Good Morning Everyone!!! It is a beautiful but chilly day here in Eastern NC. I have been up for about 2 hours now mostly working on a scarf that I am crocheting for a Christmas. I also have load of clothes in the washer and I nicely toasted pair of strawberry pop tarts next to me. For the rest of the day will include some studying, online test taking, crocheting, music, and family history research.

I hope that everyone has a great day.

I'm watching anime : )

Practicing the clarinet for a bit. This afternoon I have a concert at a local university. After the concert, meeting a friend to shoot some pool and have a beer or two. I could not imagine ever being in a Mormon church again.

Yesterday, at the gym, I saw a man wearing a BYU sweatshirt. It is not too common here in east Tennessee. It is funny how such a thing can be a trigger. Not a big deal, but enough that I realized it should not bother me. Others wear collegiate shirts and they do not cause any emotion in me. When he left, after attending a youth basketball game apparently there to watch his son play, he had 6 kids and his wife with him. I did not have a single thought of Mormonism until I saw him and his brood.

1. Spanish homework. Apparently while I was alive I was a really bad person, because it seems that I've gone to Hell and have to master the subjunctive verb forms.

2. Planning my Christmas CMD (cookies of mass destruction) terrorist attack. Armed with a dozen+ recipes (various drop and bar cookies, brownies, blondies, fudge, caramels, roasted nuts, etc.) I plan to lead the troops (wife, sister-in-law, stepdaughter) today for a brainstorming and strategy session. When my Social Security check arrives Wednesday I want to hit the ground running.

Yeah I will being doing cookies the week before Christmas once I am done with school for the semester. Usually I do frosted sugar cookies with sprinkles and chocolate chip cookies and what every else my mom finds for me to make.

For one thing, the subjunctive is not totally foreign to us; we use it in English, but it is becoming more and more rare. For example, we may say, "Well, if I were you, I would probably. . ."

"Were" isn't generally the verb form that goes with "I". We don't say "I were in church yesterday." It's the "if," expressing uncertainty (more often, hoping, wishing, wanting, etc. in an oncoming clause). Keep after that nasty old subjunctive. Once you have mastered it, it will stay with you.

Love of foreign languages has turned out to be one of the great guiding forces in my life, so don't mind me if I sound a little gonzo on this subject. . .

Bracing for a big snow storm, but also the family will be taking my Dad out to dinner for his birthday. He turned 87 on Thursday.

Ooh, Eric, I used to play the clarinet in the senior band in highschool. I've probably forgotten how to play it now.

Finishing up my paper on ritualistic use of psychoactives. You would not believe how many there really are out there. Turn it in and this semester is over! One more to go!

Later make dinner, probably a chicken dish, and watch TWD mid season finale.

Living

Happily and Beautifully

Freely and Honestly

Fully and Coolly

...

Walking and singing and resting and watching and listening and talking and reading (here anyway), and perhaps even writing (it could be prose, rhyme, poetry, slang, or simply nothing but humor, garbage or even a story... but probably as little as possible)... OH, and eating, and drinking, probably (gluten-free) water.

I'm living today

Football game watching of course.

Helping S.O. prep for his colonoscopy tomorrow...he's feeling so deprived on a liquids only diet today...LOL

I am just waking up and getting started I don't have the weekend shift this week so I'm in a good mood.

In the oil patch. And it is damn cold.

Skiing, Mexican food and now a little drink.

Family had Christmas today. 7 adults, 6 children and 4 dogs. Loud and crazy. My gift to the 7 year old was a huge hit. Watching the 15 year old playing super hero with the 4 year old was hysterical. The cotton ball snowball fight was a blast. Little snaky on the roads getting there. Lots of snow last night. Pretty clear when I drove home.

Coffee with friends as usual and then picked up some groceries and then home to my warm house. It's fucking cold up here!!

RB

The roads were clear, so I loaded all my gift shopping mistakes and wrong sizes into the car, and returned them. (I already bought the right things to replace everything.) I also packed a picnic, so I wouldn't have to stop. The roads were clear and uncrowded, at Gateway Mall, West Valley, South Town Center. My last stop was in Park City, and I met friends for cocktails (for them, cause I don't drink). Great day--and all the Christmas shopping and errands are done! (Except for the baking, a few parties, our turkey dinner....)

I gave the grandchildren new pajamas tonight, and they ran around the Christmas tree, with the dog, singing and laughing--until someone trampled over the littlest one, and he cried. We ate cheese panini, cheese quesadillas, cheese-and-crackers, giant Comice pears, and watched Star Wars.

Tomorrow is Monday, but that's great, too. I like my work. Really, the only bad thing (other than sicknesses and the normal "full-catastrophe" of life) was the Mormon cult. I hated church worse than anything--and it was completely unnecessary! Not like a root canal or the pain of childbirth. Unnecessary!

I spend the weekend making ice cream for a charity bake sale at my work.

Saturday I made the glazed pecans and smoked maple syrup on the smoker.....took hours.

Sunday I made my "Smoked Maple Butter Pecan" ice cream.....17 pints of it. Most will go to the bake sale, but I'm keeping several pints for myself.

The 100% maple syrup goes on the smoker for about an hour. The pecans are first sauteed in butter, brown sugar, kosher salt, and cayenne pepper, then removed from the butter and coated with more brown sugar, kosher salt and cayenne pepper. They go in the smoker for about an hour.

The result is a buttery, mapley, smokey ice cream with tasty glazed pecans that have a little cayenne kick at the end.

Several people have stated its the best ice cream they've ever had. I tend to agree :)

I had an exciting day of listening to the Nutcracker Suite, buying groceries, then reading a good novel with a cup of coffee.