I Have to Stop Buying Presents

I went out for one more gift today and came home with two extras.  *sigh*  I went to the Dollar Tree again (along with everyone else in northeastern WI and the UP of Michigan) so I didn't spend much money but still... I need to stop.  I did get permission from Santa to fill stockings today so he doesn't have to do it next Tuesday night when he visits.  Oh, Santa presents... hm.  Re-tagging one each should do it.  Now all I need is a birthday gift for LC whose birthday is January 3.  Little IA's 2nd birthday is Christmas day but won't be celebrated until June 25, his half-birthday.  Sensible.



I bagged the fruitcakes and tied them with ribbons for gifting.  They are exceptionally sticky and removing their cheesecloth wrapping was a challenge but I managed it with minimal mess.  Now here's hoping that it tastes good after all that.



When I went to close the patio drapes I saw that it had snowed just enough to add a puffy layer to the crusty snow on the ground.  It can snow little bits like that, I don't mind.  It's the three to six inches of snow or the afternoon of misty, freezing rain that makes me want to stay home until spring.

This morning I sliced the chicken breasts into strips and mixed up the Japanese Chicken Wings marinade and poured it on to spend the next 24 hours getting yummy.  Tomorrow I'll thread the strips onto bamboo skewers and long cocktail picks so they're ready to be baked on Thursday afternoon to be taken to the knitting guild meeting that night.  I even found a recipe for chicken strips on sticks for the oven temp and baking time.  I'm so resourceful, I amaze myself.



Every time I took a break today I sat down and knitted a round on the felted hat, enough that the fingers of my left hand ache from dealing with the weight of the yarns and the girth of the needles.  I can't wait to finish it and see how it felts.  It'll be cool looking, I'll bet, and will look fantastic on me.

17 December--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire. 

A kind of vacuum settled over the expatriate women after the night of the Art League meeting.  No one was quite sure that she had seen what she thought she saw.  Had that really been Irina being polite, nice even, to Harriet and Sonia?  Maybe Irina had decided not to be rude to Harriet since she was a guest on the island and it was just a coincidence that she and Sonia were together then.  No, that wasn’t likely since Harriet was the Clemment’s friend and guest.  Of course Harriet would be close to Sonia while she was on the island, Harriet had come to visit her.  There was just as much consternation among Sonia’s camp over seeing her exchanging polite remarks with her archenemy. 

No one was more astonished than Billie Holland-Smythe.  She had been congratulating herself over the success of her publically introducing the couples and the enmity it produced in the wives.  Now to all intents and purposes, they had inexplicably called a truce.  She decided to host a luncheon to welcome Harriet and see if she couldn’t fan the flames of the most entertaining fight she had ignited in years.  It didn’t take long for Minerva and the competent staff she had assembled to put the luncheon party together.  The cook was accustomed to Billie’s spur of the moment ideas and didn’t let it rattle her.

Four days after having the idea driving home from the Art League meeting twenty women arrived for a garden party.  Not quite ballsy enough to seat Sonia and Irina at the same table Billie had her staff arrange three large round tables that each seated eight on her spacious stone patio near the pool.  The food was served buffet style which Billie thought offered many more opportunities for Irina and Sonia to bump into each other.  When the cocktail time had passed and neither woman had flared up or stormed out, Billie knew stronger measures were called for.  She insisted that Harriet and Sonia sit with her, it was only natural that the hostess sits next to the guest of honor.  What took a bit more maneuvering was to lure Irina to sit on her other side.  When the remaining guests saw the four of them sitting side by side at a table, the three remaining seats at that table weren’t filled.

The meal went well, everyone complimented Billie on the menu and Sonia and Irina maintained their irritating cordiality despite Billie’s best efforts.  She had even sidled up to Sonia at the bar when they were both getting refills and said, “Getting a bit friendly with the enemy, aren’t you?”

To which Sonia replied, “Not at all.  Irina is quite bearable when you get to know her.  I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot earlier.”

Not at all what Billie had hoped for.  She fared no better when she tried to goad Irina into criticizing Sonia, but then Billie and Irina had never really got on very well.  The Russian woman just didn’t seem to appreciate how powerful a friend Billie could be to her.

The détente between the women didn’t last long.  At the very next Literary Guild meeting, Irina couldn’t control her disdain of Sonia’s attempt at poetry, then Sonia slipped and shot back that no one understood Irina’s poems.

I can't wait until DD and her family arrive.  All this anticipation and preparation is tiring.  I need to go to the bagel store tomorrow for breakfast supplies and I think that's the last item on my list.  I think.  Just like presents, I'll probably keep thinking of things I need to get or do until the last minute.  One of these days I'll be all efficient and prepared so I can loll about.  Nah, that'll never happen, I'm too much of a last-minute girl.

I cleaned out a dresser drawer today and found two letters I wrote to Durwood in the 1980s. Aw.  And I didn't even cry.
--Barbara