Dinner was had at Rock Salt. We were originally planning on going to a separate event, but that didn't seem particularly appealing, so we went and had dinner. I hadn't been to Rock Salt in ages, and it's not bad. It's not overly pricey, but it isn't crap food either. I had surf and turf, and Patrick had some type of pasta business with seafood in it. Yum! I secretly think it's a mafia front. You never see anyone in there! Maybe I just always go at off hours... No, I'm pretty sure the mafia are the answer to this.
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| Me before dinner. iPhone photography is amazing now! Patrick's phone, not mine. Mine barely remembers what a camera is. I'm too cheap to get a new one, though, so the aging carcass on the couch beside me will have to endure. |
Every year there's a street in the Ravenna neighborhood that calls itself Candy Cane Lane. About 60 houses are all decorated for the season, occasionally with massive ornamentation (there's a giant cherub-y revolving carousel thing that circles a huge bush in their roundabout), and it's amazing to look at. Evidently there is a tradition in this city to go drive through this street. I guess because sitting in traffic is festive? We walked! We parked a couple blocks up and wandered down, then were able to stroll through the Lane at our leisure. This proved to be particularly fortunate since their Grinch was restored!
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| Cindy Lou Who was there as well, but she wouldn't fit in the picture. Grinchy is big! |
Speaking of actual Christmas day, we lost power for about 6 hours! It started around 10:30-45 and lasted until about 4:30pm. Awesome. It actually didn't bother us too much because we were really lazy and hadn't bothered to start cooking yet, which worked out pretty well. All those people with electronic gifts that needed charging or partially-cooked meat in the oven were probably not pleased. Fortunately the lights came back on before it got too dark outside. The hotline said around 2700 households were without power. That is a lot of pissed kids. Yikes. They were estimating 6pm as a fix time, but I'm sure everyone was working as hard as they could to avoid more of the angry phone call deluge. I'd be surprised if the lines were out in only one place. It was incredibly windy on Christmas, and you could see the trees whipping back and forth, plus small branches flying through the air.
Patrick and I started a new family tradition for our first Christmas together: love letters to be read on Christmas Eve! We didn't do gifts this year, as our combined human and animal medical expenses were making things tight, so this was a wonderful way to celebrate. I think we will do this every year. Although, to be sure, we were not giftless. Certain relatives (you know who you are, you incorrigible rebels) ignored my no-gift exhortations and sent incredibly generous presents anyway. We are very fortunate to have the family we do, gifts or no gifts.
When I was digging around in the top of the guest room closet, I must have very gently tapped the light fixture up there. I don't ever remember touching it, so it must have been just a brush of my head or something, but that thing fell right off the ceiling and whacked me in the face! Then I couldn't figure out how on earth they'd gotten it attached up there in the first place, so I couldn't put it back up. Sigh. Now it is dangling from its wires (that aren't hot, don't worry parents, it never worked in the first place) in the closet because I have no idea what to do with it. I texted the maintenance guy (the owner's son), and let him know about that and the other canned light fixture that crapped out in our bedroom. They were not kidding when they were complaining about their mom being taken for a ride by some people who were supposed to be redoing this house. Oh well. I don't have to look at the closet light and the other one doesn't bother me much. Hopefully he'll get around to fixing it soon.
Ended up having Christmas dinner the day after the holiday itself, since by the time the lights came back on we weren't really feeling like cooking, and it was delicious! We had glazed ham, Szechuan style green beans, and mashed red potatoes with roasted garlic and truffle oil. Yum! If you just looked at the plate, it looked very traditional, but this had quite a few different tastes. So good. I can't wait for all the leftover dishes!
In other good news, Evil Dress Bitch paid up! We are now free and clear out of that horribad attempted transaction. I consider the $20 we spent shipping the dress back to be a Learning Fee. This woman evidently doesn't understand how Paypal operates, and she paid for Express shipping to mail a cashier's check to my work. You may recall that I was on vacation last week. Right. So by the time she told us about it and we came down to get the delivery slip, the post office was closed. Of course we had to come back the next day. I signed the thing saying Patrick could get it on my behalf (his car wasn't starting and needed a new battery, so I was driving and was trying to avoid paying for parking by waiting on the street). This didn't matter as they wanted to know if he had proof linking him to that address. What? Of course he doesn't. Hell, I don't have proof of that either. I just work there, I don't live there (although it sometimes seems like it). So he came back to the car and waited in it while I ran down and got it. They didn't ask ME for proof that I had ties to that address... Whatever. We have got it and it went through fine. So very very glad this is all over. VICTORY IS OURS! Or at least less defeat. Patrick is totally my hero for bullying her into it.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are ready for the new year!
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