Thoughts from Heather

I'm working on the nursery for my daughter and I wanted to display a set of silver engraved baby cups on a shelf. They were gifts when I was born (32 years ago.) I have tried using the silver jewelry polish cloth I have but I can't seem to get them looking as nice as I'd like them to look. I don't expect them to look like new, but there are some unsightly splotches that are just not coming off, no matter the fervor with which I polish them. Other ideas? Or are they just old and stuck this way?

WIshing everone a very happy and fun day with family and friends.

I had said I wasn't going to put the computer on today, but we're having our Christmas dinner this evening and it was sunny and comparatively mild around midday, so I went for a walk. Of course I then had to download the photos, didn't I? :)



Not really snowy enough for a Christmas card, but if you look behind the tree stumps in the foreground, you can see that the moles have been busy in the field. ( And another photo behind here... )

I thought I'd try a black and white conversion for this shot.



I hope you're all having a happy/quiet/peaceful/jolly/restful time over the holiday. (Please delete adjectives that do not apply.)

The final day was spent wandering around the RAF museum in Colindale, North London. It was just a short walk from the Tube and despite yesterday's snow, the trains seemed to be more or less running OK.

The museum is huge, with masses of planes of all eras from the beginning of flight to the present day. To take photographs inside, you had to pay about 6 quid for a permit, so I didn't bother. I preferred to just look at the exhibits and read the informative panels explaining the history of each plane. I liked the way they included the personal history of the machine in the exhibition as well as the overall history of the type of plane.

Carol singing in the village green
Easton, Somerset, England
December, 2009

Merry Christmas from Mike's family's village in England! We're having a great Christmas here with his parents, brother, and sister-in-law. This afternoon we're enjoying our new toys, eating chocolate, and relaxing in the sunny, mild weather. I hope your Christmas is great, too.

I'm so grateful for you, my friends! I wish health and happiness for you and your loved ones today and always.

Tomorrow I'll post photos from Edinburgh!

( A few more photos of Christmas carols with the people of Easton )

http://community.livejournal.com/hip_domestics/6403361.html

Some of you might recall my post quite a while ago about our noisy neighbors. I meant to post a follow-up sooner, but in the period of time this happened I participated in my sister's wedding, and I also got married so most of the time I would just scan livejournal and not post very often.

So...my husband and I decided one day to move our bedroom to the secondary room. I believe someone gave this idea, and I immediately rejected it. But we started measuring everything, and we made a few compromises.
Everything actually fit, and it's very cozy in there. I have been sleeping soundly, and there haven't been any issues. We haven't heard any noises during sleep hours from the downstairs until just the other night. (They play their t.v. at full blast through the day which we can tolerate.)
Their t.v. was on full blast, and we could actually hear the t.v. in our secondary room (now our master). It was 10:30 p.m.
My husband went downstairs and this was the exchange:
Husband: Hi. Your t.v. is really loud. My wife goes to sleep around 10 for work. Could you please turn it down?
Neighbor: When we turned our t.v. on that was what the volume was on.
Husband: O.k. so can you please turn it down?
Neighbor: O.k.

He went back to our apartment, and they maybe turned it down a notch. Thankfully, it was just enough that I couldn't hear it, but I thought it was kind of strange for her to say what she did.
Other than this strange conversation the noise problem is mostly fixed! We are saving to buy our own home so *hopefully* someday we can move.

Got up entirely too early - pretty common when mom is here.

Have received a super-fancy immersion blender, a Yogitoes mat towel, a silicone mat and one of those chainmail gloves that helps you not cut yourself on mandolins. Plus, Nick signed me up for a baking class at Sofra - YAYYYYYY!!!!

We got the Niecelet an African drum (which she's been banging on excitedly since she opened it), a new outfit, and a pair of pajamas with Paul Frank monkeys on them. The outfit she just changed into and started doing this weird, giddy model dance in the living room. I'm officially the Cool Aunt™. Mom, however, is really not a fan of the drum, and Nick has a feeling that she will find a way for it to see an untimely death. Mwehehehehe.

Good Christmas so far - and now for the many drivings.

The theme is change. I have noticed that there is an abundance of change going on in people's life, whether they planned it or not.

1) How do you cope with change? Does it make it easier if you get to plan it?

2) Has there been any major change in your life in the last year? Did you get much of a say?

3) The last time there was a major change in your life, what else changed that you didn't expect?

4) How are you at making lemonade out of lemons?

bonus: What Christmas 'tradition' do you now practice which is different from your previous generation?

Please reply as a comment on this post, and do not do a separate post.

I wish peace and love and good fortune to all of you and yours.

NOTE: My server is being taken down and replaced this weekend. I'll try to come back at the end of the day to look at the post. I am sure that there will be some lovely stuff, here. I just probably won't be getting emails about it.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Howdy. I'm having a discussion on facebook, with a teabagger cousin of mine, about Media Matters' article choosing Glenn Beck as misinformer of the year. He claims the article has no facts and doesn't back up it's claims with "references" like Beck does. He wants me to go through and provide "references" for him. I might do one better, I might provide evidence.

Anyway, I might spend the weekend googling for more to show him, but I was wondering if anyone has come across any more articles with evidence proving Beck to be nothing but the lunatic conspiracy theorist that he is. It probably won't do much good influencing my cousin, he's already too far gone, but maybe it's worth a shot?

Thanks for your help. :]

From haikujaguar's Unexpected One Card Draw earlier this week:

When I was shuffling for you, one card wavered, about to be smashed back into the deck and I... I took pity on this tired and struggling thing that seemed to want to be free and plucked it loose.

I turned it over, and there was the Womb, the card of potential, of possibility, of new things grown and nurtured in secret.

Those breathless little hopes and ideas you have within yourself, that seem silly or pointless or like they'd never succeed, so why even try? I have only one question: Why not?

From way back in the quote file:

Eros is the yearning force of being. I yearn, therefore I am. As long as I am on the outside, I can ignore my deepest desires and stifle my longing. When I am on the inside, however, when I am fully present, I am able to access my yearning. For the Hebrew mystic, unlike his Buddhist or Greek cousins, desire and longing are sacred. To be cut off from the eros of yearning is to be left in the cold of non-existence. To yearn is to be aflame.

Depression is at its core the depression of desire. When we lose touch with our authentic desire, we become listless and apathetic. There is wonderful eros in desire. It is what connects us most powerfully with our own pulsating aliveness. Longing is a vital strand in the textured fabric of the erotic. It is of the essence of the Holy of Holies.

--Mordechai (Marc) Gafni

"You see, the thing is that I think I'm just used to being disappointed. I think that I'm angry with you for taking that away from me."

from Last Chance Harvey, a movie which I love now.

By the way, happy Winter Holidays.

Well this is interesting....

Falling on the heels of this lovely Christmas Eve story

Some people are definitely going to be having a nicer Christmas than others.

My fiance bought some piave cheese at the italian market on tuesday(22nd) as part of a christmas gift to my father. My family canceled christmas due to snow and we are going to celebrate it on sunday(27th). Will the cheese last till then? or should I buy new cheese? I have to go back to buy the raw italian sausage(I should re buy that one right?) anyway. Its a aged crumbly cheese and it is in a paper tray wrapped in paper, and it is on the shelf of our fridge. I'm afraid it will dry out or taste like refrigerator if we don't get a new one. I also don't know if the market will have the same cheese when I go back.

Also what is a good way to cook raw Italian sausages? A chef friend who visited yesteday and said they could be cooked in the oven but I didn't get the specifics. My father should know this already, but since my family decided to cancel christmas we are eating the presents and rebuying them later.

Food shopping is done, we won't starve over the next few days and the last few late assignments have been returned and marked. All I need to do now is go to bed and sleep and then it will be Christmas.

So I'll just wish you all a happy and peaceful few days. I will not be switching on the computer tomorrow, so see you all on or after Boxing Day.

So my cousin from the Czech republic is asking my mom to buy refills for a Diaper genie that she bought online

she can't find refills that ship to the CR so she is asking my mom to buy 20 refill packs and ship them over (mom doesn't want to do this as she thinks she is a spoiled brat and it is hella expensive to do this)

so any ideas websites that might be useful?

thanks all!

The reconciliation bill only needs majorities to pass. Therefore, the leadership can stick a public option and Medicare expansion in Lieberman's eyes, if it wants. We don't need his vote anymore, am I right?

My Christmas is a season, not a day, centered around the time of year when the sun is at its dimmest and the light is most scarce. I have no conflict with people of other faiths, for we all have something in common at this time of year -- we look for, and celebrate the Coming of the Light.  We also observe the turning of the year.  Twelve Days of Christmas coincide with the Twelve Days the ancients spent coaxing the sun back with bonfires, tree fires, log burnings, etc.  We set up Christmas trees and adorn our homes with colored lights and candles.  The season is the Yule, and it is merry because we need it during these dark days. 
Tonight I will go out in the darkness with friends to Louisburg Square where the Beacon Hill Bell Ringers will play the tunes while five hundred or so of us shiver in the cold singing our hearts out to songs old and new, religious and otherwise for an hour and a half, then home to hot chocolate and bed. 
Others go to church on this night, but not me. Since my church is a small one, the minister has a distance to come, and so we have no Christmas Eve service.  I like it like this, because I get to participate in the caroling on Louisburg Square.
Tomorrow it's the usual: dinner at home with friends (neighbors) invited, followed by an evening of more or less open house with multi desserts I have been making all week.  Presents are few and inexpensive (under ten dollars each is the limit we set here at our building).  The tree and window lights are up, and the Christmas cards are attached to the railing in the outside hallway. 
Everything is ready, except for frosting the two cakes, and making the lemon meringue pie today.  Tomorrow I just pop the turkey into the oven and do the stuffing, potatoes and squash.  Guests do the dishes and pots and pans. 
Although I am far from family at this time, we make phone calls and wish each other a Merry Christmas. 
And I wish the same to all of you on LJ!