Mmmm, bacon.

So, Internet, it may not have been my goal of creating and eating this, but I did manage to eat bacon for breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday.

Someday, bacon chalice filled with cheese soup, you will be mine...someday.

You know, it's kinda cold outside.

Apparently the people in Alaska get it.
I wish the people around here, and the ones in Washington, D.C. got it, too.
Quit trying to tax me for everything I do.
You think you can control the weather?
You can't.
But instead you'll be satisfied controlling my money.
Idiots.

Far be it from me to ever be uncouth... (Please. Stop laughing.)

So over the last month or two, Internet, I keep hearing an ad that makes me laugh, and not really in a good way. Have you heard of the medication Aciphex? Well, I have. And when I first heard it, I was not watching the pictures on the TV machine, and I instantly thought, "What an awful name for a medication." Then I looked at how it was spelled, and it's different than I thought. (And it's medicinal purpose is also different than I thought.) Think about it. How does the word sound? Does it really sound like two words, and you really have problems (or will have problems shortly after taking it) in your nether regions? (If I have to explain more to you than this, don't bother asking 'cause you're apparently thinking too hard and I'm too couth to spell it out.)

Then I went to their website, and I realized it's spelled "AcipHex." Now, I understand that they're trying to make you realize that your pH balance is what they're after, and by taking their product your acidity refluxing problems will go away. But now it sounds and spells like by taking this drug, you've got (or will get) a completely different nether regions problem and you'll have a hex on you, too.

Oy vey. Do these drug companies not test the naming and marketing of their products, in addition to the actual testing of the products? I'm guessing not.

But maybe I'm not thinking this through clearly. Maybe by combining the name of the product with its list of side effects, the company and its marketing department have something smart going on.

Put your mittens on like your mother told you to do.

Dear Well- but Under-Dressed People Wandering Around Downtown Saint Paul, with your jackets unzipped and no hats or gloves - or worse, you over there with no jacket on at all:

It may have been very sunny, but it was -7˚ at 10:30 this morning. Zip up your coat...or put one on! Sure, we're tough, we Minnesotans, but that's just downright ridiculous.

What a way to start the new year:

Things you can be made fun of for on New Year's Eve:

1. Being 21 years old (the youngest at the party) and the first to fall asleep on the couch

2. Drinking "punch" out of a martini glass (read: eating sherbet out of a martini glass with a plastic fork)

3. Wearing a retro dress (stolen from your mother's cedar closet) at a Vintage New Year's Eve party (read: making fun of yourself for your inability to breathe while wearing a dress you wouldn't be caught dead in in any other situation)

4. Wanting to see how death-warmed-over Dick Clark looks on TV

5. Having a good time with many friends while ringing in 2010? Priceless.

Happy 2010!

Art: You should like it 'cause it's cool.

Internet, if you were a person, I'd tell you to go see the Louvre exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. But since you aren't a person, I need you to help me tell other people to go see it. You see, it's a very well-done exhibit filled with some beautiful art: some paintings, some drawings, some sculpture, some other stuff. It includes all sorts of interesting pieces that have helped define what a "masterpiece" is to different generations. Even the forgeries they've included in the exhibit are beautiful works of art (and also thought to be masterpieces before they were uncovered as frauds). I liked it very much when I went there with some of the fam yesterday, especially because I learned stuff (like what repoussé and chasing are) and got to see some interesting and intelligent art. I also enjoyed the two corresponding exhibits (one on what the MIA curators believe to be masterpieces, with one of my favorite pieces from that collection here, and the other an exhibit showing all the different pieces that Vermeer used in 1668 in his painting The Astronomer - let me tell you: it's kind of cool to see an astrolabe up close and personal). So, Internet, tell your [real, human] friends that they should go see it: on now at the MIA until January 10, 2010.

^
John Martin, English, engraving Pandemonium, 1825

<
Antoine-Louis Barye, French, bronze Lion with Serpent, 1833-1836






>
Jean-Baptiste-Jules Klagmann, French, silver ewer, ca. 1848 (example of repoussé and chasing)

2009 v. 2010: Accomplishments v. Goals

Q: Accomplishment in 2009?

A: I, having been nominated to undertake the task for the first time ever, made the gravy for the turkey on Christmas Day (mainly 'cause no one else standing around in the kitchen wanted anything to do with it). It was a tasty success. I figure if you can make good, edible, non-lumpy gravy, you can cook pretty much anything.

Q: New goal for 2010?

A: I have decided that for vacation next year, I want to go here and do some of this and this and this, and see some of this and most definitely this, and maybe ride one of these. And some other stuff, too. Doesn't Alaska sound great? You'd think with all the snow we've received here lately, I would be less interested in hiking about in a wilderness where you can see snow all the time. But no. I'm dreaming of AK next summer.

Ah, Winter

My balcony, around the time our great winter whiteout started on Wednesday

My dad with the snowblower at their house on Christmas Eve - before I stole it 'cause I like to play with it

"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"

Merry Christmas!

Antonio da Correggio's Nativity (1529-1530)

When came in flesh the incarnate Word,
The heedless world slept on,
And only simple shepherds heard
That God had sent His Son.

When comes the Savior at the last,
From east to west shall shine
The awful pomp, and earth aghast
Shall tremble at the sign.

Then shall the pure of heart be blest;
As mild He comes to them,
As when upon the virgin’s breast
He lay at Bethlehem.

As mild to meek eyed love and faith,
Only more strong to save;
Strengthened by having bowed to death,
By having burst the grave.

Lord, who could dare see Thee descend
In state, unless he knew
Thou art the sorrowing sinner’s Friend,
The gracious and the true?

Dwell in our hearts, O Savior blest;
So shall Thine advent’s dawn
’Twixt us and Thee, our bosom Guest,
Be but the veil withdrawn.

Words: Joseph Anstice (1808 - 1836)

Music: Walsall, attributed to Henry Purcell (1658-1695)

Merry Christmas!

Some Christmas Pics from Minny LinnEy

At Home: a real fake Christmas tree

(Instead of the fake-fake tree...but don't worry: We still put up the coat rack Christmas tree, too)

At the Parents' Home: Lots of snow, with more to come