I always think diary/journal-keeping is such a good idea, but have come to accept that it's not something I'm ever going to do. Doing anything every day is just not my way. Even things I have to do every day, like eat and sleep and so forth, chafe.

Zen, I've never made no-bake cheesecake, but looking at Martha's recipe the filling is basically just cream cheese slightly thinned with milk so it doesn't so much gel as just chill, cold cream cheese being firmer than warm cream cheese.

I realized this is actually what I was thinking of: [link]

Oh, that's cool, Jesse! Same kind of concept. I'm already up to Dec 30th and just ordered a pizza for dinner so we don't end up lightly snacking at the party we're going to and getting smashed at the ball drop later!

A hot shower sounds like a fine way to welcome the new year, especially if you can time it so you emerge from the shower all clean and rosy and shucked of all the old year's dirt and awash in that fresh relaxed new-skin-and-wide-open-sinuses post-shower feeling at exactly the stroke of midnight.

I love maple candy now but hated it as a kid -- true maple syrup always had a bitter tang to it that I didn't like at all, but as my sweet tooth diminishes with age I'm finding it more and more pleasurable.

Must go now to pick up prescriptions before the pharmacy closes (and possibly also pick up some leftover maple candy and half-price Moonstruck chocolate Santas).

eta: Ooh, I need that 5-year journal for my middle brother, who's been an on-and-off diarist since he was 10.

I am not crazy about maple candy, but I LOVE maple stirs which is essentially boiling maple sugar that you then stir until it cools and crystalizes. Or you eat before it gets too solid.

I grew up in a town with a maple festival. In a totally different town and state, my brother makes maple syrup. Articlette is here: [link]

I do like maple cream and I totally dig this maple/peanut butter spread that the amish restaurant next to my parents' town makes.

Maple has always been kind of exotic to me, I guess. I don't have it very often (I just never got into the habit of putting syrup on my pancakes), but it's a treat when I do. My parents brought me some maple infused (that may not be the right verb) tea from their big Canadian vacation and it is delightful, just sweet enough.

Watered the plants and fed the birds and I may be done with productivity for the year. Devilling some eggs to nosh on with my impulsively bought paté and more of the Earth Zin and Fire. I might go to bed and early and set an alarm for midnight, that is oddly appealing.

I am in a snack nest (tm Julie Klausner) with pub cheese and pretzel crisps and wine. I'll probably be ready for bed in a couple of hours.

We had Breakfast For Dinner and are watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the kids are SO WEE!), and our neighbor kids are over at the moment. Casper plans to stay up until midnight and probably will; Dillo plans to stay up until midnight and I give him until 10pm when I think he'll conk out. I think I'll end up having a nap.

Oooh, Oliver Wood (Sean Biggerstaff)'s darling accent.

That sounds lovely. (ETA Both of those!)

I need to learn how to hard boil eggs. Following the recipe does not seem to work.

Got my traditional thai drunken noodles, tom ka gai and fresh spring roll. First year I haven't needed it for its sinus clearing properties!

Headed over to my neighbors' in an hour or two. We'll watch the city fireworks from the field.