Well, my tree's up. Today was beautiful, so I spent most of the afternoon outside with a friend and later with my cat. So the rest of the apartment isn't decorated. But the tree's the important part, to me. Now I'm sitting in my living room with all the lights off except for those on the tree. It makes me very happy.

Oh, I'll rearrange a dozen or so of the ornaments tomorrow, sure.

But for now, happy.

The turkey soup came out great. I roasted veggies and cloves of garlic and threw them in the pot with the broth, turkey, and some of the leftover gravy. Yummy!

It was a balmy 60° in Chicago today so the Loop was packed. There was no way I was going to attempt shopping with that crowd. And I will never understand the people standing in line for Garrett's popcorn.

all my plans were for not today once I sat down. Aside from washing the chair slip covers and doing dishes, I got no further than this recliner, and cleaning my iTunes folders.

I haven't even been thinking about holiday shopping what with hovering around Dad, but I suppose I'll feel more comfortable doing so after my Christmas Club check arrives anyway.

Skipping w/o skimming to let those of you who might be interested know that Kifah Dasuki's e-book on vegan holiday cooking is free for the next 24 hours. [link] Didn't try anything out of it but I have her first cooking book and it's interesting (Arab vegan cooking. And interesting in a good way).

Also, happy belated holiday, 'istas. ~ma to all who needs it.

Thanks, Shir!

Timelies all!

Listening to Ada Palmer talk about the Inquisition( or inquisitions, as she has detailed)

So I guess this is supposed to be Small Business Saturday, but instead I went shopping in town with my mother and got amazing deals at Marshall's and Lord & Taylor and had an excellent lunch at Eataly.

Isn't Eataly the best? I want to live there.