What Now

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) OK, who is the man I'm living with, and what did he do with Steve? Last night he decided he couldn't wait any longer to give me my Christmas gifts. I totally understand, because I'm exactly the same way. In fact, I had given him his birthday gift last night even though his birthday isn't until Sunday! He handed me a large envelope, and for a moment I was afraid he had gone and had some boudoir photos made. : ) Inside the envelope was a gift certificate for dance lessons! It was probably one of the most thoughtful gifts he's ever gotten me, and normally his idea of a thoughtful gift is a RAM upgrade! He knew how much I wanted to learn to dance and said he'd be willing to go along and learn with me so that we could dance at his Christmas party next year. All together now: Awwwwwwwww! It's basically for 3 introductory dance lessons which we can choose to continue if we enjoy them. I'm so excited! I love it when people put actual thought into gifts! It means they care enough to pay attention to you. Yay, Steve!

2) I decided a couple of nights ago that I wanted to make chocolate baklava for the marketing department's Christmas brunch. Making baklava is a very time consuming thing that involves buttering dough that is as thin as tissue paper, grinding up nuts, layering all kinds of stuff and making a sugar syrup to pour over everything once you've baked it. One weird thing you have to do to it is cut it BEFORE you bake it. I guess that's because phyllo dough is so delicate that it would probably shatter if you cut it once it was baked. Well, everything went swimmingly except for the fact that one box of my dough was the wrong kind, but I had enough of the phyllo dough to make up for what I didn't have. I chopped, buttered, blah-blah-blah. The sugar syrup is tricky because it has orange and lemon juice, honey, and sugar in it and it has to be boiled for a long time to reduce it. What you have when you are done is basically a very tasty glue that you pour over the finished pastry. Well, I did all of the pouring and left it to cool, but when I went back a couple of hours later and moved the pan it was in, I realized that when I cut the baklava before I baked it, I punched holes into the bottom and sides of the aluminum pan! The very tasty glue had leaked all over the counter and into the grooves between the tiles where I haven't finished grouting! ARGH! Well, at least the baklava tasted good. : )

3) I had to go buy toys for some of my little kid cousins the other day. I know NOTHING about the kinds of things kids like. I didn't even know how old most of them were! I was afraid if I got something too grown up, they'd break it or not enjoy it, but I was afraid if I got something too baby-ish then they would turn their tiny little wraths upon me. I can only hope that they will just be so excited about getting presents that they won't really pay attention to what they got. Most kids are like that, right?

4) I miss Josh. I got a call from him the other day and he seems so happy. I'm very glad that he's happy, but I can't help being selfish enough to wish he was still around. I got to talk to one of his "Brothers" and Josh seems to be very popular with everyone. Apparently he made them all crack up during evening prayers! At least he hasn't changed much since joining the order!

5) I don't like wrapping gifts. At. All.

That is all for now!