Holidays with Martha

TPP is staying out of the way.  Cooking is his thing, but our dinner is delayed until Saturday.  So with little to do today, Mrs. Phactor is decorating for the holidays and our impending guests.  Understand, the house will look quite handsome and festive, and she has plenty of black cat help; for them many decorations have the look of toys, and so some shall become. As a small contribution, TPP has made a batch of smoked salmon dip. It's pretty easy and highly addictive.  
SWMBO (she who must be obeyed) has explained that today is the official start of the holiday and that someone must get with the program.  In due time, in due time. 
Otto is still churning slowly toward NE Costa Rica, so my colleagues must be getting quite wet.  Another old friend and colleague from the upstate NY snowbelt reports they got 22 inches of snow that isn't good for x-country skiing, truly annoying.  
Mrs. Phactor and a helper have come upstairs to gather more decorative items, or maybe take a nap, no, just getting in the way right now. However this particular helper usually likes to get in TPP's lap while typing, a huge help.  This is one very cute, very friendly annoyance of a cat.  Not the one featured in the black cat day a few blogs back. As part of the decor, two biggish Schlumbergera cacti, but quite red, are in full bloom and looking quite festive.  They were kept outside well into October this year, and that seems to really prime them to flower for Thanksgiving.  They are really quite easy  houseplants that enjoy being outside hanging in a partially shady area for the summer/early fall. 
TPP is quite thankful for all you readers who allow this mental health program to continue at least until the next administration does something terrible to the internet.  Sorry, for that small vent.  TPP will now go for a walk, bring in some firewood for the weekend, and thus appear to be doing something useful that isn't blogging.  If you are reading this from outside the USA, you may celebrate thanks for whatever by feeding yourself and others a nice dinner. Generally a turkey, our native and very misnamed bird, is served with all the trimmings. 

The Social Season

The social season has descended upon us, and this isn't to complain because there are worse things to do than hanging out with friends and acquaintances, eating and drinking and talking. Last night was a retirement party for some 55 year old youngster. The retiree was well below the average age of those in attendance, and the assault upon those of us who like our jobs was relentless. Tonight is a fancy dinner party, an annual event where we eat one person's cooking and play with her spouse's train set which only gets set up around their Christmas tree. Tomorrow and Monday the Phactors will host open houses for two only slightly over-lapping groups. So this Saturday AM found the Phactor making cookies, 2 kinds, and minding French bread dough. Sometime in here a final exam has to be written, or maybe just give them all cookies and wish them a happy holiday. This explains the Martha Stewarting done last weekend. This is yet another reason for a blogging pseudonym; blog-reading free loaders just can't drop in. You'll just see all the cars parked around and wonder is that the Phactors, and why weren't we invited.

A Lame Holiday in February

Someone somewhere, but no one knows who, declared Tuesday February 22nd National Margarita Day. Nothing would please the Phactor more than to celebrate one of his favorite beverages, for which he has generously provided you with a tippler's recipe, but this holiday is just plain lame. You simply can not drink margaritas inside or in weather where you cannot sit outside wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It isn't done, at least not in the best circles, and personally, we do not travel elsewhere, and with perceptive and sophisticated readers, perhaps this is preaching to the choir. So what kind of dolt decided a day in February, a month whose only redeeming feature is brevity, would be a good time to celebrate the best uses of lime juice and tequila, either separately or combined? Clearly they are not of the northern temperate zone, and the southern temperate zone, what there is of it, has just never caught on to margaritas. Officially summer here begins when the Phactors can come home from work, sit on their patio, gaze at their botanical creation, and sip a margarita. Yesterday there were snow flurries, and you can't even have those in the same sentence with. Margaritas. Unless you are one of those low-life, low-class no-nothings who actually drink those abominations called "frozen margaritas". A shiver just ran down my spine and it had nothing to do with the cold. This holiday will be celebrated when the Phactor says it can be celebrated! So don't put all your salt on the sidewalks.

Columbus Day? Cola Day?

Who knew? Who cares? Some of our official holidays make no sense what so ever. That schools, banks, and the post office are closed makes no never mind and affects my daily routine not at all, so the Phactor didn't even know it was Columbus Day. But what do we celebrate? Everyone is pretty certain that Columbus did not discover the "new world", and some of his exploits and motivations are not precisely good as role models. To honor the fact that he made more than one round trip Columbus is honored by having several traffic circles named after him, and that would seem adequate at this point. Some historians suggest the holiday was conceived to honor Italian-Americans, but each and every pizzeria does that quite well. Praise be. To keep things similar and easy to remember, maybe Columbus day should be renamed Cola Day to honor those two fine post-Civil War pharmacists whose concoctions, both patent medicines, one to improve your brain functioning and alertness and the other to treat upset stomach (dyspepsia) should be honored by toasting them with the appropriate beverages, diluted with rum. Certain the colas have had more of a major impact on our country and society than Columbus. What a great reason for a day off!