the year in mix tapes: 2009

Didn't exactly manage a playlist a month this year either...

February 2009

1. Scott Pilgrim - Plumtree
2. Punk Boy - Helen Love
3. Jennifer's Body - Hole
4. Death - White Lies
5. A Thing For Me - Metronomy
6. Feel Free - Kano f. Damon Albarn
7. High Heel Sneakers - Tommy Tucker
8. Dust My Blues - Elmore James & His Broom Dusters
9. Daddy's Gone - Glasvegas (fast version)
10. I Could Have Done This Myself - Lightspeed Champion
11. A New England - Billy Bragg
12. Caskets - Damien Jurado
13. Lost Coastlines - Okkervil River
14. Funeral Face - Suburban Kids With Biblical Names
15. I'm A Pilot - Fanfarlo
16. Let's Fall Back In Love - Slow Club

March 2009

1. Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones
2. Mr Big Stuff - Jean Knight
3. Pressure Drop - Toots and the Maytals
4. My Girls - Animal Collective
5. Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads
6. Everyday People - Sly and the Family Stone
7. Pull Shapes - The Pipettes
8. Dull Life - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
9. King Rocker - Generation X
10. Public Image - Public Image Ltd
11. Knife (Grizzly Bear cover) - Born Ruffians
12. Uptown Top Ranking - Althea & Donna
13. Lights Out - Santogold
14. But It's Alright - Eddie Floyd
15. Johnny Too Bad - The Slickers
16. Clean Up Woman - Betty Wright
17. Try A Little Tenderness - Otis Redding

April 2009

1. Galaxy Of The Lost - Lightspeed Champion
2. Fake Empire - The National
3. You Made Me Like It - 1990s
4. The Frug - Rilo Kiley
5. Baby It's You - Smith
6. Little Garcon - Born Ruffians
7. 26 Miles - Dent May
8. Tricycle - Psapp
9. Coconut - Harry Nilsson
10. Piazza, New York Catcher - Belle & Sebastian
11. Tree Hugger - Antsy Pants
12. I Don't Do Crowds - Camera Obscura
13. My Good Deed - Shearwater
14. Drinking, Thinking, Sinking, Feeling - Slow Club
15. Gone Under Sea - Electrelane

May 2009

1. Summer Shakedown - Slow Club
2. Cheerleader - Grizzly Bear
3. Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk - Lightspeed Champion
4. The Killing Moon - Pavement
5. Creep - Radiohead
6. Animal Nitrate - Suede
7. Electric Feel - MGMT
8. Stay Don't Go - Spoon
9. Heartbreaker - Metronomy
10. Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me - The Pipettes
11. Blue Boy - Orange Juice
12. Barnacle Goose - Born Ruffians
13. Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel
14. Fire Escape - Fanfarlo
15. Love You Better - The Maccabees
16. Always On My Way Back Home - Jay Jay Pistolet

June 2009

1. Run To Your Grave - The Mae Shi
2. Lessons Learned - Matt & Kim
3. It Doesn't Have To Be Beautiful - Slow Club
4. A Summer Chill - This Is Ivy League
5. Sleep All Summer - The National f. St Vincent
6. Feeling Good - Muse
7. Darling, You're Mean - The Duke Spirit
8. Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear
9. Mockingbird - Inez Foxx and Charlie Foxx
10. Welcome To My Heart - The Bouquets
11. My Heart Is Out Of Bounds - The Long Blondes
12. No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
13. First Love - The Maccabees
14. Rudi, A Message To You - The Specials
15. Drive-In Saturday - David Bowie
16. Good Love, Bad Love - Eddie Floyd
17. The Way I Feel Inside - The Zombies
18. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) - Ella Fitzgerald

July/August 2009

1. Heartless - Kanye West
2. Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse
3. Little Girl - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse f. Julian Casablancas
4. Daylight - Matt and Kim
5. Trophy Room - Slow Club
6. Wild Young Hearts - Noisettes
7. Fuck You - Lily Allen
8. Bruises - Chairlift
9. Close To Me - The Cure
10. Hey Now - Talking Heads
11. End Of A Century - Blur
12. Kids - MGMT
13. Wouldn't It Be Nice - Will Oldham
14. Intervention - The Arcade Fire

September 2009

1. Float On - Modest Mouse
2. Steady As She Goes - The Raconteurs
3. Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
4. Dead Souls - Joy Division
5. You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
6. Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths
7. This Charming Man - Stars
8. While You Wait For The Others - Grizzly Bear
9. She's Not There - The Zombies
10. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan
11. My Boys - Taken By Trees
12. Dog Days Are Over - Florence And The Machine
13. Tom's Diner - Suzanne Vega
14. Superstar - The Carpenters
15. I'd Rather Go Blind - Etta James
16. Daughters Of The Soho Riots - The National
17. Nights In White Satin - The Moody Blues

November 2009

1. Fire And Rain - Willie Nelson
2. Song For Autumn - The Catchers
3. Land Locked Blues - Bright Eyes
4. Save Me - Aimee Mann
5. I Will - The Beatles
6. Time And Space - The Accidental
7. Dead On The Lawn - KaiserCartel
8. Creature Fear - Bon Iver
9. Keep Yourself Warm - Frightened Rabbit
10. Airplanes - Local Natives
11. Furr - Blitzen Trapper
12. John Belushi - The Broken Family Band
13. Sorry About The Doom - Slow Club
14. Foreground - Grizzly Bear

first snow of winter!

On my walk home from work.

Malet Street and Montague Street:

Russell Square:

Chrismukkah 2009

Another year, another Chrismukkah celebration - expanded again for the third year running. We're now up to 16 adults, two toddlers, and one baby bump). The celebrations kicked off at 2ish, the last guests left about ten to midnight.

The day consisted of: 2 bottles champagne, 4 bottles bucks fizz, 5 bottles wine, 20 bottles beer, 1 bottle Baileys, 5 cafetieres coffee, 1 turkey, 2.5 kg potatoes, a kilo mac cheese, 1 apple crumble, 1 xmas pudding, a whole cheese board, no toddler tantrums and Home Alone played on a loop about four times.

Good friends, good food, good times. Nicely done. Here's to next year.

can you feel the knife?

Wanting to embrace the Halloween spirit before going to the (highly anticipated) Grizzly Bear/London Symphony Orchestra gig at the Barbican in the evening, I sat down this afternoon to watch À l'Intérieur.

Ho. Lee. Fuck. Mind scarred forever; another addition for my Most Fucked Up list. The French know how to do brutal horror films, they really do.

After that filmic experience, I ended up walking to the Barbican after realising that (a) with all the TFL closures this weekend, it would be nigh on impossible to public transport it, and (b) Barbican is actually only about 20 minutes, give or take, walk away from me. Plus, I kind of needed the walk to come out of film shock. I'm not knocking the film - it clearly works to have had such an effect, and I'm actually quite a fan of the French new wave horror films that have been coming out in the past few years. It's just not exactly a calming precursor to an evening of orchestral indie music...

Finally got to the Barbican and met up with J-Dig, then took our seats. Grizzly Bear and the LSO, oh my. Love love love. GB are pretty much one of my favourite ever bands, and seeing them play in that space, with the orchestra backing them, was just incredible.

jumped the halloween gun

Couldn't wait for actual Halloween so carved my pumpkin this evening. So much fun.

Last year's effort.

doll parts productions

New blog started to record interesting turn of events involving filmmaking... keeping it separate from this, but you can check it out here if you want:

http://dollpartsproductions.blogspot.com/

Kempton Races

Sam, wee Margot and I made an early (like 7am early - see above picture) morning trip to Kempton Racetrack for the renowned antiques fair that takes place there. It was well worth the getting up early; fascinating stalls to rummage through and some excellent little finds, including a 19th Century French family's photo album, which I bought for Dandy, making me think as it did of his amazing work.

atoning for my sins

A wedding? Free champagne? Continuously? Your glass topped up so subtly and frequently you don't even notice how much you're drinking? Then bottles of wine on the dinner table? Why, yes please.


Blarg. So hungover it actually hurts. It's Yom Kippur and I am totally unintentionally atoning for my sins today.

Never. Drinking. Again.

cabin fever

Was cooped up inside all day, off work sick (productively, though, I did manage to watch about two thirds of the Dollhouse boxset). By about 8pm cabin fever got too much so went out for a walk. I so love living in central London.

holy cupcakes, batman

Tayo turned three today and had a superhero-themed party (yeah it was totally my idea) for which I made the above Batman and X-Men themed cupcakes. Having exposed him to Spiderman since he was a baby and Batman for the past year or so, I decided it was time to introduce him to Wolverine and the X-Men so got him, as part of his present, the animated X-Men series that used to be on CBBC on Saturday mornings when I was a kid (and it's not like I got so excited about it I cracked the DVD open and watched an episode before I wrapped it up or anything...)

Midway through his party I saw him crouched on the floor staring intently at a Marvel Heroes napkin (we'd gone and got a bunch of Marvel Heroes party crap the night before - paper plates, cups etc). I went over to see he was okay and he asked me to tell him again (as per our conversation the evening before) who all the characters were, and explain how exactly it was Peter Parker became Spiderman and Tony Stark became Iron Man. I think he got it. It was cute to see he'd remembered our conversation from earlier and was really trying to commit the characters to memory. We'll make a comic book geek of him yet. Especially with me as his godmother, giving him X Men crap and Spiderman hoodies:

summer snapshots

have i mentioned how jammy i am living in bloomsbury? i heart my new hood (and ten minute walk to work)

russell square. during that one week of summer we had.

the walk back from work on a rainy august afternoon

movie playlist, second quarter

As per the first installment; April - June 2009.

1. L’Armée des Ombres
2. George Washington
3. Anchorman
4. Pretty in Pink (PCC double bill)
5. The Breakfast Club (PCC double bill)
6. Wendy & Lucy
7. Watchmen
8. The Vanishing (Dutch/French version)
9. Bully
10. Evil Dead
11. The Blair Witch Project
12. Juno
13. Little Miss Sunshine
14. Mean Streets
15. True Stories (BFI)
16. Point Break (PCC)
17. Bubba Ho-Tep
18. Hot Fuzz
19. Hostel
20. Cabin Fever
21. Evil Dead 2
22. If…
23. Severance
24. The Machinist
25. Jackie Brown
26. Mean Creek
27. My Bloody Valentine (original)
28. Die Welle (The Wave)
29. 17 Again
30. Punishment Park
31. Frightmare
32. The Fall
33. Halloween
34. The Crazies
35. Eraserhead
36. Being There
37. Switchblade Romance
38. The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
39. Let The Right One In
40. Suspiria
41. The Night Listener
42. The Amityville Horror
43. My Girl
44. Star Trek
45. Tropic Thunder
46. HSM3
47. Blue Velvet
48. Army of Darkness
49. Schizo
50. Audition (PCC)
51. An American Werewolf In London
52. The Shining
53. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
54. The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
55. Eden Lake
56. Drag Me To Hell
57. Wizard of Gore
58. The Descent
59. Hostel II
60. Friday 13th
61. The Gruesome Twosome
62. The Darjeeling Ltd
63. Rushmore
64. Nightwatch
65. The Story of Ricky, or Riki-Oh
66. Rosemary’s Baby
67. Camp Rock
68. The Hangover
69. Tokyo Zombie
70. The Happiness of the Katakuris
71. Children of Men
72. Battle Royale
73. Son of Rambow
74. Martyrs
75. Star Trek
76. The Toxic Avenger
77. The Brood (UK version)

Major shouts in this quarter to The Vanishing and Martyrs, which both quickly made my Fucked Up Films list; Star Trek for being a great blockbustery movie (finally! I think the previous blockbuster-type films I'd seen were Watchmen and Dark Knight, neither of which I rated much); Evil Dead for being Evil Dead (can you believe I'd never seen any of them before?) and Halloween - which I'd also never seen - and was one of the first films in quite a while to genuinely scare me. Kudos, John Carpenter.

early morning adventure

So it's 7am, I walk into Russell Square tube station on early-morning-autopilot. Get into the lift which will take me down to the platform level to get the Piccadilly line to work. Three other people get in as well - that early, the station is relatively quiet.

The lift descends. The lift announcer tells us we're at platform level, and to turn right for both East and West-bound trains. The doors start to open.

That's as far as they get. About a centimetre open. Then - bang. They slam shut again. And repeat - open a crack, machinery grinding - before they slam shut.

Fabulous. Doors stuck.

I roll my eyes. We all stand there for about five minutes, fully aware the doors seem to be broken, waiting for a member of staff to respond. Finally someone speaks to us over the lift intercom. They're sending someone down.

A couple minutes later and we can hear the staff members on the other side of the doors. They start to open again, and it sounds as if the employees are trying to drag the doors open with their hands. Even I could've told you that's not going to work. They try the doors the other side - these lifts having exits both sides, for crowd control. No dice.

We've now been down here about half an hour, probably. Time is ticking on. What started off being vaguely amusing is getting kind of annoying. A voice over the intercom asks us if we're alright. The other woman in the elevator starts getting lary with them. She's going to be late for work. Aren't we all, honey.

My phone starts to ring. Reception at the bottom of the lift shaft? I had no idea. It's my sister. She starts rabbiting on about Buffy, of all things. I tell her we're stuck in the lift and I'll call her later, then hang up. Offer my phone to the others in there with me - the lady takes it, calls her office to say she's stuck and going to be late. An American guy tells us he's on his way to Heathrow. Gonna miss that plane.

More sounds of struggle from the outside of the lifts. Perhaps the TFL staff have thought to get a crowbar or something, to pry the doors open? Nope, they're just pressing buttons. Excellent. Well done. They tell us there's an emergency hatch, but someone has to go and get the key. Okay, we'll wait. Not like we've got anything else to do.

Ten minutes later and we hear someone behind the wall panels, in the shaft between our elevator and the neighbouring one (there being three lifts in total at Russell Square station). They talk among themselves, seem to fiddle with something, leave again.

Good. Not getting anywhere quickly. This whole experience is not doing much to restore the very little faith I had in TFL.

Eventually the lift starts to move, back up to street level. The intercom tells us the fire brigade have been called. Fucking finally. Why didn't they do this 45 minutes ago?

Though annoyed and pissed off that I'm now going to be marvellously late for work, having gotten up so early, I realise my palms are a little sweaty now we've just been hauled 100 foot back up the lift shaft, and it's still broken. If they're going to piss around with the mechanics of the elevator I'm stuck in, I'm damn sure I'd rather it was sat at the bottom of the shaft on the ground than suspended that high up.

More crashing and banging from outside and suddenly an emergency hatch in the wall opposite me swings open.

'You alright in there?'

Fuck no we're not. We've been in here an hour and a half, almost. The American who's missing his plane is really pissed off, the other guy is rolling his eyes, the lady is on the verge of a panic attack, I'm annoyed and a little jumpy.

It's a mechanic. He swings in through the narrow emergency escape doorway, reaches back out and pulls across a ladder, that now bridges the gap between our elevator and the roof of the neighbouring one that has been specially lowered.

So let me get this straight. Our lift is a few feet below street level. The lift next to us is a few feet below us, so that the roof of that lift is just above the floor of ours. A fireman's ladder now crosses the echoing 100 foot drop between us. And they want us to crawl across that ladder, stand on the roof of the next lift, then climb another ladder from the roof of that to street level.

You have GOT to be joking.

The mechanic passes all our bags to the fireman opposite who passes them to street level. Then we're off. The other lady goes first, crawling across the ladder to a waiting fireman, who puts her over his shoulder, swings her round to the ladder to street level. Now me (what gallant gentlemen we're sharing the stuck lift with!). Just keep reminding myself not to look down. Don't look down... Get to the other lift. Eschew the offer of the fireman's shoulder for finding my own footing. Climb the other ladder, get to solid ground... and suddenly my hands are shaking so badly I can't even hold the cup of water I'm offered.

Holy crap what a ridiculous morning.

I just about manage to text my sister to tell her we're finally out, but it takes twice as long as usual, my hands are too shaky to hit the right keys. I want to just head back home - 60 seconds away, round the corner - but my sister, who stayed over, currently has my house keys.

The TFL staff jump into action, and, bless them, are actually very good. They offer us water and sweet tea or coffee, they write us letters to take to work or airlines so we've proof of why we're late and can get money back if necessary. They call us cabs to take us where we need to get to (like hell I'm getting back on the Tube this morning). I discover they've had to shut the whole flipping station down while we've been stuck which is, I have to admit, kind of awesome (the grilles are down and Russell Square being as busy a station as it is, the crowds are packed outside).

I jump in a cab down to Waterloo and get the mainline back West to work. The shakes eventually stop (I'm slightly disappointed with myself, I thought I was made of stronger stuff), and it's rather fun reciting the story to everyone (people take delight in telling me "Ohmigod it's like Speed or something!" Yes, without Dennis Hopper as mad bomber or any rescuer remotely as hot as Keanu Reeves).

End up bunking off work early as I feel I've had quite enough adventures for one day and there's a latent headache that's been building since the mechanic pulled the ladder into the lift about to explode, so go back to my parents' (a mere 10 minute bus ride from my work, and no elevators or tube trains involved!) and resolve from now on I'll forego the lifts and take the stairs at Russell Square every time, even if there are 177 of them.

brief hiatus

I'm tumbling more right now

super freak

Our first BBQ of the season was spent mostly inside due to the English weather, so we got the dancing monkey to entertain us...

(We have *no* idea where he picked up The Robot from)

Idol soundbites

Clare: I think Adam Lambert is the future-
Jasmin: -No, the past, present AND future – of music.
Clare: I love him more than any reality star ever.
Jasmin: I think I might love him more than Same Difference
Clare: I really want to lick his face.

500th post

Gosh, the 500th blog post. Hadn't even noticed that this thing passed its 5th birthday, either.

In honour of both, a clip of one of my favourite scenes from True Stories, which we saw tonight at the BFI. I hadn't seen it in years and had forgotten most of it - especially how much I loved it. What a great film.



(Click here for the full scene)

oh dear

On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it that during our discussion of Seraphs and classes of angels at the Seder last night, anything I chipped in with was badly-remembered information from the Preacher comics?

Eeeeep.

movie playlist

We all know how I like to make note of my playlists and share them at the end of the year… well here’s a movie playlist. Last November I decided to start making note of every film I watched (*cough* dork *cough*), so here’s my list for January – March 2009, in order watched, with movies from Lovefilm, from the library, on TV or at the cinema.

1. True Romance
2. The Family Stone
3. 8 ½
4. Reservoir Dogs
5. Kill Bill 1
6. Kill Bill 2
7. I Walked With A Zombie
8. Independence Day (kind of. On tv in background)
9. Pieces
10. Au Revoir Les Enfants
11. Edward Scissorhands
12. Oldboy
13. Escape From NY
14. Total Recall
15. Carve Her Name With Pride
16. Thank You For Smoking
17. Primer
18. Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill
19. Notorious (Hitchcock. Not Biggie.)
20. Enchanted (with a 9 year old I was looking after) (not that I feel the need to justify watching it. I heart Amy Adams)
21. Superman Returns
22. Batman Returns
23. Aguirre, Wrath of God
24. Sid & Nancy
25. Control
26. Big Trouble In Little China
27. Quay Brothers shorts
28. Let The Right One In (Angelika)
29. I’m Not Scared
30. Before Sunrise
31. The Piano Tuner of EarthQuakes
32. Goodbye Lenin
33. Run Lola Run
34. Chinatown
35. Repo Man
36. The Thing (PCC double bill)
37. An American Werewolf In London (PCC double bill)
38. Irreversible
39. Rashomon
40. Don’t Look Now
41. Thirteen
42. Gone Baby Gone
43. Death Note
44. Sweet & Lowdown
45. Ichi The Killer
46. Build My Gallows High
47. Hostel (took me two attempts to get through it…)
48. Repo! The Genetic Opera (PCC)
49. The Edukators
50. Mala Noche
51. Orphée
52. Slumdog Millionaire (cinema)
53. Sympathy For Mr Vengeance
54. The Reader (cinema)
55. Pulp Fiction
56. Deathproof
57. Lord Of The Flies (1963)
58. My Own Private Idaho (Riverside Studios double bill)
59. Milk (Riverside Studios double bill)
60. Ghostbusters (PCC)
61. 5x2
62. Donnie Darko
63. Taxi Driver
64. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
65. In Search Of A Midnight Kiss

Pretty much all great but major shouts have to go to Pieces, Oldboy, Let The Right One In and In Search Of A Midnight Kiss for being some of my favourites that I'd never seen before.

turning one

Step One: Blowing out belated first birthday candle amid french fancies







Step Two: Given her own cake; tries to smoosh the whole thing in in one go (though let's face it, who doesn't?)





Step Three: Cake Face achieved.

the best party game ever

Dan had the idea of building a photobooth for his grand party, so Friday night, after a trip to the Whitney, Brett and I headed back to his house to assist in the construction. Or rather, and despite our museum fatigue, Brett hit the ground running, being incredibly helpful and creative, while I kind of hung around, taking photos, generally getting in the way, running to the drugstore for push pins (to hang the drapery) then agreeing wholeheartedly with the plan to head to Black Mountain for dinner and drinks at 11pm.

The party itself went with a bang - lots of drink and good friends and dancing and squabbles over playlists (Christy Claire was rather put out that hers got turned off when Outkast came on), but you know there is the smallest chance I might have been getting my drunk on at the party - there was rather more of the booze and rather less of the food for me that day - so my memory gets a little hazy some time around midnight...

Luckily the photobooth, apart from being a great party game, is also a fabulous aide-memoire for those drunken occasions, so it was with amusement and trepidation we looked through the photos this (very hungover) evening...

http://danestabrook.com/photobooth

Dan, me & Cece

I'd like to plead the triple-vodka-and-cranberry defence to (hopefully) explain why half the shots I'm in I seem to be either trying to bite someone, or licking their neck.

Ahh parties. Open bars without having eaten anything. New York. <3

brooklyn social

Yesterday was an almost springlike 17 degrees C - one of those days you can't help but be in love with the city, and smile at everyone. Lunch with CC at the Moma, wandering through Central Park, down to Soho to meet Lauren at work, walking across and through the Lower East Side with obligatory coffee break at Sugar Sweet Sunshine... I considered walking across the Williamsburg Bridge but decided to head home to get to Rocketship before closing time (where they have original Scott Pilgrim artwork for sale, that I had to force myself to walk away from), prior to an evening with take-out watching Lost (which I was, having only ever seen the first three episodes of series 1).

Today the Wicked Witch of the East blew in and brought with her gale-force, knock-you-down-and-blow-you-to-Oz strength winds, which I braved nonetheless to hang out with Faran for a quick lunch (being Fashion Week she's run off her feet), then meet Dan at the Angelika for Let The Right One In, which we both love (somehow the subways rumbling loudly underneath us mostly add to the atmosphere of the movie). Afterwards we find Cat and head for tea at Cafe Gitane, then cab it over to Hudson for Melissa Auf Der Mar's screening of a short that Dan and Brett (who's arrived in town today from Providence) worked on last year.

Home again home again jiggity jig... somehow we convince the Greenpoint residents to come down to Carroll Gardens for a wee drinkie or two, so we head to Brooklyn Social for some (strong as hell) Old Fashioneds.

Dan, Ryland and Brett

Then it's back to Dan's where I remember I have a bag of funsize Crunchies in my suitcase for Christy Claire - it's quickly opened and everyone sugars up before CC and I grab a car service with all my crap back to her place in Greenpoint and it's time to acquaint myself with a new part of Brooklyn...

snow day!

I was clearly too quick off the mark with the previous Stopping-by-woods wintry post, as we woke up today to a mass of snow, all but one tube line closed down and all London buses pulled from their routes... Ahh London when it snows...

Seeing as were already up and ready to go, having not realised there was no way to get to work, we went out for a walk at about 8:30am, while the snow was still virgin, down along the river to Syon Park, where it felt as if we were in the middle of the countryside. Beautiful.

And of course Fi just *had* to make a snow angel...

westway to the world

Dinner at (well, above) Honest Jon's - a real Mexican feast cooked up for us by Jason who's in from LA for a couple months, to commiserate the relocating (and thus job losses) of the company that at one time or another has employed four out of the seven of us there for dinner. Home-made flautas and guacamole and salsa and omg my mouth is watering even typing this (that kid is a great chef) and then on to another bottle of wine and roll-ups, though we leave before they really get into it, what with having work the next day when none of the others do.

stopping by woods on a snowy morning...

White Winter Hymnal