I got up this morning and immediately sat down at the table and made a list. Actually, I made two lists – one of things to do, and the other of things Richard needed to pick up at the hardware store. I tackled the first thing almost immediately, addressing the remaining Christmas cards and handing the stack to Richard to sign and stuff and seal. We ate breakfast (homemade polenta with, you guessed it, lemon curd on top), gave ourselves about half an hour to poke around on the computer, each hung about five or six ornaments a piece on the tree, opened the little window in the Advent calendar just to get into the spirit of things, and then got started.

It took a bit of searching but I finally tracked down where I’d stashed the gallon can of white primer and all my painting supplies. While I was taping the baseboards of the long wall in the library, Richard measured and cut the remaining transition strips to size, and took some measurements of the closet where we’re going to install some much-needed shelving. I kept thinking of more things to add to the hardware store list (Night lights, so people don’t trip and fall down the stairs when they’re here for Christmas! New outlet and light switch covers for the library because the old ones still have the ugly blue wallpaper on them!). Then I commenced with priming while he headed off to the hardware store. I managed to prime about half of the library and have a teensy freak out at what turned out to be (thankfully), a dead large spider, shower off all the paint in my hair from the experience, unpack the last of the kitchen stuff, and then break down the large stack of empty boxes in the downstairs hall, before Richard returned from the hardware store, loaded down with a gallon of Hawaiian Cinder paint (for the library wall), shelves and all their associated hardware, night lights, shelf pegs, and just about everything else on the list.

We took a break from the chore list to drive down to Vacaville for the monthly knitting group (and as usual, after lunch Richard headed off to Borders to do some writing). Considering the list of stuff I wanted to accomplish today, I would have been tempted to just skip it this month, but I needed to pick up yarn from my friend-with-a-yarn-shop to do a sample piece for her, and also I knew we both would need a break anyway. So I knit, and Richard wrote, and we both had a lovely few hours of no chores at all, and then it was back home to tackle the list once again.

Except on the way home we decided to drive through the outlet stores in Vacaville, because the last two times we have been at Richard’s parents’ house, we’ve seen some really nice new pieces of furniture and decorations that they said they got from The Bombay Store, which just happens to be going out of business. And by the way, they have an outlet in Vacaville. So we tracked down the store, and wandered around inside, along with several dozen other people who were also lured inside by the combination of “Going Out of Business” and “Everything 50% Off” signs plastered everywhere on the doors.

If anyone happens to be in need of a nice wooden jewelry box (the smaller kind that sits on top of your dresser, or the larger kind that acts as its own unique piece of furniture, get thee immediately to a Bombay Store outlet, because the store was swimming in them. Richard and I, neither of us the jewelry box type, passed all of those by and decided, instead, to focus on the furniture pieces still available. Back in the very back of the store, half hidden under a stack of boxes, and behind an assortment of desks, we found a beautiful wooden cabinet. The front looks like one of those old library card catalog cabinets, but it’s actually file drawers. We’ve been wanting a good file cabinet for some time now, but wooden ones are usually incredibly expensive (and rarely on this sort of incredible sale), and we’ve made do with those clunky black metal ones you can pick up at thrift stores and garage sales for pocket change – ugly and awkward, but functional. So needless to say, the beautiful wooden file cabinet came home with us (along with a very handsome sword-wielding nutcracker, to add to our collection, and some pretty decorations for the upstairs bathroom).

Shopping trip and awesome furniture score aside, we have managed to make a pretty good dent in the list for the day. When we got home, Richard glued down all the door transition strips, so there’ various heavy items holding them in place until the glue dried. He also installed the new shelving in the guest room closet downstairs, and then promptly filled it with all of our suitcases and all the guest bedding that’s been cluttering up the floor for the past few months. And while he was doing that, I gave the main wall of the library two coats of the deep brick red paint.

He’s off at the grocery store now (yet another item on the list of things we needed to do today) and I’ve got rice cooking on the stove, and a load of laundry in the washer, and all the ingredients thawing to put together some bean and cheese wraps for lunches for the week. After dinner, I suspect we will assemble our lovely new wooden file cabinet and do some furniture rearranging to put it in place under the window in the office upstairs. I will make the wraps, and also try to get a batch of yogurt set up, so we will finally have homemade yogurt to take for lunches again, and then, if there is time, and I am not starting to fall asleep on my feet, there will be just a little bit more unpacking, and maybe, just maybe, a few more ornaments put onto the tree.

I knew, even as I put the list together this morning, that we would not finish everything on it. But we’re getting there. Slowly, we are getting there. And that much is enough, for now.

Happy Holidailies!

The bulk of the day today was spent at Richard’s parents’ house, doing the traditional decorating of the tree. Prior to that we had haircut appointments in Woodland. All of this meant that we left our house in Sacramento at about 10:30 and did not get back until twelve hours later. And yet I still managed to squeeze in enough time this morning to unpack all the remaining boxes in the downstairs guest room, one more box of random kitchen stuff, find a small handful of shelf pegs that will actually fit the tall, skinny shelf in the computer room which thus enabled me to unpack all my piano music, and give the downstairs bathroom a thorough scrub. The bathroom cleaning was no small task, if only because someone (Checkers, I am looking at you) has lately decided that the very best spot to launch from when in the middle of her latest ‘binge and purge’ session, is on top of the bathroom counter. Let’s just say that dried on cat hork is ‘fun’ to have to scrub off the front of cabinet doors, and leave it at that, shall we? We also had time to sort out all the stocking stuffers for Richard’s side of the family, and wrap every single one of them. The plan had been to take the bag of gifts that needed to be mailed with us, but we ended up not going home in between haircuts and leaving for the in-laws, so mailing will have to wait until Monday.

The afternoon and evening down at the in-laws was nice. When we arrived, his oldest sister was there, so we all got a chance to talk and catch up – a nice surprise, as we don’t get to see her very often (that pesky thing called life tends to get in the way – heh). Decorating the tree went rather quickly, probably because we have this all down to a science – I crawl into the back corner and occasionally someone hands me a pile of ornaments, and Richard and his youngest sister and his mom decorate the front, and when all the ornaments (and they have a *lot* of ornaments) are on the tree, his dad then does his part – draping the entire thing with strands of sparkly silver beads. It always looks so pretty when it’s done, with all the lights and the sparkle of the ornaments, and it reminded us yet again, that even though our tree has been standing now for a week, we have not put a single ornament on ours yet, and most of the time, we forget to even turn the lights on.

On the drive home this evening I got to thinking about this, and I think the problem is that this year, it’s been harder to get into that Christmas mood, because I’ve been spending too much time focused on everything else that needs to get done, related to the move and the new house and the never-ending issue of ‘we cannot unpack this until we know where to put it, except we don’t know where to put it because we do not have the appropriate item of storage/furniture/whatever’. Decorating for Christmas means putting it all up and then letting myself just sit and relax and enjoy it, but I feel like this year I just haven’t made it to that point yet. I noted to Richard that I have not even done a single bit of baking yet, and usually by now I would have done *something*. Making lemon curd really does not count (although he countered that maybe it should, since we now have a lemon tree and chances are pretty high that jars of homemade lemon curd will likely become standard gifts in the near future).

I’m not sure how to slip gracefully into that whole ‘relax and enjoy it’ feeling for this holiday – at least not yet. The list of things I really want to get done is still too long, and pretending the list doesn’t exist will not make it go away, it will just drive me even more twitchy about it. However, we did jokingly talk about maybe we could each put 5 or 10 ornaments on our tree each day, so that by the time people arrive, it will be done, and Richard is going to put timers on all the lights so even if we keep forgetting to go plug things in, the house will look festive without our help, and tomorrow is a nice long day full of lots of time to accomplish things that maybe, just maybe, could include a teensy bit of baking and relaxing before I launch myself back into a frenzy again.

It helps that when we got home tonight, my little sister’s present was sitting on the front porch, and there was an email from Richard’s aunt saying that the present for his uncle had finally arrived, so that is two things I can now add to the list of things I no longer have to worry about anymore.

Happy Holidailies!

This is Stumpy.

Stumpy joined our house in August of 2005, as our anniversary present to ourselves. In a house with no carpets and six cats, a Roomba was a marvelous addition. Even though Stumpy wasn’t as independent as we’d hoped he might be (despite suggestions to the contrary, we could never quite go off and leave Stumpy unattended, because he has a tendency to get stuck under chairs, or suck up a cat toy), he still made a huge difference in the level of fuzz in our house.

Then we moved. And during the move something in Stumpy decided it was time to quit. We would stick him in his charger, and then he’d run for about two minutes and then sing his sad little “I’m low on battery” song. We both checked the iRobot website, and it appeared Stumpy needed a new battery. Off to Amazon I went, battery bought and ordered. It arrived today. Stumpy is now quite zippy, even more so than before, so luckily that’s all he needed. Although it’s quite possible Stumpy’s just excited about what else arrived in the mail along with his shiny new battery.

Meet Gretel.

Because iRobot is having a terrific sale right now (buy a Scooba, get a Roomba for free), Gretel brought along her little brother Hansel.

Gretel is a Scooba. So not only does she sweep the floor, she also mops. Hansel is a basic model Roomba, so he just sweeps.

This evening, after they’d all charged and we read the directions on how to fill Gretel’s tank and prime the pump and all that, we set all three of them running. Gretel was put in charge of cleaning the kitchen floor. Hansel was tasked with cleaning up cat hair in the living room. Stumpy, now with brand new battery installed, was given the chore of cleaning the entire downstairs. And Richard and I sat in the computer room and (except for a few hops up and down to make sure they weren’t getting stuck somewhere) hung out while the three little robots cleaned our floors.

Richard has decided that we shall henceforth refer to our little army of robot floor cleaners as The Staff.

So, here’s a group shot of The Staff, all together, batteries charged, ready and eager to take on their next assignment.

Now if iRobot would just come out with a robot that cleans bathrooms we will be all set!

Happy Holidailies!

Let’s say that you are not much of a lemon fan. You don’t mind it in marinades and when it adds just a touch of flavoring to a sauce, but lemon pie, lemon cake, lemonade, all those things are just foul and wrong to your taste buds, and since you realize this, you decide to never plant a lemon tree in your backyard, because that would be silly.

Then, let’s say, just for kicks, that you move. And the house you move into has a cute little lemon tree.

A very *prolific* lemon tree, at that.

So what do you do with a whole pile of lemons, when you are not a fan of lemon flavor?

You make lemon curd.

Squeeze enough lemons to get about half a cup of juice (in my case, this took five lemons – hooray for using up 5 whole lemons!). In a medium saucepan, stir together the juice, 1/2 cup butter, 3/4 cup sugar, and 2 eggs. Cook over medium heat for 15 – 20 minutes, stirring enough to keep it smooth (I just stirred it the entire time). It will begin to thicken as it cooks.

Remove from heat. Let cool. Offer taste to husband, whose response is “ooh, can I have a whole bowl of that?” Serve on top of anything you can think of. Try to convince wacky brain that just because they make kitchen cleanser smell like lemon, does not mean that lemon curd is made of kitchen cleanser.

Enjoy.

Happy Holidailies!

Last night my big task for the evening was the Christmas cards. So I sat at the computer with my big stack of cards and I addressed envelopes, and then we finalized the yearly holiday letter and Richard and I stuffed cards and letters into envelopes. And when it was done, we had a sizable stack of about 60 or 70 cards sitting on the table, waiting to be mailed. Sadly, this is not yet all of them, as we still have yet to track down quite a few addresses, but it’s the majority of them; enough so that I can safely cross this particular task off the slowly shrinking list of tasks that must be done by Christmas.

Once the cards were done I got antsy to get them into the mail. So we set off to find a mailbox. I’m so used to seeing those little blue drop-off boxes on street corners that it’s been odd to not find a single one of them in our new location. So as part of the mailbox search, we decided to do just a little bit more exploring in our neighborhood, and that’s when we saw the lights.

There is a tiny little street about three or four long blocks away that goes all out for Christmas, as we discovered. The sidewalks are (mostly) lined with arches of lights, and every house looks about like what you might expect if the goal was not so much a style or theme, but just to see how many lights one can put outside. There were a (very few) inflatables, and one yard had several large plywood cut-outs, including a rather disturbing bigger-than-life Santa as muscle man, but it was mostly about the lights. And it was awesome. It’s this little home-grown light display and there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to it, but it is so very obvious that they love it. It’s a little bit messy and a little bit discombobulated, but it’s so darn earnest and enthusiastic that one cannot help but be charmed by it.

We did eventually find a mailbox (near a grocery store) and dropped off the pile of cards, and then we decided to do a little bit more wandering to look at lights. There were a few spots among other streets where neighbors had obviously done a minimal bit of coordination, with lights strung across the street and between yards, but nothing that quite compared to that one little street tucked away down the road from our house.

Oh, and if some of you have been waiting for the karma stick to smack me upside the head after last night’s posting, don’t worry. As we came home, we spotted something, half-hidden behind a chimney and some extremely tall trees. On a roof just down the street there is a giant inflatable Santa riding a big green motorcycle. Ah well. It was a lovely dream while it lasted.

 (Picture is blurry (it was dark, we were in a car) but I had to share, because how else could you all see just how disturbing this really is? Yes, Santa is, indeed, wearing a cape. You’re welcome)

Happy Holidays!

Because he knows I carry one with me at all times, my boss asked me today if, if  I happened to have my digital camera on me, I’d mind taking a picture of one of those inflatable Santa’s for him (work related because of use of inflatable Santa as metaphor for CO2 sequestering – uh, don’t ask). Sure, no problem, I said. After all, I drive through quite a bit of residential neighborhood on my way home. There’s sure to be one of those stupid things along the way.

Except that there isn’t. Not a single inflatable Santa to be seen (or, for that matter, any inflatables at all). Just a lot of cute little turn-of-the-century homes, with tastefully hung lights, and at worst, the occasional spiral light tree, or light frame deer. Even peering down each side street as I drove past provided no glimpse of inflatable decor.

And then I got to pondering. Could it really be? Is this just one more thing to add to the list of why I am so happy to live where I am now living? Could we really be this lucky?

I’ll keep my eyes peeled over the next few weeks. I’m sure that as Christmas gets closer, one of the houses will eventually crack under the pressure to be restrained and dignified in their holiday decorations, and one of those idiotic inflatable things will eventually emerge. After all, there was a house not too far away that cheerfully displayed a giant inflatable turkey for Thanksgiving, so I am sure a similar Christmas themed monstrosity is not far behind.

But for now I shall bask in the happy glow of living in a world untainted; a world without a(n inflatable) Santa Claus.

Happy Holidailies!

Today continued the Weekend of Being Productive. First stop, the bank, to deposit a bunch of checks, and then to the little bagel place near the university, where I was quite happy to see they had not sold out of their pumpkin spice bagels this time. And then it was back to Target, because we hadn’t had room in the car yesterday for everything. We’ve been wanting some shelving or a cabinet or something for all the card and board games that have been sitting in random piles of boxes downstairs, and we’d found an assemble-yourself cabinet that looked promising. Richard had a Target gift card with credit left on it, so that covered about half the cost, and we stuffed the thing into the car (thank goodness for back seats that fold down in the Prius!) and drove it home and wrestled it into the house. And then we just left it there on the floor for later, because I had to run off to a meeting – my very last meeting as Chair of the Board of Trustees at the church in Dixon. It was a fairly uneventful meeting, necessary decisions were made, paperwork was signed, and I left the church feeling like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. For the first time in a very long time I am not a member of some committee, or executive board, responsible for showing up at meetings, or making decisions, or anything else. It’s a truly lovely situation to be in, even as I realize that by virtue of my own personality and participation ethic, this sort of situation cannot possibly last very long. We’ll see.

Back at home, Richard and I decided to assemble the new cabinet, only to discover, after nearly having to tear the box apart with our bare hands to get the stupid thing open, that the manufacturer had neglected to also include the necessary hardware. So we stuffed all the pieces back into the box, sealed it back together again with perseverance and a large amount of packing tape, and went back to Target to swap it out for something else, which did have its hardware.

So now the downstairs guest room is (for the most part) organized and clean. Funny how much larger a room can look when there’s not a messy pile of boxes looming in one corner! Plus, we also picked up a very simple little TV cart, and the old television will live down in that room. It’s not going to be hooked to any sort of cable connection, but the plan is to move the Playstation down there so we can hook up the EyeToy Kinetic. Since the recumbant bicycle is also in that guest room (and currently fulfilling the typical cliche of home exercise equipment, in that it is covered in laundry needing to be folded) we’re hoping that particular room can double as a little home gym when it’s not being used for sleeping guests.

I was so relieved, yesterday, to have finally carted everything off to the thrift store. And then I opened up the closet in the downstairs guest room after we finished putting together the games cabinet, and found another huge stack of stuff I’d completely forgotten about. Sigh. Oh well, at least now we know of a place that will take donations, and there’s still time before Christmas to continue with the purge.

Happy Holidailies!

Last night was my office’s holiday dinner. There’s only five of us, so it’s always a small gathering, but it’s always always fun when we all get together, and last night was no exception. This year’s holiday dinner was at the new Crush 29 in Roseville (apparently if one is into wine, this place is a big deal; if one is not into wine, the food is pretty good, but maybe not worth driving all the way out there on a regular basis). We managed to get a little private room in the back, with a fireplace to keep things cozy. Everyone chattered and laughed all the way through dinner, and then while we were waiting for dessert, we did the gift exchange. I brought a selection of coffees and chocolates from Starbucks, with a peppermint swirled mug, and I left with a very adorable Santa ornament made from a gourd, and a little mini massager that I can see will come in quite handy the next time my neck goes completely stiff from sleeping in one position all night because of cats. Heh.

This morning I woke up full of enthusiasm to get things done. Realizing this was a significant improvement on the lazy slug attitude I’ve been keeping throughout the week, I decided I might as well take advantage of it. So we got dressed and then loaded the car up with all the stuff that’s been accumulating in the front hall since we moved into this house, and after we went out for breakfast, we swung by the nearest thrift store with weekend drop-off hours, and donated the whole pile. The only things left are an old monitor that no one is ever going to want, and an ancient printer that is just as likely to remain an orphan, so we’ll have to track down a local electronics recycling center at some point, but for now, those have just been moved to the back porch, and the front hall, at least, is clear.

After we got home, we pulled down all the boxes of Christmas decorations and started setting them out around the house. All five of our nativity sets now adorn the piano. The nutcrackers have been perched on the plate rack above the entrances to the living room and dining room. I swapped out the hand towels in the upstairs bathroom for holiday themed ones, and Richard pulled out the lighted garland and began to hang it in the living room, wrapping it first around one of the columns that grace the entrance from the front hall. However, the single strand we had that, in the old house, was plenty long enough to decorate the fireplace mantel, was definitely not long enough to decorate the moldings above both doors. So we headed off to Target to find more lighted garland, as well as to see if there was anything else that might suit our fancy for decorating.

The lighted garland was easy to find, and even better, it’s exactly the same as the one we already have, so Richard was able to finish out that part of the decorating scheme, and it looks lovely. While we were there, however, we also decided to take advantage of the trip to get a few more things that have been on our list. Since the carriage house comes complete with a basketball hoop, Richard noted that we needed to buy a basketball, and there was a display of basketballs, right at the end of an aisle. I’ve been wanting a little cabinet for the upstairs bathroom because there was nowhere in that room to store things like extra guest towels and toiletries, and there was the perfect little white assemble-yourself cabinet. We needed some of those stick-up hooks to hang some decorations, but wouldn’t require nails, or damage the walls, and eventually, we found those too. We picked up a larger nutcracker for the front porch, since the front of the house still looks pretty bare. And in between all of the meandering amid holiday decorations and sporting goods and storage furniture, we ended up walking past the display of fake Christmas trees, and there we stopped and stood, pondering.

I have always had real trees, and we both love having real trees. But we do not love the mess of real trees, and there is always the issue of cats. They’ve taken down the tree a few times in the past few years. Real trees can be messy, and they drop pine needles and the kind we prefer tends to give me hives if I’m touching it, and I’ve pondered the idea of a fake tree for quite some time now, but was never sure. But then we saw one at Target we both really liked. It’s got the lights already attached, so no having to worry about the cats chewing the cords, or tugging the tree down by trying to run away with the light string. The shape and the style is the type of tree we both prefer. The height is perfect for the space we’ve got, and best of all, it was on sale. We dithered. We thought about coming back another day. We debated whether or not to wait til after Christmas, or maybe til next year. And then we realized that we both really liked it, and we’ve both been pondering the exact same issue for years now, and well, why the heck not. So there we are. Now the owners of a fake tree. I’m not sure whether to be excited, or apologetic about it. We’ll see.

Anyway. The tree is still in its box because we were hosting the TGIO post-Nanowrimo party and based on the size of the crowd at the kick-off party back in October, free space was going to be a premium in our living room for the evening. So instead we came home and sat on the floor of the office and assembled the cabinet for the bathroom, and then we gave the house a quick clean, and then people started to arrive for the party, and they’ve been here ever since and from the sounds of it, having a great time.

The entrance to the living room, from the front hall. Azzie is peeking around the corner there in the bottom right. Notice presence of brand new cardboard cat scratching pad as well, because we are all about spoiled felines around here.

Happy Holidailies!

One of the downsides to swapping out a brand new house for one that was built 100 years ago is the lack of a garage. This means we currently park the cars on the street. It can make things exciting during the summer, when it’s insanely hot out, and one’s car morphs into a death oven on wheels, or during the fall when the one has to navigate for parking along the ever present piles of leaves, but I think the most exciting part about not having a garage is the winter. When it is raining. This is because for whatever bizarre reason, all the water on the street tends to collect right in front of our house, and if it’s been raining long enough, those aforementioned piles of leaves start clogging up the drains, and then when come outside in the morning, we are confronted with a small lake. Not such a big deal, except that in order to get into the car, one must cross the lake.

This morning, the water was more than halfway up the tires on my car, and the little mini lake was too wide for me to just blithely leap across as I’ve been doing throughout the week. I didn’t particularly feel like getting getting my feet completely soaked, and I would have had to hoof it to nearly the end of the block to get to a spot where the flooding was narrow enough for me to cross. So instead, I got into my car through the passenger side door, then hoisted myself over the center console and managed to get myself into the driver’s seat without too much of a fuss.

I am thinking maybe I need to invest in a large pair of rubber boots, just so I can get in and out of my car in the winter. Do they sell those really cute ladybug spotted ones in adult sizes?

********

Me: You must watch this.

Richard (after watching): Yay fishbowl cat! We need a fishbowl.

Me: Uh. No. We are not going to stuff Azzie in a fishbowl.

Richard: Hmph

Me: Oh please. Like I didn’t know exactly what you wanted it for.

The perfect scenario for any holiday, in my mind, is one in which all gifts can be purchased without me ever having to step foot in a shopping mall. I am sure that I must have thoroughly enjoyed them when I was younger, but now that I am a crotchety woman in her late 30’s, they seem like one of the lesser rings of hell.

Every year they post statistics showing that the percentage of gifts bought online is steadily rising. It’s nice to know that I am obviously not the only one who prefers to search for gifts from the comfort of her own home. Heh. All hail the almighty entity that is Amazon.com and all its associated marketplaces, for as of this evening, not only have we successfully selected, and ordered, all but two of the presents we needed to buy, I have already gotten several shipping notifications in my inbox indicating that they are, even now, merrily winging their way toward our house, courtesy of the holiday angels known as FedEx, UPS, and of course the US Postal Service.

Now if only writing up the yearly holiday letter, addressing all the cards, and signing them by hand, were just as easy.

Happy Holidailies!