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At this time of the year, it’s so easy for the days to slip past me. The day-to-day routine of getting up at the crack of dawn, working, shuttling children back and forth, and then trying to cook a meal or get anything done around the house, means that my days blend into one another. Monday? Tuesday? Oh yes, it’s Thursday. Could have fooled me.

Over Thanksgiving I read a stimulating book, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, and it made me feel somewhat normal again. Human, if you will. But the feeling was short-lived because I am feeling all spongy again. AND, I have yet to write the review of that book and three others I’ve read because of this “spongy” state I am in. I sit myself down in front of the computer, lift my coffee cup to my eager mouth and then… nothing. Nothing comes to mind. Instead, I stare at my Christmas light decked bulletin board. Oh, the lights are so pretty.

Pardon the horrible photo. I took it with my crappy phone but you get the idea.

My bulletin board at work

I love how it includes bookish stuff, family pics and duck and cover earthquake instructions all on the same board. This is what I stare at all day. Ahem, when I am not hard at work, of course.

Tonight I am making coconut macaroons for a Christmas party I am attending tomorrow night, and I am feeling the need to make some Thai curry for dinner. Sometimes chicken and rice is just so comforting. Maybe, maybe I can squeeze a movie in or at least watch Rudolph and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

This is the weekend before finals for The Teen, so I suspect that we will be hanging around for the most part. I still have some shopping to do but I will be damned if I try to do it on the weekend again. At least, not during the daylight hours.

And what’s with all of those free shipping deals over Black Friday? Still waiting for my stuff to arrive and it’s making me nervous since the stuff hasn’t even shipped yet and I’ve already been told by one vendor that the stuff is no longer in stock. Don’t offer free shipping if it’s going to arrive on the back of a monkey or something.

My Reading

Happy Sunday! Today is all about relaxing because I made the mistake of going to the mall yesterday to do a little shopping. Good lord! I have no patience for that stuff anymore. People were friendly. Actually, I was surprised how friendly the store clerks were given the amount of people they were assisting, but I was in a foul mood and it just got worse from there.

I hate how regular products are repackaged for Christmas and then marked up a dollar or two just because it’s Christmas. I wore the wrong shoes which made the entire experience more painful and I only picked up one gift, and I was there for over three hours. That’s right. I got overwhelmed with the glitz and the volume of everything. Stores so full of merchandise and people, that I literally could not walk from point A to point B.

I love LUSH, but their stores are too small to have more than ten people working the floor. I need to go back at night, during the week to pick-up what I need because I could not even get to the shelf. But everyone was as happy and perky as can be when they asked me no less than five times if I needed help. Not their fault that I had a case of the grumps.

The holidays, gotta love them.

Oh, and it’s been so cold here!! The mornings have been about 30 degrees and last night, when I left the mall a gust of wind took my breath away. It was so cold. It sort of felt good after being in that stuffy mall but I could not get to the car fast enough.

By the way, I forgot to buy coffee creamer while out so this morning I am without creamer again.

Sunday Salon

What am I reading?

From the photo above, you can see that I am still reading The Abominable. I love it and now I am just prolonging the inevitable, the end of it. It’s a great adventure book but given that it takes place on Mount Everest and the characters brave below freezing temps, I find myself shivering and reaching for my blanket every time I read it. I wonder if it would have the same effect on me if I had read it over the summer months?

What am I cooking?

At the request of The Teen, I am making Potato Cheese soup tonight but guess what? He won’t be here to eat it because he just offered to work a holiday dinner event. That kid is a “yes” man. He needs to learn how to say No. I am hoping to make a big enough batch to eat it more than once this week. Tonight, we’ll pair it with a nice, leafy salad to round it out.

Click on the photo to see the recipe.

What am I watching?

Well, it’s that time of the year. We watched Deck the Halls with Matthew Broderick and I may watch The Family Stone later today. I really wanted to watch White Christmas with a group on Twitter yesterday but the timing didn’t work for me, given that I am on the West coast.

The other day, I heard about CBS airing the lost Christmas episode of I Love Lucy along with her Italian movie episode where she stomped on the grapes. Remember that one? Well on 12/20 both episodes will air in color? Will you watch? I prefer B&W but to see the lost episode for the first time? Yes, I plan to record it. We will be at Disneyland that day so I will have to wait until the next day to see it.

Click here to see a preview. Is it me, or do they look better in color?

Chatting with friends about books and life…