12.13.98

    I'm working my way through a cheap bottle of Merlot so I thought this would be a good time to write.

    We just had the best dinner. One of our wedding presents was a crock pot and we got it out of the box yesterday. Basically, we just needed to get rid of the packaging so that it would fit on a shelf. Lo and behold it came with a recipe book. Instantly we were transported back into our childhood and decided to make pot roast. So, this morning we went to the store and bought the necessary ingredients: pot roast, 1 onion, 2 carrots, 3 potatoes. Cooked it up for five hours (those crock pots take their sweet time) and it was delicious. It felt like cooking but really was so simple that it was probably cheating.

    Right now, the apartment is filled with the intoxicating aroma of fudge brownies. We're going to snuggle up on the couch and watch the X-Files while indulging in brownies à la mode.

    I've spent the whole day scanning like crazy. Wedding pictures, vacation pictures, stuff I want to send to other people. Crazy, I tell you. The scanner that I'm borrowing from work needs to be returned tomorrow. Feh. I thought I would have more time with it. That's what I get for procrastinating, I suppose.

    I've had the most wonderful weekend. It's been so relaxing. I've been a total veg-o-matic and it's been just wonderful. On Friday night, however, T. and I went out to see the Red Elvises at Rusty's Surf Ranch on the Santa Monica Pier. I met up with Shelley of Shelleyness who also did the most recent CD cover for the band. She has a really great journal and she's just as amusing and fun in real life as she is in writing.

    She arrived on the scene wearing a vintage dress, black gloves and a vibrant turquoise wig. It was awesome. She and her boyfriend were so welcoming of T. and I and her friends were eclectic and polite. I became an instant groupie and got the whole band to sign the inside of the CD. Of course, the band was awesome. They are a sort of Russian Surf Rockabilly band with a great sense of humor and the stylistic sense God gave Liberace. I've been listening to their newest CD, "I Wanna See You Bellydance," and it's great. Going to be one of my favorites.

    It was so nice to get out and meet some new people. Even T. had fun and sometimes he rankles at that sort of stuff. We hang out occasionally with some of his friends from work who are, for the most part, genuinely nice and fun but, you know, they're work people. Also, I get the distinct sense that we're seen as the "babies" of that group. We are truly among the youngest.

    All in all, T. and I drank plenty of Guinness to last us awhile and smoked way, way too many cigarettes. We really don't smoke but the temptation with other smokers around and pints of beer was just too strong. We were suitably regretful the next morning.

    We meant to buy a Christmas tree this weekend but didn't get around to it. We're going to try to buy one on Tuesday and fix it up while watching Buffy. We bought lights (clear and red/green) and some tinsle garlands and some cheap-o ornaments that are sure to break. It'll look beautiful, though.

    I'm hoping that we come up with some traditions this year. We are definitely going ornament shopping this week. In my family everyone got a new ornament each year. My mom would put the initials of the person who chose it and the year it went on the tree. So, by now, they're are hundreds of ornaments and they all mean a little something and it's an amalgamation of everybody. I like that tradition. So, I think T. and I will start that.

    Do you have any holiday traditions?