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Saturday Triple Play

1. Here's the trailer for IronMan 2—I can't wait! Ooh, I love me some Robert Downey.

2. It's not every day you see a photo of Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, and Robert DeNiro.

3. I don't watch TV—and certainly not late-night TV—so I hadn't seen any of these Top Ten Late-Night Talk Show Appearances of the Decade. You?

Friday iPod Random Ten

1. Here at the Right Time - Josh Ritter
2. Polly Wolly Doodle - Dan Zanes & Friends (with Sheryl Crow)
3. Patience - RedBird
4. Down Among the Wines & Spirits - Elvis Costello
5. Infamous Angel - Iris Dement
6. Take Another Look - Little Village
7. The Obvious Child (live) - Paul Simon
8. Rock and Roll Doctor - Little Feat
9. Let's Go Get Stoned (live) - Hayes Carll
10. Guess Things Happen That Way - Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash

Feast of Lights

I forgot to show you the beautiful Hanukkah menorah Julie made at Sunday school:

Updates

1. So Julie woke up this morning with her tiny earlobe back to normal. Which left me very briefly with nothing to worry about, so I quickly shifted gears to her persistent cough Phew.

2. It turns out that the best thing about finally getting the Bat Mitzvah invitations sent out is that now we're getting reply cards dribbling in every day! As soon as I hear the mail plop through the door slot onto my foyer floor, I run downstairs to count the envelopes. I'm not allowed to open them, though, so I text Steph to tell her how many we got and wait till she gets home from school. Now I know that the next time I get invited to a Bat Mitzvah, I will both send my reply card back immediately and put my return address on the envelope.

3. Our old Skip-Bo game still hasn't turned up, but we've broken in the new one pretty well. Last night for Hanukkah we gave the kids a new game to share. It's called Yamslam, but we haven't tried it yet. It's supposed to be a more fast-paced and more fun version of Yahtzee. We've also been playing a lot of Rat-a-Tat Cat lately, yet another winner from the folks at Gamewright.

4. The other night I dreamed that I got a new laundry basket. I was so happy in the dream! All together now: GET A LIFE!

An Earful

As you know, Julie got her ears pierced 3½ weeks ago. They've healed up so nicely that I was considering letting her change them at the 4-week mark instead of waiting 6 weeks. Then she woke up this morning with one very red and swollen earlobe. I swabbed it as best I could with the disinfectant they gave us at Claire's and gooped it up with Neosporin, and it looked no worse (yet no better) when she got home from school in the afternoon. I spoke to the nurse at the pediatrician's office, and she said to keep it clean and bring her in only if it gets worse. I'm hoping beyond hope she doesn't have an infection that will require her to remove the earring and start all over again some months down the road. She would be devastated. She's already got all her earrings (gifts from me and cast-offs from Steph) arranged in color order on her new earring tree and in little boxes and is very excited to start wearing earrings that match her outfits.

Pahk My Cah—Please!

For someone who hates shopping, I've been doing an awful lot of it lately (but I'm nearly done, yee-ha!). Don't get me wrong, I'm a damn good shopper—I just don't get pleasure out of it anymore. Was a time I'd go to the mall on my lunch hour from work just to poke around. (Yes, ME!) Now it's a dreaded chore that I put off as long as possible—indefinitely, even, if Amazon has what I want.

One thing that I no longer have any patience for is parking. Driving around and around and around looking for a parking spot makes my blood pressure spike dangerously. And, regardless of what the latest sales figures suggest, people are still heading to malls in droves (they're apparently just not buying anything). Normally I don't mind parking a little ways from the entrance—so I'll walk a little, and my car is less likely to get banged into. But if the weather's bad and/or I'm in a hurry, I do that stupid drive-around-and-around-and-around thing. I follow people leaving the mall, hoping to snag their spot before someone else does. I hover, vulture-like, until so many cars are lined up behind me I can't bear the pressure anymore and I drive off. Why isn't he pulling out? Why can't she talk on the phone after she leaves her spot? What is wrong with these people?

You know that thing where you see a spot and you don't know whether to take it because there might be a better one up ahead? And then the one up ahead turns out to have a VW Bug or a Smart Car in it, and then you missed your chance at the other one?

How about the joy of a pull-through? Great, until you come out of Costco and find that someone pulled in right behind you, so close in fact that you can't open your minivan hatchback to unload all your unboxed, unbagged warehouse-sized items.

'Tis the season.

A Few Quick Links and Then Back to Work

I still feel as though I'm sinking in quicksand, mostly due to too much work heaped on top of everything else going on. But I do have a few links for you:

1. I might have to buy a case of these cards to hand out:

2. Scott suggested I try Finlandia grapefruit vodka. I couldn't find it, but I did get a bottle of Absolut ruby red grapefruit vodka, and it is dee-lish-ous. It's possible that I like it as well as—or possibly even more than—the Absolut citron I've been drinking for eons. Yes, it's that good.

3. I'm looking forward to watching this recent episode of Sixty Minutes featuring Ricky Gervais.

Xie Xie!*

On Friday, at the end of a very hectic week that left me still up to my eyeballs in work, I took the day off to chaperone a grade 2 field trip to the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association. I had missed this opportunity with both Steph and Pete, and they both loved it, so I wasn't going to pass up my last chance with Julie.

What a great day we had! First the grownups helped the kids made paper lanterns out of decorative Chinese "red envelopes." They came out beautiful! Then we all learned some Chinese words and characters, and the kids got to practice writing with narrow paintbrushes dipped in black ink. From there we went to roll out dough and stuff dumplings for lunch. After that, we had brief lessons on the abacus and mah-jong. Then, finally, we were served a wonderful meal of dumplings (don't know if they were the ones we made—frankly, don't want to think about that), lo mein, chicken legs, and fortune cookies. Everything was delicious. When we were done eating, we were treated to a wonderful performance of a ribbon dance and a Chinese opera fan dance. Each kid was given chopsticks and a bookmark with his or her name written on it in Chinese letters.

It was a fun but exhausting day. 75 second-graders sure do require a bit of attention! I was glad I went but also glad to leave them all back at school and go home for an hour alone.

*That's "Thank You" in Chinese, pronounced, "Sheh sheh!"

Happy Hanukkah!

The miracle of having enough oil to keep the eternal flame lit for 8 days was nearly matched by the miracle of me actually having gifts—nay, wrapped gifts!—ready for the kids last night even after the crazy week I had. Steph got two shirts and some earrings, Pete got a big LEGO set, and Julie got an earring/jewelry caddy and some earrings.

I did not, however, have sufficient energy or time to make latkes, so I will try to make that happen tomorrow. Tonight the kids all got new drawing books and markers. We also played a rollicking game of dreidel. It was hard to tell who won because we all kept dipping into our winnings (we were playing for peanut M&Ms instead of coins).

Last week's temple newsletter had a wonderful essay from our rabbi about how Hanukkah is often pushed into competition with Christmas and made into something it was never meant to be. He said:

Chanukah means "Dedication." Dedication to our values and ideals. Dedication to our synagogue and heritage and tradition and community. Dedication to the notion of miracle and wonder, that some things are simply amazing, beautiful beyond our words.

I see the brightly lit menorah reflected in my kids' eyes as they push aside some discarded wrapping paper and spin a simple wooden top on the floor in the hopes of winning a handful of candy. There is plenty to celebrate in my warm kitchen.

Friday iPod Random Ten

1. Cowboy Man - Lyle Lovett
2. Angel From Montgomery (live) - Tim Reynolds & Dave Matthews
3. I'm a Believer - The Monkees
4. I'm Your Toy (live) - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
5. I Got Drunk - Uncle Tupelo
6. Please Read the Letter - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
7. Little Head - John Hiatt
8. Broken Man's Lament - Emmylou Harris
9. Instant Pleasure - Rufus Wainwright
10. Song for Sonny Liston - Mark Knopfler