Merry Christmas Y'all!

It's a strange one this year because I'm here by myself but not the strangest. The strangest was 2004 when my flight on the 22nd was cancelled because of a blizzard in the midwest and they booked me on a flight the next morning and I got to the airport almost 3 hours early and was still standing in the security line when it took off. You gotta love ATL. My luggage (and all the gifts) flew to Pittsburgh and I finally went home and sat alone. And waited for the luggage to reappear so I could mail them off before I went to Japan. This year is far better. Much less stressful.

This year my tree is up, I have a roast in the oven, and the cats are about to wake up from their 18 hour nap. Menu for tonight: A freaking expensive as hell rib roast smothered in a garlic/olive oil paste. Twice baked potatoes. Steamed asparagus. This roast just floored me. I went to the farmer's market today to get it and the price standing in the window was $5.49/pound. I bought the smallest one which looked to be about 3 pounds. When they rang it up it was $42!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jesus Christ (happy birthday by the way) !!! Turns out the signage was incorrect and I bought a roast that was $12.99/pound!! Fuck me running y'all! So I have been totally anal about preparing this thing. It could very well be the most expensive thing I've ever prepared! If it isn't perfectly rare and garlicky and tender heads will roll.

Today at the farmer's market I bought myself a stocking stuffer gift. A microplane grater. I've wanted one for a long time and it was $8.99 and. Well. I'm worth it. I'm even worth up to $10. SO I got it. And then I had to use it all over the place to prepare tonight's dinner so I'm waiting for it to dry so I can put it in my stocking and I promise to wake up in the morning and act surprised. Even though I have scraped most of the skin off my right thumb and will ingest it later with my twice-baked potatoes.

I found out today I will fly to Santiago Jan. 4 and be there until the 25th. Of January. I plan to fully enjoy the next few days and then start laundering my summer clothes. I have been warned to bring my bathing suit. Ouch. It's summer there and as of this morning was 85 at 10 am. Also they are having lots of earthquakes. So will be like Japan except totally opposite in weather. Just when I was bonding with my sweats . . .

With my best wishes for a very Merry Christmas and also Sonny, Dylan, Camille and Phoebe say hi!