holiday seasons so far, but it usually works out to only having to take 3-4 PTO between Thanksgiving and New Years.  Unfortunately, this year the way Christmas and New Years fall on the weekend, I get kind of screwed and have to take 5 PTO days.  I haven't been keeping diligent track of my PTO this year, but by rough estimate, I think I've used up my quota.  Between a few long weekends here and there, plus sick days, adding all that up on my fingers...eh, c'est la vie. I can't clock time regardless since business is closed for the whole week between Christmas and New Years. Might as well enjoy that time off, paid or no.

It's almost Thanksgiving, and I have bought a total of 2 presents for Christmas.  I'm falling behind here.  I fully intend to take advantage of any deals this weekend.  Now, I'm not one to partake in the frenzy that is Black Friday typically since it involves large murderous mobs of psycho soccer moms and thrifty old ladies, so I don't imagine I will be willing to change that this year.  But, luckily I've heard of a few online deals...plus there's always Cyber Monday. 

In keeping the spirit of the holidays, (and hell yes, I am and have been playing Christmas music for a couple weeks now) it's time to note all of the things I am alive and well enough to thank God for all the blessings in my life.

1.  Family and Friends.  Yes, this lumps everyone from my husband to my niece and even my closest friends.  Though I may be thoroughly annoyed at times, I think on times when each and every one of my close friends and family has brought smiles to my face, laughter to my heart, wisdom to my consciousness, acceptance to my failures, support to my weaknesses, and food to my belly, and I could not feel more loved than I do today.

2.  My job.  It sounds so cliche to be thankful for having my job, but considering too many of my peers have gone too long without work, I find it appropriate this year.  No matter how much I complain about working here, I have it better than most.  That is something to be thankful for.

3. My home.  Do not mistake this for a materialistic ideal.  A house is material, a home is a symbol.  I'm thankful to have a home of my own, the feeling of security and the love that surrounds those I care for within.

4. Dog parks.  For without these, I would have a raging 9 month old furniture eater.

5. The Old Fart and The Puppy.  Bless the old man's young heart that even in old age and arthritic bones will still come greet me with some doggy love and only bites me when he's too scared.  Bless the 9 month old furniture eater who follows me around the house like a baby duck and his soft ears and happy heart.  Bless both their cute adorable little faces.

6. Sunshine.  To remind me today only happens once.

7. Shoes.  One of my many vices.  One of the many accessories of function and fashion, and it comes in infinite varieties.  What is an accessory but functional fashion?

8. Iced Tea.  Because sometimes drinking water is too boring.

9. Thanksgiving/Christmas Night movies with the cousins.  One year we decided to go see whatever movie was opening on Christmas night, now we just go watch a movie together after we've had our fill of food and holiday cheer.  Hard to keep up with the tradition now that we share holidays, but a great tradition to keep to spend some quality time with family.

10.  Potlucks.  This goes without saying.  I love food, I'm thankful that I often have a bounty of food at my disposal.  I enjoy the company of friends and I enjoy cooking for my friends.  Thanksgiving has become a holiday of feasts for not just one day a year, but an entire weekend of feasting.  Potlucks bring together food and friends, sharing our favorite recipes and having fun with people you care about.  That's something to be thankful for.

There is so much to be thankful for this year, and always, and it's good to remember those things.  I may bitch and moan about a lot of things and I may have the most words to say when I'm in a bad mood, but to get out of a funk, the best way to do that is to lighten the heart by remembering and being grateful for the wonderful things in life.  Life being one of the greatest blessings of all. 

Thank you Lord for the happiness in my life, for the gift of love, and help me to share that love with those around me.

Body Wars Part 2 and Kitchen Disasters...or not.

It's the Revenge of the Virus: Do not Give Thanks.  I was completely shut down on Friday, as whatever new virus inhabiting my body wrecked havoc on my sinuses.  Unforgivingly battering the weaknesses in my immunal armor.  Even being drugged up and knocked out, I fought a losing battle.  Even today, I lack energy to fight though the enemy has subsided for the time being.  Looks as though it may have found a new host to attack, a more formidable enemy presenting more of a challenge than I obviously provided.  Though I still feel very damaged.  I just hope that I manage to keep under the radar for that psycho stomach flu that has ravaged through several of my peers. I'm just going to hide from the world until I manage to pull together my bleeding forces and regroup.  Unfortunately, I only have 3 days to do that because Thanksgiving is on Thursday.  Time to pump me full of vitamins and other herbal home remedies plus enough cold medicine to knock me out every night.  Hopefully that will finally blast what remains of this horrid virus down to the depths of hell where it belongs. 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm excited that it's here.  This year we plan on frying the turkey.  It will be our first attempt at frying this baby up ourselves, so hopefully it all turns out.  Otherwise, that's 13 lbs of turkey down the drain.  All the research and planning and preparation in the world pales in comparison to actual experience when it comes to attempting a new manner of cooking.  Another first for this year will be my first attempt to make Mamang Taba's famous Leche Flan. Mmmm.  My favorite.  My family never fails to remind me of one holiday in my youth in which I disappeared, only to have them find me crouched in the corner with one entire pan of the sweet delicious creme custard.  Hoarding it all to myself and managing to eat it all myself.  And I wonder why I have huge thighs...

I attempted a trial run last night, having listened intently as my Ninang recited my great grandmother's recipe from heart.  Scribbling carefully detailed instructions across 2 note pad pages with the secrets of the most perfect leche flan known to man.  At least, to me.  So this attempt was important in order to hone my leche flan making skills.  Trial #1 started off well, preparing the ingredients for the caramelized syrup.  Separating the yolks from the whites for the custard...waiting for the syrup to thicken. Then it went to hell in a matter of seconds.  So I'm stirring the syrup, waiting for that tell tale sign it's ready, though from a verbal instruction, although very detailed, it is extremely difficult to determine what the hell I'm looking for.  I'm stirring and I'm stirring, and the syrup is boiling and bubbling and after a long while, I decide...screw it let's try to use this.  But the second I turn off the heat, ROCK HARD sugar.  Needless to say, I flipped my shit. Wide eyed, I told my husband I think I ruined a pan.  Thankfully his brains were still functioning and told me to throw it in the sink.  As he was calming me down and so lovingly helping me scrape out the sauce pan, we discussed how I inadvertently made rock candy and that I probably wasn't the first person do to so. 

Since I had already done the custard portion, I had to try the syrup again.  The second time, I used a candy thermometer as recommended by my husband to help me from totally screwing up a second batch.  If I had been using my brains I may have thought of it, but seeing as my brain was half functioning, I'm glad he was there to help.  This time, I stood at the pan the entire time watching and stirring to make sure I didn't miss that key point where the syrup teeters the edge of supersaturation, when it is thick enough for the recipe.  I stopped it probably well before I should have, but since my Ninang is vacationing in the Philippines and won't be returning until Weds, I left it at that and will have to ask her to show me the technique rather than describing it to me in words. 

In baking the custard, I tried to keep a close eye on the cooking process, to make sure I didn't do anything else wrong.  But, alas, in my haste I used the convection setting on my oven, and though I cut down the temperature by 25°F and set the timer to 2/3 the time of the recipe, I still almost burned it when I checked on it after 30 minutes.  I have yet to taste this creation but sent one off with the hubby to work as promised to a Filipino coworker of his.  I'm ecstatic to report that even with the mishaps I encountered, it still exceeded the expectations of a fellow Filipino, considering it was my first attempt ever to make it.  HOORAY!  The final test will be when I taste it and if I indeed managed to pull it off, only my own discerning tongue will be able to tell. 

Grumpy Is as Grumpy Does

Sometimes I take a moment to marvel at the evolution of progress, the ingenuity and genius of certain individuals, the speed at which technology has taken such a possessive hold in our lives.  Conversely, I can't help but marvel at the lack of ingenuity in others.  Perhaps this lack is due to too much technology, being so dependent on such, how on earth would people think to use their brains for once? 

I was handed a drawing not 5 mins ago, a drawing that had a map as one of the layers.  I was asked if we could print that drawing without the labels.  Maybe because my head happens to be so congested and I'm feeling very light headed I had to clarify what they were looking for.  The conversation is as follows:
X - Can you print this map for me so I can cut it out?
Me - Sure I can copy it for you, there are parts on there that were scanned in so they aren't in any drawing I can just print off.
X - Oh, no, I don't want the labels.
Me - So...you want just the map part?
X - Yeah, I'm going to cut out the area around Thorton and fax it to Mike.
Me - Ok, I have that somewhere.... (internally: Really? And Google Maps was too hard for you even though you spend most of your day on Facebook?)

Now I know for certain I have participated in my share of dumb moments, having many "duh" moments of my own, but sometimes it's a matter of just stopping and thinking for a minute. 

The timing of this cold is incredibly inconvenient.  I may still be sick by the time Thanksgiving comes around next week, I'll most likely still be sick for opera date night on Saturday...which is one of my favorite Shakespearean plays - A Midsummer Night's Dream...and to top it off, I have PMS.  So not only am I worn down from the internal battle for my body, I'm pissy as well.  Which only makes for a more grumpy me. 

To add to that grumpiness I managed to have another spider dream last night. I HATE spiders.  In which 3 ginormous spiders slunk down from the sky...well, ceiling...surrounding me.  And I mean ginormous, like the size of my fist.  I ran, terrified, only to be laughed at in my dream.  One was wiggled in front of my face before being taken outside, one was promptly disposed of, and the last...well one of my friends in full hockey gear came barging in the room and slid penguin style on his belly, hockey stick out, knocking the spider under the door of the room I was hiding in.  That spider somehow miraculously grew to the size of my head and was holding my leg back trying to bite me.  Oh it makes me shudder just thinking about it. 

Hopefully when I get home tonight the most I'll do is cook myself dinner. Then I fully intend on watching tv til I fall asleep. 

Preparations for Santa

It's officially Christmas music time.  Some people don't care for Holiday music before Thanksgiving, but as the weather cools and the leaves are piled up it's hard to forget the holidays are just around the corner.  Personally I include Thanksgiving as part of the holiday season, and I seriously have no problem blaring "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" in the beginning of November.  Usually, the holidays don't have the ability sneak up on me...but this year I'm having a difficult time believing it's already halfway through November.  It's been officially 1 year since we bought our house, and unfortunately not much has changed from just after Christmas...LAST year. I'm hoping to accomplish something before the year is out...maybe?  My motivation is shot since there's hardly an available budget for home upgrades.  Not to mention things keep pushing it back.  Like having one broken television set and one broken washing machine which will either have to be repaired or replaced.  Having to dip into our extra cash to pay for those will not necessarily set us back but it will prevent us from going forward.  Not getting a raise this year has prevented any extra cash flow savings postponing future renovations. 

I started off this morning in a rather bright and cheery mood, not unexpected as I did get ample sleep last night and drove to work absorbed in the joyous Christmas music playing on the radio.  That feeling though has managed to plummet into a blend of restlessness and moodiness.  Though I have been listening to the same, normally cheer inducing, holiday tunes, it's somehow been tainted by the slow taunting creep of a sore throat only indicating yet another viral attack on my body.  So they want to play dirty do they?  Sneaky bastards. So time to wage an all out attack.  OJ, vitamins, sleep, the whole shebang. Hopefully its not that bad, but considering I'm practically falling asleep here at the computer, I'd say the outlook looks shady. 

My Furry Children

Oh my furry children...

I think maybe it's time to kick Kona out of my bed.  This is the second night in a row he's woken me up by kicking me.  Both nights I was too out of it to determine if he was awake and just restless or lost in a fabulous dream where he's running around chasing rabbits. It's now impinging on my REM cycles.  He used to fit just perfectly at my feet but now is encroaching on my space.  Getting too big my dear...you may be the cutest puppy in the world but at 70 lbs I think you need your own bed now. Too bad we spoiled you, now we have to train you to not sleep in our bed.  I'm sorry, but mommy needs sleep.

Old Man Hunter and 3 Month Kona

Old Man Hunter and 5 Month Kona

Old Man Hunter and 8 Month Kona

Looking at Kona now vs when we first got him 5 months ago, yeah, he is one large puppy. And if we thought Hunter was a grumpy old man before we got Kona, he is one ornery old bastard now.  Poor Hunter at 13 going on 14 years is arthritic and in the early stages of canine fecal incontinence.  Yesterday, when this last picture was taken, that biscuit in his mouth that he walked around with teasing Kona with for 20 mins before eating, when he finally got around to eating it he decided it was time to poop.  I was watching him eat his biscuit, which he does so painfully slow in order to torture Kona in my opinion, and saw him lift his tail in preparation to just drop one right there in the middle of the hallway.  As I ran to stop him and throw him outside, he managed to squeeze one out....right on my foot. GROSS.

Hunter is so grumpy towards Kona that he'll growl and bark at him when he's in the same general area and even when Kona is in the other room, not paying attention to him.  It's come to the point that we quarantine Hunter to his own space for a while, otherwise he's pacing around in a fowl mood all night, even when Kona is lounging on the floor.  Not that he lounges around all that often.

I feel bad sometimes knowing we crate Kona while we're at work, but then I think of the destruction he has caused.  I'll try to add pictures later if I remember, but he started eating the futon.  A co-worker of the husband has the same dog, a redbone coonhound, who is a 2 year old 80 lb menace and who we most recently heard ate a brick. Yes, a brick. How that is even remotely digestible, I have no idea...but if that's any indication of what kind of mischief Kona can get into, then I'm glad he's locked up when we can't watch him.  I need a vacation away from my dogs I think. Sigh.

SchizoBC Review - Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Before you sit and do the math, yes I finished another book in 4 days.  I read a lot, I read often, and I read pretty fast...when it's interesting. 

Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

 

It is strange that my first 2 reviews here have an angel theme, but that's how my luck rolled when I finally got to borrow the ebooks from the library. 

Archangel's Kiss is book 2 in the Guild Hunter's series, and I did read book 1, Angel's Blood, earlier this year. 

When I read a book in a series that even remotely entertains me, I do feel the need to read the other books in that series.  Don't ask me why, because I certainly would not be able to tell you.  Maybe it's a slight compulsive disorder, maybe I'm just weird.

Anyway, in Angels' Blood you meet Vampire Hunter extraordinaire Elena Deveraux, a member of the Guild Hunters.  In a world where vampires live alongside human kind, work for angels, and are Made by angels, the Guild Hunters are basically contract bounty hunters for any angel who has a rouge vampire on the loose.  Those rouge vampires are dangerous when not leashed by the angel who has them under contract.  So, when an angel has a vampire problem, they hire a Guild Hunter, and Elena is the best.  Born with the natural skills for a Hunter, Elena is soon contracted by the dangerously sexy Archangel of the city, Raphael. But this time, it's not a wayward vampire she has to track...it's an Archangel gone bad. 

Sucked up in the midst of a killing spree, Elena finds herself in an exceedingly dangerous position...and on top of that, falling for the Archangel Raphael as well.  SPOILER ALERT!  In the end of Angels' Blood, Elena connects in a way with her archangel in a way no other human has ever done before...She becomes the first Made angel, made through the love Raphael has surprisingly, wholeheartedly given.

In Archangel's Kiss, Elena wakes from a year long coma to find herself attached to a new pair of wings.  But she's weak and as a newly made immortal, with a mortal heart, she can still die.  Almost immediately, her handsome and dangerous lover, Raphael, breaks the news that she must recover and prepare for a flight to Beijing, where the archangel Lijuan is throwing a ball in her honor. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan's power lies with the dead.  She has the ability to raise the dead and keep them sustained for as long as she is entertained by them.  And she is planning something sinister for Elena...

Elena begins rigorous training to strengthen her muscles and to learn how to get along with her new wings.  Amidst training, she has to once again use her Hunter's skills to find the person responsible for a series of beatings, kidnappings, and deaths all aimed to destroy her.  Raphael and Elena know Lijuan is planning something for the ball, and have to play along with her games in the weeks leading up to it, as she tries to scare up weaknesses in the newly made angel.

The ball is such a small part of this book, it almost makes the story anti-climactic, but it was a lot of action and surprising.  It wasn't the best written story, some things seemed to be thrown together in an attempt for explanation, but the plot flowed well, and the action was never ending. Even, the steamy kind.  There is quite a bit of passion exchanged in between the lovers, and although it goes into some detail, it's not nearly as risque as other stories I've read.  I'm listing the third book, Archangel's Consort, in my To Read list and look forward to reading it.  Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, I love it when authors come up with different concepts on the supernatural/mystical...I give both Guild Hunter books 4 stars.