In honor of the Ides of March... I give you an entry from the Ides of December.

Whoa yeah. I'm kinda tired right now. It was a big, busy, beautiful weekend. But not one with a lot of sleep so I was kinda dreading doing the write-up for the blog. And then discovered that we had a very similar weekend in December which never got published. Wahoo! December truly is a month for gifts. The following was called: "Waiting For The Dough" and was written on the early morning side of an all-nighter.

Hey Everyone,

It is 3 am and I am baking chocolate raspberry muffins for a holiday goody exchange in a few hours. Who needs sleep when you have chocolate?!? While waiting for the current batch I'm catching up on a few missing blog entries. And, as I seem to have forgotten where I put my long term memory, I'm starting with today.

Today was boring. Housework, paperwork and laundry. Yucko.

That is until the very fun Christmas party at the Ambassador's residence. The turnout was really good and there was a mix of Americans from different agencies. Dress code was "holiday causal" so EVERY OTHER PERSON SEEMED TO BE WEARING A RED COLLARED, THREE BUTTON SHIRT. People seemed to have a nice time. We closed with some caroling around the baby grand with the ambassador's wife dimming the lights as we sang Silent Night. A pretty neat effect actually. We said our thank yous and good byes and headed happily home...

... where Lance and I had our own mini party with some friends and a little game called Rockband until 2 in the morning.

Tons o' fun as always though I was totally stumped by a Black Sabbath song. This was a big surprise because Ozzy is like my "brother from another mother" because we have very similar vocal ranges. But this one just killed me. Practice, practice, practice. Maybe I should decorate the wall with a few rubber bats for a little inspiration. Don't laugh, I had one on my wall in high school. Good times.

Lance rocked the house as usual. He plays lead guitar and can almost max the game when playing the really challenging stuff. If this whole Army thing doesn't work out I def see him going pro. Perhaps starting small in Europe then taking America by storm. Like Herman's Hermits.

So hours later I kicked everyone out at 0200 and started baking. And here I am still. I can hear Lance playing a video game in the other room and the kitten is passed out on the couch. What a silly kitten to be sleeping at night.

Two dozen chocolate raspberry muffins done. Two dozen to go.

***

Photos from the Goody Exchange at Adrianne's house several hours later. They are blurry and I am unrepentant because, dammit, I got the muffins done and even put on makeup in time for the party.
***
So that was December. This weekend was strikingly similar, culminating in a "There's a White Elephant in Your Pantry Party" at our house. Basically, everyone made food from what they had in their pantry and thought they would never get around to using. As you may recall, I shipped way too much food: http://00readysetgo00.blogspot.com/2008/03/full-kitchen.html

It was awesome!!!! So many goodies. Me, being the big fan of moderation that I am, made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, sugar cookies, oatmeal/craisin cookies, rice pudding and these peach pastry things. Many pantry items out of my home and into other peoples' tummies so I'm happy.

And all this is after playing Rockband with OUR VERY VERY GOOD FRIENDS, THE AMAZING AND ASTONISHING, JUST FLEW IN FROM NEW YORK CITY AND BOY ARE THEIR ARMS TIRED, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN GIVE IT UP FOR ....KIM AND LUKE!!!!!!!!!Guess who was whining about not being mentioned by name in the last blog entry?

Every instance of poor grammar in this entry was just to tick their English Major @sses off and had nothing to do with my refusal to google Strunk & White.

I use commas with reckless abandonment for joy and punishment. This is why I will never win an argument with Lance, which we are having right now and for the record I am totally right.

So now you're all caught up. Go tell compliment your housemate on something. If you do not have a housemate, this would be one of those times when your life is a little easier than it is for the rest of us and you may gloat.