jethrien

Back at home after a trip to Boston. Many things make a post?

- Google ads seem to have decided that my thing for the day is some diamond company that puts a special mark on their diamonds. Their tag line is something like "Only 1% of the world's diamonds have a Forevermark" or whatever it is. Which I suppose is supposed to drive scarcity-based value. Thing is, I don't see how this mark makes them better. I could also arrange for a handful of diamonds to get licked by a dog and say "Only 1% of the world's diamonds have a BestFriendsKiss."

- We got a bunch of gifts from vendors today. I scored a nifty mug and a coffee frother. (And coffee, which I promptly donated to the office coffee stock.) We also got two giant Harry and David fruit baskets. Moose Munch!

- The annual wine dinner had some mishaps, but overall was a success. Which reminds me that I owe my parents some recipes, including for a cake that's amazing and I kind of doubt they're ever going to make because it takes the better part of two days, what with all the separate layers that have to be cooled. (Deconstructed Black Forest cake: a layer of flourless chocolate cake with a layer of stabilized white chocolate mousse spiked with kirshwasser and nutmeg, with a topping of what's essentially brandied cherry pie filling.)

- Our seats on the Bolt Bus kind of rocked back and forth, which was unnerving. Still better than Greyhound--at least we knew for certain we were getting on the bus.

- My uncle introduced us to a restaurant in Cambridge called Oleana which features amazing Arabic/Mediterranean food. So delicious. The fried haloumi cheese was fantastic. (Where can I get haloumi in New York? There's gotta be some around here somewhere.) One of their signature dishes is called Sultan's Delight--a glazed short rib with a smoked eggplant puree that is just a revelation. My uncle gave us the cookbook for Christmas. The short rib isn't likely to happen--three and a half hours in the oven, then reducing the glaze, then another half hour of futzing on the stove. But the eggplant has an excellent chance of making it to the table. Or rather, being eaten with fingers in the kitchen before it can get to the table.

- My uncle and his partner have slowly turned what was a nice New England house into an amazing work of art. Their bathroom has heated floors. Heated floors. My fantasy house has acquired a new feature.

- Also, they cook really well, as does my cousin. Christmas dinner was absolutely perfect pork chops with homemade chutney, brussels sprouts with bacon and walnuts, wild rice with butternut squash, sweet potatoes with red onions and sage, and fantastic homemade rolls from their friend two doors down. I've eaten enough calories in the last week for a month.

- We had a long extended conversation about the worst Christmas songs ever written. Because they love us so, our hosts stayed up late Christmas Eve tracking down every single last one on iTunes and buying them to play them for us on Christmas morning.

- The priest at Mass chose to do the long form version of Matthew (which is already the most boring of the Christmas gospels). The first five minutes, seriously, is "Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers..." for 28 generations. It was the 4pm children's Mass. The long form is optional. A room completely full of squirming children, with the very most child-accessible Bible story of the entire year, and the priest chooses to do the homily on numerology. Seriously. What was he thinking?

- Everyone basically got along all weekend. (Some minor bickering. But without that, I would have wondered if certain family members had been replaced with pod people.)

- For the first Christmas in a couple years, I didn't have to cross state lines in a massive snowstorm. Thank goodness.