The tree!

The Scene of the Crime

The Engineer of the Plot and Stylist
We only had two glasses of champagne before we got the decorations out of the attic…

The Accomplice

No really…

FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

Xmas tree

Yay! I've got a xmas tree! And I grew it myself!

A cute little six inch pine tree appeared in my garden one day. I couldn't pull it out or cut it down. It wasn't hurting anything. The next year I thought, "It will be a problem some day, but it's too cute right now." Then it was four feet high and a little too big for me to move and looked just like a perfect xmas tree. So I decided to let it grow another year and bring it in for xmas. That year it snowed too early and there was absolutely no chance of digging into the snow drift to cut it. Before I knew it, it was huge, blocking the sun to my bright orange azaleas and flutterby rose bush. I decided I'd cut it this summer—which seemed like a waste when I could use the top 1/4 for a xmas tree. Yesterday I finally did it.

Today I can't move one side of my body due to sore ribs, but I have the niftiest xmas tree ever. It's the biggest one I've ever had—and the strangest. What I couldn't see from the ground is that the trunk splits and it has two tops. I'll have to borrow an extra star. It is quite lopsided, but you can smell it all over the house. Even the wreaths I made for some friends make a whole house smell great. I have the most excellent led bulbs that look like the old-fashioned kind, but don't get hot.

It's one of those things that I just want to sit and stare at. I haven't decorated it yet, but I stayed up late last night hypnotized by the lights. I can't tell you the joy of putting up an aromatic, crooked xmas tree with no one telling you the lights aren't even or that you missed a spot. Glorious. I'm not going to decorate it until my friends come over for wine.

Mind over matter

I'm still eating out! I haven't prepared any food since November 22nd. Having lots of good friends who remember your Birthday can be fattening! Although I did post it on my facebook ten days in advance to make sure no one was inconvenience with rush shopping. Hmmmn…maybe that's an important piece of this weight loss puzzle?

Let's see:

Crab cakes, salad, Israeli couscous with vegetables, sauce and bacon, rosemary scallops, wine and chocolate cake. Lots of chocolate cake

Scallops, wild rice, green beans, wine and I was feeling so virtuous after such a healthy meal, that I skipped the cake

Two restaurant doggie bags. Does that count as eating out? I didn't shop or cook—it does!

Full Thanksgiving dinner. Trail mix, turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, carrots, broccoli, cranberry sauce and wine.

Ditto

Ditto

Six course Italian dinner with, antipasti and bruschetta, escargot in portabello mushrooms, breaded and fried, lasagna, veal stuffed tortellini, roasted prime rib of pork, fragole flambé, four wines and Limoncello. Luckily I walked.

Half lobster with scallops on wild rice with sherry sauce, asparagus, and a huge dish of pistachio gelato

Today it's doggy bag

I don't know if anyone is going to take me out to eat tomorrow night. I hope so because I am quickly becoming accustomed to this life. Friday I'm going away for the weekend and I don't think they'll make me cook, so I just have to line something up for Sunday night at this point.

Now this is the really good part. I've lost ten pounds in the last three weeks. I think it's all the healthy food that I don't cook at home. There's a little bit of gym in there, but with a hurt knee, I'm pretty feeble on the elliptical. I'm SURE the real force behind the weight loss was that, sensing impending fat doom, I watched the last three episodes of The Biggest Loser twice. I don't care how wildly you scoff. You can just die laughing!

Birthday

It's my birthday and I haven't had time to write in blogs for weeks. Today I'm doing whatever I want. I got a birthday card that said; "I'm glad you were born." Now that's a sentiment.

I've been taken out to dinner so many times this week that I don't think I'm going to be able to make my way through all the doggie bags I've been eating for breakfast. Even the idea of chocolate cake is starting to become a little boring. That's when you know I've celebrated too much. But a girl only turns 47 once in her lifetime…

I'm going to buy myself an electric can opener and a bathroom scale. I need the can opener for arthritis and I wore my old bathroom scale out! Go figure. I'm going to make some jewelry too, and paint origami lotus flowers with glow-in-the-dark paint—it seemed like a good idea last night around 2 am. Hee, hee!

I wonder if I should buy myself a TV again. The last time I did I wanted a nice digital lcd. So I saved up all my funny money and went off to buy one. Brought home a good deal. It was perfect. I liked the look, the picture was amazing, it was the right size for the room, I even liked the remote. I didn't actually make popcorn, but that would have completed the atmosphere. I looked at it for hours and I couldn't find anything I wanted to watch. Now Bruce Sprinsteen could have said that better than I just did, but long story short—I returned it. It was a little awkward returning it when they asked for the reason. I'm finding that if there's a show I want to watch I can get it on my computer. I guess I'm just used to books on tape.

Spill of the Day

To all my loyal Spill of the day followers: I am so grateful for your support and encouragement. Due to the volume of followers—and spills, I am moving this feature to a new twitter account so that I am not making multiple postings to Facebook, blog and webpage.

I will post the twitter account address as soon as I figure out what it is!

Frozen Moments

I feel like I want to write about frozen moments. My head has been swimming with them lately. I think my twentieth birthday is in the top ten. I can't really number them because they each sum up an era.

My mother had died the week before and I was stunned, so my friend Jane's family threw me a birthday party. They had a huge family. Crunching the numbers in my head, I come up with 12, but I think I'm missing a brother who was religious and living in Utah, that I never met. The household was loosely ordered with everyone coming and going as they wished. An elegant but unnoticed microcosm—no fighting that I ever saw, and amazingly, everyone helped with the work. Three people cooked. This included a number of packages of hamburger helper, someone made jugs of koolaid, got pitchers of water, set the table, yelled that dinner was served and started passing huge bowls.

After, they brought me a cake and Matthew, who was probably four or five back then, gave me a little necklace with a star in the middle. I still have it even though the gold wore off a long time ago from constant wear. I remember sitting at the head of the table with all those warm people facing me. I barely managed not to cry because it meant so much to me. All this was just the prelude to the moment.

Jane lived in the top floor of a three decker on Innman Square in Cambridge. Legal Seafood started there. Two guys and bench tables. When we were too broke for anything else, we'd go over and get pints and quarts of fish chowder in cardboard containers to eat at Jane's apartment. That was another place where friends and family passed through at any hour. Need a friend–find a friend. Need a bed–find a bed. Need a meal–find a meal. Cooked brownies–bring em over. Plan an expedition–let's all go. Man, do I ever miss that. Now, I have to make an appointment if I want to have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine with someone.

A few Sundays, we went to Irish brunch at the Plough and Stars. There was music and a boiled Irish dinner. The place was such a dive, that on occasion, you might have to wait for junkies to get out of the bathroom. I loved going there. Very homey. The drinking age was still 18 so we used to go to the Innman Square Men's Bar too. It was nifty. The booths had hanging lamps over the tables and high backs. The bartender was a huge, bald guy who looked scarier than anyone I've ever seen, but he handed over the drinks with a wink and a smile. I think the name of the Band I loved was the Travis Shook Band, but I'm not sure. They later became the Incredible Casuals and were the reason for many blissful hours dancing in the Grog when I moved up to Newburyport.

OK. Here's the moment. Sitting at a worn wooden table in a booth, beers in hand, and the hanging lamp shining a circle just large enough to include all our faces, someone asked "How old are you?"

I answered; "twenty. How old are you?"

"Twenty-four."

Then around the table: "Twenty-six."

"Twenty-four."

"Twenty-five."

And at that moment—THE moment. I was confident that I would never be THAT old.

Live through that…