So you’re running late for work

and you’re in the bathroom washing your face, putting in your contacts, and brushing your hair and teeth

and you got soap in your eyes

so putting in your contacts is not going as smoothly as normal

when through the haze of your blurry vision

you see,

poking through one of the holes of the toothbrush holder,

…

ANTENNAE

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gah!

::Shudder!!!::

Today was Russian Christmas. Rudi’s mother is Russian and, as such, this is one of the holidays we celebrate. We did it up right with some (vegan) borscht and some hearty bread (okay, so it was Jewish rye; think of this as a multicultural celebration), as well as a few last presents.

Sadly, I think this may be the last week for the Christmas tree. While this is good news because it will enable us to get it out in time for the city-wide composting collection, it’s sad because I like to keep the cheerful lights and sparkly baubles up as long as possible.

I’ve been busy finishing up some loose ends from 2007. I finished the last carry-over book (a quirky memoir/travelogue/history book by Sarah Vowell) at the end of last week and have already finished my first full novel of the new year. That’s good because I want to start a rapid-fire run-through of Jane Austen’s novels (at least the ones I’m not as familiar with) to accompany the Masterpiece Theatre productions that begin this weekend. And it’s also time for me to commence Twelfth Night, which is another read-along on Ravelry. Karen and I are trying to filling in some gaps in our English degrees by reading classic literature this year. We’re aiming for 10 and are including Persuasion as one of our works. (We haven’t yet finalized our list, but if you have a particular favorite work of classic literature, please feel free to leave us an endorsement in the comments.)

I’m also working on completing some 2007 knits. Two of them are (ahem) Christmas presents that didn’t get finished on time. I’m pleased to say that I finished one of them last night and it’s currently blocking/drying on the rack as I type. I look forward to sharing the details (and photos!) later in the week. The other knitting that I’m currently working on is the second sleeve for my Everyday Cardigan. I don’t think it unrealistic to finish by the end of the month, but I originally planned to have it done for my trip to Denver back at the beginning of November, so I suppose that doesn’t mean much. 2008 is clearly going to be the Year of the Sweater, as Mum and Dad gave me the yarn for the Tilted Duster for Christmas and Rudi bought enough yarn for me to make him a sweater, too. (Oddly enough, he chose the same yarn, albeit in a different color, as Mum bought me, and the pattern he’s currently leaning toward is in the same issue of Interweave Knits as my sweater will be from.) Don’t worry; I have plenty of sock yarn to keep me busy, as well as several babies arriving this year.

The final Christmassy task is to get the last items out to the mail people. I have cards still to write for anyone in my address book with last names beginning with A or B or whom I thought I’d like to write a time-consuming letter to and packages to be sent to several friends on the West Coast. I’m really hoping to take a trip to the Post Office on Saturday and to begin the rest of 2008 with a clean slate. I guess I’d better get writing and wrapping, hadn’t I?

Tomorrow evening Rudi and I are heading out to see Bucket List. I’m hoping it’s fun.

I know, I know. I have great intentions at the beginning of December to post the November reads and then I get behind. And I read so little in December that it seemed after a certain point that I might as well wait and count the two months together. And already we’re a week into January, so I’d better get last year’s books finished off so I can start the year afresh with this year’s reads. My own reviews are no great reads, but I’ve decided to ignore that and to let them free into the world anyway. (more…)

Hillary decided to launch a new weekly feature on her blog and I’ve decided it sounds so brilliant that I need to play along. It’s called “My D.C.” and offers a “a little tour of the things that make DC one of my favorite places.” It’ll appear each Friday.

For my first entry, I offer this shot:

One of the neat things about living in a city with a natural gas line is how many people use that source for their front walk and porch lights. This shot shows two such lamps in front of a home in the fancy neighborhood of Georgetown.

I look forward to sharing other sights from around town. Please feel free to play along by posting your own shots of where you live. (If you don’t have a blog, you can leave a link to a shot in my comments, if you’d like.)

(I’d like to incorporate more photography into the blog, but that demands forethought and planning, two traits I’m not known for. This meme seems like a manageable way to start out, though.)

I promise that I’ll get back in the swing of blogging again soon. I’m just having a hard time getting back into real life. But in the meantime, let’s look at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. New Jersey has some of the best Christmas lights on the East Coast. Seriously, those people who live within sight of the GSP and who decorate whole streets rock. It makes the drive so exciting and cheery.

2. I like to bake on New Year’s morning, but usually I just make scones. This year, I thought I’d try one of the recipes I’d bookmarked from the various food-blogs I read. So I read through some of the options and settled on Baking Bites’ Pumpkin Dutch Baby recipe — with soy milk substituted for the regular milk. I’d absolutely make it again. And if you didn’t soak it with maple syrup like I did, it might even be a somewhat healthy breakfast treat.

3. Rudi and I have made ourselves a New Year’s Eve tradition since moving to D.C. of heading to the movies for the day. Usually we go by ourselves (because everyone else has lusher plans than we aspire to), but this year Sweetpea let herself be talked into joining us for the trio of movies and our friend Susan and her coworker came downtown for our middle film. After Juno let out, we had some time to kill until the final movie of the night (and year), so we headed to a local pizza joint (much fancier than the pizza joints I grew up with) and the five of us toasted the end of the old year. It was a really nice way to finish out 2007, particularly since Susan and Sweetpea are two of our favorite D.C. folks.

We started the year off right — out at the movies with our friend Sweetpea. Tomorrow will be replete with knitting, reading, parade watching, cleaning, writing, cat and Rudi cuddling, and getting in touch with old friends.

May your new year be filled with laughter, love, and lively conversation. And may it be better than 2007 was — no matter how good or bad the year was for you.

Happy 2008!