ugh, i hate new year's

i'll celebrate by watching this movie again.
i also use this movie to celebrate fall/halloween and christmas.
what can i say? it's versatile.

Oh dear, it's ending.

This is cute though.

Have a Merry One

xoxo

Love this too much

The Crossgates Mall flash mob was dreamed up by Leslie Eliashuk, a 23-year-old College of Saint Rose student getting a master's in music education, and some friends. They spread the word through Facebook and e-mail to church choirs, amateur music groups and anywhere people get together to sing. Twenty people practiced once before the event. More than four times that amount showed up.


That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
<3

Decking the halls

I attempted to Christmassy-up my place yesterday...unfortunately that resulted in a lot of broken glass and a super amount of frustration. Many of the (breakable) items seen in these photos are no more, and will have to be replaced. Grrr. The small trees are unharmed, which means I can continue to photograph them obsessively from every conceivable angle.

It's that time again...

Getting a jump on the Christmas baking for this year. I always make way too many, and as much as I love it, it can become a bit exhausting, especially if I wait until too late in the month to get started. Some of my favorites/staples each year: chocolate dipped coconut macaroons, chocolate crinkles, and this butter cookie recipe which can be used to make all sorts of various shapes and sizes of cookie (great for spritz cookies). New this year -- I think I'll try out this recipe. Got any favorites of your own? Share away!

Letters to Santa: Books

Dear Santa,
These are some of the books on my current wishlist,
and I'd be just tickled to find any one of them under the tree on Christmas morning.
Love to Mrs. Claus and the elves.

xo
Kim

Going to see the classic Bonnie & Clyde on the big screen at Palace Theater tonight (oh please let us find close-ish parking, it's so cold & windy outside!)


Trying to dress like Bonnie Parker when you have short hair...

...means that you will inevitably end up looking like:

(That cartoon always freaked me waaayy out. Still does.)

all i wanna do today...

***

This is why I say I am a "slow reader." It takes me forever to get through any book.

The Season's Begun

I'm feeling super giddy this morning because in about an hour I'm off to Proctor's to see the stage production of one of my favorite Christmas movies. I'm not generally a huge fan of Broadway-type shows, but seeing how I've been watching White Christmas ever since I was old enough to sit in front of a television screen, this should be a lot of fun. I love Bing Crosby -- he's one of about five artists I listen to religiosly at Christmastime -- but my love goes even deeper than that.

The Family Stone

I forced myself to wait/allowed myself to watch this the morning after Thanksgiving, huddled in bed with hot pancakes and coffee (and kitty). Yes it's a Christmas movie, but seeing how I think about it all year long and start wanting to watch it around October, November 26th doesn't seem so bad. I love love LOVE everything about this movie, words cannot explain. The fact that it's 1. jammed with a bunch of my very favorite people (hello Diane Keaton, Claire Danes aka Angela Chase, Luke Wilson, COACH!, SJP and Rachel McAdams) 2. I want to live in that house, 3. it's full of awkward, painful, this-could-be-your-life moments, and of course, 4. Christmas. It's sort of a comedy, if you file it under dark comedies. It figures heavily into my rotation of Christmas movies.

Happy Thanksgiving!

***
A funny looking dragon in 1931 -- and men in hats :)

Tidbits

New Reading

Making tomorrow
***




Going to see tonight




At work today -- and yes I wore mine all day long

Why so pretty?

***
No really, why?

Well it's about time

Not that I haven't owned all of their music since my obSESSive middle and high school years...but even though I haven't necessarily needed to access it, without their music being available on iTunes for the past however many years, all just hasn't been right with the world.
((Oh God Paul love love)) <3 <3

Rereading

"USDA figures show a decline in the nutrient content of the forty-three crops it has tracked since the 1950s. ...you now have to eat three apples to get the same amount of iron as you would have gotten from a single apple grown in 1940.

The news of declining nutrient levels in American produce prompted The Packer, a trade publication for the produce industry, to suggest that this might actually be good for business, because people would now need to eat more produce to get the same nutritional benefit."

I suddenly had the urge today to reread this book - which I originally purchased and read when it was first released. I'm currently suffering from a second major illness in as many months, and am on my second round of antibiotics so that I can go back to work in a timely manner. It's no secret that I've been eating very badly since starting this job over a year ago, and I know that's at least partly to blame for my insufficient immune system. Time to make a change, i.e. get back to where I was a year and a half ago. It would be even better if I could get back to where we were 50 or more years ago. Maybe then I'd actually make it through a month without getting sick. Oh wait, there are other variables to consider, like the fact that my workplace forbids opening the windows, but thinks nothing of conducting ongoing construction in the building for over a year, forcing us all to breathe in unhealthy air for 8 hours each day.

Anybody there?

Ran across this old favorite the other day at the store -- it seems stock increases just in time for the holiday(s).

I had a Ouija board when I was little, which I loved and thought was just the greatest (mine did not glow in the dark - which seems to be the newer incarnation - but was all black and brownish and appropriately mysterious looking). I received it as a gift from my parents when I was in elementary school, so I never had the inclination to be scared of it or even think twice about it, really. It was just something fun and kind of silly, the idea of talking to ghosts was exciting, along the same lines as attempting to stay awake on Christmas Eve to catch Santa in the act. I have a clear memory of hauling the board into school when I was about 9 or 10 years old to try to get my friends to use it during snack time or indoor recess. That was around the same time I conducted "Bloody Mary" seances in the school's bathroom (we always chickened out before seeing her face).

My Dad recently told me, "I got one for Christmas when I was young -- everybody my age had one back then." Hm. In the 1920’s the Ouija board was so popular that many of the large newspapers ran weekly columns on how to use the boards. Ouija boards were extremely popular parlor games and outsold Monopoly in 1967. It's fascinating to me that hardly anyone seems to have one anymore, when for over 100 years they were so popular and widely used. Mine is still around, in the basement of my childhood home. I'd be a bit reluctant to use it today, though, unfortunately. I'm afraid my grown-up beliefs in more sinister things would yield different results than I was met with when I was a child.

N is for Narwhal

just love that.
that's all.

Tomorrow

The venue for Mockingbird Marathon has changed -- it's now being held at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza. Not one of my favorite places, but that's another story. Uh oh, that's dangerously close to Chipotle...