Holiday Cards

I took pictures of the kitties to use in our cards this Sunday. I uploaded the photos, and created and ordered the cards that same day and amazingly got them back on Tuesday! I was so excited! The rapid card turn-around put me into high gear and I hurried to finish my Christmas letter. I had most of the cards addressed, stamped, and sealed with letter safely inside when I decided to re-read my letter on the way to work. Unfortunately, Ms perfectionist found 3 errors! I figured my options at this point were:

1. Print out 60 more letters (front and back) and open up all of the cards to re-stuff them. (using another cartridge of colored ink to do so)
2. Send the cards as is, and hope no one will notice.
3. Figure out how to correct the errors (and match the burgundy ink I used) while still having the letter look halfway decent.

In the end I did a bit of each. Tim's cards weren't sealed yet, so I created a new template with just the words that needed editing in it. I whited out what was wrong in the letters, and printed the new words onto the letter. This worked pretty well all things considered, however printers don't always feed exactly right, so there were some that just didn't make the cut.

I printed out new letters for those that didn't do well, and put them into cards of people I thought would notice the errors and care.

The sealed envelopes were harder, most were to my very close friends and family. I tried opening a couple, but the envelopes didn't fare well. I couldn't really steam the letters since they were photo cards. I started to work myself into a tizzy, until I realized most, if not all, of these friends knew how crazy my life has been lately, and wouldn't judge me for the three silly mistakes in my two page letter.

So I now have a stack of letters in various states that will go out in the mail tomorrow. Hopefully my friends will understand if theirs has a misspelling or two. Or maybe they're busy like me and will skim over the few faux pas and focus on the content instead.

Brick Biscuits

Tim has been dying to fry a turkey since last year, so he fried up a 16 pound bird for our Thanksgiving meal. Since he was preparing a bird, we had to have all of the fixings to go with it. Our families always made tons of food for Thanksgiving, and so this year's menu was no different. We cooked enough food to feed at least 10 people. I even made two pies (pumpkin and pecan). These didn't make the photo because they didn't fit on the table. The food was great--many of the recipes were my Grandmothers.

The only thing that doesn't seem to do well was the wheat bread. For whatever reason I can't get the yeast to rise like I think it should. I made another batch and made sure the water was exactly the right temperature before putting the yeast in, and it didn't rise much at all, so I put in another packet, and it rose, but only a bit. It took HOURS for the biscuits to rise! (even on a warm stove) It has happened with rapid rise and active yeast and I am starting to wonder if the yeast has changed since I was a child. I never had a problem having yeast rise before!

My mom mentioned that she has run into the same thing. (although the last time I checked, her wheat rolls didn't weigh about a pound) Luckily everything else that we made was delicious. Hopefully I'll figure out what is going on with the yeast, so I can make fluffy wheat biscuits instead of wheat bricks. :-)

Holdiay Shopping

Having a bum knee has me spending a lot more time on my laptop. Most of it is unproductive but some of it has been time well spent. I have scoped out what I'm getting everyone for the holidays, including myself. Some of it I have bought already--including a little rocking pony for my niece that is on back-order, hopefully it will arrive around Christmas. The rest I may buy Thanksgiving weekend. I figure if it arrives early they can decide if they want to open it or leave it until Christmas. At least that way I'll be done.

I did make it out a few times this weekend, and I bought the cats Santa and Mrs Claus outfits. They look SO cute! I tried getting a few pictures for holiday cards, but the cats weren't interested in being models so I will have to try again. What they have been interested in lately are a mother and four baby raccoons that visit us at night. The babies are ADORABLE! Each appears to have a very distinct personality too. It's fun to watch and neither the cats or the 'coons seem scared of each other as long as there is a door between them.

The only thing I'm worried about, is buying a Christmas tree. The cats are still quite playful and they LOVE plants--hiding in them, climbing them, eating them...I just hope that they will understand that this plant with all of the sparkling toys is hands off. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Eggnog anyone?

The eggnog lattes are back at Starshmuks. I loved them last year. This year, for whatever reason, it seems very few Batistas can make them right.

Supposedly it's 2 parts eggnog to 1 part milk, (low fat uses 1 part skim milk) add some espresso and a dash of nutmeg and you're set. It sounds easy, but for whatever reason it has been hit or miss. I have managed to get one good eggnog latte out of 4. I had one today, that was only 3/4 full, and it tasted like steamed milk with nutmeg. (I am thinking that the Batista did 2 parts milk to 1 part eggnog and a tablespoon of nutmeg.) It was NASTY! We had to go out and buy eggnog and make one at home to prevent permanent taste bud scarring.

When I searched the web to see if others were having this problem, I found an entire section about nasty tasting eggnog lattes. The surprising part is, a lot of the Baristas that commented on the site said they don't like making them! Reasons ranged from it is loud, the mixture is nasty, to it's a sticky mess. Some said they've been making it with 1 part eggnog and 2 parts milk. (Which confirmed my fear of today's lame latte.) Since this is a favorite holiday drink, I was saddened to hear that this confusion and dislike of eggnog, could possibly be why I've had poor latte luck. :(

After today's experience I'm not sure if I'll attempt to order another eggnog latte this year, they certainly don't help my waistline...and are definitely not worth it when made wrong.

--Update-- Monday, November 12 -- Still in search of a good eggnog latte, I stopped by Peet*s Coffee this morning after my work out. I watched them make it, and discovered they use 100% eggnog (no blending to confuse anyone) and espresso. They let you add your own nutmeg--with a nutmeg grinder. It was very rich and sinfully GOOD! :-)

The finger instead...

My truck broke down on Monday. The steering wheel was getting loose. (I guess this is a common problem if you use the steering wheel to get in and out of your vehicle--DON'T do it!) Anyway, I was driving it to the mechanic's to have it fixed, when all of a sudden whatever was loose loosened even more, the steering wheel went limp and the engine died!

I calmly coaxed it out of the center lane of traffic, and coasted as far as I could up a hill to the first exit. Amazingly I managed to start making the turn on the exit before the truck lost all forward momentum. I was able to get it out of the center of the street, and onto the far left of the exit, without blocking any traffic. (This was pretty amazing given the circumstances.)

So I put my hazards on and waited for the tow truck to arrive. I was shocked that during the 30 minutes I waited in my dead truck, a majority of the people who went by me felt the need to honk and/or flip me off, for "inconveniencing" them. They were able to get around me, but still felt the need to vent their displeasure while I was on the phone to AAA. Even a gray haired old lady felt the need to honk at me. Most of them were on their cell-phones and the only thing I can think of is that they were too busy talking to notice my hazard lights were flashing. Or perhaps they wrongly assumed I pulled over in an idiotic spot to use my cell phone. Who knows. What I do know is, not one person stopped to help or to see if I was OK.

The scary part is, even when the tow-truck drivers showed up, people ignored their hand motions to stop while they tried to hook me up. Instead at least three different cars disregarded the driver's directions and squeezed by. I hope I'm not around these 'lovely' people when their Karma catches up with them!

H0les

Having cats has been a lot of fun. Especially when it came time to dress them up for Halloween. The black cat wore his Lobster outfit proudly, and followed us to the door to greet the numerous trick-or-treaters that came by.

The other cat was dressed like Sailor M00n. She looked very cute when she walked around with her pleated skirt, but preferred to perch out of the way most of the evening.

I went as hobbling cowgirl, thanks to my bum knee. It still wasn't up to much this weekend, but is slowly getting better thanks to lots of ice and rest. I'm rather depressed that I'm injured--especially since I didn't do anything major to justify the injury. It definitely put a screeching halt to my work out program. It hurts even to drive my car! At this rate I'll never manage to loose any weight this year.

Tim isn't very happy about the situation, but for a different reason--he has litter box chores for the next few weeks until I can bend my knees again. He also ended up digging a HUGE hole this weekend. (which he didn't mind as much) Earlier this year he mentioned wanting a red hibiscus plant. (well he said--I like that red bush over there, I wouldn't mind getting one sometime.) So when I learned there was one at a spec house location, we went and scoped it out. It is a gorgeous red, and the trunk was huge, so we decided to rescue it.

On Friday, the demolition crew dug the plant up for us with their bucket, and carefully placed it in the back of our truck. The plant was much larger than we thought--the roots filled the entire truck bed! Tim had to dig a much larger hole than he anticipated. (The photo shows him about 1/4 way through the process, he dug to about his waist!) The surprising thing is, he's not the slightest bit sore today. He's so lucky!