I didn't feel good today. Soooooo tired. Made some soy crumble stroganoff. I thought I had a good recipe for stroganoff, but apparently I have lost it. It turned out OK. Not enough sauce.

Did some laundry, turned in early.

Anderson or Bust!*

Anderson Jockey Lot happiness, with fabric softener!

Justin stayed over last night so we could go to the Jockey Lot this morning! WoooHoo!

I don't usually go to Anderson on Sundays, because usually there is no one there, but I have noticed that the crowds have started coming back the last couple of times we went. There was a good crowd there of both sellers and shoppers today. Of course the weather was absolutely stunningly gorgeous.

After a virtuous meal of nut milk and un-cheez grilled sandwiches, we set out. The sarnies really weren't that bad. They just taste almost but not quite completely unlike cheese. If you just accept that, they're edible.

We had a great time. I got a grey hoodie for $7, and it looks really good, but there is no logo on it. I figured for that price I'd take it over to White Horse Rd and have them paint something cool on it for me at the airbrush place. I also got some Bath and Body Works soap for 0.50, and two bottles of 80 use Downy for $3 each, a fantastic deal. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of making eye contact with the guy selling it to me, as well as expressing a mild interest in the good bargain. This resulted in a 15 minute story about how he got the Downy, who else bought some, how they sold it, and on and on, but I was finally able to peel myself away.

There was lots of good eye candy to day too. I just love redneck boys. Well at least my libido does. That is the sad dichotomy of my life. My mind wants someone with wit and excellent conversation, but my loins quiver over a Skoal ring on the back pocket. Does such a man exist?

Still no glass. I wonder how long I used up my glass karma for this summer. I did make some excellent finds last year, so I really can't complain. We stopped at a cool antique mall on the way home. I found a Windsor pink 6 3/4" pitcher there, but they wanted too much for it. Priced $30, she would have sold it to me for $27, but book value on it is only $25. That's just more than I will pay. At this point, the story is as important as the piece itself, and since I really don't need anything, if I can't get a deal on it, I usually won't buy it.

While we were in Anderson, I started craving hot dogs. You know how you just get those cravings sometimes? Well for some reason, Russ was craving them too. He and Billy called to ask if they made veggie hot dogs (they do) and if I wanted to come over for them (I did). I also made the chili, since I have an excellent chili recipe. Russ even found the best veggie dogs, the Smart Dogs bun length, that are usually hard to find at this time of year. But they wanted to grill them. You just can't grill veggie dogs. The get big bubbles all over them, and they don't turn out well. Well I tried to tell Billy this, but they already had the grill on, and he was doing the cooking. He put them on anyway. They turned out really tough, but otherwise they were good. Ah well, live and learn.

We also started exploring different games on the Wii. A lot of them are too frantic for me. I have poor hand-eye coordination, and am not much of a gamer. But I have to say some of the Wii games are really fun. I am getting the hang of tennis now, and really like it. I like the bowling too. But we played the best game EVER tonight: The Bunny Bop game.

I don't even know the name of the game. There's just these bunnies that dance out in a disco, and you whack them in the head to the beat of the music for points. We didn't get to play much, but I REALLY liked that game.

Sweet Justin Visits

Went to the flea market this morning - Yay! Finally!! And found not one damn thing I wanted. Got some produce, that was about it.

Was really lazy today, since I had been up late the last two nights. When Justin called later today and said he wanted to come see a movie, I was really glad. I had been thinking about going out to the Full Moon Saloon, which I have heard has good points (no huge boom boom music, low attitude) and bad (not many people there, ever - and is a bar, ew). I was glad not to have to resort to that, but had just seen all my friends, and figured they would be involved with un-decking halls, etc.

Justin ended up being late, which was fine ( I wasn't really all that hepped up on seeing the movie that was coming on TCM anyway), and said that he wanted me to watch "Suddenly, Last Summer" with him instead. He has it on DVD. That was fine, but the movie is kind of a downer, from what I understand. Yet another of the "tortured fag" movies from the 50's and early 60's, basically telling you that if you are gay, not only will you be miserable, but so will everyone who cares for you. Not exactly my cup o tea, but he was all excited about it, so I was like what the hey.

It turns out we didn't watch a movie at all. When Justin got to the house, he had brought another chocolate pound cake (don't get me started), and as we went into the kitchen, he saw a vegan cookbook laying out, since I had been flipping through it earlier that day. He was intrigued. I had bought it about two years before, because after I had gall bladder surgery, I became pretty lactose intolerant for a while (still to an extent, but not as bad as it was) and was looking into non-dairy cheese alternatives. I bought some of the stuff to make the recipes, but never had. So we ended up making nut milk (a vegan milk substitute based on you guessed it, nuts) . I made the cashew milk. It was OK, and would have been better if I had had fresher ingredients, but not something I could see keeping in the fridge with the vast availability of excellent soy milk out now. 8th Continent light chocolate soy milk tastes like YooHoo, I just LOVE it. We also made Swizz Cheez, a supposed swiss cheese substitute.

During the process of this, we destroyed the kitchen. By the time we made stuff, and cleaned up the kitchen, we were both tired. Of course, Justin had been frying chicken earlier in the day, and that just wears him out apparently. So we went to bed. Or I went to bed. Apparently, now that he has a boyfriend he can't sleep in my bed any more, so he wrapped up in a little papoose on the sofa.

I have such great friends

Got off work tonight, really with no plans. But Kimblee called and invited me to go see "Sweeney Todd" with her, Laura, Donnie (aka D'relda D'remus) and Mark.

The movie was really good. Tim Burton was the perfect director for this story, and Johnny Depp was perfectly cast as Sweeney, I have to say. It was very enjoyable, they did a pretty good job with the black humor, which can be hard to get across. Also, the songs weren't monkeyed with too badly, which I was worried about. They didn't do quite as good a job with my favorite one, "A Little Priest", as I had hoped; but they made up for it with the version of "By the Sea", which was funny and gorgeously and ironically rose-tinted (although they cut my favorite lyric). Helena Bonham Carter does a pretty good job with Mrs. Lovett, although I have to say I thought Angela Lansbury was better in the broadway version. But I did kind of go in with that prejudice. She was stunning in the role, and did win a Tony for it. I enjoyed Carter's performance, but she just seemed to lack that evil glee that Lansbury had. Everything she did seemed to be motivated either by gutter-poor practicality, or her doomed affection for Sweeney. The element of relish was just missing. IMHO anyway.

After that we went out to dinner at this Italian place. Not the best meal. My portion was lilliputian - and $15 for that. About .10 worth of pasta. Donnie's pizza was raw and doughy. I almost never do this, but I did complain, and they comped our meals. I hadn't been in that place in years, because they took my favorite thing there off the menu, but the food certainly used to be better than what we got last night. I wondered if it was because we were in late and they were trying to close the kitchen.

But still, always lovely to see Kimblee and Laura. And I love me some D'relda. And I have to say, the bartender there pours a mean Cosmo.

All things bend to My Will muahahaha

An amazingly productive day. Finished my presentation and turned it in on time. Caught up on all phone calls, and all my client contacts that needed to be done have been done, or at least I have left messages for the ones I couldn't reach. Sometimes I am amazing.

I have also converted over from the old Ms. Jane Hathaway paper calendar follow-up system I have been using for years to the electric calendar in my email the company upgraded us to last year. I figured the new year was as good a time as any for the conversion. I feel very up-to-date.

Another lovely evening. Went to get my hair cut, finally. I used to have a standing, but lately I have just been kind of getting my hair cut when it bugs me. I got caught with poodle hair for the holidays, but finally got sheared tonight. And it looks good too. Russ is by far the best barber I have ever had the privilege of patronizing.

After that, we went to his house and picked up Billy and Sweet Justin and went for Thai, which was wonderful. Then for ice cream, believe it or not, with it 29 degrees outside, but that's what Russ wanted. Then we went back to the house and played Wii. Tennis and bowling. I have to say, I am not much of a gamer kind of person, but that Wii shit is fun. Aside from worrying about Russ bashing into me (he is a very energetic Wii player) it was really nice. Got home late, but it was worth it.

First day back to work. Sigh.

Overall, not as bad as I was expecting. After I sorted through 300 emails, I started working on the presentation. I do a PowerPoint presentation that goes before the company bigwigs each month at a day long manager's meeting. I have never worked for a company as focused on the bottom line as the one I work for now. But at times, they are penny wise and pound foolish. They are always so eager to see the numbers at the end of each month that they force everyone to put them together in a ridiculously short amount of time. The office was closed on the 1st, but we have to have the presentations completed and turned in by 1pm on the 3rd. I have my numbers down to a science, and provided I can get the cooperation from the other several departments I get our information from, I can have my numbers together pretty quickly. But I'm sure some of the other numbers they see can't possibly be accurate. But anyway.

So I had a very productive day, and virtuously went home and ate New Year's Day leftovers. I have to shift this Christmas weight before it makes friends with my other fat. I'll never get rid of it then.

Happy New Year's Day

Well this is the official end of my vacation. It has been SO great to get some time away from the office, but I suppose all good things must come to an end. As to the holidays, as usual, when they are over, I am pretty much ready for them to be. I am holidayed out. I haven't fallen in love, but then I haven't been depressed either. I was really dreading this holiday season, but for the most part I have really enjoyed myself, and I am feeling stronger and much more back to myself than I expected to be.

Russ and Billy came over for New Year's Day dinner. I had everything made, and the house was pretty much clean already. Russ loves country food, but they don't make that much of it. I had put my peas on late last night when I got in, which mostly just involved turning on the crock pot, and did my greens today. I cheated this year and did frozen mustard and turnip greens, because collards are so messy and so much work. Plus they stink up the house worse, I think. I also did some brown rice, and homemade corn bread. I had quit making it because Michael liked Jiffy better, but it was nice to make my old cornbread again. I don't eat a lot of country food any more, but it's nice to know I can still do it. We had eggnog ice cream for dessert that Billy and Russ brought me. I wanted to get a bit to put in the fridge before it all got gone. Peppermint is my favorite, but that was all gone already, and I like eggnog too.

After dinner, we decided to take in a movie. We went to see Enchanted, which I absolutely loved. It was funny and smart and very sweet. I found it absolutely charming. I do love it when love conquers all, and must confess I shed a tear or two. I'm such an old softie.