Blame it on......

....the bossa nova. No-h0-ho-h0......my little joke. Blame it on the lemmings. NO....another little joke. If there is blame to be placed (besides acknowledging my dismal lack of self-discipline) it is to be placed squarely on "The Holidays". If "The Holidays" are ever personified, it's going to be a crowd of little dark creatures slinking away looking furtively over their shoulders, dragging their long dark robes (probably navy-blue; black is too grim for Holidays) and hauling menorahs and wreaths. Consider how much difficulty is blamed on "The Holidays."

ENOUGH! Settle in, make some tea; I'm going to bravely make an effort to Catch Up. (It's a wonder my blog doesn't come up under "condiments" considering how much catchup I've tossed around.) Snippets, that's what I'm going for here. Snippets.

Thanksgiving was wonderful! Everyone was on time! That, ladies and gentlemen, was an absolute FIRST. Two regulars were not present (my dearest friend Sunawa passed away in May and her partner spent the day with her own family and an elderly uncle) but we had my new daughter-in-law and her absolutely enchanting nine-year-old daughter with us. The food was traditional and delicious - we had an unusual treat - one I was a little dubious about, which wound up being fan-TAB-ulous: the new daughter-in-law brought barbecued ribs ! Well! I've made it clear before on this page that I ADORE barbecued ribs (I've an arrangement with God about them - it's fine.) And to tell you the truth, the combination of delicious turkey and the rich ribs made for a meal better than it had been before! Might we have a new tradition here?

There followed busy days - lots of tours at the Museum, general preparations, that sort of thing. Suddenly it was December. It started here, as the whole country heard, with a blizzard-snowstorm of "epic proportions". Oh, come now, national newscasters. "EPIC PROPORTIONS" in Wisconsin would have to be 42' of snow in three hours. THAT would be "epic". As it was, it was just a good, hearty, midwestern snowfall, and the complaints around here were few - especially because the Governor closed ALL branches of the UW! So our student population, never one to pass up an opportunity, lined one street with big snowmen, causing trouble for the plows; they also made an enormous snowball, some ten feet across, I heard - also a problem for the plows. May that be the worst problem we have for the next twelve months.

A few days backI took myself to see "The Princess and the Frog", the new Disney adaptation of the old fairy tale. I enjoyed it a lot - it's set in New Orleans (cute!) I won't spoil anything by saying more, but there was one aspect I found peculiar. The show that I went to was poorly-attended -- erhmmm -- a bit quiet .... that is, I WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE THEATRE. I DID turn off my cell phone, I refrained from commenting out loud (!) but it was kind of creepy. If I'd known I was going to be the only one there I'd have brought in my own snacks. So there.

The next day was a Red-Letter day (in spite of a bit of baneful "freezing rain" which made walking on a parking lot challenging): thanks to the fact that I read Franklin Habit's notes on Facebook (and you can keep your comments about 66-year-old short bubbehs BEING on "FB" to yourselves, thenk yew) I became aware that he had been invited to SPEAK at the meeting of the Madison Knitters' Guild. I scour the papers (Isthmus, anyway, and "77 Square") for the word "KNIT" and hadn't seen a thing, but it was an easy decision. It was Monday night and even if THAT were the night that "Real Housewives" was on, I'd have gone to hear Franklin. (If you haven't had the delight, go here.)

I'm sure you're all familiar - if you're not, do I have a treat for you! Go make a cuppa and go back to the beginning and read his blog from the start. You'll thank me for it.

If you want the best description possible of the event, go to Molly Bee's Attic and check out "Finally Face to Face..." NOTE: you may wind up starting at the beginning there too, and you'll thank me for that as well, straight up.

Other entertainments that filled the time 'twixt then and now (remember, "catchup") included a holiday pot-luck at Museum (my tomatilla salsa was a hit; Mr Dearling's taco meat a bigger one); Late-Night Knit; two examples of customer service: one was a not-Sow's-Ear LYS which I will never darken again with my footsteps (think diminishing stock and very unpleasant experience with proprietor) and the other a fabulous experience at Chipotle's, where they gave us an order of chips and guacamole gratis because I had to wait for fresh carnitas....the "wait" was a couple of minutes. THEY will see my dark footprints again.

We also went to a Solstice celebration at dawn on Saturday (so it was two days early; made me no nevermind) which turned out to be a perfect ritual in a stunning place followed by a day of fascinating company and incredible food. We'd known only our host upon our arrival at dawn; we left with a new bunch of the most delightful and intriguing friends. We were literally there "dark to dark" - and think on it! The actual Solstice was Monday so the days are getting longer! And I can tell, those extra milleseconds of daylight make a HUGE difference!

Now preparing for the more traditional holiday which promises some real excitement about which, more later. With pictures, I 'spect.

And because I'm cantankerous - I close with a new but keenly-felt Pet Peeve (I do love pets):

People who self-publish books, on line or otherwise, but NEVER have any sort of proofreader look over their manuscripts, drive me bonkers. I've seen four books (three to review and one on sale that I glanced at) and they were each one a tragedy of errors, both in punctuation and spelling (typos, one can hope). One of them had a word on the COVER that was missing a letter. Oh, people -- even if the stories are brilliant, I won't be recommending them. Is this a new plague? OY VEY!!