I don’t think I’ve ever had a martini and the last time I had a Manhattan I was a 17-year-old exchange student in Ecuador. At the welcoming reception they were handing out room-temperature brown drinks, with a maraschino cherry and no ice. They were nasty and I haven’t touched one since.

Let’s be honest here, I seldom order a drink in a restaurant because I think they’re overpriced and don’t always taste that great, so unless I have all the ingredients on hand for something special like a pina colada, I stick with the tried and true.

So, if it’s not wine or champagne or the occasional beer, here’s what I drink:

1. Gin and tonic with extra lime. My favorite summer drink.
2. Margarita on the rocks. With salt. The best ones taste like fresh limes with a kick.
3. In college, we made up a drink where you mix frozen limeade and vodka (or maybe it was gin) in a blender. A little water, a little crushed ice and you have a grown up slushy.  You can throw in some strawberries if you’re so inclined. Haven’t had one in years but I remember we didn’t usually need more than one to make the party merry. By the way the drinking age was 18 then, not that it much mattered.
4. Non-alcoholic: cranberry juice, club soda and — yes– lime. This is actually more Jack’s favorite, but it is refreshing.
5. Bloody Mary made with spicy V-8. When you’re having one of those days, along with cheese and crackers, it can do for dinner.
6. An occasional pina colada, because who can resist pineapple and coconut?
7. Mojitos, yum.

And that’s it. Yes, I know I’m in a rut.

We probably have 8? 10? inches of snow so far and the wind has made big drifts against the sides of the house more than a foot deep. Our boy cat doesn’t understand that the weather is the same outside of all the doors so I have to open one for his inspection. Several times an evening. Yeah, he’s a pain in the ass but he adores me so I put up with him. Imagine his surprise when I opened the front door and there was a wall of snow taller than he is that collapsed in on him. Um, yeah, that put an end to the annoying whining to go out.

Schools are closed tomorrow and Jack’s doctor’s appointment was canceled for the morning. Commuting to work is doubtful but since I can function nearly as well at home — I do miss my double monitors — it’s no biggie. While areas south of us got a fair amount of ice, we were spared so there’s not much threat of losing power.

Just an old fashioned blizzard. An excellent night to fire up the spinning wheel, put a video on and not even consider getting behind the wheel of a car.

Who wants to make a snow fort tomorrow? I might be a little late, but you can start without me.

Ronald and Geri having fun?

This week’s Ten on Tuesday topic: Ten favorite games from my childhood.

Well.

I don’t know if they were favorite, since my favorite past time was reading, but these come to mind.

We chased each other a lot. Games like 1) hide-and-go-seek at night in the fall when the air smelled like woodsmoke and it was dark and you’d come around the corner of the neighbor’s house and somebody would grab you and you’d scream because you were caught. That and because they’d just scared the bejesus out of you.

Or 2) Statue where you had to stay frozen in position until everybody had been caught.

Just plain old 3) tag was memorable this one night on our front lawn because it started raining, slicking up the grass. You were running and running  and just when you thought you were safe your feet would slip on the wet grass, the hand would land on your back or arm and damn you were it! again. We played until we were soaked and then it started thundering and lightening and still we played. When that last clap of thunder sounded like it was in our valley Mom decided maybe she should let us idiot children in the house.

In the winter, the chasing games turned into 4) Fox and Geese over on the Farnhams’ big front lawn where our pie-shaped paths broke up the smoothness of the latest pristine snow. When we were tired of that we got out the shovels and made 5) snow forts in the snow banks.

I remember playing 6) pick-up sticks with the cousins in the back parlor at my grandmother’s house during a family gathering. We usually won, but there may have been a little cheating going on; these were the city cousins who mocked us because we didn’t have sidewalks and went to school in a 3-room schoolhouse and well, we couldn’t lose face in front of the enemy.

Chess was too complicated but we played 7) Parcheesi (such an exotic name) and checkers and 9) Monopoly by our own rules because the official rules were too complicated.

There were 10) card games galore: Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Slap Jack, Concentration. We learned to count 15-2, 15-4 and a pair of Kings from our Dad when he taught us to play cribbage and of course later on there was poker. When all else failed and nobody else wanted to play, there were endless rounds of Solitaire.

Not a video game in the bunch. I wonder if we were ever bored.

Go see the other games people played here.

Note: HTML reads the combination of the number 8 and the symbol ) to be . Don’t have time to figure out how to fix it this morning so go with the flow babe.

I have a date with this pile o’ red and the Bug tonight and can’t think of a better way to spend the last evening of the year. It’s part of my 2011 goal to spin the good stuff. It’s not turning out like I thought it would but that’s part of learning. It’ll be worsted, maybe even bulky when it’s plied, which is a first for me.

For dinner, there are baby back ribs in the oven and mashed potatoes still to be made. Might as well finish up the holiday season in comfort-food mode before we turn over a new lettuce  leaf tomorrow, along with the turkey breast. We might watch a movie or just hang out with a football game on in the background and a good book in hand. There’s a bottle of wine chilling. Bedtime will be before midnight.

I’m not particularly sorry to see this year end, although it has ended on a better note than I would have expected. Our dramas this year have been personal and boring to all but us, but the general malaise (when will things get better?) has made it difficult to be upbeat.

Or maybe it’s just the short dark days of winter.

In any case, the new year arrives tomorrow so here’s wishing you all the light and warmth you can abide.

Now where’s the corkscrew?

If I stretch the definition of 10 favorite holiday shows, here’s what I look forward to every year:

1. Handel’s Messiah. While technically not a “show” the pageantry makes it such. For years we went to the production at the Community of Christ Temple auditorium in Independence on the weekend following Thanksgiving. The temple’s huge organ was as much a centerpiece of the evening as the 220 voices of the volunteer-based Independence choir raised in song. I’m sorry we missed this year’s performance because after some 50 years it’s moving to the new Kauffmann Center for the Performing Arts next year and the tradition — sans organ — won’t be the same.
2. The Nutcracker. We’ve seen this in Chicago, San Francisco and here at home and I liked the Chicago production best.
3. White Christmas. A funny Danny Kaye performance and then there’s the required feel-good ending. Love it.
4. A Christmas Carol. I like the old version with George C Scott, but the best is when it’s a play, followed up with dessert and coffee or drinks. Fills you with that “God Bless Us, Everyone” feeling. It takes skill not to make Tiny Tim annoying.
5. Miracle on 34th Street. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this from start to finish, must do that this year.
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s all about the speech that Linus gives.
7. It’s a W0nderful Life. Clarence and that bell. I hang a bell on my tree every Christmas for Clarence.
8. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The dog with the antlers and Cindy Lou Who.
9. The old animated cartoons: Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
10. Anything sappy on the Hallmark channel.

For me, it’s all about the classics. By the time Christmas rolls around, I’m full up to here with sentimentality and ready for the new year!

See what others are suggesting at Carole Knits.

For the second time in a month I hauled Gus to the vet this morning for an injury. (not to be confused with hauling Cleo to the vet for her own personal version of Weight Watchers).

When I got home from work yesterday Gus limped into the kitchen, not able to put any weight on one of his front legs, a surprising change in a few hours, since has fine in the morning. Last month he tangled with something more fight-savvy and came out of it with bites and scratches and with his drooping tail and head hung low it was easy to see he was in pain. This time, I couldn’t see or feel anything out of whack and he wasn’t any more skittish about being touched than usual. Since he didn’t look like  he was in pain, I took a chance that he had just sprained his leg and all would be well in a couple hours.

Of course five minutes after the vet’s office closed he stated crying and my guilt level increased — bad mommy! I told you I didn’t feel well.  For an hour or so I debated taking him to the emergency vet across town but then he calmed down and went to sleep. He slept all night and except for giving him help on and off the bed, he didn’t seem to be in trouble.

This morning he still couldn’t put weight on that leg, gimping to the litter box and generally looking pitiful.

So off we went, me assuming they’d end up taking x-rays and find some tiny broken bone or a cut on the paw that he wouldn’t let me find.

Instead they found a new bite festering on his leg.

The good news: they now have injectable antibiotics and pain meds for cats! No more wrastling to get a pill in them twice a day, no more towel-wrapped kitteh burritos, no more hiding under the couch (cats), no more yowling (me).

The bad news: what do I do with a cat that refuses to sleep in the house at night if it’s above freezing, yet has an enemy in his back yard? The vet agrees that at his age it will be nearly impossible to turn him into an indoor-only cat and frankly I don’t want to. From the size of the bites, we’re assuming it’s either another cat or a possum/raccoon/wild thing.  I’m guessing it’s not a cat, I’d hear the fights, at least I always did when Gus and Teddy would tussle.  I have a humane trap, should I set it and see what I get? Then what do I do with it?

Poor Gus. Grump.

~~

He’s not the only one feeling ill this week. The woodworker came down with a cold last weekend and there have been melodramatics all week, generally not garnering a very sympathetic reaction on my part. It’s a cold, we all get them, you’ll feel bad for a few days and then get better, go to bed and suck it up.

And then of course, he had a doctor’s appointment yesterday for another matter and what do we find out: Lo! it’s worse than a cold! it’s in your lungs! here, take these powerful antibiotics before you die!

I hate it when I’m wrong.

But then the doctor was a man, so what do you expect?

~~

Sorry for the snowy banner, but I couldn’t take the green summery photo anymore. I was looking for something more fall-ish and could only come up with apples, which seemed a little more September-ish than December-ish. So snow it is until I find something I like better. I think this photo was taken about 6 years ago — no snow for us yet this year, not much rain either, it’s too dry to be good for the garden.

Ten things to love about Thanksgiving.

1. Getting together with family, even the annoying ones.
2. It’s on a Thursday. Seriously. You get a holiday in the middle of the week and then you have the weekend to recover and eat leftovers.
3. It’s much less commercialized than Christmas. Except for the food and the need to overeat, but I can control that.
4. I like our Thanksgiving because we don’t always do turkey. I love turkey/gravy and mashed potatoes but it’s a lot of work and then there’s the carcass to deal with afterward. I don’t really like turkey soup. I know, weird, because chicken soup is my favorite. Last year we had Cornish game hens. This year we’re having roast beef, mashed potatoes, something green and that’s it. Probably not even pumpkin pie, but maybe I’ll make a few small pumpkin tarts to enjoy.
5. It marks the start of the holiday season and because people aren’t sick of the holidays yet, they’re in a good mood. Strangers at the grocery store say pardon me with a smile instead of an impatient frown. I expect by December 24th the frowns will be back.
6. It hasn’t snowed yet.
7. Football and Thanksgiving Day parades.
8. The Plaza lighting ceremony happens every Thanksgiving night at 6 pm. Thousands of people jam into the streets around the Country Club Plaza to count down the minutes until they flip the switch. All the buildings for several square blocks are outlined in multi-colored splendor from Thanksgiving to mid-January.  We’ve joined the crowds a few times on Thanksgiving, but lately we just plan to have dinner on the Plaza  a couple times during the holiday season. That way we can walk around the streets, admiring all the lights without dealing with the crowds.
9. Taking a walk before or after Thanksgiving dinner.
10. Putting up the Christmas lights.

Here’s hoping you and yours enjoy your holiday!

Go see why Carole and the other Tenners love Thanksgiving.

I’ve been gone so long even the spammers have given up on me.

My time has been mostly spent working and keeping my head from going all ‘splody. The temp assignment continues but the tear-your-hair-out-because-it’s-a-bottomless-pit-of-work phase has passed.  End of year approaches and there’s hope on the full-employment front. Keep crossing those fingers.

It hasn’t been all work and no play.

I’ve been getting to know my Ladybug better. I made my first Red Scarf and some hats for charity. No pictures yet. And I’m knitting a baby hat for an early December baby shower. Can’t tell yet if it will be cute or grotesque, unless I run out of yarn, in which case it will be neither but will make me wish I’d paid $25 for the pair of cute knit baby booties that I saw at the annual fiber/craft sale last night.

And now I have a house full of guests for a few days. Tomorrow we’re going to a puppet show! I’m more excited than the two 11-year-old gigglers in residence.

So I’m back.

Anybody miss me?

Work has gone to overtime, including working last Saturday so the speed on my personal treadmill has gone up a notch. I’ve decided to Just Say No to a few outside commitments and focus on getting through the next month. The crunch never lasts long but it feels hellish while you’re in the middle of it.

But not today. Today is our Knitters Picnic! We’re invading a local park with food, fiber and frivolity. Today there are no computer screens (except this one), no mistakes to fix, no unhappies to make happy.

Today I have a good time.

Until it rains.