Johnny, Alvin, and Global Warming

It is Saturday night and I am not preaching tomorrow. It always feels a little bit weird not to preparing a sermon--not necessarily bad just weird. I'm doing a blue Christmas service tomorrow--it is a service where we acknowledge that with all of the joy that this season brings it also comes with many dark aspects as well. For many it holds great sadness and grief. So we'll name that in worship tomorrow. It will include lots of time for meditation and silence. And that means no sermon from me.
So what have I done today in place of sermon preparation? Well I've done a lot of what I normally do on Saturday--nothing. I woke up and listened to the radio. I love, love, Saturday morning NPR. Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. Car Talk. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! Seriously love it, even though the wait, wait was a montage of previous guests. They didn't tape this week because of the holiday. Then this afternoon I saw Sweeny Todd. It was really good. And I was a little hesitant about a singing Johnny Depp. But yeah, good. Definitely worth seeing. Although, be forewarned it is a bit gory. As you would expect if you know the story. But the blood is cartoonish.
When I was in Florida I saw Alvin and the Chipmunks with the nieces and nephews. All I will say is that I think the kids liked it.
I had a good time in Florida. i ate a lot of really bad food--that was really, really good! For those of you who live in cold climates, it was so not that in Florida. Sunny and warm. I wore shorts and t-shirts most days. Some of you may say that doesn't feel like Christmas, but I grew up in Florida so it feels for the most part like Christmas to me. Although, I do remember colder Christmases. It's an inconvenient truth.
Which reminds me of something. Somehow my cousins and I were joking about melting ice caps and droughts, etc. I know funny stuff right? Anyway, my aunts pipe in I think the Lord has it all under control. I tried to pipe in that we were appointed care takers for the earth but by that time they had already moved on to something else. But seriously, I just think that is so crazy to just think oh we don't have to worry about global warning because God has it all under control. Perhaps, I'm just thinking, oh maybe God wanted us to have it all under control. And I don't think we've done that great of a job. Oh well. That is my family.

Alright, well that is it for tonight. It is kind of cool and rainy here so I'm going to heat up some soup and settle in for the night.

Peace out!

Hope Your Christmas was Crap Free!!!

I am T-I-R-E-D! I woke up at 3:30 AM this morning in Florida. I had only been in Florida since Monday and I never really adjusted to the time completely. Plus I was staying at my parent's house. At some point I'm sure I'll go into my parent's house--but for now I'll just say that their house is so dirty that I don't like being there and I especially don't like sleeping there. So I didn't get much sleep before I got up at 3:30. Then I left Florida and landed in San Francisco at 1:30. Now it is 6:16 PM in California. I have been up for a long time. Oh, and I have the beginnings of a cold, what with the sleep deprivation, my parents dirty, drafty house, and the walking petrie dishes that are my nieces and nephews it was bound to happen. So I have been downing airborne all day. But I have a headache and I am tired.

So I'll write again soon and talk about Christmas! And then don't forget on January 1, my year in review. I'll post my Christmas Card picture with this post so you can enjoy it if you didn't get an actual card.

UPDATED: Well I couldn't post the picture. I'll try again when I'm more awake.

Why can't a computer read my mind?

Okay, so in yesterday's post I told you I mailed off all my Christmas cards. Well when I wrote that I was wrong. About 6:00 last night I was doing some other things at my dining room table, which serves as an additional desk, when I looked over and saw a stack of addressed envelopes that hadn't been stuffed or mailed. So I quickly did that and got them in the mail. Although, that means I they went out with today's mail instead of yesterdays. It also meant that I ran out of cards. I had two left and 6 more names on my list to get addresses for. So last night I had to go to Target to buy a box of generic cards. They are nice, but my cards had my picture on them and a witty comment. Oh well. One note about the Christmas cards: normally I like to write a letter and place it in the card, my take on a Christmas card but hopefully not so tedious. But this year it just didn't happen so i wrote a note saying I would write a year-end review on January 1 on the blog. This mean for those of you who don't get a Christmas card you won't miss out on my wrap up of the last year. Hooray for you! You won't want to miss it. I know that sounds awfully arrogant but really it'll be good. (Maybe, I'm over selling it, a bit!)

A complaint. So this afternoon I went to mail the 2 international cards at the post office. They have this automated postage machine. I went up to the machine to buy the postage because the line for the counter was long. But when I got to the end of the screens, after the letter was weighed, and I was told how much it would cost, 90 cents, I pushed the button that said purchase and it said I had to spend at least a dollar. It wanted me to buy an extra stamp but I didn't need an extra stamp. I wanted it to take into consideration that I was going to buy more postage. I cancelled and got in line and waited.

This week I have also seen two movies, one Monday afternoon and one this afternoon. On Monday I saw Atonement and today I saw Juno. I really liked them both. Juno was hilarious and touching,--Atonement heart breaking. They are both so good. If I could only see one, it would probably be Juno. The writing was just so witty. There were lines I so wanted to remember but there were just too many of them. Ellen Page who plays the title character was really, really good. In Atonement, there is one character who ages from a little girl to an old woman throughout the film. And they way they visually signal this to the audience is they kept her hair style exactly the same. Come on, 80 years of the same hair style? I think they even gave her the same barrette. Ridiculous. I think the audience might have been smart enough to figure out that she was the same person even without the hair.

Alright, I'm off to have dinner with my friend Karen.

Peace out!

Yay! They are done.

I just finished mailing my Christmas cards. Well, almost all of them. I still need to get a few addresses. I made a little video to document their very long trip to the mail box. The song is obvious but it is being sung by James Taylor. Enjoy. Now I'm off to finish everything else on my list.



Peace out

Irony?

No time to write tonight. It is 10:21 and I have been working on my Christmas Card mailing list since I got home from centering prayer. I just took a break to write this blog and to do something else that I'm about to ask you about.

I have on the Biggest Loser while I'm working. I haven't really watched this show but I just feel so good seeing all these people get healthy. So anyway here is my question: Is it ironic that while I took a break and a show about people losing weight was on I was eating chocolate ice cream out of the carton?

I think it is.

Alright until tomorrow.

Peace out!

Happy Birthday Jesus, I hope you like extravagant consumption.

I've attached a talky blog today. It is a story about a Christmas party I went to this weekend. You'll see I run out of time. So watch the video and then read below it for some tied up loose ends.



So Juuu-lee had two sisters, one of which was at the party. The two sisters were names Betty and Peggy, named after Juuu-lee's grandmother and aunt. So she said her name was french for Julie and that her mother wanted to name them all french names but had to name the other two after family. I don't buy it. I think she changed the pronunciation herself to sound all hoity-toity. It was kind of ridiculous.

Anyway, I just wasn't impressed. And the more Don drank the more impressed he was. He just fawned over the whole thing. I think I was actually more annoyed by him than the party.

But he left today, so I'm back to having the house to myself. Don is a good guy but I can only stand him in small doses.

Alright, well my Christmas cards came today so I have to get working on that.

Peace out.

I don't need a Tickle Me Elmo after Christmas!

Okay, I just got back from Target a little while ago. Why you may ask? (Probably you were not asking that but I'm going to pretend that you were.) I just got back from Target because I went to buy Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews. I was going to order them on-line and have them shipped. But all of the toy things I was going to get them would not have arrived until after Christmas. I know I waited to late to order, blah, blah, blah. But anyway I also ordered books. I like ordering on Amazon, particularly for Christmas and birthdays, because I am an Amazon Prime member which means I get 2 day free shipping on my purchases. And I did that last night, I ordered at least the books. But here is why I am a big doofus. My friends Mike and Don are in town this weekend going to a party in Oakland. So I put the books in my on-line shopping cart before they arrived and then I got busy finishing dinner. (I made a butter nut squash soup. It was goo-ood.) So I had to check-out after they got here. Well I was sort of talking and trying to check out at the same time and what did I do? I had the books shipped to my house instead of my parents house. So that means that free shipping to their house means absolutely nothing now. My plan is to just put it all in a big box and check it on the plane. Because I will be out of time to ship it, ship it after the books actually arrive here. Which is fine, but it just means I'll have to schlep it around the airport before I check in. But you know I go write to the counter to check-in so it really not an inconvenience. It would have just been nice. And I wanted to point out what a fool I was.

But I did get the toy items for my niece and nephews today at Target. This means that I have only a few more items to buy and I'll be finished. Yay! See I finished in time and did all my necessary advent things. I'm a rock star!

Tonight I'm going out for my friend Justin's birthday. We are having dinner at this really nice restaurant called the Last Supper Club. But we aren't having dinner until 8:30. That is late for me to have dinner. So I had a bag of french fries on my way home from Target and now I'm eating an apple. I have to have a snack. Then after dinner we are headed out for a pub crawl and my friends Don and Mike are going to meet up with us later. It will be fun. Justin is a hoot. Remember he is the proprietor of Studio Vox. If you need that last minute gift idea check him out.

Oh, and one more thing, you'll notice I added another blog, Anne Nahm. You have got to go read her latest series of entries. Read for the last week and a half or so, beginning with the baby j series. Oh my lord is it funny. I don't even know this woman but she is my new blogging hero.

Alright, until tomorrow when I'll probably be writing in some hung-over haze.

Peace out!

Saint Lucia Day

Happy Saint Lucia Day!

I hope someone greeted you at the foot of your bed this morning with a flaming head and warm buns.

Does this fish come with mashed potatoes?

I hope you all enjoyed my cooking segment I posted yesterday.

So today I'm going to try and catch you up on what has been going on. I had a busy weekend--dinner with my running buddies Friday night and then The Color Purple on Sunday. The Color Purple was an Alice Walker book and then a movie starring Whoope Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. Now it is a musical produced by Oprah Winfrey. And I have friend who saw it in New York and loved it, but I got to say, the touring production I saw was just okay. I think part of the problem was the lesser known Destiny Child member, Michelle WIlliams, who played Shug. She was not good. She wasn't horrible, but she wasn't good. The story was still fairly compelling--I was crying at the end. The other thing about The Color Purple was the woman sitting next to me. She sat down and immediately started talking to me. I didn't know this woman. But that didn't matter, she just went on and on. It wasn't completely annoying but I tend not to want to talk to strangers. Fortunately, I didn't have to do much talking because this woman talked so much, I just had to nod.
Oh, also, I have a question: Does anyone else feel guilty about not ordering fish at a seafood restaurant? I went to this restaurant on Friday night with my running buddies. The restaurant is called Catch, obviously a restaurant that specializes in seafood. Well I ordered chicken because it looked so good on the menu. I like fish but I rarely order it. I think it is because rarely does it have a side I want. I often order a dish based on what it comes with, and usually that is some rich hearty starch, mashed potatoes or risotto.
Then last night I went to see Chanticleer in Palo Alto. For those of you who don't know Chanticleer is this acapella men's group. They are fantastic! And they were really wonderful last night. Their sound just melts over you like butter, literally like butter. But last night they sang this song that was an old hymn--Oh it was a Christmas concert-- called Beautiful Start of Bethlehem. It is some southern Gospel hymn and really lovely. However, they sang it in this mocking thick southern accent. I was so offended. I mean people were snickering during the song. It was so offensive. They didn't parody the African American spiritual so why is it ok to parody the white southern hymn? It just completely colored the concert for me.
So that is it. I still have not taken my Christmas picture for my Christmas card yet. But I'm doing it tonight. And then I'm doing my Christmas shopping on-line tonight as well. It has to be done. I'm running out of time. I'm thinking the Christmas card might actually be sent during the actual Christmas--you know Christmas day through Epiphany. I could say it was intentional because I refuse to get sucked in my our cultures premature celebration but it is really just because I can't get my act together.
Alright, until tomorrow.
Peace out!

Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel, I made it out of clay

Okay, so I am embarking on new territory. I made a cooking segment for my talky-blog today. Last night, because that is when I taped it, was the last night of Hannukah or tonight is, I'm not all that sure. So I was having the gays over and I decided to make latkes. It was fun. The house now smells like fried food. (It tastes good but it doesn't make the house smell good afterwards.) So anyway you get to see me making them, sort of. Sort of because you can really only see my face and occasionally I show you what I'm working on. The computer was up on this ledge that is between my kitchen and my living room, but it was kind of too high to actually show what I'm doing. But I think it is pretty good. Then you get to see my friends Alan and David enjoying their latkes. So here it is. I'll post the recipe at the end. Enjoy.



Dede's Latke Recipe

As promised, latke recipe (there is probably a different recipe for every Jewish cook in the world J):

2 lbs potatoes
1/2 medium onion, grated
2 tbs flour
2 eggs, beaten
1.5 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tbs minced parsley (should really be fresh)
Cooking oil (healthy, of course, is canola but pure vegetable shortening/oil is good, too)

Wash & peel potatoes. Cover with cold water, drain.  Grate at once and drain water that collects on grated potatoes.  Add onion and mix.  Add flour, eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and parsley.  Mix thoroughly.

Heat oil in frying pan or griddle.  Place large spoonfuls of potato mixture in hot pan, 3-4 at a time, patting down into a pancake form, until brown on one side. Flip to brown on the other side.  Drain on paper towel and keep warm (usually I use the top of the stove) while you cook others.  Have applesauce available to serve with pancakes.

Why can't I answer this question?

Okay, since I started writing my own blog, I have become a much more avid reader of blogs. There are some really wonderful writers in the blogosphere. (Lets be clear there are also some really crappy writers as well.) So anyway recently I stumbled across a blogging contest, the Bloggies. It's actually for gay folks who are writing blogs, but the they have to write on a different topic each week that isn't a particularly gay topic. And each week a different person is eliminated. Well anyway this week's topic was the most important event of 2007, so I thought I would write about that today. (Although, just as an aside, I had planned to write about the bell ringer at the grocery store today who was also singing christmas carols. As I came out of the grocery store she was singing jingle bells and the way I heard it the line that came out of her mouth was "one ass opened sleigh." I probably misheard her.)
Anyway most important event of 2007. Well there is the obvious things like my brother's cancer, getting a new set of dishes, and seeing Pablito at farm day at Terra Firma farms--in no particular order. But I have to say the most important event of 2007 was wait for it....
wait for it...

The most important event of 2007 is: I haven't got the slightest clue. I was hoping to come up with something witty and entertaining, but no such luck. So it is probably good that I'm not in the blogging contest. But why can't I come up with an important event? I mean there were lots of important events in my life this year--I think, but nothing that is the most important event. I can't even think of any world events that were the most important events of this year, outside the introduction of the i-phone.

So I'm putting the question out to all of you. What do you think is the most important event of 2007? Let me know what you think.

Until tomorrow, which might hold the most important event of 2007.

Peace out!

I think Maude might be a man

Okay the Golden Girls were fun. We thought they were doing the two Christmas episodes. (They in their entire run they only did 2 Christmas episodes.) Well anyway they only did one of the Christmas episodes. The first episode they did was unrelated to Christmas. Although, one of the people who was with us is Jewish and at the end of the first episode he asked if there were some secret Christmas references mentioned that he was not privy to. There were not. The clothes were fantastic--very Boca Raton 80s/90s. And still the drag queen that played the Bea Arthur role, Dorothy, looked like Bea Arthur. I think it is because Bea Arthur is so manly. But I do love Bea Arthur.
Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. I took pictures of what I did with the space, but I haven't downloaded them from my camera yet. When I do I'll post them on the blog. I think it turned out pretty well.
Then after worship one of my members asked for my advice. He has this ex-boyfriend who has been living with him for the past several months. Yes I did say ex-boyfriend. He is so f-ing co-dependent with this guy. Well anyway he finally gave the guy, a total loser, a deadline for when he had to be out of the house. The deadline was this past Saturday and of course the guy was not out of the house still on Sunday. So my parisioner wanted to know what he should do. He said "Should I put his stuff in the back of my truck? Should I put it out on the street?" Then he said I don't want to do what is best for me, I don't want to do what is best for him, I want to do what is right. I told him he should do what was best for him. I haven't talked to him, but I'm guessing the stuff is still in his house. Seriously, how do you help someone who is so co-dependent that he can't even imagine doing what it best for himself? Crazy.
Today, I tried to do some Christmas shopping, but of course I didn't actually get any gifts. I try and find the perfect gift and I just have to be inspired. And I still haven't been inspired.
Tonight I'm headed over to one of the gay's house for dinner and movie/tv/video/dvd watching. For the next few weeks we have a Christmas theme. So who knows what we will watch? I'm taking a few things including Steel Magnolias. I think it qualifies as Christmas themed, because Shelby announces her pregnancy at Christmas time and that is also when Annelle loses her contact lens at the Christmas Carnival. So I think it works. We'll see.
So until tomorrow.
Peace out!

If they threw a party and invited everyone you knew...

I've finished my sermon for tomorrow. It is decent. It is 6 PM. I have an hour and a half before I have to leave the house. I'm having dinner with some folks and then going to...wait for it....wait for it...wait for it....

do, doot, doo (trumpet sound)

Drag queens performing two Christmas episodes of the Golden Girls. You might remember that I saw them do two episodes back in June. Well now they are reprising their roles this time for Christmas. Yay! They were pretty awesome last time, so I'm really looking forward to it. I'll report back tomorrow. I hope I'm not setting my hopes to high.

Right now I'm listening to Christmas music. Earlier I was dancing around the apartment listening to some of the songs I downloaded from i-tunes. They are from the soundtrack for Enchanted. That is the movie I saw yesterday. Seriously, too fun. Although, if you could have seen me--it was really, really gay. As Grace Adler on Will and Grace would have said, "Rip Taylor would say now that is faggy." I know. I know. I thought about taping it for the blog. But I'm not sure we are there yet. Maybe. Maybe one day I'll let you see me doing my broadway dancing imitation. But I don't think today. I have to keep you wanting.

Alright, well I'm off for more singing and dancing. And then the Golden Girls.

Peace out!