Christmas vacation by the numbers
We have returned to the dark, gray-and-white winter from warmer, sunnier Houston. The midwest is welcoming us home by snowing.
Relatives seen: 12. Much thanks to the San Antonio folks for making the trip!
Lemons brought back: 5. Plus an eggplant.
Lemons still growing in my parents’ back yard: Dozens. Also, several huge, juicy oranges.
Types of meat eaten at Tradicao, a Brazilian restaurant: Six-filet mignon, the house special beef, salmon, chicken wrapped in bacon, pork with parmesan, and some other kind of beef.
Piano pieces played: 3. Canon in D, which I’ve finally relearned from my fifth-grade lessons; O Come All Ye Faithful, which I’m still working on; and The Swan from the Carnival of the Animals, which I just bought from musicnotes.com when I decided I want to keep playing the piano.
Books read: 2-3. A fluffy mystery (Death Threads) and the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, which I borrowed from the first-grader on Christmas Day. Plus most of Character, Emotion, & Viewpoint, which I thought I had read before but seem to have been misremembering.
Present-opening events: 3. Once with the San Antonio group, once with just my parents, and once with the nephews.
Movies seen: 3. The Hobbit was really good, barring a few false steps (too much action). We watched Psycho and Plan 9 from Outer Space as well. The less said of the latter the better.
Types of cookies eaten: 6? As always my favorites were my mother’s Mexican wedding cookies. I also liked my aunt’s frosted lime-flavored Christmas trees and my sister-in-law’s mint brownies. I’m glad I didn’t do any baking of my own this year.
Recipes sampled from Modernist Cuisine at Home: 2, microwave-fried parsley and eggplant parmesan.
Stories revised: About a half.
Novel scenes written: Approximately 5, at varying levels of detail.
Times I wondered how we could fall of a cliff if it’s looming over us, which means we must be at the bottom of it: At least twice.
Raccoon invasions in our absence: NONE
Happy New Year! May your 2013 be full of food and books and empty of raccoons.
Mirrored from Elizabeth Shack.