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QotD: Kissing under the Mistletoe

If you could kiss anyone under the mistletoe, who would it be?

Aziz ansari

QotD: Merry Christmas to All and To All a Good Night

Felipe Anuel
2 days ago
1 comment

How and where are you spending this Christmas Day? Make spirits bright by sharing a photo!

Well . . . I was supposed to be spending it over at my cousin's house but got a text this morning that he had a heart attack and is currently in the hospital. So I'm going there to check up on him.

Happy hollydays from kawaii.vox.com!

Lauren
4 days ago
18 comments

Moonmallow (the adorable plushie above) and I hope you and your loved ones have some very happy hollydays this year. ^___^ I've been busy with buying pressies for my friends and family, wrapping the pressies, and sending out cards to people over the past few weeks. Everything seems like a blur-- but a very happy blur!

I'm sending many warm thoughts your way. <3

Music: '09 Favorites

Transition

Ryan Leslie

Music for Men

Gossip

Ghostdini the Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City

Ghostface Killah

Revolution

Miranda Lambert

Guilty Pleasure of '09

When you hear it 50 million times at your favorite strip club/drag bar (not that I've ever seen a drag show) it kinda sinks in.

The "How Come I'm Just Hearing This?!" Award

19 - All The Way Down

Etta James

This song pod up on the shuffle while I was walking the mall and I felt like I had just been pulled into Jackie Brown's caper. "Ray! Ray! Come out, Ray. He got away!"

Speaking of Etta, the "At Last!" Award goes to . ..

05 - Goin' on a Holiday

Patti LaBelle

I've been looking for Labelle's "Goin' on a Holiday" for awhile. No digital copy nowhere. Luckily, I ran across it on compilation album when I went back to Carolina for the holiday.

Turning East

Steve Betz
Dec 18, 2009
5 comments

Most mornings, when we walk Penny and climb Mt Miramar, we look to see how good the ocean view is – how crisp and how far can we see – Pendleton? The Coronado Islands off Mexico? One day last month, when it was exceptionally clear, we could see Catalina Island.

But this morning, the slate grey Pacific held little interest, as our gazes turned east to the rocky summits of eastern San Diego County and beyond. Today is the first day of our Winterreise – our trip to see The Beloved’s folks for Christmas.

Backlit East County

Penny had a good long walk and I know from all the running around and prep that we've been doing that she knows something's up.

Are you coming?

We’re shooting to be on the road today by noon. Wish us luck!

Early Season on Christmas

Steve Betz
Dec 15, 2009
7 comments

With our upcoming cross-country adventure looming, the Beloved and I decided to celebrate our own Christmas a little early this weekend. On Saturday, we stayed in our jammies, opened our stockings and exchanged gifts. Penny got her first stocking and was excited to find a couple of new toys and a few treats.

Stocking Stuffers

We said no tv or computer and we stayed in, lit the fireplace, listened to Christmas music and read. The weather cooperated for such a day by providing a much too rare all-day rain. Pretty much a perfect day.

Sleeping and Reading

1 comment

The Christmas feast this year was a Bobby Flay recipe that we’d decided on – a veritable mouthful: Pan Seared Duck with Red Chile Pear Sauce, Bourbon-Brown Sugar-Asian Pear Relish and Potato-Blue Cheese Cakes. We had it with an excellent Novy Family Syrah.

PSDwRCPSBBSAPR&PBCC

This week is busy with a lot of prep and packing. I did stop by AAA today while I was out and scored this important travel aide:

Traveling With Your Pet, 10th Edition: The AAA Petbook

AAA

We hit the road in THREE DAYS!

My Imaginary Ovaries? Puddle of Goo . . .

Felipe Anuel
Dec 15, 2009
2 comments

Real-life russell

pinched from aziz is bored

Holiday CSA box Happy Hour: The Persimmon Margarita

Steve Betz
Dec 14, 2009
6 comments

Sometimes things come in our bi-weekly CSA box and you’re just not sure what to do with them. Or more precisely, you’re not sure what to do with SO MUCH of them. Case in point – this summer, we ate a lot of bok-choi. I mean a LOT of bok-choi -- enough that you really run out of new recipes that you want to try and sort of dread seeing more in the next box.

There was a chance that would happen when in our last box, we got a whole bag of persimmons – and we weren’t sure what to do with them all. There was talk of persimmon pudding and maybe some persimmon quickbread… but then Imbibe magazine came to the rescue with something perfect for the holidays...

The Persimmon Margarita

1 3/4 oz. tequila reposado

1 ½ tbsp persimmon puree

1/2 oz. simple syrup

1 oz. lime juice

Beforehand, take your persimmons and cut off the caps and then quarter and blend (skins and all) in a blender. Then combine the ingredients listed above in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

A good use of fresh fruit

This is a really refreshing drink and is bright and cheerful for the holidays. The little touch of cinnamon also helps it fit right in on any Holiday menu.

Tea, Earl Grey. Hot.

Wil
Dec 11, 2009
2 comments

Tea, Earl Grey. Hot., originally uploaded by Theremina.

My friend Meredith haz my mug.

Close Only Counts in Horseshoes and…

Steve Betz
Dec 10, 2009
7 comments

The City of Brotherly Love. This week, the Philadelphia Eagles organization announced that they’d extended head coach Andy Reid’s contract three more years (which would take him through the 2013 seasons). If Big Red makes it through that, he will have coached the Eagles for 15 straight seasons. A remarkable achievement really – only 12 coaches have coached one team for 15 seasons in the NFL. A lot of them are in the Hall of Fame.

And then there’s Andy Reid.

The Reid-McNabb Era with the Eagles (they began together) to me is one of the great water cooler discussions of the last decade, because they make you address the question: Is it more important to be consistently good or to win a Championship? (The obvious answer is that you want both, but we’re not talking about the Steelers or Patriots here…)

Same as it ever was

Since 1999, the Eagles have been one of the winningest teams in the NFL -- amassing a record of 105-66-1, which is essentially 10 wins a season every season for more than a decade. After Reid’s first year, in which the Eagles went from 3 wins to 5, the Birdz have been under 0.500 only once. The Eagles have won the NFC East 5 times (and could win their 6th this season), have made the playoffs 7 times, playing in 5 NFC championship games.

Of course, the blemish on the current (and I suppose now future) regime picks up there. They are 1-4 in NFC Championship games (which is pretty bad considering they were favored in 3 of them) and they lost the only Super Bowl they reached to the Patriots. So, in the end, a lot of success, but no championships.

Let’s contrast that to a different team, baseball’s Florida Marlins. Since 1999, the Marlins have gone a decidedly meh 875-905 (0.491 winning percentage) and have not won the National League East. They have come in 2nd only twice. In those 11 years, they have had one (count ‘em… one) playoff appearance when they were the NL wild-card in 2005. And yet, that year, they went on to win the World Series.

One Time Champs

And so, which would you rather root for:

A team that wins a lot of games, that is relevant year-in-and-year-out, that consistently makes the playoffs and contends for, but never wins a championship – rightfully said to underachieve on the biggest stages.

or

A team that has been generally irrelevant except for one season in which enough things came together for them to squeak into the playoffs and pull off (an over-achieving) Championship, only to return to irrelevance?

And thinking about it, despite all the frustrations and disappointments, I have to say that I was glad to hear that we’ll have a few more years of the Reid-McNabb Eagles trying to get to the summit.

What about you?