Molly Goatwax

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I am still trying to figure out how to make spoon bread with a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix.

the point being

Baltimore is poised to be named The Stabbiest Place on Earth. It's really sad, because it started this week by a student being stabbed by another at school, an intergenerational stabfest on Thanksgiving that injured three, then, in this murder trifecta, another is stabbed! And those, folks, are just the fatalities for this week. A host of other knife attacks occurred, this posting of Police Blotter has two stabbings for that day and another two for the next. These numbers are way up. Y'Know what I'm taking away from all of this? The federal crackdown on gun crimes must be working.

Enchanted

Well, that was quite the food induced stupor I was enjoying for a few days, there. Don't get me started on Miss A's dressing, which turned out to be a variety of spoonbread. My mother made us spoonbread, which can be described as a cornmeal custard much denser and richer than corn bread or muffins. If I hadn't have used up the eggs there would be a dish of it chilling next to the marshmallow sweet potatoes, because we are all about all carbs all the time around here lately...on top of that, the elderly lady I visit insists on my eating her rugalach. Oy.

brunch

Try making French toast with a ready made egg nog rather than milk. I recommend it.

Thanks

Tommorrow is the most eatingest day of the year, and for that I offered to cook hubby the whole do-bird, bread, sides and trim to save money over celebrating out as usual. We pondered who we could have over to share, but our friends are all rooted in families. When Miss A. asked if we'd like to attend her potluck, it made the most sense to offer my marshmallow baked sweet potatos with our company. Besides cutting away the expense and the mess, less goes to waste for everyone. The big secret is, is that being from the deep south, Miss A makes a cornbread dressing which can kill you with a single thought. It's that good. And there are always oddments like deviled eggs and Greek salad laying about...nom nom nom. Julia is making cheesecake. Last time Dale brought a plank of smoked salmon. Heather is baking a green bean casserole.

another goat goes down

This miscreant animal has encountered the long arm of the law.

Miss Lis wrote me a note with the photo she "nicked from the lol cats" and sent along for a giggle. Some thing's gotta counter the effect of the dwindling light!

the Grinch's head's up her ugly rear

As we approach the season of light deprivation, I feel a familiar anxiety creep in about the edges. Part of the melancholy can be allayed with the judicious application of cashmere socks and chocolates. Tending to a knee high pile of paperwork may help keep the feelings of impending doom at bay. It just has to compete with a cacophoney of seasonal advertising that starts earlier every year. Do we have to have every can of soda pop and bag of pretzels bedecked with snowflakes and sparkles for three months of the year?  I don't mean to be a grouch, but the permeation of this commercialised religious observance into every aspect of my consumer experience gets oppressive. I mean, really. There's Christmas soap and holiday pet treats and fruit cake ice cream all over the grocery store and it's not even Thanksgiving. I can't get through the pharmacy without animatronic singing santas getting set off by built in motion detectors. Which reminds me. The new chain had a light up porcelain dance hall to put between the movie theatre and firehouse in my plug-in village. Pass the soy nog. I have to go play with my toy real estate.

In the cold air between the snow flurries

I was determined to get those kids cracking on their painting this afternoon so we could finish the mural in spite of the weather. They came outside two and three at a time and traded places when they got too cold, but there was not much left to do anyway. One of the boys wanted to get famous and paint himself naked. I told him it would go over great in Art School.

Structured doodling

In addition to shooting babies and assisting ladies, I will be leading workshops Sunday afternoons at the art center for the next few weeks. We will be making holiday cards, boxes, gifts and decorations. Or, participants can just glue stuff together for the fun of it without focusing on specific outcomes. We'll see what happens when we mix the ingredients.

At this juncture

Busy, busy. In anticipation of the gallery show looming, I have been spray painting some old wooden frames with black semi-gloss. It may be the cheapest to spray paint matts rather than have new ones cut. Today I centered the succulents and took down the string of light up eyeballs in the front window at the studio house, as I have listed it for sale. There is at least this asset to buffet us in this economic contraction, smudge that it may be. Busy, busy. I think all of the things I have there will fit in the house we live in, but where will I paint? I also asked that my near calendar be filled with day shifts with the elder care company with whom I start tommorrow. Tommorrow. I will assist with my elbows and cups of tea.