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Recipe Club and Santa Claus (James Brown)

December 26th, 2006

Rest in peace, James Brown, who passed away Christmas morning. The newspaper said he held one last toy giveaway on Saturday in Augusta. Yay, Santa… My favorite song of his, that I’m always humming at Christmastime…

Santa Claus/
go straight to the ghetto/
Santa Claus/
go straight to the ghetto/
Tell them James Brown sent you/
Ha!/
go straight to the ghetto/
you know that I know that you will see/
’cause that was once/
me/
hit it/
hit it/

And for Tuesday Recipe Club (you might need to save this one ’til next summer, but the pie crust recipes are great for any time):

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Merry Christmas, One & All!

December 25th, 2006

Hello friends and lovers,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to you! All is fine here at Wacky House, other than we can’t seem to agree on pancakes (over- vs. under-done) and I misplaced all of the kids’ presents. (My husband figured out where I stashed them and saved the day.)

Lots of love from us to you,

Wacky Mommy, Hockey God, Wacky Girl & Wacky Boy

Chinese Food on Christmas

December 23rd, 2006

Yeah, that last post was a complete downer, sorry. So here’s something funny…

Chinese Food on Christmas

E.B. White and Charlotte’s Web

December 23rd, 2006

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. It it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

— E.B. White, writer (1899-1985)

We saw Charlotte’s Web on Thursday, the new one. (The actors who voiced the animals were great, as was Dakota Fanning, who plays Fern.) Wacky Girl kept sneaking little sidelong looks at me during the movie, Is she crying yet? No. Now? No. So stoic, my kids. They never cry at books or movies, and they only rarely sob about real life. (Right before winter break, Wacky Girl saw someone at school pitch a major tantrum and asked me later, “What was up with her, anyway?”)

She knows how I feel about Charlotte’s Web because I won’t read it with her. She’s read it with her dad three or four times, she reads it sometimes by herself, but for me, I can’t get over Charlotte dying.

“But her babies live!” Wacky Girl tells me. Spoken like a true spawn.

Unlike many creatures, I’m here to do more than live for one mere year (possibly less) have my babies, nurture my babies (or possibly not be allowed that opportunity) and die. I hope I’m here for more than that. But some days (weeks, years) it does seem like that’s my only purpose. I hate that. I love mothering, but I hate having it define me. Being seen as a “bitch,” or worse, “a fat bitch,” who is here just to mother. Gestate, nurse, mother. Gestate, nurse, mother. Die.

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

Of course I cried.

Thursday Thirteen Ed. #72

December 20th, 2006

THIRTEEN THINGS I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS
by Wacky Girl

Dear Santa,

I have a long list for you. I would like

1) an Ipod
2) the game Guess Who?
3) Pom-poms for my cheerleader outfit
4) a Bratz Baby
5) I would really like a new Lamby
6) the American Girl doll Emily
7) a Hannah Montana CD
8) a fuzzy poster
9) the movie Star Wars
10) the movie High School Musical
11) a sparkly purse
12) a scooter
13) a Doodle Bear

You don’t have to get that all. PS — My brother wants a million pieces of money.

From,

Wacky Girl

A New Product Round-up and Book Review, of Sorts

December 20th, 2006

Everyone has been sending me stuff, but have I been kind enough to review any of it? Noooooooooooo. Too busy bitching at Emilio Estevez.

Reviewed today:

And, just to mix things up:

Student’s Go Vegan Cookbook, by Carole Raymond. (And no, I don’t like the placement of that apostrophe, either. Talk to Carole’s publisher about it, not me.)

The God of Small Things, by the political, brilliant and irrepressible writer and speaker Arundhati Roy.

And… (mixing it up, get it?) how about the Jiffy Mixes recipe book? If you go to their website they’ll send you, one, too. If you have an Easy-Bake Oven, Jiffy Mixes work just splendidly and do not cost as much as the Easy-Bake mixes.

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Repo Man, Emilio!

December 19th, 2006

Emilio,

May we have a word, Emilio? “Bobby”? “BOBBY”? No. No, no, no, no, no. Repo Man. And in case you’ve forgotten it, here’s a hunk of dialogue:

Otto: You eat a lot of acid Miller, back in the hippie days?

Miller: I’ll give you another instance. You know the way everybody’s into weirdness right now? Books in all the supermarkets about Bermuda triangles, UFO’s, how the Mayans invented television. That kind of thing?

Otto: I don’t read them books.

Miller: Well, the way I see it it’s exactly the same. There ain’t no difference between a flying saucer and a time machine. People get so hung up on specifics. They miss out on seeing the whole thing. Take South America for example. In South America thousands of people go missing every year. Nobody knows where they go. They just like disappear. But if you think about it for a minute, you realize something. There had to be a time when there was no people. Right?

Otto: Yeah. I guess.

Miller: Well, where did all these people come from? Hmmm? I’ll tell you where. The future. Where did all these people disappear to? Hmmm?

Otto: The past?

Miller: That’s right! And how did they get there?

Otto: How the fuck do I know?

Miller: Flying saucers. Which are really? Yeah, you got it. Time machines. I think a lot about this kind of stuff. I do my best thinking on the bus. That’s how come I don’t drive, see?

Otto: You don’t even know how to drive.

Miller: I don’t want to know how. I don’t want to learn. See? The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.

Donald Trump to Miss USA: “You’re Fired”???

December 19th, 2006

Hullo, Internet,

How’s it hanging? Yeah, it’s good here, too. Kids are still asleep (8 a.m. right now — I’m guessing Wacky Boy will wake up around 9:30-10; Wacky Girl I’ll probably see 9ish), I had a quiet breakfast with my husband, fed the pets, the dishwasher is running, I’ve had a cup of coffee and am heading for a second.

I need to work on my new manuscript over Christmas break. And at what point do I begin to call it “my old manuscript”? I think I started it mid-summer, but a mojitos fog prevents me from remembering much of last summer. (Thank God for this historical document that is my blog. If it’s on the Internet, it must be accurate, yes?)

Still not drinking? Correct, I’m still not drinking. I’m not doing it the “right” way, though. The never-touch-booze way of not drinking. The “I’ve been clean for two months/two years/two decades” thing. I know that that works for a lot of people, but I have bad impulse control. So if I’m telling myself, YOU CAN NEVER DRINK AGAIN. EVER! That would send me into panic mode and I’d break out the gin and tonics. But if I say, You can if you want, but why would you want to? Then it’s OK. That makes no sense, does it?

I went out to hear some jazz at the Blue Monk with Hockey God and some friends weekend before last, and had two Bloody Marys. (Nice club, by the way, if you’re in Portland or come for a visit. Intimate, no smoking, good bands.) The really good thing about not drinking — wow do you ever get buzzed when you do drink! But it was kind of, eh, whatever. I’m not so into the booze. So, two drinks since last August or something? Not bad. My family appreciates my new non-grouchy self. I appreciate the fact that I don’t look like a raging drunk after one glass of wine. (“High Irish Flush,” it’s called, when your cheeks get the “red apples.”) And really, the only reason I like a Bloody Mary is for the salad that comes with it. And you don’t need vodka for that. So Virgin Bloody Marys are fine by me.

I think you’ve probably already guessed that impulse control is a problem here. Maybe this was a clue.

My family has no self-control, either. Obviously. But I’m promising you, I am going to try to hammer out an outline for the new book and a few chapters over break. Since the kids enjoy sleeping in, and morning is my favorite time to write. Still trying to get an agent. Keep fingers crossed.

Now, a few little things, as long as I’m here:

1) I let Wacky Girl spend her Christmas money to order Emily, Molly’s friend, from American Girl Dolls. Yes, I spent $102 on a doll. Fwaaaaa. No, I can’t believe it either. Actually, I did not spend $102. I spent $115, with shipping. Actually, it wasn’t even my money — it was money from her Wacky Gramps, Wacky Grandma, and Wacky Uncle. Thank you all for making my daughter’s dream come true…

2) Wacky Boy’s Christmas money? He was content to spend $12.90 buying a copy of Dinosaur. (Hockey God had a credit on his Amazon account, yay.) I’ll take the rest of his money and sock it away in his college fund. When it comes time to pay for her college tuition, I’ll tell Wacky Girl to sell her dolls.

3) Christmas cookies are wicked. I am not doing anymore baking. Period.

4) Speaking of wicked, Donald Trump hasn’t fired her, yet, but things don’t look good for Tara Conner, Miss USA. She supposedly tested positive for cocaine, was “lustily kissing” Miss Teen USA, and was drinking at the bars (she’s underage). Where did I hear all this? The View, naturally. Where I get all the information that Housewives Need to Know.

Tara supposedly had her tiara on the bar next to her.

“Yeah, well how do you think she gets the free drinks?” Rosie O’Donnell quipped.

Trump, let her keep the tiara.

(Ed. to say: Just got a bulletin from People mag — my other source of news, besides the View. Is this wrong? Trump is giving her a second chance. “You! Off to rehab!” Happy holidays, Tara, ya little lush.)

Holiday Break?

December 18th, 2006

What? Two small blond children were here when I woke up. No school, for real? For the next two weeks, you say? I slept in until 8 o’clock. The schedule: Both still sleeping at nine; at 9:20 one of them got up; 10 a.m., the other one finally got up. They watched “Santa Clause Two,” had breakfast, and now they’re doing the puzzle that Wacky Girl won at Scooter’s Christmas Party at the Portland Winter Hawks game on Saturday. (Happy Birthday, Scooter!) They also won a T-shirt, tattoos, a key ring with a stuffed Carl Buddig cow attached. And their wicked parents, who rarely splurge for treats (do I need to pay $3.50 for a bottle of water? eight bucks for a hamburger? I think not), bought them french fries. Woo-hoo!

Great game.

Ah-ha-ha!

December 17th, 2006

A joke from a friend:

Q: What do you do if you’re attacked by a troupe of circus performers?
A: Go for the juggler.

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