End of 2012 on Mars

A very merry Christmas was had on Mars this year.

In addition to the stockings, mobile, & festive branch and paper cutouts, we had our many Christmas cards on display:

Holiday cheer from friends, family, the newspaper delivery person, Jimmy Carter's foundation (asking for money), & Budget Rent-A-Car

We also put a new lamp sent by Papa & Step-momma Desrosiers for Christmas in a place of honor in our very dark dining room. As you can see, it's a 2-foot-tall replica of "Dad's Major Award" from The Christmas Story:

I thought we should put it in the front window, like in the movie, but it casts the perfect amount of light in the dining room in the evenings, so there it will stay. And, of course, it adds a touch of class to our home, along with our Dogs Playing Poker picture in the kitchen.

On Christmas morning, we opened up our bounty of presents:

Zoey got in on the fun, too. Here she is opening a squeaky critter toy Mama & Step-papa O'Brien sent her:

After all the destructive fun was over, I put up Adrienne's Christmas gift: a painting for the transom window above her office. Someday we may ask Amanda's talented stained glass artist friend to make us a piece for that window; in the meantime, I made the painting in a stained glass style:

Then we got ready for our friend Brian to arrive, & for our Christmas Day festivities of delicious food & fantasy movies (The Chronicles of Narnia series) to begin!

He came bearing cherry & chocolate rugelach:

While Brian & Adrienne went out to the fish market to get ingredients for a special San Franciscan Italian seafood stew -- cioppino -- I minded the tray of rugelach (minded several straight into my belly...) & the gruyere and spinach strada he popped into the oven. 

Due to my excellent minding skills, here is the finished product:

It was every bit as delicious as it looks.

The perfect breakfast for a cold, rainy Christmas.

Later in the day, after the first of the three movies, Adrienne & Brian got to work on the cioppino & on an Italian burnt ricotta pie they have marveled at in a cookbook for some time.

Garlic!

Crab legs!

They were hoping to get a couple whole crab on their trip to the fish market. Turns out that every place they went to had been sold out for a week, crab being something that a lot of people eat here on Christmas. One bag of crab legs was all they could find in all the places they went to, & it was actually the last bag in that store. A Christmas miracle!

Here is the cioppino, on its way to incredible deliciousness:

And here is a bowl of the final product:

Crab legs, mussels, shrimp, & cod, in a tomatoey broth!

While the cioppino was simmering, Brian got to work on the pie. He used to be a professional pastry chef, so he knows a thing or two about making a pie crust:

Once they got it rolled out, they put it flat on a baking sheet, spread a layer of cherry jam on it, & poured on the ricotta filling.

The amounts in the recipe apparently were off -- as experienced bakers & smart cookies in general, they were able to correct for the parts that seemed odd, but it still ended up being a two-person job to get the top crust on the pie:

Zoey thought the whole thing was very unusual:

Finally the top was on there and crimped down, & ready for the glaze that will give it its special post-nuclear blast look:

The idea is that you put the thing in at 500 degrees for ten minutes, the whole house fills with smoke,  the glaze turns a dramatic black, & then you lower the temp for the rest of the baking time. It worked:

Looks just like the picture in the book! No, really. It does.

I admit that I was skeptical. But, as it turns out, it's delicious! The blackened glaze gives it a touch of pleasant bitterness -- it doesn't taste scorched at all. It's a very nice flavor with the ricotta & jam. And of course, Brian's pastry crust is just always flawless.

The week between Christmas & New Year's ended up filled with general end of year tasks. I was busy putting up ads, while Adrienne was busy recovering from the fall semester. Zoey, having absolutely no responsibilities, went up to Tahoe for the week for some tobogganing with her old college friends:

While Zoey was gone, we also got some more pictures up. (It's easier to decorate when she's not around because she is so damn opinionated). Adrienne recently had eight of her photographs mounted on 4"x4" blocks, to put up above her desk. Here she is, putting a grid of screws into the wall:

Look at that focus!

Here she is carefully scrutinizing them for crookedness:

"I will not tolerate crookedness in my house."

They look pretty great, both close up & also from the living room, & thanks to her excellent math skills, they are perfectly centered above the window. 

A job well done!

Meanwhile, this week our house fell under attack on two fronts in a single night.

First, some critter crawled up under the security gate & dug a big hole in the lettuce:

No idea what it was looking for or what it found. Luckily, I had buried my treasures on the other end of the planter.

Second, there was a fairy attack on the kitchen window. Looks like one of them didn't make it home:

That investment in anti-fairy security measures was well worth it. They make such a mess when they get inside.

And that's it for 2012 on Mars. We're going to spend today -- New Year's Eve -- doing some cleaning up around the house, & getting ready for a delicious dinner out with Amanda & Matt. Then later, we'll come back to Mars & ring in 2013 with champagne, games, & rowdy karaoke. Zoey will miss the  festivities, as she's in Times Square helping out with tonight's ball drop, but she told me to send along  her best wishes for a happy & safe New Year's!

Merry Christmas From Mars!

Christmas Is Merrier With A Pit Bull Terrier!

The Hole, & What I Found In It

Last Sunday, I dug a very large hole in the yard.

A couple weeks ago, Adrienne cut back the jungle of grass & clover. Instead of throwing the little pile of clippings into the compost bin for the city to take, I thought that it couldn't hurt to dig them into the vegetable garden beds, in hopes that it might improve the dense clay soil a little.

I told Adrienne what I was going to do at that time, waving my hands around in what I thought was a very descriptive sweeping manner. This is apparently what she thought I meant:

Much to her shock & dismay, when she brought the dog out midway through & saw what I was doing, this is what I actually meant:

Admittedly, once I got out there & found out how easy it was to work the soil after all the rain we've had, I did get a little carried away. After struggling to dig even six inches down over the spring & summer, I thought, here's my chance to loosen this clay up & finally maybe get some beds I can grow full sized carrots in. I basically ended up digging a trench 2 feet deep, & covering most of the yard in muddy dirt, that the dog now tracks into the house. Oops.

Anyway, while I was digging away, I found a spot where someone had buried their trash years ago. We know that folks used to do that here, both because that's just what was done, & also from all the glass & ceramic bits that we are constantly picking out of the dirt, but this is the first spot that I've found where there was clearly a hole that someone was putting things in. It's right next to & under that little lily-like plant in the middle of the fence, about a foot down.

What I found was remnants of leather shoes, broken medicinal tonic bottles, a big rusted metal disc of some sort, something that looks like a rusted doorknob, large rusted nails, tons of egg shells, and a pile of animal bones:

Definitely bones from someone's dinners -- there are chicken bones & beef bones. Also potentially someone's dog -- there's half a pelvis & a bunch of tail bones. I can't think of what small four-footed animal you go to the butcher & bring home whole like that. But I also didn't find a whole skeleton, although there is probably more still there under the plant. Maybe I'll ask the vet next time we see her. Either way, very interesting & just a little bit creepy.

So, see, Adrienne, if I hadn't dug that big hole, I never would have found this fascinating stuff. Every new paw print on the rug is ultimately there in the interest of historical inquiry.

Christmas Has Come To Mars

Monday, December 17, is one year to the day from when we moved out of the cozy 600 square foot apartment to the palatial 1000 square feet that is Mars.

Our Christmas tree in the apartment was a 4-inch-tall plastic Playmobil tree, borrowed from what I used to call the "Cruelty to Animals Play Set" -- a bear with a harness & chain, along with a family carrying musical instruments who I assume are supposed to be "gypsies" -- which I got at a toy store years ago in college, in a town so liberal, that its very presence in the store was remarkable & bizarre. I couldn't resist buying it, just for its sheer weirdness.

Anyway, a tree that is 4 inches tall makes a lot of sense in a small apartment. We used to stack the presents up, stick the tree on top of the stack, & have a good chuckle at the joke that the presents were still, technically, under the tree.

Last year, as we prepared to make the move to Mars, we found a discarded branch from a real Christmas tree just outside our doorstep, where the nearby hardware store preps its trees for customers. We thought, why not do something a little different this year? It survived the move to Mars, & made it into the center of our 2011 Christmas Tableau:

Hey, sorta classy!

This year, we actually can't find the Playmobil tree in this expansive mansion, but we did get lucky again & find a bough from a neighbor's tree on the sidewalk last weekend. It was weirdly shaped & top-heavy, so we couldn't make it work as a stand-up tree. Just as I was about to lose my patience and *make* *it* *fit*, Adrienne suggested that we lay it down on the table, & decorate it with a bunch of paper crafts from a book that Mama O'Brien sent to us last year for Christmas. Genius!

We spent the rainy Saturday afternoon folding & cutting. Zoey, as usual, spent the afternoon sleeping in positions that just can't be comfortable, such as this one:

Also, as usual, she was unable to provide material help:

"I would totally help you with that snowflake, but I have trouble with scissors."

Her moral support was still appreciated.

After we got the paper folded & cut, we started decorating, beginning with Momma Arave's Christmas Mobile:

Then Mama & Papa O'Brien's Christmas stockings went up on the still-unfinished built-in:

And finally, the branch, presents, & paper craft display were set up on the dining room table:

Two of our cut outs -- I made trees, & Adrienne made especially excellent reindeer.

Snowflakes!

And here's the whole thing put together:

Thank You Brunch

Last weekend, we hosted a brunch to thank some of the people who have helped us out with dog-sitting in September & October, while I was out of town.

Zoey was very eager to do her part & dress up for the guests:

Adrienne made a delicious meal of johnnycakes (cornmeal pancakes), scrambled eggs, & bacon. I was responsible for keeping the champagne flowing.

Here we are, bellies full of bubbly & Adrienne's home cooking, checking out pictures of puggles:

Thank you Robin & Amanda, for your help with the dog, & for coming over to let us thank you with breakfast food! Jon, Susie, & Paul, you couldn't make it, but we have other plans for thanking you in the works...

A good time was had by all, & Zoey, for her part, was exhausted by her duties as host, and as usual, settled in for a long afternoon nap on the couch: