happy new year.

2010.

as someone pointed out last night, technically this is the last year of the decade, as there is no year 0. so save all those "top 10 of the decade" lists for one more year.

i hate being sick. this sucks.

on the other hand, i didn't get a burning candle spilled on me this year, so maybe 2010 will be better than 2009.

time to brace for winter. all the holidays are over.

merry christmas.

yet another winter gift-giving holiday.

w00t, etc.

i'm not even awake yet ^_^

i don't know what proportion of you this is relevant too, but the 11pm christmas eve service last night came off really well. hopefully the podcast will be able to go up. it was just very, very cool.

time to wrap presents and make pancakes.

snow.

holy shit, it snowed. quite a bit. although we didn't get as much as some people. still going to have to dig the car out, nevertheless.

following the advice of some friends, who were also snowbound last night, we made a fire and hot chocolate. yum.

1 heaping t unsweetened cocoa powder
2 level t sugar
(adjust to you preferred levels of sweetness and chocolateyness)

1. put into a mug and mix together.

2. pour in just enough milk to make a sludge. stir vigorously until all the cocoa is wet.

3. microwave for 30 seconds to melt the chocolate

4. stir the hot mixture again until it's more or less smooth

5. while stirring, fill up the mug with milk. microwave for 2 minutes.

completion.

last paper finished last night. now it's just waiting to be taken to the post office (has to be postmarked by today).

first semester of graduate school completed successfully.

w00t. or something.

anyone know if starbucks is hiring?

happy hannukah.

since i'm going to be making latkes for a party next week, we just went to dunkin' donuts tonight. sufganiyot they're not, but they are fried.

also, via wired comes this. i don't know whether to laugh or cry.

fuck google analytics.

i am so sick of having firefox practically fucking hang because of google analytics. half the fucking time i try to load a webpage, i get the status bar stuck at "waiting for google analytics..."

yes i know, it's a great way to get info on your page visitors, stats, blah blah fucking blah. it's slow.

half the reason i started blocking ads was because i was getting sick of pages not being able to load because the damn browser was waiting for content from a third-party site.

come back tomorrow, and i'll tell you how i really feel ;)

cooking and papers.

do not mix.

put the stockpot on, go upstairs, begin to write paper...

i do not have stock. i have... carbon.

whoops.

experiment

i had both extra apples and extra pie dough. but not enough to make another pie.

this was the result. half pie, half dumpling. i'm calling it an individual deep-dish apple galette.

he ate it already. by all accounts, it was yummy. the pie itself turned out pretty well, except i forgot to dust the apples with a little extra sugar.

a suggestion.

dear quaker oats,

2 words: caffeinated oatmeal.

thank you.

oikonomia.

laws of the household indeed.

the problem with working for a completely donation-supported organization is that donations are one of the things people cut when times get tough.

as of december 1st, i will be officially underemployed.

one could argue i've been underemployed for years, but a bachelor degree in classics isn't exactly the beginning of the most lucrative career path.

as of january 1st, i lose my health insurance.

we have options, including the seminary itself, but the time crunch is making it fairly stressful.

i guess the bright side is that i'll have 10 hours more a week to dedicate to homework.