Mmmm…. Jameson’s.

One more reason I really like Johnny Deep.

Johnny Depp secretly visited Great Ormond Street Hospital yesterday to donate £1 million of his own money to thank staff for saving his daughter’s life.

I’m going to take a little time to gather myself after this morning’s shock. I’m still very upset for my friends, so instead of writing stupid stuff, I’m just going to take some time to regroup, and see if I can come up with anything to do to help from here.

For those of you who occasionally stop by here because you know me personally, I have some terrible news to share.

Andy (one of my best friends) discovered the body of his brother-in-law yesterday.

If you would like to contact Andy and Heather to send them a card and share your condolences, let me know and I can give you their address.

Otherwise, please keep them in your thoughts.

Six came really early this morning.

And I bet the gym this afternoon is going to be mildly unpleasant as well.

But at least it was a good vacation.

We’re watching the Rose Bowl Parade (one of the few times a year we actually watch live TV).

It is now officially the new year.

Happy New Year!

Ack! My vacation is half over! Quick! Hurry up and relax!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, assuming that is the holiday you celebrate. I’m going to try and stay away from the computer again today.

We’ll see how that goes.

This was my Dad’s requested recipe this Christmas. It originally came from one of his aunts (all long dead), so I feel perfectly safe posting it.

This is half the recipe. Last year I made the whole recipe and I thought we’d never get rid of all the cookies–my Dad’s favorite or not. I also made a few modifications regarding the amount of rum, as in I increased the amount of rum. I also can think of no reason why I’d need to dissolve the baking soda in warm water, but with half a pound of walnuts at stake, I decided not to risk it and followed the recipe. (But if I can’t find any rhyme or reason for this I’m going to skip it in the future.) Additionally, as they were no directions, I just did the obvious.

Walnut Cookies

1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar (217 grams) (I used light, since it didn’t specify)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour, sifted (180 grams)
nutmeg (it says a pinch, but I just grated some until it looked like a decent amount)
1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 2 tbsp warm water
2 tbsp rum (I used dark rum, because that’s what I have on hand)
8 oz raisins
8 oz walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Cream butter. Add sugar. Add eggs. Sift together flour and nutmeg. Add flour and nutmeg to butter mixture with soda solution and rum. Mix until incorporated. Add raisins and walnuts.
Scoop teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through baking.

passel   \PASS-ul\   noun
: a large number or amount

Now I want to watch Firefly again.

Inara:  Maybe you should think twice about letting go of Saffron.  You two sound like quite a match.
Mal:  Maybe you’re right.  Maybe we’re soul mates.
Inara:  Yes, great.  I wish you hundreds of fat children.
Mal:  Could you imagine that?  Me with a whole passel of critters underfoot?  Hell, ten years time I could…

My idea of what I was going to do this morning:
Get up
Eat Breakfast
Take Michael to work
Write
Do some laundry
Start a fire
Read a book

What actually happened this morning:
Get up
Take Michael to work
Run by my office to pick up power supply for PDA that I forgot to take home last night
Eat breakfast
Get kitchen ready for new dishwasher after being told installer would be here between 9 and 10
Start fire
Start laundry
Flatten pile o’ boxes to be recycled while waiting for fire to take off
87 phone calls about whether or not the dishwasher is in stock, is available
Read one chapter of book
More phone calls about dishwasher situation
More laundry
Waiting for dishwasher

I sometimes wonder why I even bother to make plans, since things never ever work according to plan.

However, I’m not at work, so WHO CARES?

WHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been doing minor work on the website (as you may have noticed, when the sidebar kept getting error messages).

Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain. All is well.

I’m also working on updating my blogroll. I’ve had some down time to read around recently, so I added some sites I’ve been checking regularly. More may be added soon. Unless of course vacation interferes, in which case, too bad.

I have almost finished my Christmas cards (just five left, but they’re mostly to people I never see, so I didn’t want to be perfunctory, so I stopped for the night) and I have one thing to say:

WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANYONE MAKE CHRISTMAS CARDS WITH VILE TASTING ENVELOPE GLUE?!

BLETCH! PTOOEY!

Although it’s possible the glue turned since last January when I bought my cards, I find that highly unlikely. I realize not everyone likes minty things, but that’s no excuse for making the glue nasty tasting.