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.

2 dressy holiday parties this year. I am recycling my black Ralph Lauren dress cause I haven't found anything that looks as good on me as that does (Thanks again, meara for finding it and mkaing me try it on when I never would have chosen it for myself). So I am wearing it with this wrap [link] (minus the tacky black flower) and a pair of black chandelier earrings and I need a pair of black strppy heels to finish.

Pecans: spiced
Spinach: creamed
Apricots: macerating

45 minutes until I need to leave to pick the grandparents up at the airport.

t sits

I'm thankful this year for Peter Jackson, because Hubby and I have a movie to watch in a theatre on Christmas Day, ie, King Kong. We felt kind of lost the year after Return of the King. There's a really nice theatre one town south of us that's never very busy on Christmas but has one of the few Dolby-certified sound systems in the county.

Holidays are a trial when you're trying to watch your blood sugar.

I've had good luck with London Walks, FYI. They're very walky, and also informative. Not too lamely wide-appeal, not too snobby/boring.

Kind of sucks when it's raining a gale, but even so, I got a lot out of it.

Thanksgiving is a process, not a day. It is an acknowledgement that we're winter beasts trying to keep warm with extra calories; it is a time-marker for the shopping cycle; it is a football holiday; it is an event to plan your month around. All of the winter holidays, and all of their slightly-weird importance, revolves around the fact that winter sucks and we all need reasons to endure it. Presents and pie and racks of beef are reasons to endure a lot.

Okay, Martin Luther King day is not quite the same, but that is January, and thus well on the way toward the sun not setting at 4pm.

Spinach: creamed

Mmmmmm. Seriously. I'm such a spinach whore. Would you mind posting your recipe, or is it so simple and obvious that I'm going to feel like not just a whore, but a singularly silly whore?