hey jud

Our California years kept us away, so it's been nice to rejoin the family gatherings in Orange for Thanksgiving each year. This year even Michael made the trip, though we were newly minus Halley. The house on top of the hill changes very little, so reminders of past events and people are especially close, and heighten the shared gratitude for our Thanksgiving together.

To all our special Sagittarius friends, may your birthdays all be happy. Our celebration here was a white one, with a Sagittarius snowstorm that ended with more than two feet of snow on the ground. Who would have thought a snowshovel would have been the ideal birthday present. Unfortunately, not me.

This just in...more than 30 barrels of snow moved. That's what it took to dig our car out after the snowstorm this weekend, under the threat of fines for dumping shovelled snow into the street. To avoid the fine and move the snow to an open spot we (or Peter to be more precise) had to fill up a 33-gallon garbage can and drag it up the street to the traffic-calming islands at the top of the street. Of course, the traffic was pretty calm already but it did offer the necessary storage space. If Peter figured right, he actually moved about 1000 gallons of snow to free our Jeep. Here's what it all looked like.

Just about a year ago, Newsweek came out with an article on interesting types of Google searches and Google cooking was one of them. Now you may be thinking it was just a quirk, one of those odd techy news stories about something that filled space for a day and then dropped out of sight. But you'd be wrong, or at least missing out on a lot of very good, and sometimes great meals. One year later I Google cook more often than ever and recommend it for a number of reasons. First, it's a way to use up those odd food purchases that seemed like a good idea at the time but when you got home you didn't know quite what to do with them. Second, it encourages food diversity, when a particular food combination unknown in the US is found to be common in some other part of the world. And third, it's good economics. Whatever variety your refrigerator and cupboards hold, Googlecooking can help you figure out a way to use it. So join me now in the Googlecooking revolution. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the ease and results.

By order of the Mayor, following a 48-hour after storm time limit, trash collectors will now pick up the unique markers used by Boston residents to save their shoveled-out parking space. Was this fan saved? Who knew how much a good fan could do, even unplugged.

What is up with this anyway? It's another glorious blue-sky day in more than a week of the best unseasonal weather ever and I'm just a big grouch. There were so many good things happening last week, with the kids all visiting, an inspirational church service on Christmas Eve, and a family gift exchange and party in Weymouth following the Patriot's game Saturday. Even the unexpected, but just perfect, early birthday present from my Las Vegas aunt cheered me all too briefly.

All that activity and camaraderie gave me a great excuse to delay the class planning I so eagerly set myself up to do over the vacation, but now it's looming in front of me. The clunking noise in the car will be an expensive repair, once again raising the debate over keeping it or buying something new. Even coffee this afternoon was a disappointment. Due to an early closing, I arrived too late to sit, read and sip, though thankfully not too late to get the latte.

Time to get a grip. Before the New Year even begins, I've got some immediate resolutions. I'll play my newly tuned piano now. I'll cook slow roasted salmon from the birthday cookbook tonight. Then I'll walk into Boston to see the First Night ice sculptures and marvel at the skill and effort put into such luminous but fleeting beauty. And I'll get a grip on beginning the new year in a positive way.