Cooking and Presents and Stuff

I made us tilapia with peach compote this week. I wasn't sure if H would eat it or not, his not being very culinarily adventurous. But he ate it, and liked it. It was pretty spicy, nice and hot which is how he likes stuff. So that was nice. I always enjoy trying out new dishes I made up.

H sent out the first batch of cookies and breads to family. He sent a package to his Mom's fam, his grandparents, and my brother Mark and his wife. I made my brother and his wife some hats as well. Saturday we're sending stuff to H's Dad and to my Aunt and her family. I figured out the right amount of extract to use, though grinding the cinnamon on a microplane myself is a hassle. Next year I'm buying the ground stuff.

Made a hat for my Secret Santa person at work. Since she is a Harry Potter fan, I'm also going to copy her all the audiobooks on a couple of CD's. That should be a wonderful gift.

As for New Years Eve, it's gonna be a small, intimate gathering I think. Only about 5 people have confirmed, and the rest are maybes. As such, I'm going to make sure I have either Lips or Scene It! to play if I have to buy one myself. H's sister works at a video game store, so she might get me one for Christmas, but if I don't get one, I have money put aside to buy one.

In 2009, wednes resolves to...

Keep my opera clean.
Apply for a new ganesha.
Drink four glasses of publication every day.
Overcome my secret fear of simpsons.
Give some black bears to charity.
Get back in contact with some old jaws.

Get your own New Year's Resolutions:

H's birthday is Saturday. Please make a note of it!!

So tell me...

I'm curious to know what you all want for Christmas.
Not the intangibles (H asks for "love" every damn year, which is no help at all), but the buy-at-a-store material goods that you are really craving this holiday season.

As for me, I want Scene It! BOS and Lips which you all must know because I haven't shut up about them since I got the Xbox360 for my birthday.

H's mom and fam got us this, from Harry & David. It's great if you're not trying to stave off diabetes. I think H's mom forgot about that, but it's a swell gift all the same. Delicious.

So I ask again: what do YOU want for Christmas.
And if there's a disparity between what you want and what you could reasonably get, I wanna hear both!!


Now, I'm off to work!

Finally, some good news:

For those of you who don't know, I've been very worried about my job. They've been cutting my hours back for a while now, culminating in some 15-20 hour weeks for me. While I can, in fact, live on that; I'd really rather have more money to do stuff with. Not having any kids, I do enjoy the disposable income once in a while. Plus I like to contribute to the household expenses so H doesn't have to pay everything himself.

I had a meeting with my boss today, who assuaged my fears in a big way. We (ie The Company) are not looking to lay anyone off. In fact, they like me, like my work and are going to be training me to do some new stuff after the holidays. They like the work I do on the phones and with the call center newsletter. So that is all very cool. After the holidays there will be people shifting jobs and as long as I can deal with irratic hours once in a while, I have no fear of losing my job anytime soon.

That said, after I get off tonight I am not back at work until Tuesday, when I am working a 2-day work week (tuesday and friday). I'm only working a 3-day week the following week, though both weeks will seem like more because of Holiday pay.

Anyway, I'm very pleased about all this!!
And a little less pleased that we're about to get a crazy blizzard tonight.