Music of the Spheres

Stand By Me.

Here's something to make you smile on a gloomy, rainy morning.

(h/t to zombie_dog)

Gosh it's been a long while since I've updated people on what's been going on over here.  It's actually been really frickin' busy around here, and there's gonna be some very interesting changes coming Real Soon Now.  Specifically, Teh Geek and I are scheduled to close on a new house in two weeks.  The entire process from house search to bid to contract to inspection to closing has just swept by in a blur, but I'm really excited by it all.  The new place is in Wheaton (well, technically Silver Spring -- but never mind that), just a short piece up the road from the mall.  It has a nice yard, a GREAT kitchen, and one of the nicest neighboors I've ever met.

The other piece of news that's been taking up a huge ammount of my time and energy is that my boss at work went on medical leave a month ago, and I've been running things ever since.  I've always said that I never really wanted to go into management, but I've been finding it exhilierating as well as exhausting.

Anyway, the extra hours at work mean that I've had to start getting to bed earlier...  so I'm going to start heading in that direction.  Hopefully I will have more updates for y'all in the weeks ahead.

Well! I apparently had VOX Mobile on my phone all this time and never knew it. Maybe now I'll have fewer reasons not to post.

Too bad there doesn't seem to be an option to cross-post to LJ. :-(

Dinner was a relatively small affair this year with just Teh Wife and Teh Mother.  Still, I'm actually rather pleased with how it turned out:

Roast Turducken.  (Relax...  It was store-bought.  I am nowhere near good enough to make one of those myself.)

Sweet Potatoes:

(recipe from my father)

Boil and peel 4 pounds of sweet potatoes.

Mash the potatoes in a bowl

Add a stick of butter, 1/8 cup of maple syrup, 1.5 oz rum, 8-12 drops of Tobasco, 1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt.

Mash all the ingredients again until everything's smooth.  (It's important to mash the potatoes first BEFORE you add any butter.)

Pour the potatoes into a ceramic bowl, and cover the top with brown sugar and pecans.

Bake until the brown sugar is melted.

(This recipe theoretically serves 8, although the three of us at exactly half of it.)

Cinnamon Spinach Salad:

(recipe from flutestory)

For the salad, combine baby spinach, 2 medium apples thinly sliced, walnuts and dried cranberries in the bowl.

For the dressing, combine 1/4 cup honey, 3 Tbsp veg oil, 2 Tbsp cider vinegar, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 pressed garlic clove together and mix well.

(recipe serves 6ish)

And to round it out, of course, an Apple Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream from Giffords.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

This is from a friend's f-locked post on the "Inside the Actor's Studio" meme:

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"I don't care if you never believed in Me, I always believed in you. And yes, all the crap I put you through was a test. Congratulations, you passed: here's your sword."

Two months to the day after I started to tell the tale, the story finally reaches its conclusion.

Two of my favorite bloggers have not been producing a lot of material over the last few months.  In addressing their absence, both have decided to forgo the usual "I've been busy"/"I'll write more soon, honest" tropes and have decided to go a more creative route:

slacktivist has a perfectly normal day where absolutely nothing interesting has happened.

AD finds something by the side of the road.

Ambulance Driver's post is certainly the longer of the two, but also the more rewarding.  slacktivist's post is funny as hell.  Enjoy!

1)  Last night, I was out having dinner at a brew pub with friends when the table broke out in the song "Still Alive" by Jon Coulton.

2)  I ran into TRM of Aethelmearc on the train home from work today.

I know, random, right?

Customer Service FTW!

Teh Geek and I are finally about to take our honeymoon.  We're going to leave for the beach in about half an hour and be back sometime around Friday.  I hope everyone has a great week, and I'll catch up with you all when we get back.

And now for something completely different.