the Blethering Spot

Who’s your mama now?!
I spit on my previous template. I wipe the previous template from my shoe. This new improved winter template, with the cheeky black border, represents three hours of neck-straining intensity at the computer. Admire the font colour! Oooh at the “next page” option at the bottom! Shake your head at the smartly centered picture on the top! All the work of yours truly.

No longer shalt thou be called illiterate, the desolate, the rejected of HTML. Thy readers shall applaud you, and thy sister congratulate you. Thou shalt be called Repairer of the Code, the blog to dwell in.

(original post here)

I feel a bit sheeeeeepish about changing my template again, but I hated the last one. It hurt my eyes to try to read it. So here’s a quasi-Christmas template, with a picture I found online from NYC that actually looks a bit like Narnia to me! Not that it is Narnia, because we all know it’s always winter there, and never Christmas. And we, dear friends, know that it’s only 26 days until Christmas!

The only thing is that I haven’t got this code exactly right, but I don’t feel like spending the time to figure it out right now.

I’m kind of sick today, and am moping about the house in my robe, with mad hair and no makeup. I’ve got some chicken soup on the stove, though, so that should go a long ways in improving my outlook. So far I just feel off, not downright pukey, so hopefully it won’t get any worse than this! Off to bed for now. Goodnight all!

note: original post and comments here

Yesterday my youngest daughter asked her older sister if she could hold Squeakers while her sister went downstairs for a moment. My eldest daughter replied, in a very motherly voice, “All right, but if she’s dead when I get back, I won’t be very happy with you.”

I emailed my sister and sister-in-law to tell them, and my sister replied, “That’s what I always say to my husband when I go out the evenings.” Hee hee.

original post and comments here

Am trying out this new template, though I’m not sure I entirely approve of it. For one thing, I have no friends. Very sad. Must take that out. For another, I really wanted a winter template. I’ve paid a guy to fix up a wintery template for me (great deal, BTW) but am still not quite pleased with the format. Must do some tweaking, though I am not a Qualified HTML Tweaker.

Anyway, this one felt West Coast to me and made me feel at home. Tell me what you think!

original post and comments here

Ooh, I just saw this Nigella feature on Epicurious, while scouting for dinner party menus for a FAB dinner party I will host post-Yule. I’m just off to work and haven’t had any time to properly read it, but couldn’t resist sharing it with all you Gourmet Extravaganzas. Cannot, cannot, cannot WAIT for (a) Christmas, and (b) Dinner Party time (Jan/Feb, to offset post-Yule doldrums.)

original post here

I saw two moose on my way to work tonight. It was a cow and her calf, and they looked, for all the world, like they were waiting to cross the highway. I could just hear that mother….

“Did you look? Did you look both ways like I told you? If we had gone just then, we would have brutally killed that nice lady going to the airport. Didn’t I tell you to look? Try again.”

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Today after school we put up our Christmas decorations (all but the tree). The challenge is always how to rein in my galloping children, and keep them from tearing through the boxes in a frenzy of excitement. We had a lot of fun, listening to Boney M (above) and sipping eggnog. I kept reminding myself that these “young” years will only last a little while, and then I’ll be free to set things up the way I want them. (eg/ the Nativity figures placed with dignity and decorum, not jam packed together like sardines. The way they are in my house, the wise men and shepherds are a rude, unruly bunch, jostling together, threatening the safety of Mary as they elbow each other out of the way so they can look at Jesus.) It’s the same with baking; in just a few years, I’ll be able to whip up a batch of cookies in five minutes flat, without flour coating the counters and sugar gritting underfoot, and I can… oh, the bliss of this glorious thought… I can make them all a uniform size, so I don’t end up with a mountain of gluey dough next to a tiny charred scrap. I need to learn to relax, savour the moment, enjoy my kids while they’re young and excited.

Right, anyhow, here’s our fireplace now:

I fear for that poor nutcracker, perched perilously atop the fireplace. Must remember to move him when we turn on the fire. There is also something… wrong… about that wreath, starting with the colour. Will adjust it when I figure out what to do with it (though I can’t do anything about the colour.)

Here’s what I have made today:

Shortbread cookies (popularly known by the name “Camels,” from the

cookie press shape I generally use)

Gingerbread men (not iced or decorated yet; will freeze them and decorate

in December)

Scotch shortbread

Peanut Butter Chocolate balls

Am dying to make rum balls, but haven’t got any of the good stuff in the house. Will remedy the situation speedily!

original post here

Who’s coming for a barbeque at our place tonight?

Original post and comments here

Oh, the weather outside is frightful…

But the fire is so delightful…

But since we’ve no place to go,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It doesn’t show signs of stopping…

We’ve brought some corn for popping

The lights are turned way down low

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

original post here

This is just a test, really. I’m dying to change my template to a lovely wintery theme, but I can’t do it over at my own blog. So I think I may jump ship, and try life over here! Give me a while, though….