Plenty of left overs. it always tastes better the second & third days. I tried something new with the lasagna this time. Whole Wheat noodles. The fiber will be great. But the taste was eh. I also used sweet italian sausage, since my sister doesn't like spicy. Still was good. Just not my best. The garlic bread? Oh my. Stick of butter and a full head of garlic melted, then poured over the open faced bread. Covered in Mozzarella cheese, and baked till melted yumminess! I'm craving it now, but it's nearly 11pm, and shouldn't eat something that heavy this late. But ohhhh so yummy.

Poor Em. She deserves a big audience.

Steph, talking to the guy ahead of time seems like a good plan.

I did, and it was totally fine. Except for some party guests who noticed that I didn't sit on Santa's lap and kept heckling me to go do it, and Tim piped up with "I already took care of that for both of us!" (Which he did. And damn, do I hate my anxiety. Santa is fucking HOTASS. A mix of Bowie and Dennis Quaid. Holy crap, HOTASS.)

I also had a full-blown panic attack before we left for the party, due to a horribly timed series of phone calls from people who all wanted us to do things RIGHT NOW (and/or tomorrow), but we were already late and had to pick up someone we'd never met before and take her to the party with us (she's friends with the hosts and lives near us and needed a ride) and I had abysmally low blood sugar, and I just lost it and hyperventilated for about 10 minutes. Not fun. But I eventually pulled it together.

Stick of butter and a full head of garlic melted, then poured over the open faced bread. Covered in Mozzarella cheese, and baked till melted yumminess!

Oh, nom.

Tonight's company Christmas party was surprisingly fun. For a change we got there early enough that we could find a table with open seats so we didn't have to horn our way into an established group, and I could flag down people I knew and liked to sit with us. Huge help.

The food was yummy--another change--but the water tasted terrible and the only other drink was lemonade. And, sadly, the entertainment was pathetic. Competent musician, but more interested in promoting himself than entertaining us.

And damn, is my company a very pale and monolithic place. A few non-white people, but not many.

Poor Em. She deserves a big audience.

She really does. I am sorry your family doesn't step up. Especially after the epic guilt to get you there.

I'm just home from a couple of days down in San Diego/OC and apart from the really totally frustrating whining of the six-year-old nephew (not the twin niece though, just him), it was nice. I'm still the one who is expected to visit and travel but that just is what it is.

I did, and it was totally fine.

Yay for respecting boundaries. Which is a low bar, but I've met people and so it's where I have it set.

This post is coming to you from the high seas! (Yarr.) The family Tea is currently on a cruise ship bound for New Zealand, where we have a little boy resisting his bedtime. (His mummy's lullaby is sending him into a fit of hysterical giggles.)

ita ! really glad you got treated, but still horrified at roller coaster.

Omni: In terms of whole wheat pasta - can be very good with recipes with the right flavors. For example I like whole wheat spaghetti or linguini with very spicy stir fry. The texture goes well with stir fry and the slightly nutty flavor of whole wheat complements traditional stir fry flavors.

Also works well with a spicy garbanzo bean sauce.

Mom requested my lasagna. Which, considering her glutton intolerance, was surprising. She said she'd take the meds.

Normally I am the last person to giggle at a typo because I'm pretty much the queen of them... but if your mother is intolerant of gluttons its a good thing you didn't have me over for lasagna. OM NOM NOM LASAGNA! I'm practically Garfield with the stuff. It's absurd.

With whole wheat pasta I've found the Italian brands blow the domestics out of the salted water. In general I think Italian pasta cooks up better (which seems insane to me because pasta is about the simplest construct in the food world) but their whole wheat is so. much. better. My favorite brand is Gia Russa [link]

(Perhaps I AM being enchanted by the lovely child on the box. Perhaps its because there is an actual culinary tradition of whole wheat pasta and our stuff probably suffers from the "well-intentioned hippies in a lab" phenomenon that makes our fake meat so inferior to Chinese fake meat. But I digress. Wildly.)

It's on the spendy side so I watch for it to go on sale and then I stock up. Of course, for all I know you DID use the Gia Russa and are just less smitten with the child.

SPEAKING OF BEING SMITTEN WITH A CHILD, Aims, your family is out of its damn mind. They had all better have been projectile vomiting... and if they weren't I hope they START projectile vomiting. (Just for a day. Don't want anyone permanently harmed. This time.)

I totally wish I could've seen Em, too. Sorry, Aims.

smonster, D sounds like a really nice guy.

Steph I'm glad Santa was cool with the situation. I'm sorry some of the people were assholes about you not getting on Santa's lap.

If you were at one of the regular events and there was a rope technique or thing that you didn't want to try or tried and got uncomfortable and needed to stop they wouldn't heckle you for it, right?

If you were at one of the regular events and there was a rope technique or thing that you didn't want to try or tried and got uncomfortable and needed to stop they wouldn't heckle you for it, right?

Right. There's a weird-as-HELL separation between respecting consent (or lack thereof) when it comes to kinky stuff, versus the really REALLY no-boundaries touchy-feely attitude that prevails in social situations.

Plus I think there's somewhat of the attitude that because I'm a woman, I *must* be declining because I feel like I "should", but I secretly want to be talked into it. WHICH IS TOTALLY UNTRUE for me -- I don't play bullshit stupid coy games like that -- but I know it happens, quite a bit. So I can see how people might think I want to be talked into it -- except, hello, have they MET ME? EVER?

Anyway. It was fine, and I'm mostly fine with looking like a bitch and/or a prude for having different boundaries than everyone else. (It SUCKS that just because I am asserting my boundaries, because they happen to be different from someone else's, I look like a prude and a buzzkill. But whatever.)