Bath Day for Sylvia

This morning Hardingfele and I finished off the cassata.  It was, if I may say so in all humility, very delicious, especially since this year I commissioned Anna Banana II to make the pound cake from scratch. However, the cassata is not particularly photogenic:

Compare it to this frightening cake Richard Bonomo received in the mail.  While it looks adorable, the list of ingredients is downright terrifying:

And here is a gratuitous shot of Rich's Christmas tree.  It's kind of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, and when Kathbert made that crack, Luxuli's husband said, "I brought it down from up north just for him," and then he laughed at her for being so contrite.  It was a "weed" tree, one of many he cut down, and he burned most of them, but he brought this one to Rich's house for us all to enjoy.  It didn't get decorated until after dinner on Christmas Day.

If I were a more paranoid person, I might suspect my plants are spying on me.  Notice how these two have grown antennae?

Phalaenopsis Orchid

Orchid Cactus

Maybe Martians are emerging from these plants, but there is an eerie coincidence (or IS it???) in that both of these plants came from the work place.  The cactus was from someone at my previous job who was clearing out his office, and the orchid was from a coworker at my current job who moved to Boston... or so she claims.  Maybe they are keeping tabs on me!

After enjoying the cassata, Hardingfele suggested we give Sylvia the Hedgehog a bath like the person on the bus had suggested.  I was lukewarm (pun intended) about this suggestion until she reminded me that we could film it and put it on the blog.  Am I ever glad she suggested it!  I think it is a very cute movie, and I hope that you enjoy it too, except for the couple seconds where Hardingfele apparently forgot she was filming and all you can see is the empty tub, not the action.  (Guess I could have cut that part, but the dialogue was still going on.)  So sit back and enjoy "Sylvia's Bath."

 

 Famout Hat

Identity Crisis

I have some fantastic news: Anna Banana II has a job!! She was laid off from her previous one in October so fortunately it hasn’t been too long of a jobless stretch for her. She will start her new position on Monday, which coincidentally is also my birthday. (Hint: I like ePlush.) Here is what I do not need for my birthday: a snuggly rosary. My mother is already making one for me. I promise to post a photo of it when she sends it. And if you want one too, let me know and we can arrange something. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind having a Snuggly Rosary side business to supplement her income, since she is currently supporting herself and four males (my dad, brother, and two nephews).

So yesterday Anna Banana II and I went to Rich’s house to celebrate (Kathbert is up north visiting Mombert), and Luxuli and her husband had sent Rich a package so he opened it as we watched. Inside were some absolutely gorgeous pears and apples (which Rich gave to us since he isn’t big on eating things that are not animal products), cookies shaped like menorahs and dreidels, chocolate coins, candied almonds, and small white taper candles. There was a guarantee from someone named “Gladys Sylvia” that we would be pleased with this gift, and a box that I dearly hoped would contain a menorah. And – it did!!! Yay! Luxuli must have been shopping the After-Chanukah sales. Even funnier, Rich’s brother had sent him a tower of boxes from the same mail-order place, and each of the twelve boxes was decorated with something from “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and contained a different treat… but there was no guarantee of pleasure from Gladys Sylvia! Rich said there must be no guarantee for the goyim. However, since Rich, Kathbert, Anna Banana II, and I all suspect we have some Jewish in our background, it makes sense that we would get the Chosen People’s Promise (of Quality).

I have perfectly logical reasons for suspecting that there is a good bit of Jewish blood on my mother’s side of the family, and she and her brothers totally set off my Jewdar. (Is the fact that I have Jewdar proof of my own Jewishness? Then again, I have pretty good gaydar, and I am 100% hetero.) However, I can understand when people look at my blonde hair, blue-gray eyes, and glow-in-the-dark pale skin and wonder how I can think there is any Semitic in me. On Christmas Day, Kathbert was saying it was hilarious that Hardingfele and I are like sisters, because she is a Russian Jew pretending to be a Norwegian, and I said, “And I’m an Irish Catholic pretending to be a Jew?” To my surprise, another person said, “I wouldn’t call you Irish Catholic!” However, it wouldn’t have come as any surprise to my besty Tiffy, since she remembers with stunned amusement how this same person argued with Antoshka about what life in Ukraine is really like. What would Antoshka know about it? He has only lived there for most of his life, while this other person has read about it.

So maybe my dad is lying to me when he said his grandparents came from the Fair Isle of Eire and couldn’t speak a word of English, only Gaelic. And I may not be a card-carrying Catholic, but that is only because they never gave me a card. I am a scapular-wearing Catholic with a sticker on my car allowing me to park at Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety, and I go to Mass on Sundays – is that Catholic enough? It is true that my father “converted” to Anglicanism so that he could be both a priest and married to my mother, and you can tell how anti-Papist they are because they sent me to Catholic school, and their favorite TV station is EWTN. When I chose to officially go to Rome instead of Canterbury, they were so upset that they sent me a beautiful gold necklace with a St. Francis medal on it. (My confirmation name is Francesca because St. Francis ROCKS!!)

I have never had my Irish Catholic bona fides called into question before, but it did make me think of a fun game for my 5.86 readers: Choose an Ethnicity and Religion for Famous Hat! It’s very easy – just choose an ethnicity from Column A and a religion from Column B, put them together, and give me an identity! Don’t limit yourself to my suggestions, either; feel free to suggest your own identity for me in the comments.

Famous Hat's Identity    

Column A                                                                    Column B

Ainu                                                                             Shaker

Xhosa                                                                          Shinto

Transdniestrian                                                             Zoroastrian

Basque                                                                        Mithraist

Lichtensteinian                                                              Animist

 
Famous Hat (origin and faith unknown)

Light Bright's Ivory Bouquet

Last night Kathbert was telling Richard Bonomo and me a hilarious story about how she was tricked into going to visit a guy's family, "and they used the German silver!"  It's her story so I shouldn't tell the whole thing here, but it was far more impressive than the several times I have been tricked into going on dates.  For example, how was I supposed to know that going to "Three Penny Opera" with a man old enough to be my father who claimed to have an extra ticket because of extenuating circumstances would be construed in his mind as a date?  Or that going to the free zoo in the afternoon with a friend of a friend would somehow turn into "everyone knows we are seeing each other"?  While Ubi Caritas and I did get dangerously close to nuptials, I was actually only proposed to once, and that was clearly a joke:  my Indonesian roommate and I were sitting by the lake one evening with her Turkish friend, and he suddenly said, "What a wonderful day!  I wish it could last forever!" and turned to her and asked, "Will you marry me?"  Before she could reply, he turned to me and asked, "Will you marry me?"  (Since he is Moslem, that meant he still had two more women he could propose to.)  We were all laughing and then he said, "Here comes Mr. Icon!" and I thought to myself, That man really does know everyone!  (Mr. Icon claims a friend was visiting a big city when a homeless guy sat right next to him on the train and asked where he was from.  When he heard the answer, he said, "Really?  Then you must know Mr. Icon!")

I cannot say if there will be wedding bells in my future, although Luxuli is trying her hardest to find men for all us single ladies, but here is a true story from someone who had wedding bells in her very recent past:  Light Bright.  She told me this morning that there was ivory in the bouquets she and her bridesmaids carried, and I didn't know what to think of that so I just responded, "Oh, uh-huh," or something equally as intelligent.  Then she said that one bridesmaid had planted the ivory for her and now it was growing.  I said, "WHAT??" and she said, "You know, ivory?  It's a vine?" and I said, "IVY??  Ivory is what elephant tusks are made of!"  Sometimes I really wonder what her native language is, like last week when she said, "I am so hungry!  I am just ravished!"  When I explained what she had just said, she was embarrassed but said, "Isn't there a word that sounds like that but that means hungry?" so I thought a moment and realized she had simply combined the words "famished" and "ravenous," which sounds innocuous enough until you mean to tell your office mate that you simply must get something to eat but instead you tell her you have been violated.  I will say this:  having Light Bright as as office mate is endternally entermusing!

Famous Hat

Miraculous Sideways Icicles

Yesterday at Mass the reader announced a reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Collisions - wonder if he's related to Light Bright? - and it was that oddly controversial reading about how women should be submissive to their husbands.  Helloo, ladies, if you think we got a bad deal, read the next section about how men must love their wives like Christ loved the Church.  That's right, they have to be ready to die for us and we just have to humor their silly requests.  So WHO got the bad deal?

I was amazed to see sideways icicles on the fire escape of the old Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety school building, and I couldn't help wondering about this miracle:  do the laws of physics not apply to OLPS?  Here, for reference, are your basic vertical icicles hanging from the eaves of my roof and the roof of the building across the way.

Ready?  Here are the sideways icicles!  I regret to inform you that there is nothing supernatural about this phenomenon.  Let's see if you can figure it out like Richard Bonomo and Kathbert did.

Did you figure it out?  Yes, the fire escape was horizontal when the icicles formed, and then the weight of all that ice pulled the fire escape down.  You can see more clearly in this closer shot that, as the icicles melt and refreeze, the ends are bending straight down.

I know you are jealous, but here at Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety we have a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel so you can adore Our Lord 24/7.  Not only that, but it was just redone.  I knew they were going to redo it, so I took a "Before" shot.

They turned the chapel from the width of the room to the length, which is much lovelier except that there  are two pillars, and now they block the view of the monstrance a little bit.

So we went from a makeshift altar to this beautiful triptych, which looks oddly familiar:  the golden color, the Gothic arches...  Compare it to this photo I took (that didn't turn out too clearly, unfortunately) of the Lutheran church.  Rich, Kathbert, Cecil Markovitch, Hardingfele, Rockstar Tailor, and I were just there for the Third Day of Christmas Carol Sing, and the church was decorated beautifully so I took this picture of it.

Famous Hat

Charlie and Cashmere's Merry Tiki Christmas

Yesterday Rich made another one of his classic quotes, when discussing someone who came to town for graduate school but did not complete it:  "A lot of us came here and got degrees that we never finished." That was almost as good as the time he said of his roommate:  "He's so tired that if you put a small bomb by his head, it wouldn't even go off!"

Some people were trimming the tree yesterday, but Hardingfele and I were trimming the claws - first on the bunnies, and then on Sylvia the hedgehog.  We went to the pet store to get presents for our little darlings (she has four cats), and this is what I got for Charlie and Cashmere:

A straw tiki hut!  I didn't get anything for Sylvia because she already has everything she wants:  a towel igloo and lots of cat food.  Well, I did buy her more cat food, but nothing specifically for a Christmas present.

I sang at both churches last night and went to a party at Luxuli's house in between.  Richard Bonomo said he was going to put in a wake-up call with my guardian angel, and sure enough, this morning I woke up at 8:30 despite being at the OTHER choir director's Froot Soop party until after 2:30 am.  We had a lovely dinner at Rich's house, but one place we had set was empty, in front of Aquinas the Computer:  A-Fooze was going to virtually join us via Skype, but we couldn't get a hold of her, so she was either out having fun or in bed.  Hope you had a Merry Christmas, A-Fooze!

Here is a video of Charlie and Cashmere discovering their Christmas present this morning:

Famous Hat

A White Oxford Christmas

You may have heard about the unusually heavy snowfall in England this year.  A-Fooze was there to take pictures of it.

Garden of A-Fooze's house

In front of A-Fooze's house

Head of the River Pub by the Thames River

Christ Church College gardens

Merton College on right

Merton College, another view

Berries by Merton College

(This picture makes me think of Palm Tree Fan's photos)

Berries and stained glass window

Radcliffe Camera (yes, that is the building's name)

View from the tower of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin: All Souls College

View from the tower of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin: Christ Church College in the background

View from the tower of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin: Merton College in the background

In front of the Sheldonian

Tree lit up for Christmas

Tom Tower, Christ Church College

Oxford on Sunday

Radcliffe Camera

Frozen gargoyles!

Thanks, A-Fooze, for all the great photos!  She took some awesome panoramic shots as well, but until I can figure out how to convince this blog not to post them sideways, they will have to wait.  These pictures should be enough to get us all in the mood for a white Christmas. 

Famous Hat

Merry Christmas Cactus Montage

Here is an Advent/Christmas montage for you of my Christmas cacti.  I don't know any Christmas songs about cacti so the closest I could come up with is "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming."  You may be wondering why you get two posts in one day.  Here are the two reasons:

1.  My blogging may be somewhat sporadic over the next few days.
2.  I tried to upload this on Sunday night but it didn't work so I'm trying it again.  (Update - it didn't work again on Wednesday night but for some reason did on Thursday at work.)

And yet another Light Bright story:  I got a call from a faculty member's secretary saying I had sent an empty interdepartmental envelope to her.  I was concerned, because the last thing I had sent her was important, but it was several weeks ago.  Fortunately Light Bright fessed up that she had sent the empty envelope; she had addressed it and meant to put something in it but forgot and then just tossed it in the mail.

Famous Hat

Hardinfele's Birthday Surprise

Yesterday Hardingfele had a birthday surprise when she discovered her blog:  http://uplysj.blogspot.com/  - we had completely forgotten about creating this!  On September 11, no less.  There was only one post on it at the time, our movie of Famous Hat Davison which is also on this blog.  We found this when she did an internet search on the term "uplysj," which is pronounced "oopleesh" and is a sort of made-up Norwegian word that means "unplush."  Now there are two posts on this blog.  Stay tuned for more, now that Hardingfele knows it exists!

This is not a surprise, in fact I have been waiting for it, but my Mekong dolphin finally arrived!  I gave some money to the World Wildlife Fund, and they sent me this adorable plushie.

Famous Hat

The Hardingsofa

Today was a bit slow at work, so Toque McToque and I were reminiscing about the time she sent Hardingfele a doctored photo of a cat she found online.  We thought it was hilarious because the cat was wearing glasses just like Hardingfele's and had an uncanny resemblence to her, but she didn't seem to notice.  Instead, she panicked about the fact that someone had somehow gotten a photo of her couch, the couch this cat was sitting on.  Because it is such an unusual couch, you see, and it isn't as if anyone else would have a couch just like it.

Then when someone stole Hardingfele's bike, I was trying to be helpful and posted a photo of it on this very blog, but she made me remove it because you could barely see one of her cats in the bottom right corner of the photo, and she was sure someone would somehow figure out from the photo where she lived and come steal the cat.  A cat, mind you, that she has plastered photos and videos of all over the blog herself.

When I would point out to Hardingfele that people weren't likely to stumble across this blog, and I can't even find it by googling it, she would google some made-up word like "tetracide" or "cardinary" that I have posted about and immediately find it.  So in the spirit of seasonal paranoia, I present:

The Hardingsofa!

Oh yes, it's true.  I am sure that from this photo you can exactly locate Hardinfele's house and rob her blind.  And because I made up the word "hardingsofa," this will be a very easy blog post to find via Google.  And where, you might ask, did I come up with this nefarious image?  Did I sneak into Hardingfele's house and take a picture of it?  No, it's a still shot from a video she posted on YouTube called "Cat NASCAR" or something like that.  As you can see, this is a highly unusual sofa and so the fact that it was in the background of the cat photo Toque found online is astonishing.

And if you can stand it, I have another Light Bright story:  she sent out an email with incorrect information to a whole bunch of doctors we work with, and then she sent an amended one that included this line:  "Thanks for your patients."  I did not realize the doctors were now referring them to her.

Famous Hat



Anyone Recognize These Chaplets?

Yesterday Richard Bonomo, Kathbert, and I spent hours online reading about chaplets.  Kathbert has an unusual one the OTHER choir director gave her which has one hundred beads, no divisions, and a San Damiano crucifix on the end.  She thought this was puzzling because the hundred-bead chaplet is usually an Orthodox thing, but the San Damiano crucifix is associated with St. Francis, and the Orthodox are not fans of his.  However, we discovered there are Byzantine Rite Franciscans, so they would probably use the chaplet like the Orthodox would, by praying the "Jesus Prayer" one hundred times. 

I am forever acquiring mysterious chaplets (and losing favorite ones, but that's another post); for example, just today I was going to show Light Bright a standard rosary, so I reached into my purse... and withdrew a one-decade rosary of translucent turquoise beads that I do not recall ever seeing before in my life.  While it's entirely plausible that people are sneaking into my office and planting one-decade rosaries in my purse while I'm not watching, that doesn't explain the odd chaplets that I have found around my house.

Seven Groups of Three

The online research we did would seem to indicate that this is a Peace Chaplet, which is something connected with Medjugorje.  The fact that the medal in the center says "Medjugorje" would seem to support this theory.  In this case, the single bead is the Creed and then each group of three is an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be.  But hey, a group of three lends itself well to things like the "Trisagion":

Holy God (first bead)
Holy Mighty One (second bead)
Holy Immortal One (third bead)
Have mercy on us (fourth... uh oh)

Six Groups of Three

We could find nothing online about this chaplet.  The crucifix, with grapevines on the ends and a huge halo over Jesus' head, is easily found online, but we could find nothing about its significance.  The beads are roses, and the chaplet was made in Italy.  Let me know if you know anything about this lovely little chaplet.  Kathbert suggested I create my own devotional and even mentioned an ancient Celtic prayer from the Sarum Primer:

God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at my end, and at my departing.

That only equals five, and far be it from me to amend an ancient Celtic prayer, but there does seem to be a line missing:  "God be in my ears, and in my listening."  So I figure I can pray this chaplet this way:  the Creed on the crucifix, an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be on the three starting beads, and then the first line of that prayer on the first bead in each group of three, followed by a Hail Mary and a Glory Be.  This appeals to me because the prayer is ancient AND Celtic, both traits that appeal to me.  And what should I call this chaplet?  The Celtic Chaplet?

Famous Hat

Guadalupized

Last weekend we had a bad snowstorm, so not many people made it to church on Sunday morning.  However, those of us who did were rewarded with the beautiful sight of Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety all decorated for the festivities of Our Lady of Guadalupe the night before.  Here are some photos:

Rich made some hot cocoa (from scratch, y'all - this is the GOOD stuff!), and we were going to put some Bailey's in it that I had left at his house, but we couldn't find it anywhere.  Finally we concluded The Mothership either hid it so well that we may never find it again, or she just threw it out.  So we put creme de menthe in our hot cocoa, and I tried to make a clover leaf with mine.

Famous Hat

Light Bright: A Seasonal Tale

Here is a seasonal Light Bright story for your reading pleasure:  after I named the poinsettia she gave me Vito, she named her red one Tony and her white one Frank.  Then we put labels on their pots:  "Vito Poinsettia," "Tony Poinsettia," and "Frank Poinsettia," using our DymoWriter label makers.  We put them in the window, where they must have gotten too cold, because Vito became very droopy and Tony became somewhat droopy, although oddly Frank seemed just fine.  This morning we took all the droopy leaves off of them, and Vito is totally bare, but it does have some new buds so it should recover.  Tony just had a few little leaves at the top of its stems so it looked like an exotic succulent, and a coworker came in (while I wasn't in the office) and asked Light Bright what kind of plant it was.  She couldn't remember so she gestured at Frank and said, "The same as that one."  As she recounted the story, she admitted that she still couldn't remember the name of the type of plant it was.  I had to point out that all three were labeled "Poinsettia."  Could I even make this stuff up?

I bought myself a virtual ePlush:  a Capricorn goat that I named Thanatos 2U, because she is going to slaughter the other creatures at these online games, including a monkey named Isobama-Moron.  I'm telling you, kids are not thinking of these names.  Sunday Dinner the Chicken!  That one still makes me laugh.  Thanatos 2U is representing me online, so it occurred to me that Representin' would have been an awesome name for her, but then I remembered that ePlush does not let you use apostrophes in names (remember my black poodle Josquin de Onyx?), so my Capricorn goat would have had the lame moniker Representin.  Although that does look kind of like Rasputin...  If anyone wants to give me an ePlush animal for Christmas or my upcoming birthday (hint, hint), I do have another name ready:  Hyperbad!  Here is a screen shot of Thanatos 2U slaughtering the other ePlushies:

And here, for your viewing convenience, I have scanned a little rosary I made during a rosary-making lesson at Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety.  Notice that it is not one of those knotted ones but an actual metal links one.  A lot of people got tired of it, because it can get tedious, so they didn't finish, but I did a whole decade just to discover there were no crucifixes to put on it, so I used an itty bitty miraculous medal instead.  This rosary is fully functional - I have used it many times.  In the highly unlikely event that I am someday canonized, can you imagine what they will think of this rosary?  A second-class relic handmade by the saint!  Whoa!  It hardly gets better than that!

Famous Hat

Sock Puppet League Episode Two: Merry Christmas!

This is what Sock Puppet did today.  The cartoon speaks for itself.

You were expecting a bad story, weren't you?  GOTCHA!!  I have to be nice because he really did give Light Bright and me each a box of Godiva Chocolates today.  But have no fear - I will still post some more of his ridiculous requests at some point.  Maybe in January, when the Christmas spirit will be replaced with generalized grumpiness about the crappy weather.

Famous Hat

Talking to the South Pole

Last night Richard Bonomo, Kathbert, Melodee, Astrochick, and I went to a talk about the South Pole, culminating in an actual phone call with people at the South Pole.  And guess what?  It's the same temperature there as here!  Who knew Antarctica was so cold?  Then we went to Rich's house and ate cookies, cookies, and more cookies.  My "disaster" cookies were actually more popular than my "presentable" cookies, but the big hit of the night was the Toque McToque Nutella bar.  HIGHLY recommended.  I have a link to the recipe, if anyone wants it.  I had also dropped off many of the cookies with Hardingfele and Rockstar Tailor to thank them for helping me. 

Astrochick was way out there last night, and I said her whole conversation was going to be posted here, but now of course I cannot remember anything she said, other than that she is obsessed with "the Cloud" and how some guy attached an iPhone to a weather balloon and how cool was that?  And she's a huge fan of Galileo, and someone declared that Newton was a bigger genius than Einstein, yada yada.  But now it just doesn't seem that funny, so instead let me tell you about Light Bright.  I sent her an email that included the following question:

Q:  How are the Vikings like a possum?
A:  They play dead at home and get killed on the road.

She asked me, "What is this word?" and was pointing at "possum."  Is that an uncommon word??

Today I was frustrated at work and said, "Son of a gun!" so she started singing, "Son of a gun, we're gonna have us some fun on the bio."  I said, "What?" and she said, "It's a country song," and I said, "Sure, that I understand, but what do you mean 'on the bio'?  Like on the biography?"  She said, "You know, a bio.  Like they have in Louisiana," and I said, "You mean a bayou?" and she said, "Yeah, a bio."  But this evening I was informed by my Archirritant that in fact that is the way the Cajuns who sing the song pronounce that word.  So there's your linguistics lesson for the day:  Cajun for bayou is bio.

Famous Hat

True Adventure: Cookie Disaster!

Last night Hardingfele, Rockstar Tailor, and I set out to make cookies for the Cookie Exchange at work. We pooled our resources, and I had two-thirds of a cup of white flour while she had wheat flour, so that was enough for the oatmeal cookie recipe we were planning to make. However, we had no butter, so we argued for a bit about the best way to acquire some, and finally Hardingfele braved the cold to walk across the street to the local grocery store. Meanwhile, I mixed together the dry ingredients, and Tailor mixed the wet ingredients once her mother returned with the butter. I thought we had measured everything carefully – at least Rockstar Tailor and I had – but Hardingfele put extra oats in so then she put in some more milk. Both of them thought the cookies were too salty, since I had used the prescribed amount but it was sea salt, and they said that was stronger. But the dough tasted pretty good, and we put some pieces of chocolate mint candies in it for an added holiday touch.

And then… we baked them. That’s when it was clear that something had gone horribly wrong. Was it because of the extra milk? Was it because we melted the butter in the microwave? The cookies tasted just fine, but they were very, very thin and crumbly, and I knew they would never do for a cookie exchange. I ended up running to the grocery store and buying sugar cookie dough so that at least I would have something for the Cookie Exchange. Hardingfele wanted to take a picture of the crumbly cookies, but I figure most people know what crumbly cookies look like, so a picture of them would not be blogworthy. I mean, it’s not like one of them looked like the Virgin Mary or something – that would have been blogworthy AND seasonally appropriate!

So now I have lots of cookies: the ones from the exchange, the crumbly but completely edible cookies, and some delectable Nutella bars Toque McToque made for me in exchange for editing a paper for her. (Did I ever mention that Toque used to be a pastry chef?) But I imagine that Hardingfele and Rockstar Tailor would be happy to help me with this problem, and so would Richard Bonomo, Kathbert, Melodee, and Astrochick. In fact, after a talk about Antarctica tonight, we plan to convene at Rich’s house for – you know it – milk and cookies!

Famous Hat

Sock Puppet League Episode One: Office Number

At the urging of Toque McToque, I am creating a periodic (as in whenever I feel like it) comic strip called "The Sock Puppet League," after a particular coworker who makes odd (one might even say unreasonable) requests.  However, the true adventures of Sock Puppet will not be limited to the real Sock Puppet, so watch this space for all sorts of abuse meted out by various superiors.  And the hat could represent me or (as in this particular case) my office mate, Light Bright.  Just think of it as the anonymous abused peon.  So here, without further ado, is Episode One, entitled "Office Number":

Sock Puppet League

Famous Hat

The Illustrated Post

Here are some more pictures for your viewing pleasure.  First is a hat I bought at Cornish Fest and forgot to post with the other photos of my Cornish Fest schwag, probably because it was warm out then.  Now that it is cold, I am loving my genuine mohair tam from Scotland.  And what is mohair?  Hair from a genuine mo?  You got me, but it's soft and warm.

This is a little towel a friend brought back from Singapore.  She gave it to Luxuli, who gave it to me.  It's very cute, like a little girl's dress.

But then explain this inscription:  "clover wine"???  Is this appropriate for a CHILD??

If anyone can read the label from the towel, let me know.  I believe it's in Mandarin...

Then here are some things I ordered online.  Here is an Irish rosary (yes, it was actually made in Ireland) that I got to pray what Hardingfele calls our "Rosary to Score."  Truthfully, Luxuli, OK Cap, Jilly Moose, Anna Banana II, and I are praying the rosary to find husbands.  (Since Luxuli already has a perfectly good husband, and Kathbert would like one but refuses to pray the rosary just because she is Lutheran, she has decided Luxuli is praying for her by proxy.)

Here is a hoodie I ordered from the same website, Leaflet Missal.  We looked up the Gaelic online, and it really is a translation of the English phrase; it doesn't say "death to Protestants" or anything like that.

That hoodie was on back order for weeks, so I got impatient and ordered this one from Cafe Press:

On the back is the prayer which I believe is called "The Breastplate of St. Patrick":

Here are the plants at Rich's house.  I neglected to put them on my post about Plant World.  First is a photo of Jolly Bob, The Professor, Greg, Dr. Cheung, and Rich's poinsettia hanging out in the dinette.  The Mothership LOVED these plants - she said they made her feel like she was at the Bronx Botanical Gardens.  They must have loved her right back, because I have never seen them look so happy.

And here are my desert cacti hanging out in the south-facing windows of Rich's loft:

Here are on the ones on the left side.  The little one has "spines" that seem to be made of paper.

And here are the ones on the right, including a living stone and one that looks like a bunny.

In one office in a building I walk by on my way to the bus every evening, someone has a parlor palm, a ponytail palm, AND a sago palm.  I am so jealous because my parlor palms are not nearly as bushy, my sago palm never recovered after I brought it home from work and now appears to be dead, and my ponytail palm was killed by mealy bugs.  (I bought some medicine for it, but it was too late.)  But I'll tell you what that person does not have that I do:  a Christmas cactus in full bloom!

I realize that I already posted photos of these a couple of posts ago, but who really gets tired of looking at Christmas cacti in full bloom?

Famous Hat