One: Megan, my housemate, is in Christmas mode. Employing what I (rather in Dave Barry style) have dubbed the Late-Thanksgiving Defense ("By this time last year, Thanksgiving had already happened!"), she has switched her car radio station over to the all-holiday-music-all-the-time stations, bought a pine-scented candle, and has described where she'll put our tree when we get it. Oh, and she's warned me that Stella, the cat, always gets into the ornaments, even though Megan tries to put them up high.
I have steadfastly refused to play any Christmas music myself, but I think I pretty much am ready for the Christmas season to begin. Our candle doesn't actually work very well (plus, we're told it smells a little like a cleaning product), and we're not really supposed to be burning it anyway (our landlord, her dad, is a firefighter/EMT and doesn't really like any open flames in the house), so last night, inspired by a coupon that apparently fell out of my pocket before I got to use it, I bought some pine-scented refills for our plug-in air freshener. If I may say so myself, the one we're currently using works a lot better than the candle.
Two: Yes, the rumors are true: Albert and I are coming soon to visit a town near you, as long as your idea of "near you" encompasses central and western New York State. Those of you with Facebook may want to check your accounts for details.
Three: Here are three things for which I would not like to hear or read any spoilers anytime soon, even though I mostly can't tell you when I'm going to get around to watching or reading them: 1) Catching Fire; 2) the most recent Doctor Who special (despite the fact that I'm not even confident I'm ever going to care enough about Doctor Who to seriously watch a whole couple of seasons' worth); 3) the next season of Downton Abbey (for those of you who've illegally watched the BBC airings, or know anyone who has). Thank you.
Four: Speaking of things on TV: who's ready for the 2014 Winter Olympics?! I am, and here at the house, we actually have a TV to watch them on and everything. I can't tell you much about any of the athletes actually competing, of course...but then, why should I be able to? That is what NBC's coverage is for.
Five: To a lesser extent (and substituting ABC/ESPN for NBC), see also: World Cup 2014. But it is so much more fun to watch it around people with actual international connections (which is almost the same as saying "people who actually care about the World Cup") that, seeing as my summer leave from work might start not long after the Cup does, I may just have to schedule a Binghamton event around then for a few days, so as to relive the glory days of...good gravy, was that really 2010? It was, my friends. It was. I was working as church secretary and off of adjuncting for the summer and everything. Among other notable moments, we got up early one Friday morning and went to Crepe Heaven to watch a game or two at seven-thirty AM...and even at that hour, there were about fifteen of us there (although, to be fair, about five or six of them were Kennedys). The 2010 Winter Olympics seem far enough back in the past, but the 2010 Cup? That feels like just a couple of years ago. I would've just moved into Carrie's house earlier in the month, and a bunch of us still would've been doing trivia on Monday nights, and oh gosh what a summer that must have been, despite my very small budget, which I probably repeatedly overshot (thank you, O my merciful parents). And despite the fact that, if you read my blog archives, it sounds more like an unhappy one instead, even though I can think of even more exciting things that I must have done (including, but not limited to, being in Jodi's wedding).
Six: And because you all know better than to expect me to write any quick-takes post without talking about what I've been cooking lately: last Monday I, with insignificant omissions/alterations (and some orange juice I borrowed from Albert), made this sesame orange shrimp recipe for dinner, and it was delicious enough that I'm pretty sure I've actually thought about it at least once a day ever since. Also, that same night (because, thanks to the way the shrimp recipe works, I had two spare egg yolks to do something with), I made BooMama's grandmama's chocolate pudding, except that I used 1% milk instead of whole. For the record, I stand by that choice, because a) it was still basically the best chocolate pudding ever, and b) one can pretend that eleven fewer grams of fat spread across four or five servings makes a difference, even though, thanks to the butter and egg yolks that are also in those servings, it probably basically doesn't. So, in review, my cooking that night: WIN.
Seven: Which brings me to your homemaking tip of the whenever: it turns out that you can, in fact, get burnt-black chocolate pudding (or scorched milk, or whatever it was) off of the bottom of a stainless-steel saucepan, even after your dishcloth and fingernails really haven't gotten very far. I have the internet to thank for this tip: you put some water in the pan, dump in some vinegar (the internet will tell you how much if you're curious; I kind of eyeballed it because I'd put in a lot more water than the directions would have assumed), and bring the pan to a boil. Boil for a few minutes, then scrape the burned parts with a wooden spoon or something. They'll actually start coming off! And then, after you've turned off the heat and cooled things down a bit, you can finish the job. As Kate once said of something similar, yay, science!
And with that, it's time for me to figure out what to do about tonight's dinner. I should probably resist my slight wish to just make more of that chocolate pudding. Probably it's oatmeal-smoothie or leftover-ham-and-pineapple-over-rice night. Cheerio!