Xmas Eve. Also, fucking ants!
So after my distress of the previous day, I was concerned that I’d be really morose on Xmas Eve, not having any particular plans. But AA came over in the afternoon so we could exchange gifts, and we went out for a nice Pho lunch, and that was ok for me, although she got very sad and weepy. But I felt ok, although I was wondering what to do with myself, not particularly wanting to sit around the house.
But at 7:30pm or so I realized I’d better make certain I had all the ingredients for the apple crisp I’m bringing to dinner – yeah, not the fanciest of desserts, but the wonderful almond cake I’d planned to make went out the window when my hostness emailed on Saturday with a note that one guest is deathly allergic to nuts. So: apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, flour, all good. What am I missing? Salt! When AA moved out I kept the kosher salt and gave her the Morton’s table salt, because I use the kosher all the time, but only need the regular kind for boiling pasta or potatoes, which I haven’t had a need to do since then. And the only other thing you need it for is….baking. Sigh. OK, it’s 7:45 – no problem, Draeger’s is just down the street and they’re open till 8pm. Whoops, closed at 7 today. OK, over to Safeway, uh-oh, empty parking lot, lights dim. Gulp, well maybe Mollie Stone’s, which ditto. A-ha! And thank god for Walgreen’s, which solved my problem. Although I admit to being surprised at the number of people who were apparently finishing their Christmas shopping there.
Anyway, after that little close call, I decided I could use a drink, so I stopped in at the local. A manhattan and a couple pints later, and it was almost time for their regular Sunday night karaoke. So I decided to stick around for a little while longer. End result: the place was packed, I stayed until close, did a passable job with “Surrender” and “Mack the Knife”, had a fine time chatting with lots of folks, came home and crashed. Xmas Eve karaoke – who knew so many people would be out for it? A nice time, and a good crowd; I think I’ll be back there for karaoke again, although probably not too often on Sunday, because kinda hung-over this morning. Oof.
On an unrelated note, the house had been full of ants since we moved in. This being northern California, not much to be done about it other than try to figure out where they come in (the heating ducts somehow), and put ant traps out. Which have been there, and I just put out new ones a couple weeks ago but they don’t seem to have done much – I guess I’ll have to try a different brand. But checking email just before I started writing this one crawls on my hand. How and why it’s on my desk is one issue (there’s nothing to eat here other than envelope glue), but the real problem now is that I can’t shake the feeling that something is crawling on me; on my foot, now my leg, now my scalp. Ugh! But no, I very deliberately checke couple spots I was sure had something on them – nothing. Which leaves me with no recourse other than to repeat: fucking ants!
Anyway, Merry Xmas!
