The looniversity shortened Thanksgiving week for students this year (and not, I'll not for staff, the bastages), going from three days of class to two. The funny part is that they are shocked, shocked!! that an even shorter week would encourage more of them to take off early for the vacation.

A friend of mine left yesterday to spend the week at her parents'. In New Jersey!! If my parents were in commuting distance, I don't think I'd ever spend more than one night sleeping there. Of course, I have the whole lost-my-bedroom, sleep-on-a-pullout-sofa-in-the-den issue, which maybe she doesn't have, but still.

I'm kinda meh on egg nog. Those orange chocolates you wack and eat, on the other hand, are yummy. As is mom's venison mincemeat. And the Christmas pudding with hard sauce. Mmmmmmmm. Hard sauce is a blob of softened butter with a dash of vanilla and a metric buttload of powdered sugar mixed in and I eat the pudding mostly to get to the sauce. So good.

I'm afraid no one can convince me to drink soy again.

Hard sauce is a blob of softened butter with a dash of vanilla and a metric buttload of powdered sugar mixed in and I eat the pudding mostly to get to the sauce. So good.

I thought it was booze that put the "hard" in hard sauce.

I'm afraid no one can convince me to drink soy again.

Bad experience? I almost never drink regular soy milk straight (though I use it on cereal and in tea), but the nog is a whole 'nother thing altogether.

This is very good for daydreaming: London Walks.

THE WESTMINSTER NOBODY KNOWS 10:55 am on Mondays from Green ParkTube Stop, the Ritz exit

And now for the real gold - narrow streets, secret courtyards, and superb, old-fashioned shops - hidden away behind all the tinsel of the West End. The ingredients speak for themselves: the "Embassy of the Republic of Texas"!; a hideaway where the last duel in London was fought; Henry VIII's cowshed; Princess Diana's ancestral home; Christopher Wren's only West End church; the capital's finest Georgian shopping arcade; the Queen Mother's handsome old mansion; London's swishest, oldest and most exclusive gentlemen's clubs (including the one that boasts the most stirring American association in London); a splendid old stables and wine vaults; the "Queen's own grocers"; 18th-century shops lost in a time warp (but still trading); the Square that launched the West End. And that's not to mention London's most intimate palace. But don't expect the peerage - or the royals - to be on their best behaviour: the route is peppered with scandal! And at walk's end - well, you're placed to pop into London's grandest old art gallery or grab a spot of lunch at the delightful Cafe in the Crypt at St.-Martin-in-the-Fields.

*****

David, you just made me SUPER excited for Christmas to come.

I'm glad! I like Christmas but that's partly because I shifted my focus to Emmett a while ago so my expectations for myself are relatively low. They have ice skating on Christmas day in San Francisco - that's cool. I like going to movies on Christmas too. The first time I did that was to see Close Encounters with my parents. I've also seen Brazil, Babe (the pig), and Children of Paradise (in Boston) on Christmas Day.

I think they should start showing the entire extended edition trilogy of LotR every Christmas day. Maybe on Boxing Day too.

I thought it was booze that put the "hard" in hard sauce.

You can substitute rum or bourbon for the dash of vanilla. I got the recipe from my tea-totalling mom, so odds are she substituted the vanilla for booze. Of course, vanilla extract has some alcohol in it (35% by volume, or 70 proof), so it's all one, really.

I know vanilla extract is alcoholic (Kitty Dukakis!), I don't think it counts in naming stuff. In my head at least. Like hard cider vs. cider.

Argh argh. I gotta go. Return shoes, finish and print paper, eat something, go to class.