I think I’m especially thankful this year.

Jetlag ain't half bad when it wakes you up to sunrises like these.

I know that title seems strange, given how rough this year has been on most of the world, economically and otherwise, but I think it just might be true.  For example, I’m extremely thankful for my father, who works his ass off every day and night to keep our massive (and massively needy, on the whole) family in J-Crew sweaters and Sinsky wines (and me in school, forever at this rate).  And for my mother, who plods on after the tornado that he is, both socially and financially, picking up the pieces and keeping the peace as best she can.  And for my sister, who, no matter how tough things are for her at the moment, will always be good for a laugh (mostly at her shameless and sometimes gross antics).  And for my brother, Andrew, for the massive dose of laid-back sanity he lends to the whole messy business of family gatherings.

And of course, I would be remiss in not expressing my gratitude for my Guy, who got me through Thanksgiving (and is on my side every day) with surprising and endless patience and support.  I don’t know why he sticks around, but I’m glad he does.

Ok, enough of the sappy stuff.  This post is about Thanksgiving, in case you couldn’t tell by all the thanks-giving (speaking of which, I’m thankful for the rest of my family too, and how close we all are, and for my best girls, who are sometimes more like family than anyone).  I was lucky enough (and for that I give thanks– ok OK I’m stopping.  Promise) to get to go home for the holiday, and boy was I psyched.  Not only did it rain/hail in London the whole time I was gone– and shine 65+ degree sun the whole time I was home, save one day– but I also got a much needed dose of girlfriends and family.  I’m pretty sure my nephew hasn’t forgotten me yet, but if I hadn’t gone home who knows if he’d remember me come Christmas??

Overall, there’s not much to tell; I spent most of my time socializing, eating, drinking (oh, the rapture of GOOD WINE), and eating some more.  And I’m not even referring to the holiday.  With a little help from my friends (and Guy), I ate my way through San Francisco and Napa until I was so full I was refusing chocolate!  Luckily there aren’t any pics of that, but I did manage to sneak in a (very) few of the T-day shenanigans (Uncle Robert’s really the star photog of the group).  For your viewing pleasure:

Yeah, life is hard.

Damn you, light spots. That was going to be an awesome shot.

The Mexican-food (YUM) birthday party...

... which Auntie so graciously shared with Guy.

Guy builds a mean fire. Teepee style!

And the kids seem to like him.

Especially Cole (judge, jury, and executioner in our family).

(Also quite the skeptic! But pretty cute, so we forgive him.)

Oh, and just for the record, the sunrises from the city house are pretty spectacular too!

So that’s pretty much it for the Thanksgiving piccies.  I had a few more, but they all had one or more unflattering shots of someone or another, and I’ve had enough beatings to know better.

As for life in London, it’s plugging along.  This week of classes was the last of the term, and the winter break has officially begun.  I have until January 26th, which means I’ll get to spend a nice chunk of time at home over Christmas and New Years, which is of course wonderful.  And now it just remains to write my analytical essay (in the British style, yelch.  Steel rod, get ready to be rammed up my butt so I can write like an Englishman) and revise/expand a piece from my creative writing class in the next few weeks.  Oh, and start writing the essays that I hope will make up the book that I hope won’t suck too too much.  But that can all wait until tomorrow.  Or the next day…

I’ve decided that my New Years resolution will be to write something every day, without fail.  Until then, I’m still missing that big piece of the successful writer pie: determination.  Desire I’ve got; hard work (when I get to it), defs; talent, maybe; luck, I suspect I’ve had at least a bit.  But determination evades me these days, and I don’t seem to be making great strides to catch up with it.  Hopefully I can change that this winter break.  I think I just miss my Caffe Roma.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  With any luck (or drive), you won’t hear from me for a while because I’ll be writing furiously a la Stephen King (highly recommend his book On Writing.  SO good).  But I’m sure I’ll be thinking of y’all, and being soppily thankful for every last one of you.

Christmas decorating!

Well, I’m back home from home* (you think it’s confusing?), but only for a couple of weeks before I head back for the Christmas/New Years holidays.  So in leiu of a tree or even a wreath for the flat, I’ve decided to decorate the blog.  If the falling snow on this site bugs you, let me know.  I’m still on the fence about it.  I think once I change the photo to something more wintry it’ll fit in better…

*I promise to post about Thanksgiving next.  It’s not at the top of my list, but it’s on it.  Promise.

Hey Hey Hey!

I just tried my first slide show on Examiner and it actually worked!  Hooray for the newfound ability to do photo-essays instead of always repeating myself about the same old (different) pub!  Check it out if you want.

In other news, I’ll be home in less than a week.  DOUBLE HOORAY!  I need me some Napa and some girlfriends and some family time like WHOA.

In other other news, here are some recent photos:

Guy looking very British on the Camden MArket cobblestones.

Who could possibly live here?? (I couldn't resist)

Christmas decorations ( / seating) in Covent Garden.

Our new narrowboat neighbor! Very friendly and VERY fluffy.

In case it wasn’t obvious from this disjointed post, I’m kind of on the edge lately with school and Examiner and what we’ll call “other” stresses.  But hopefully a little pumpkin pie will set me right up!  See some of you sooooooon!

PS In other other OTHER news, my blog stats have surpassed 100,000 views!  This is due almost entirely to one Marylin Monroe and her misbehaving dress.  But seriously, one day I had over 5,000 hits!  I am, like, SO famous, and stuff.

PS to the last post

I meant to tell you that, what with the baking bug constantly nibbling on me and Guy growing ever more cautious about all the butter he’s been consuming, I’m considering putting up fliers in my building advertising my amateur baking skills (mad skizzils, that is) for a nominal fee.  Any thoughts?  Am I thinking too highly of my baking abilities, or is this just what I need to excuse the baked goods obsession, avoid going up a size, and maybe even earn a bit of cash?

And, of course, if you really care you can follow my baking exploits (and fairly bad food photography, especially compared to the big guys) over at Linzers in London.

Is there anything baking can’t fix?

Apricot muffins. A great way to use up those dried apricots we carted to Italy and back...

If there is, I don’t want to know about it.  So far, baking has fixed (or at least temporarily patched with chewing gum): my worries about the presentation I’m doing for class on Tuesday (seriously, all these adults have really raised the bar to unfair heights), my many recent relationship stresses, my homesickness, my fear that I’ll spend the next 2 years without a bosom buddy with whom to share beautiful (and rare) sunny days when Guy wants to sleep in, and my anxiety about the future in general, among other things.  Granted, the chewing gum is a very temporary solution, but it’s fun while it lasts.

Seriously, though, these days I bake every few days at least.  Basically, as soon as we finish one batch of goodies, I’m raring to bake more.  We’ve gone through at least 1000 grams of butter in the past week (yes, I said grams.  I’m British now, remember?), but thankfully that’s one thing that’s pretty cheap in London.  So far, all this butter has led to oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, apricot muffins, pumpkin muffins, salted brown butter rice krispy treats, and mini (mini) pumpkin pies (a potential distraction from my sure to be sub-par presentation on Tuesday):

Cuteness! Taste-wise, though, they're a bit rich, since the only pie crust I could find was the all-butter, savory, puffy type...

In other, non-baking news, life has gone on as usual.  First there was Fall, with much pumpkin revelry (not even limited to the baking type):

Guy split his pumpkin down the front...

...But recovered nicely with a sort of Chasm of Creepiness theme.

Whereas my pumpkin started out beautifully...

...But devolved into a sort of shriveled, Michael Jackson-esque monster. Complete with mold.

What’s that?  You don’t see the mold?  I can help with that:

I seriously gagged when I was taking this. Enjoy!

Sorry.  I’ll end on happier things:

Namely, a narrowboat Halloween!

Things with the flat have been rolling right along, too, sometimes even smoothly!

The biggest deal was finally getting our sofa!

Which meant the flat finally became a living space!

Which meant we could finally have people over!

And make delicious foodstuffs (including an amazing pumpkin bread pudding, if I do say so)!

And yes, people did actually come.

And one of those people (Magda!) even made me get in the photo.

Oh, and that’s not all.  The last thing we’d been holding out for, a beautiful, massive kitchen dresser for our dining room wall, was looking to be waaaay out of our price range.  That is, until we found this beauty on eBay!

Doesn't it fit that wall perfectly?? It looks even better with all our stuff on it.

So now the flat is finally furnished with pieces we love, and we’ve gotten permission to get rid of the ones we hate, and it;s looking really good.  A little more elbow grease and we should have it right where we want it (and then I’ll have to move home, but we’re trying not to focus on that… what else can I bake???).  I have more pics, but I thought I’d overwhelmed y’all enough, so to see photos of our flat’s evolution in more detail, and chronological order, click here.

Oops, gotta go.  I have a pumpkin custard in the oven that needs checking on!  Much love, and I’ll be seeing some of you in under 2 weeks!!!