A Queer Mobile

Christmas update

We headed to John's sister Jane's home for a Christmas Eve day brunch one week ago today. Some folks had to work the day after Christmas (not me!), so we virtualized our celebration to leave Christmas day open for family stuff.

Now John and I aren't the most traditional of Christmas revelers. We rolled on down the highway listening to A John Waters Christmas, a compilation of some of the worst Christmas music you've ever heard - hand-selected by the movie director himself. By the time we made it Marshalltown, IA, we were very much in the mood.

Jane and her husband Roger and their kids Jacob and Rachel (at left) hosted us in fine style. John baked bread, I made quiches, and everyone else brought their favorite Christmas goodies. John brought something special this year - green dinosaur cookies decorated with Santa boots and red candy noses - I suspect these will become tradition.

Christmas day itself found us here at home (me with Kleenex in hand fighting off a cold) preparing brunch for two of our good friends who were unattached at Christmas. I managed to get a fritatta onto the table in good order even though I gouged out part of my finger grating cheese. We had apricot pancakes on the side (Quick tip for apricot pancakes: mix about 1/8 c pancake mix with 1/4 c dried apricots and pulverize in a food processor. Continue making pancakes as normal: I add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor bowl, pulse a few times, and cook the batter as usual).

Yule Greetings!

Wolcom Yule!

This is the first morning in Winter that I've been able to relax at home with my morning tea. Britten's Ceremony of Carols plays in the background; almost thirty years ago I was singing it at Stanford Memorial Church under Bill Ramsey's direction.

At right you see my Yule wreath. Many years ago I bought a small pamphlet from Robert Clark at Minerva Books in Palo Alto about Yule wreath. I had recently left my ex-lover, for whom Christmas and Christmas trees were a big deal. That very year I started my own ritual for Yule - the Winter Solstice - not for Christmas. Around the wreath I place four bright red apples to signify the Equinoxes and Solstices. On the Solstice I celebrate the return of light by lighting an oil lamp at the center and spending time in meditation around the happenings of the year and on the return of light with the beginning of Winter and a new Year.

My best wishes to all of you!

Aerogarden update

After a month here's what our indoor garden looks like! We've had fabulous success with the Aerogarden. The company guarantees complete success with germination, and I now see why. There are two kinds of basil, mint, cilantro, chives, dill, and parsley in the garden. All the herbs are of superb quality, and I'm able to harvest basil and cilantro several times a week. I'm making mint tea with fresh mint. And it's December in Iowa! It's been so wonderful to have herbs indoors that I pitched my frozen basil that I kept to tide me through the winter. The frozen stuff is only good for soups and sauces. I suspect we'll have enough homegrown basil to make pesto - what a thought for a Midwestern winter.

I bought a second Aerogarden to grow salad greens. When I first got the herb garden John didn't think it would be all that helpful to grow salad greens. Now that we've seen what we can produce - and the herb garden's not fully producing yet - he's changed his tune completely. I brought the salad green garden on-line last week, and the seeds have already sprouted. The garden's instructions say we should be harvesting salad in about three weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Update on the snot wars

My earlier post told you about the Grossan sinus irrigator and how I was just beginning to use it. This is a progress report about a month later. I've been getting incredibly good results from cleaning out my head twice daily. My last trip west was no problem, sinus- and ear-wise. I've even been able to reduce my overall allergy meds use by half, which is a real accomplishment for me.

If nasal/sinus allergies plague you, I'd highly recommend you check out this device. It's a little weird to get used to, but the improvement I've seen over four weeks is just remarkable.

Playing hooky

My office is closed between Christmas and New Year's Day, and I've been playing hooky from last Thursday on. I never take off that much concentrated time during the year. Part of it is John's always working: he doesn't get vacation on his job and he's been inundated with work since the middle of the year. Part of it is my reluctance to travel. After I'm away from home for a week each month, the last thing I want is to travel more.

So, as the ad by-line goes, I'm loving it. Being home, I mean. I never travel far at Christmas (just take a look at pictures from the Denver airport to see why). John and I will see his family tomorrow for a Christmas Eve day brunch. We're inviting orphans (our good friends who are unattached for the holiday, actually) for a Christmas Day brunch.

I spruced up the house for Yule (more about later), and I've been finishing up my intensive journal for the year (even more about that later). My real project is to start cleaning up and rearranging the new library and workout space. When John moved his shop to his new space, that opened up his old shop space for us to turn into a library and workout area. He's done lots of work to rearrange things, but there's a ton of stuff still to do - and that's even before he starts building library shelves for us. My best possible fantasy is to make a real dent in the clutter out there, and maybe even to move the rest of the workout equipment into the new workout area.