purple_stardust

Wheee! Better than Xmas, better than Hanukkah... it's Election Day! I love to vote. I registered to vote in 1987, and I have voted in every presidential election and almost every local election since. This is my equivelant of the Superbowl. I will be up all night watching this sucker. I love politics. My prediction: Kerry by a landslide. I don't think it will be nearly as close as they say. Just my measley two cents as a couch pundit, but I have a wealth of theories on the subject.

/me bounces like a schoolgirl on crack

A fun link: Your Own Election Night Newsroom, compliments of Stephanie.

*bounce!*

purple_stardust

Then again, I could be wrong. And speaking of wrong, WTF is wrong with Florida?!?

purple_stardust

Needless to say, I am not a happy camper this morning. It wouldn't even annoy me so much that Bush won; it's the way that he won. I can accept it when the entire middle of the country goes red. I'll even accept it when New Mexico does; maybe the heat went to their brains. But. Ohio and West Virginia - look around, you idiots. What has Bush done for you lately? And you want four more years of this? And Florida - Jesus H, do you people never learn? Last time I looked, there were 32,036 votes for Nadar. Why don't you all just PEE on your ballots?!?

I am so disgusted right now. Really, truly disgusted. Canada is looking better by the day.

Which reminds me. Rusty got a new guy at work. The guy annoys me anyway because he gets a ride to work with us every morning so that his wife can have their car, but never offers to give Rusty a ride so that I can keep our car without getting up at the asscrack of dawn. He is from Canada, a born-again christian who doesn't vote in this country, but mouths off about it all the same. Rusty mentioned Canada's socialised health care one day, and John said it wasn't that good. You know what MY health care plan is, jerkoff? It's called Die, Bitch.

I should really not go out in public today. I may kill someone.

purple_stardust

I just culled my friends list by half. If you were one of the cull-ies, it's nothing personal, it's nothing political, it's just ...me. I have felt lately like I am censoring myself for the benefit of this "friends list", and that sort of defeats the purpose of having a journal, now doesn't it?

purple_stardust

Okay, so maybe it was a little bit political... but geez. Some people need help.

purple_stardust

For everyone bitching about the election (including me)... November 3 was Rusty's birthday. He woke up to find that we get four more years of insanity on his birthday. Sucks to be him.

purple_stardust

You know what would be cool? Live Journal should add a feature where you could filter your communities without "friending" them. Like, you could read all gaming communities, or all fish communities at once, but your friends list would just be individuals. That would rock.

purple_stardust

Corals: A Quick Reference Guide and Invertebrates: A Quick Reference Guide.

purple_stardust

Thanks for your input, Default View Humans! =D

After spending the morning tweaking, adding, removing, re-adding, and tweaking some more, I finally have my filters set up the way I like them. I have the Default View (thanks Laurie!), and my communities are all in tidy little groups: Jewish communities, bunny communities, aquarium communities, craft communities, even diet communities (wishful thinking, you see). Hooray!

As an added OCD bonus, all numbers on my user info page add up to numbers that I like (35 human friends, 55 friended communities, etcetera)... all except that damned "friend of" list. I still wish users could delete people from that list. How can I be completely anal if I don't have control of that list?!? And yes, I know I can hide it. I have. But *I* can still see it! Dammit. All the same, things are much more organised in my virtual world today.

purple_stardust

I am typing to you from < funny voice > deeep spaaace < /funny voice >.

Okay, so technically it's not deep space, but it IS a shiny new laptop!

Alright, technically it's not shiny or new, but it IS a laptop, dammit!

It's my mother's "old" Dell Inspiron 1100. I have been working on it, deleting and creating and formatting partitions and installing Windows about a billion times... and I think I finally have it operational! Since she has already given up on it and bought another, I am hoping that she'll let me keep this one. It still needs some tweaking (okay, a LOT of tweaking), and it's not nearly as cool or as fast as the Thinkpad that I wanted, but it will do until I can afford the Thinkpad.

/goes off to make everything all pretty and purpley

purple_stardust

Results from Chakra Test...

Root -	Sacral -	Navel -	Heart -	Throat -	Third Eye -	Crown

What it all means...

purple_stardust

I know, I'm supposed to stop talking about politics and post pictures of fluffy bunnies. But I can't. I am, however, going to try to get it out of my system, at least for a while...



With hard work and superb organization, you have triumphed over John Kerry and the forces of Blue-state paternalism. Congratulations. The multinational corporations that hold you in bondage remain free to profit off your sweat nearly tax free, while their overpaid senior execs continue to pay a pittance in personal income tax.

Your primary and secondary schools will continue to turn out third-rate pupils with limited opportunities, while you enjoy the satisfaction of making it on your own without health care when a catastrophic illness bankrupts your family.

Your agricultural universities will continue issuing Ph.D.s in football, and bogus Protestant Evangelical and Fundamentalist theology, and how to jerk off a bull safely. Your children will learn to borrow enough money to erect chicken houses so that they, like you, can take custody -- not possession, but custody -- of Tyson's chicks, feed them, rear them, assume losses from those that fail to thrive, and in the end earn just enough money to service their endless debt, and realize a profit of perhaps $12K a year. Your bank thanks you; Tyson thanks you; George W. Bush thanks you; and I thank you.

You can continue sending your sons to die in Iraq on a fool's errand. When you bury them, you can console yourselves with Bush's platitudes about their heroic mission to defend America from weapons of mass destruction.

You can savor the deficit spending that stimulates commerce today, but will cripple the US economy in ten or fifteen years' time when the bills come due with interest. Perhaps a Democrat will be in office at that time, who can be blamed for W's delayed economic fiasco.

You can continue believing, as Republican Party brainwashing has persuaded you, that we, your neighbors, are your enemies. You can believe that we have no morals; that we pimp out our teenage daughters for Internet porn; that we eat babies; that we are all gay; that we are cowards on the battlefield; and that we want to run your lives and give you AIDS.

Here's a clue: we are not your enemies; we are your countrymen. Your enemies are the greedy multinationals that the Republican Party bends over backwards to accommodate. Incidentally, most of them are based in Blue states, as are their Republican owners and major shareholders.

Here in the Blue States, Democrats and Republicans alike generate the lion's share of America's wealth, although it is you Reds who provide the lion's share of the stoop labor. You are our Mexicans, so to speak. We could not have accomplished the economic miracle that is America without your willing capitulation to a system that lies to you and fucks you over at every turn.

Look at economic output and educational achievement on a state-by-state basis: it's painfully evident that we Blues are immensely more productive and better educated than you Reds. We have lots more money. We live longer. We eat better. We work less. We fuck more. We do cocaine and smoke fine Canadian buds, not the homebrew crank and cheap Mexican headache reefer you guys are stuck with. We drink French wine and Stoli martinis, not Budweiser. Our children rarely bother us: we've got them on Ritalin and Prozac. Our teeth are straighter and whiter, our necks longer, and our fingernails cleaner. And many of us are the Republican elite who have just punked you.

It's good to be a Blue, regardless of which party you join.

Understandably, you resent us, so you've fabricated an imaginary measure of superiority: Christian "values." Yet you talk about values the way a pre-teen girl talks about "love" in fan letters to Ashton Kutcher. You recycle quasi-religious platitudes and received slogans. You know nothing of moral theology, a rigorous philosophical pursuit that hardly exists outside the Catholic Church and its elite universities. You make of the Bible what you will; you attend prayer meetings with other semi-literates, where you reinforce each other's sloppy understandings of the text, and combine them with half-digested bits of old-timey Hallmark-card "wisdom." And when you spout gibberish, you call it "speaking in tongues." You actually fancy that you're saints, you silly, narcissistic creatures.

Nevertheless, you are fellow Americans. The Blue Republican elite encouraged you to vote for George W Bush, because they quite simply own him, and they know that his administration will make policies that help them, even if hurt you. We Blue Democrats voted for John Kerry because we believed he would minister to your needs better than Bush. A President Kerry would have shared some of our wealth with you, assured your health care, raised the minimum wage, and checked the rapacious greed of the multinationals that hold you in thrall.

President Kerry would have helped us to help you, which is all that we ask. It pains us to see you in wage slavery. It pains us to see you so ignorant and uneducated, and so eager to place yourselves in bondage. Yes, we live better; but we wish you to live better too, even if it means sacrifice on our part.

What we wanted for you would have been far better than that which you, in your ignorant pride, demanded for yourselves. Oh, you defeated us all right, but only to your detriment.

We Blues will come out of the Bush era no worse for wear, although you Reds will come out very much diminished, deeper in debt, and less able to improve your circumstances by your own powers. But because you wish to be flattered more than helped, you will be grateful for your ass fucking from the Blue-state Republican elite that is laughing behind your backs today.

We did not wish it so. We honestly did want to help.

On 2 November, you thanked us by electing a shrewd, manipulative handmaiden to corporate America who panders to you while ruthlessly exploiting your ignorance and weakness for the benefit of his patrons in the national plutocracy. There is nothing we can do about that. You won fair and square.

We should let you rot. We should secede and leave you to fend for yourselves. Then you will see firsthand just how dependent you are. We are sick of fighting for you by fighting against you. Perhaps, when you see how dreary your lives have become without us, you will finally develop the spine to fight for your basic, human rights. And then we will gladly confront the plutocracy alongside you. We need your help to defeat the Blue Republicans, who, I assure you, are just as decadent as we are, though often richer.

But until you finally learn to respect yourselves, we can't respect you, and we therefore can't be bothered to give a rat's ass about you.

So let us secede, Blue America and Red America. We can handle the Blue state Republicans, so long as we don't have a lot of ignorant Red state lemmings frustrating our efforts and screwing themselves in the bargain. Secession will enable us both to live as we have chosen without the other's interference. We will prosper, and you will get a clue.

But do stay in touch after the borders slam shut. When you finally tire of living on the modern, corporate plantations of Cargill, Tyson, ConAgra and Smithfield; when you tire of shopping at Wal-Mart and sending your daughters to sling hash at Denny's in hopes that they'll meet the nicer sort of truck driver; when you tire of sneaking into Blue America as illegal white-trash wetbacks eager for casual work dusting our parlors; and when, like men, you finally rise up in rebellion against this immoral usury -- then, and only then, let us talk.

We'll gladly get your backs. But first you must grow the brains and the balls needed to profit from our help.

[source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/07/blue_state_to_reds/]



In an effort to distract ourselves from the next four years, Rusty and I were debating our possible choices in 2008. The good news is, the Republicans have nobody exciting on the horizon. Cheney will be too old (and too scary) to run. Jeb Bush has too much baggage, and nobody knows Marven. We thought maybe Rudy Guiliani, but he wouldn't really be a viable candidate either; he certainly can't run on those good ol' "moral values", and surely there are limits to how long they can use September 11 as a campaign platform. That leave Ahh-nold, who wasn't born in the US, and even if they changed the law so that he could run, a lot of their own party wouldn't like the idea of putting a Kennedy in the White House. They have diddley-squat.

The dems, however, have some interesting possibilities. They have Hillary Clinton, although I can't imagine she'd want the job, since she actually knows what it entails. They have Barack Obama, who is intelligent, well-spoken, and very charasmatic. Rusty wondered if his past as a "troubled youth" might hurt him, but I think it could actually help him, since unlike some other politicians, his troubles really were in his youth, and he has since turned his life around. He is black, however, and I'm not sure if America is ready for a black president. On the other hand, he is not entrenched in black groups and black culture, so he wouldn't frighten the Paranoid White Voter, like, say, Jesse Jackson. Still, that's a really long shot.

And then there's John Edwards, who I think would have made a much better candidate in 2004 than Kerry. He's young. He's charming. He has a working class background. He's from the south. I think a good ticket would be Edwards & Obama, which could potentially attract young people, minorities, and maybe even people in those southern states that are annoyed by rich people from Massachusetts (as opposed to rich people from Texas, who for some reason they see as "one of them"). And it would be a really good-looking ticket, which can't possibly hurt.

Okay. I'm done. off to find some fluffy bunny photos to make up for this post...

purple_stardust

1. Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.

2. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant,
such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze.
Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.

3. Include these instructions, and share the love.

purple_stardust

* mix more saltwater
* mail mortgage payment
* call contractor about porch
* update the ghost hunter website
* finish installing stuff on new laptop
* start on my uber-special spaghetti sauce
* clean off counter, dishwashr, dryer
* clean container for rabbit chow
* clean out box and bury rats
* finish organizing beads
* make snickerdoodles

purple_stardust

It should be noted that I've never actually had snickerdoodles... I just like the word.

purple_stardust

I am a hybrid of: Indie Girl & Granola Girl What Kind of Girl Are You?

purple_stardust

The problem with LJ is that we all think we are so close, yet in some ways we know nothing about each other. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me -- something that should be obvious -- but about which you have no idea. Ask away.

Then post this in your journal and find out what people don't know about you.

purple_stardust

Pond links for later perusal...

* Small Indoor Pond
* Dig-less Oudoor Pond
* Gorgeous Outdoor Pond

purple_stardust

I should probably start adding an extra cup of flour whenever I bake cookies, to compensate for what invariably ends up on the floor, on my shirt, in my hair... geez. What a mess.

purple_stardust

Crawford, Texas --- A tragic fire on Saturday destroyed the personal library of President George W. Bush. Both of his books were lost. A presidential spokesman said the president was devastated, as he had not finished coloring the second one.

purple_stardust

Upon hearing Scott Peterson's "guilty" verdict...

Renee: I still don't think he did it.
Rusty: I know, you think Gary Condit did it.

Don't get me wrong; I think Peterson is a shmuck. I could even buy him killing Laci, but it would take an exceptionally callous person to kill their unborn child, and he doesn't strike me as that kind of person. It would also take an exceptionally stupid person to say they went fishing at the same spot where they dumped a body, and he doesn't strike me as that stupid, either. And then there's the matter of the other pregnant woman, which I don't think they ever fully explored.

Oh well. He should probably get the death penalty for screwing around on on his pregnant wife, anyway. Still, I would think there would have been reasonable doubt for the jurors.

And I still think that Gary Condit is guilty of something...

purple_stardust

Sorry Everybody now has over 3000 entries.

purple_stardust

Well, against my better judgement, we bought two percula clowns at the Store of Death (tm). This is the same store that sold me a rabbit (Baxter) that lasted one week and a damsel (which, by the way, would normally live in toilet water) that lasted less than 12 hours. One clown has already died, and the other isn't eating. This is my own stupidity; after the second rabbit (Buster) that came from there had coccidia and mites, and is only alive because of immediate pre-emptive veterinary care, I swore I would never shop there again... but I wanted clownfish, and I cracked. Though I can tell you, I will never buy so much as a bag of litter there again.

Anyway. I have two ocellaris clowns reserved at Marine Scene, so hopefully they will fare better. I should also note that my water is fine; the fish ( a sailfin blenny and another blue damsel) that came from another store are doing just fine. Everyone says that Marine Scene carries extremely healthy fish (and corals, dor that matter) though, so I am hopeful.

In other news, someone seems to have laid eggs on my little rasta snail. I am suspecting the lettuce nudibranch, as their egg ribbons look similer. That would be cool; if the babies live (rather, if someone doesn't eat them), I could sell them or trade them in for store credit. I moved the snail and the eggs to the refugium in the hopes that they will survive.

purple_stardust

This weekend was mostly good... Rusty actually gave up watching a WVU game to take me to Marine Scene to get my clownfish (awww). They're doing very well, swimming around a lot, eating their food, picking at algae (!), and chasing each other. And they're SO pretty.

Much of the weekend was also spent looking for a document for my mother's creepy lesbian "friend", since her old peice of shit computer is still at MY house, and heaven forbid she back up her stupid damned documents. So I had to drag her computer out, hook it all up, find some place to plug it in (not an easy task in this house!), and find the damn thing. Then I had to find some way to get it to MY computer. The modem is bad, can't email it. Burned it to CD; installed Word on the laptop and PC, document wouldn't open on either one. Tried burning a second CD; the computer crashed. Finally I had to hook up the ethernet cable to it (I was shocked that it even had an ethernet card!), install DSL, and email it to myself. What a friggen headache.

On a semi-related note, I finally tried Mike's Hard Lime this weekend... uber-tasty!

purple_stardust

Jvmatucha recently made an interesting post about which movies were masterpieces, and which were simply over-rated. Which begs the question (for me, at least), what qualifies a movie as a masterpiece? Rusty and I talked about it on the way to Herndon - he said that it's if the movie changes the way future movies are made (a la 2001: A Space Odyssey). That makes sense, but there has to be more to it than that. The word "masterpiece" is used gratuitously in Hollywood; almost every movie that comes out, that doesn't star EddieMurphy or Adam Sandler, is called a "cinematic masterpiece", and obviously they can't all be. Some of them might be, but most are probably closer to "decent" or "enjoyable", and I'm sure some of them just suck outright.

Anyway, the question is, for you Default View Humans, what makes a movie a "masterpiece"? What is your criteria? Does Oscar-worthyness factor into this? What about timelessness, or whether you would want to watch it multiple times? Please give me an example of a movie that you would consider a masterpiece, and why. While you're there, feel free to mention a movie that you consider over-rated, and tell me if you think it lived up to the hype. Input, please?

NOTE: I should add that Rusty and I are film weenies... we're afraid to rent anything that we don't already know we like, or that at least stars somebody that we feel confident in (Al Pacino or Sean Penn, for example). We tend to watch the same movies over and over again, rather than taking a chance on something that we might not like. Sometimes we'll rent a few of the previous year's Oscar winners, but that's about as much of a risk as we usually take.

purple_stardust

Gotta love those Canadians... Marry an American!

purple_stardust

Stuff I need to do in the saltwater tanks:

* chip off cool spiky macro algae in nano and move it into the refugium
* dip brain and move it into the 65-g, move my neptha and colt frags to 65-g
* add another pound of live rock to nano-cube, move one pound from nano to 65-g
* mount red elongata frag on xenia rock, put the pink pulsing up against there to start
* set up pico tank again (w/ less sand this time, too much sand funks up the filter)
* glue half of zoanthids to large rock for in 65-g, half on tiny rock for pico
* clean out frag box, re-mount coral frags if needed, sort stuff in nano

My new clowns are doing SO well. They love to eat; I have them on Omega One flakes with Selcon and garlic, plus shrimp and blood worms as treats. I am going to get the stuff to make them Fish Mush, next. I'm still waiting for them to sort out who gets to be the girl...

purple_stardust

In the dining room:

* haul extra computers and peripherals to bedroom (ouch)
* sort and move the lesser-used craft stuff to the craft room
* organise the remaining craft stuff that I must keep downstairs
* straighten bookcase with judaism stuff, get rid of unpacked boxes
* put away laundry and move sarahs baby clothes to attic (sniff!)
* put away sarahs books and toys, clear off dining room table
* clear out the "i don't know where else to put this" corner

purple_stardust

* update ghost website
* work on saltwatr stuff
* go to bank, deposit money
* pay water bill & electric bill
* go to office max for geek toys
* organise my installation cds
* unload dishwashr, reload
* cook spaghetti for later
* call magistrate office

I swear, I really should not be allowed into OfficeMax alone. I bought a new (longer) ethernet cable for my laptop, a box of 25 neon-coloured CD-R discs, and a steel CD case (for my various versions of Windows, driver discs, and system software - AKA, important stuff). Cool stuff!

I also got six pads of 10x10 square-per-inch graph paper. It should be noted, I have an absurd love of graph paper, especially 5x5 or 10x10 (ex-survey crew, I think in tenths). I got it to plan out my yard, but also I just like it. Unfortunately, I can't find any of my dozens of clipboards, OR my good clear ruler. It never ceases to amaze me... everyone else has a sock-eating monster, but my monster eats clipboards. I know I've gotten a hundred of them over the years, but can I find one when I need it? Hell no. The disappearing ruler situation is almost as bad. Bah.

purple_stardust

I used to have a girl named Gina on my friends list, added because of a mutual interest in pet rats. Eventually she became a born-again christian, and I eventually dropped her from my list, because to be honest, the born-agains really annoy me. Well, I heard from her today...

"I, as a Christian for a while, am now seriously considering converting to Judaism, and saw you ran the jbcs community. Small world, innit? Anyway, I am joining up there now, but also wanted to say hi to you and see how you were and all that jazz. Take care and G-d bless."

Umm, ewww. First of all, make up your damn mind. Second of all, as best as I can tell she's still into christianity, but toying with the idea of Judaism. And third, she's a member of a community called messianic_jews. As soon as I get done being appalled, I will attempt to formulate a reply, and politely ask her to go away. If she does not, I shall delete her freaky messianic ass.

Edit, with my response:

I'm sorry, but JBCs isn't a community for messianic christians - which I assume, based on your other community choices, you are. JBCs is a community for people to have converted or plan to convert to Judaism because they genuinely believe in Jewish principles and Jewish faith... It is NOT for christians who think that it's cute to own a menorah, or worse, christians who want to SAVE us. Nobody here needs to be saved, but thanks anyway.

purple_stardust

* go to grocery store
* run dishwasher, sweep
* order books from amazon
* renew my domain registration
* laundry: buns, mine, rusty, sarah
* buy another poundof liverock
* buy another box of io salt
* finish up saltwater list
* work on yard plans

purple_stardust

Alright, I have my surgical gloves out and I'm off to make the Fish Mush. Anybody want to place bets as to how long it will take before the sight of the oysters makes me throw up?

purple_stardust

Friday, I made a little purple Magen David favicon for the Jewish Links Respository website, and worked on some of the stuff on my saltwater to-do list. Nothing too productive, but still.

On Friday night, somebody got hit by a car outside our house. He was conscious when they loaded him into the ambulance, so I'm sure he'll be okay. Ahhh, the fun of living in town...

On Saturday night we went to Walmart for groceries. We bought a turkey for Thanksgiving Native American Remembrance Day. I don't have the foggiest idea how to cook a turkey, but that's beside the point. Still need to get mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, rolls, cornbread stuff, and an apple pie. Yes, for three people. Yes, it's insane. And I still need to clean the dining room so we have some place to eat all this crap. Humbug.

Sunday we went to Hagerstown in search of live rock. Pugh's didn't have any, so we bought a pound at the ooky store in town. On the way home, we passed a new petstore, they were inside unpacking and setting things up, so we stopped and talked to them. He's not going to carry any saltwater livestock right away (not enough room), but he said he has a great wholesaler and he can order anything I want. Woot! He has a 125gallon set up at home. I talked to him for a few minutes, and he definitely seems much more knowledgable than the other petstore shmucks in this area. I am going to go back in once he opens and see if he will carry Purina Rabbit Chow.

Sunday night, I made Fish Mush, always a good time. The clowns loved it though! I found that one of them seems to have a spot of Lymphocystis (I am thinking maybe the other one bit him in the quest for dominance). There seem to be two schools of thought on treatment: catch the fish and cut or scrape it off -or- provide optimum water quality and excellant nutrition, and let the fish's own immune system fight off the virus. I think I am going to take the latter approach for now, as I am concerned that I would hurt the fish, plus the stress of handling it can't help the condition. Obviously if it gets worse, I will consider more drastic measures. But I'd rather not.

So that was my weekend. Now I need to work on that damned dining room...

purple_stardust

Son.of.a.bitch.

To clean the dining room, I need light. However, the light bulb is blown and there is no way in hell that I can reach it, even if I stand on the dining room table, which I can't do, because it's covered with stuff that needs to be cleared, which I can't do because the light bulb is blown!

I guess I'm going to have to try to put the step ladder on the table, which should make for an interesting experience, considering that I get vertigo when I use the step ladder on the floor.

I need to refer to my list. There has to be a logical sequence, here.

purple_stardust

I hate to remind you, but Festivus is fast approaching.
Any progression getting some lists together?

Also, what are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?
We don't have any Native Americans to slaughter or infect with disease, so ...?

And now you know where I get it.

purple_stardust

My mother just called me to ask advice on which Gameboy Advance games to buy for her girlfriend's other girlfriend. Yeah. And people wonder why I drink...

purple_stardust

In the living room:

* organise saltwater books and miscellanious paraphenalia
* clean up junk on / around desk, move desk against east wall
* move busters cage and pen over next to the desk (on north wall)
* move nano-cube from living room to dining room (next to goldie tank)
* move chair over next to 65 gallon aquarium, scoot tv to the left
* straighten bookcase, move antique table into the dining room
* get ex-husband over to (hopefully) fix the broken futton

purple_stardust

In addition to yesterday's list of pre-holiday antics:

* get turkey carcass out to thaw, make cornbread
* wash old corning cranberry stuff for extra bowls
* glue base plates on sterilite tub lid for lego storage
* straighten kitchen for maximum preparation space
* realise what ive undertaken, panic, drink heavily

My mom is coming over for dinner tomorrow. I felt I should invite her since this is the first holiday since my grandmother died. Now I am panicking, because it's the first time I've ever cooked a big dinner for anyone other than Rusty, and well... I can't really cook. I feel sick.

I am thankful that I have a refrigerator full of beer...

purple_stardust

My dinner went surprising well! Everything was ready and hot at the same time, and my turkey was good. I made a marinade / glaze of butter, lemon juice, dried cranberries, golden raisens, and fresh rosemary - pretty! Rusty and my mother both said that it was very tasty. I would say that I thought it was good, but I'm not really into turkey, so it's hard for me to judge. It was cooked thoroughly but still moist, and nobody got sick from it, so it must have been okay, right.

Oh, and my mom brought me a gift from Susan (her lesbian "friend") - an antique silver coffee service and tray. It looks very pretty in my china cabinet, though I worry about the upkeep of polishing silver. Last year she got me a Magen David necklace; HUGE thing, looks like a friggen hood ornament. I may start wearing that, now that those damned bell ringers are out and about.

And now, I am babbling incoherantly, so I am going to bed. It's safe to say, I've had about all the festivities I can stand, for a while. Someone wake me up when it's January...