Holy mackeral! I just realized I'm wearing two unrelated shoes.

This is what happens when you have half an hour to get four people out of the door by 7:30.

At least they're both black dress shoes.

She is a seamstress and embroiderer and crocheter....so I'm thinking of hitting the craft store to see what sparks.

Suzi, I seem to remember Ginger linking to some really good scissors for a seamstress.

I seem to remember Germans eating marzipan and a fruit pastry called schtollen (I think) on Christmas Eve. Even if she's a picky eater, she might appreciate the tradition

I need last minute prezzie advice

Would she enjoy music of some sort? It's small and easy to pack, but I guess it could be hard to find something she'd like if you don't know her taste that well.

ION, my parents are finally on their way here. Joe and my bro went to pick them up at the airport. SIL and I are just chilling. SO mice to have family around.

Jilli, did you know these intriguing facts about Edward Gorey?

In later years, he lived year-round in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, where he wrote and directed numerous evening-length entertainments, often featuring his own papier-mâché puppets, in an ensemble known as La Theatricule Stoique. His major theatrical work was the libretto for an "Opera Seria for Handpuppets", The White Canoe, to a score by the composer Daniel James Wolf. Based on the Lady of the Lake legend, the opera premiered posthumously. On August 13, 1987, his play "Lost Shoelaces" premiered in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In the early 1970s, Gorey wrote an unproduced screenplay for a silent film, The Black Doll.

The Black Doll! Papier-mâché puppets! La Theatricule Stoique!

Also...

Gorey was noted for his fondness for ballet (for many years, he religiously attended all performances of the New York City Ballet) and cats, of which he had many. Both figure prominently in his work. His knowledge of literature and films was unusually extensive, and in his interviews, he named as some of his favorite artists Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Francis Bacon, George Balanchine, Balthus, Louis Feuillade, Ronald Firbank, Lady Murasaki Shikibu, Robert Musil, Yasujiro Ozu, Anthony Trollope, and Johannes Vermeer. Gorey was also an unashamed pop culture junkie, avidly following soap operas and TV comedies like Petticoat Junction and Cheers, and he had particular affection for dark genre series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Batman: The Animated Series, and The X-Files; he once told an interviewer that he so enjoyed the Batman series that it was influencing the visual style of one of his upcoming books. Gorey treated TV commercials as an artform in themselves, even taping his favorites for later study. But Gorey was especially fond of movies, and for a time he did regular and very waspish reviews for the Soho Weekly under the pseudonym Wardore Edgy.

There's a Gorey documentary almost done.

“The first things I wrote seriously, for some unknown reason, were plays. I think I may have copies of them...and I hope no one else has copies of them! But I wrote those when I was in the army and WWII and I don’t know why I decided to write. I suppose it must have been some strong, dramatic urge at the time but I never tried to get them put on, or anything. They were all very exotic and filled with...they were pretentious in a way and in another way, I don’t think they were as pretentious as they might have been, let’s put it that way. I didn’t go in for endless, dopey poetic monologues for people. They moved right along. They were rather bizarre, I think, rather overwritten in a way. I don’t even remember what they were about, if anything.” -- Edward Gorey on his theatrical beginnings

Wouldn't you want to read those plays now?

Gorey was a founding member of the Poets' Theatre, along with John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, V. R. Lang, Alison Lurie, William Matchett, Thornton Wilder and William Carlos Williams. He designed sets for the first play the group presented - O'Hara's one-man show "Try, Try" in 1951.

The 1952 production? THE SINISTER TEDDY BEAR, A SINISTER PLAY

I kid you not.

Gorey font

We are leaving for Vegas Sunday.First time on the slots, but as somebody on government benefits my life has always been a gamble. Right now I've been writing fic... still can't PWP.

Jilli, did you know these intriguing facts about Edward Gorey?

I knew some of them. A friend of mine lives right by his house, and goes to the special events there all the time, lucky thing.

Are y'all doing your part for world peace today?

Erubiel Durazo has been invited to spring training with the A's

Again?!?

The Ogdred Weary font is also out there on the internets for them what wants it.

I just forwarded that NRA article to my friend who runs "BlackManWithAGun.com" Should be amusing.

At least they're both black dress shoes.

See? Not totally unrelated.

OMG, I think it's going to take 3 hours to get home. I left at 3 and I haven't even reached the Beltway yet. I'm only posting because I haven't moved in 10 minutes.

This is ricockulous.

Hivemind -- I just glanced at the bottom of my can of baking powder, and noticed that it was stamped Dec 00. I'm thinking it's too old to use?