Ketchup

I know, it's been a while. I apologize for keeping you waiting--I was washing my hair.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, filled with exciting new news. In no particular order:

• I got promoted (aka hired on permanently) as an associate editor at work. This comes with lovely new business cards and benefits and things.

• Ivan got a new job, a steady one, at a local hardware store. This means we can now both walk to work and he won't have the uncertainty of a softening construction market.

• Walking to work means that we could sell one car, which we did, leaving us with a single Subaru.

• The powers that be at work announced that the company will reimburse employees for exercise related expenses, up to a certain amount each year. Pilates class first, then trapeeeeeeeze!

• It was 60 freaking degrees in Vermont in the winter. Global warming combining with El Niño, apparently. Of course, I watched An Inconvenient Truth that weekend. Sigh.

• Now it is sleeting and raining and yucking, and I'm a bit behind deadline (thus working on a "paid holiday," whatever that means).

What's next? Luau this weekend with some friends, more New Zealand planning, and generally hoping for snow.

Holiday Recovery...and Snow!

Well, Christmas wasn't particularly white, but New Year's looks like it will have a light layer of snow. We got about an inch here in southern Vermont, and my parents got about 4 inches up North.

In other news, Ivan and I are committing to getting our financial ducks in order. A new copy of Quicken has been installed on the computer, and all accounts have been entered. This ushers in a new era of fiscal responsibility, we hope: living within our means (we're already doing a decent job of that), paying off the credit card debt, saving for a house and retirement, and so on and so forth. There will be health insurance and steady income this year, too. In other words, life is good.

Now we're off to a low-key New Year's Eve party, where there will be yummy food and plenty of drink. Oh, and fireplaces. Definitely fireplaces.

Why Eggnog is Not Evil

Many think that eggnog is an evil, vile concoction characterized by thickness and high fructose corn syrup. This is not the case. Eggnog, real eggnog, involves farm fresh eggs (laid the day of the festivities), fresh cold milk, some sugar, some vanilla, some orange peel, and copious amounts of rum.

That, dear readers, is what I feasted on last night, at the in-laws' annual cookie exchange at the gallery they own. What is a cookie exchange? Besides being an opportunity to feast on eggnog, it's a party in which you bring 3 dozen home baked cookies of one sort, and go home with 3 dozen home baked cookies of all different sorts. Brilliant!

Holiday Revelry

Like most holiday festivities, my company's office party took lots of preparation and went on far longer than it was supposed to. This meant that most of us spent most of today walking around with a glazed look in our eyes, wondering what it was we had walked into the room to do. However, the gingerbread house I made with fellow employee J. (shown below, in a picture taken by fellow employee M.) was a huge hit.

Making all of this more difficult was the fact that we had rearranged all of the furniture in the open part of our office to make the party possible. That meant that when I walked into work this morning, my desk was facing the wall, my chair had disappeared to an office down the hall, my phone was buried somewhere in my cabinet, and all of my files were in disarray in a drawer. Not to mention the fact that we were on a deadline today (that we pushed to Monday, because we can).

At any rate, I'm now curled up with my computer on my bed, doing a little bit of work, but mostly just enjoying being home and being in my comfy clothes (thank god for thrift store cashmere!). My better half is rattling around in the kitchen, trying to scrounge up something for dinner, and there will likely be a bottle of wine in my very near future. So really, life is good.