Look. I know you all know, but Pat is less than $400 away from getting the full $5500 funding for his pool. If he doesn't make the target amount, all the money gets refunded.
Help out if you can, I know its tight times after the holiday, but you know you'll swim or skate that pool at some point in 2011. If anything, help a real rad dude get his dream project finished. It'll come back to you.

woah!
krimbus happent. i had a bunch of time off, four days my friend, which meant ooooh fun cleaning and cooking and stuff. also, because of that holiday thing it meant mucho grande family time. friend family, my family, and Wolak family.

there was a lot of hanging out with dogs, that is always really nice.

first there was friend party time, at the kelleys house. so many faces to see that had been dearly missed.

there was a lot of sitting around a table full of delicious food, talking and discussing all the latest deets of everyones lives.

then that dern baby started drinking again...eeesh. not really! cora is totes straightedge, duh.

when i came home from friend party andrew had romantically put up my christmas tree. it made me cry, really serisouly. i have seasonal depression you see and it makes me cry at romantic things. but only in the winter, so you can suprise me romantically in the summer with no fear.
oh gosh, after friend party came my family party the next morning.
my mood was only 50% sad/upset, thats better than usual!

as always my mom had really gone to town on the place. even the chandelier!

she even brought in the yule stick!

we all sat around and ate lots of food and talked about our hobbies. most of the food was organized with little signs that told you what it was, and also told you what to eat it with. for example: there was a tiny sign that said "hummus" and underneath hummus it said "tortilla chips." isn't that helpful???

see? you can see the little signs. thats my family's motto, you know, "put signs in your food."

there were some dogs there to hang out with too, tuffy and lexi, and they were insane and crazy and totally ferocious and filled with loud farts and barks.

allright maybe i'm kidding, they are demure and sweet and fashionably warm, and softer than little lambs.
so you see, my grandma, who is sweet and wonderful, made most of the food for this get together. it was really a feast...so many different things labeled neatly that your eyes could not believe. upon arriving, i was advised to not eat anything with a sign on it, which was nearly everything. still the rebellious teenager, i only ate things with signs, also because i like organization. hm, well later i found out that my grandma made the foods over a week ago, and was totally ready for christmas feasting way before the due date. noone could look her in the eye when she asked how the buffalo chicken dip was, see?

well i felt fine later.
and by later, i mean at delicious dinner with the Wolaks!

we took photobooth photos in front of the tree

oh i forgot to tell you about how on christmas eve i got crazy and gave myself a haircut. it was sort of an all day affair. it started with a bang trim, but over the course of the afternoon became a full on endeavor. anyway, i like it.
hm. so after all that doubling up on possibly bad food then very good food, we went home and slept like logs.
THEN the next day we did nothing.
by nothing, i mean that we did sit and take delight in our presents from the day before, you bet cher butt.

andrew wouldn't stop holding this skateboard for some reason, i guess he really liked it.

then we went to get mexicun dinner!

we were all so full that we couldn't move after all the tacos, so we collectively sat and relaxed.

i took the time to observe some very cute ornaments while i was digesting.
then you know what? we went to bed.
the next morning was back to work for andrew, but i had the day off STILL. i worked all day on being not at work. i ran so many errands and did so many things that it would make your head spin to hear them all.
most importantly i made these:

they are for a chili potluck tonight, and they are chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels. i had one for breakfast, and let me tell you. they are so dern good.
well my coworker just left work barfing! if i get sick i swear to god i'm gonna punch someone. this throwing up is the worst kind of sick, i will seriously be angry if it get it.
i will keep you posted.

Let's talk about treats. I made a ton of different things this weekend for presents. Oh Mai god, so many things.
So today, to ready myself for a chili get together tomorrow night, I made something especially delicious. Something that no human could deny, oh garsh the love of peanut butter, chocolate, and pretzel all together.

Get the chocolate of your choice. Today i used mik chocolate, but this weekend I also used white and dark.
Melt it. Remember that time I told you how to do it in the microwave? Well maybe now you've ruined a couple tries and you are a professional chocolatier. Fifteen seconds at a time is no joke, stir it everytime until it is the right consistency.
See, like this.

Not too thick, not too thin.
Lay out some wax paper on a cool countertop.
You need to make a little landing pad about the size of the pretzel you are going to use.

Put a pretzel on each spot! Press it down so the chocolate holds it in place.

If you want to be all pro about it and you have just buckets of time, let the chocolate cool so the pretzels really won't move around when you get to the next step. Now, about that next step.

Take your peanut butter and spread it across the top of the pretzel, squish it Into the holes. Oh gad this is just shaping up to be so dern good.

Take a big dollop of chocolate and put it on top. Spread it around so you totally cover the pretzel and peanut butter. You can tap it a little to make it disperse, or man if you had a little chemistry lab vibrating table you'd be really set.

Let the chocolate set for many hours. Serve these treats to your favorite friends, or secret them away just for yourself you greedy pig, you.
The more of these you make, the better you get and the more perfect and fancy they get. Oh try not to get peanut butter on the electrical outlet. It's really sort of scary to clean up.

next time i take 360 pictures of the apartment ill do a better job, and clean up first.

got a bed for the dogs, they love it.

its still cold. we'll see if we got slammed with snow again this weekend.

so buying a house means that everyone gets homemade presents for christmas. also, its pretty obvious, if its winter and it doesn't involve a bonfire or food, i'm not doin it. sad, but true. when its cold outside i cook.
lets talk about chex mix. it is delicious.
gather some ingredients. its a really weird simple thing to make.

check the dates on the spices you don't use very often. like this worcestershire sauce, it expired in '06. ew throw that junk away. onion powder that expired in '07? why did you even move it when you moved into this apartment? hoarder.

prepare your assistant.

measure out about nine cups of chex. rice, corn, and wheat chex. put it in a huge bowl that you can safely microwave for a long time.

get some bagel chips, probably about a cups worth. break em up into smallish pieces. be sure to have your assistant sample a small piece for quality control.

gather a cup of peanuts.

prepare a cup of mini pretzels.

dump em all in the bowl!

measure out 6 tablespoons of butter. put it in a dish to melt.

gather some spices and put them in a dish to blend. seasoning salt!

garlic powder!

onion powder!

go ahead and microwave that butter, melt it real good.

dump in the blended spices

whisk em together!

now add some worcestershire sauce. 2 tablespoons i think, you can add a little more but not too much.

add the blend to the dry cereal mix. stir or shake it up so that everything is evenly coated.

see, a little bit of sauce on everything.

microwave it for six minutes. i don't think i've ever microwaved anything that long, ever.

every two minutes, take it out and stir it up. otherwise everything on the bottom of the bowl will burn. or melt into the plastic of the bowl, oh the horror.

give it a good toss over!

lay out some wax paper for cooling/drying of the mix. you can use paper towel too, if you're making regular mix, but since we're making white chocolate covered chex mix we're gonna need wax paper.

two minute mark! stir it again!

reassure your assistant, it is important to let them know that they are really helpful.

okay. so the mix is done micorwaving. spread it out on the paper to cool and dry. i guess ten minutes or so?

now lets get the chocolate all melted. i'm really bad at chocolate stuff, i learned this a year ago when i ruined chocolate over and over. i like to think i've gotten better at it, now that i've had some practice.

start small. its hard to guess the melted volume of a solid, i think. put it in a glass bowl and start to microwave it. every 15 seconds or so take it out and stir it. even though it is still a solid shape, it will continue melting as you stir it. it holds its shape even as it melts, oh chocolate you deciever! that is why it is so easy to burn it...you may think that because it is still a square, it is not melting. next thing you know its chunky and ruined. bummer.

also i learned that you can add a tiny bit of oil if it is not the consistency you want. not too much or it will not set properly, but a tiny drizzle of almond oil can save you if your chocolate has tricked you and it is getting thick.

drizzle that chocolate everywhere. let it cool. bag it to give it away or eat as much as you possibly can. its real good and very addictive.

it is likely that your assistant now needs a nap.