PhysOrg and I went to dinner at Maharaja. We ordered beef shahi korma and mango shakes. During dinner, I turned around to look at the picture of “judgmental” (we decided) Indian women quilting behind me and he placed an open ring box with an engagement ring in it right in front of me.

I did not notice. For several minutes, I continued being completely blind to this new addition to the table and Phys became amused.

I was starting to pick up on his amusement and felt a little paranoid about what I was doing that was so damn funny when he said “you can’t see what’s right in front of you.” Since I approach things fairly literally, I started looking around in front of me and lo and behold, there was an engagement ring on the table. He appropriately came to my side and knelt and put it on my left hand.

Also, there was GOOD birthday cake, carrot cake in fact:

I have been up a little late tonight assembling a breakfast casserole for this morning and baking a bunch of gingerbread cookies for Christmas Day.

We will be out of town most of the day.  Merry Christmas to all you guys!

I had a couple of vacation days left at the end of the year and, combined with company holidays, that means I am off for almost a week during the holidays. I’m very glad. I need time to unwind with my kitties, my fiance, and our friends. Joe is staying over at our place during his college break, so we get to spend some time with him and Becky.

JoZEr has been crashing on our couch a few nights here and there (he’s mostly been staying at his dad’s place) the past week or two while his wife was finishing up law school in Seattle and he was starting his new job here. I think she was supposed to be back in Madison this weekend so that will probably accelerate their plan to find a place to buy or rent.

It sounds like Matt is coming in from Chicago next weekend to spend his four days off with us.

The Guffeys are coming over this afternoon to watch movies and play cards (Mlitiagrl is at her parents for the holidays and our gaming friend Steph is also visiting family).

There are family plans for Monday and Tuesday that I am vaguely-to-moderately aware of.

I haven’t forgotten that Thursday is my birthday and I have developing ideas about what I am doing that day.

The Christmas/New Year’s holiday for me is about spending time with people I love and showing them that I care, relaxing, and having fun. I don’t think it’s particularly about spending money, although it seems that we do spend more money, energy, and time on people we love this time of the year.

It’s certainly NOT about religious exclusivism and nit-picking “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” or debating whether decorated trees only belong to Christmas and Christians. It’s obvious that we’ve combined traditions from many cultures and religions to produce our 21st Century notion of what the end-of-year holidays entail. Two or three hundred years from now, people will have completely different traditions, but hopefully they will still celebrate the people around them and the passing of another year. Maybe we will have moved beyond all of this nit-picking, too, but human nature makes me doubt it.

We’ve had a couple of pretty dark, foggy days in Madison and it sounds like we have colder weather and snow on the way tonight.

PhysOrg and I were out around lunchtime to finish up our weekend errands before the snow starts falling again. We both needed and purchased headphones and I finished up some Christmas shopping. We had lunch out at Pedro’s on the west side. We picked up an extra snowshovel and ordered a new gas dryer to be delivered next Saturday. We had a new wood burning fireplace installed just to mess with Mlitiagrl (OK, we only considered it).

We shopped for food and returned home. Ah, home.

I added a new Picasa album with newer photos of the cats yesterday.

And my friend Samara sends her holiday wishes to you and yours:

 (by way of http://jupitersnest.livejournal.com/280049.html?#cutid1)

(and, for the record no, I don’t think it’s wrong to want to punch people)

Your Score: Fun Loving Soul

You scored 12 Extroversion, -2 Sensitivity, and 15 Openness!

You are an open and social person. When you are left alone you tend to get bored and restless, and too much time without social contact makes you fade away. A good night surrounded by friends and laughter soon perks you back up.

You are trusting and truthful, and you aren’t good at hiding your emotions from friends or strangers alike. People need to take you as you are – and often they do. You are confident but not overconfident, sensitive but not touchy. You aren’t afraid to give your opinion, or to let someone know when they have offended you, but you don’t constantly fly off the handle. You simply want to make your thoughts and feelings known, and you are just as open to hearing others’ points of view. Sometimes your friends feel slighted by you, because they aren’t as open about their feelings as you are, and so you don’t always notice when they are feeling hurt or down.

Your daemon’s form would represent your social and emotionally honest nature, as well as your balanced sense of self. He or she would constantly be throwing him or herself into the moment – enjoying the feel of the afternoon wind, the throbbing beat of music in the club, or helping you argue your point.

Suggested forms: Meerkat, Labrador Retriever, Sea Lion, Lemur

I made 3 batches of fudge and about 10 dozen gingerbread cookies tonight.  That was most of my evening.

I think I could bake cookies pretty happily as a part-time, on-the-side money-making thing.  I don’t know that the hourly salary would be worth it after expenses, though.

Also, we would not fit into our pants for long.

So is there any doubt that we’re going to have a White Christmas this year in Madison?

The patio table and grill on our deck each have a snow mohawk a foot or higher on top. You could make snow angels on our deck. Snow has been falling lazily all morning and none of the snow from the past week or two has melted because temperatures haven’t been high enough.

We thought our friend Rockwel might come by and visit as he was passing through town, but the weather changed his plans for the weekend.

I baked four dozen gingerbread cookies this morning as a tasty “test run” for next week. That recipe is a keeper.

I have a little more Christmas shopping to do and errands to run, but I am putting them off and may just skip doing them today. It’s nice to be snowed in at home with one cat curled up on my lap and one snuggled under his blanket on the box beside my desk.

It has been a little busy this weekend, although we have spent a great deal of time at home.  We took it easy and slept in Saturday morning.  I had a hair appointment that took a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon, then we went over to Althea and Bryan’s for dinner.  PhysOrg stayed late at their place to babysit his nephew while I headed out to do some postponed shopping for cookie/candy ingredients.  The snow started coming down pretty steadily and I think we had a few more inches overnight.

Late this morning, I started making the first round of Christmas treats.  Over the course of the day, I have made Magic Cookie Bars, fudge, and Sour Cream cookies (which are akin to teacakes, I think).  I have run one heroic dungeon and written most of my Christmas cards.  I made dinner.  I have washed many dishes from all of the baking and cooking.  I am full and a little tired.

I will be in the kitchen more over the next few weeks as we’re doing a cookie exchange at work and I have promised to bring fudge in for a treat day, as well.  I think I will make gingerbread cookies for the cookie exchange.

Now I need to go check my car and see if it needs to be cleaned off before morning.

We had a great night out last night.

Mlitiagrl, PhysOrg, Artie, Guffey, JoZEr and I went to dinner at the Plaza (mmm, Plaza sauce) and then saw Jonathan Coulton at the Majestic. There were so many geeks there! We ran into people we knew, like Splott and Sacredspud, the latter of whom came over to sit with us during the show.

We weren’t expecting too much from the opening band and thought we might even miss them between the time we spent at dinner and the walk to the theatre, but we didn’t and Paul and Storm gave a great performance. Sacredspud pointed out that they were part of another band that we all liked a whole lot a few years back, DaVinci’s Notebook, which was happy news to me. I saw DaVinci’s Notebook way back in 1999 or 2000 at Luther’s Blues in a different lifetime, with a different boyfriend (at least, I think he was there), before I even knew most of my friends in Madison. Anyway, great band.

Jonathan Coulton rocked the house and I guess I was very familiar with about 50-60% of the songs he played. My favorite Coulton song, “Skullcrusher Mountain”, was second on the playlist– I had to pick up a “Visit Skullcrusher Mountain” t-shirt after the concert. When Coulton asked for audience requests, PhysOrg very loudly suggested that “Mandelbrot Set” be played and it was. Good times

We’ve had a couple of snowstorms this week and probably more snow on the way tomorrow night. This morning there were a few new inches coating our driveway, layered on top of some ice-coated snow that had been partially removed. The result was a partial disabling of our driveway. My car was left out overnight, as moving it into the garage was impossible to do without getting stuck going up the driveway or coming back down again.

Both car doors were frozen shut this morning and a neighbor who happened to be outside came over to help out. After I left for work, he also kindly cleared our driveway with his snowblower. SO I HAVE A MISSION: THIS WEEKEND I AM MAKING CHRISTMAS COOKIES FOR THIS WONDERFUL GUY! I am so grateful to be able to pull into the garage tonight! Woo!

(the following is reprinted from an email I sent to my mother and sister today)

We’ve had a couple of snowstorms this week and more coming, so here is a
checklist of things you have to think about in winter in Wisconsin.

Leaving the house:
1. Getting to your car by wading through several inches of snow which
may or may not have a layer of ice or clumps of ice underneath.
2. Assessing whether or not you can open any door on your vehicle. Any
water that gets under the seal on the door will cause my doors to freeze
shut. The locks on my car have also frozen at times. There are not any
great, quick ways of dealing with this. It helps to have someone
stronger than you who can pry the door open. I have also used hot water
to melt enough of the ice that I could open the door, but when it’s very
cold out, this may result in adding another layer of ice to the seal.
3. Brushing several inches of snow off of all windows and your
headlights. The snow we’ve had this week has been wet and icy, so there
is a thick layer of ice underneath that you have to clear off when
you’re done brushing. This has to be scraped off and windshield wipers
have to be freed if they are encased in a layer of ice and snow.
4. Will the car start? No problems here so far.
5. Trying to get out of the driveway. You may be stuck and have to
shovel yourself.

Driving:
1. Can I see? Sometimes your windshield looks pretty clear from the
outside, but it’s not really from the inside. Conditions as you drive
can also impair this: amount of snow falling, time of day, wet snow that
sticks to your windshield wipers and makes them ineffective, salt from
the road that accumulates on your windshield.
2. Can I move through this? Under certain conditions, you can get
stuck. Usually the snow plows are pretty good at clearing main roads,
but they don’t always get started before the snow stops coming down.
3. Am I going to slide? Don’t trust intersections. Don’t trust breaks.
You should just drive slower and make sure you signal to the guy
behind/beside you when you change lanes.
4. Do I have enough gas and provisions/gear in the car? People have to
drive slower. There are sometimes accidents. Traffic may be moving at
under 20 MPH. It may take twice as long to get home and you might spend
a lot of time sitting.

Maintenance:
1. Sidewalks have to be cleared within 24 hours or the city will fine
you (we don’t have sidewalks in our neighborhood, so not a concern here)
2. Your driveway has to be cleared after it snows unless it’s melting
right away- particularly if it’s icy snow. Otherwise, you will not be
able to use your driveway.
3. Water (and, later in the season, muddy water) will accumulate in the
entry way of your home as people go in and out with wet shoes. DO take
off your shoes when you enter a residence and leave them on the linoleum
or tile (if they have linoleum or tile). There is no comfort level or
politeness regarding bare feet/socks here. It would be really impolite
to track snow all over your neighbor’s house even if this is the first
time you have visited them before.
4. Buy salt or sand and use it. It melts ice and snow, it provides traction.
You do not want your walkways to be sheets of ice.
5. The snow plow may hit your mailbox. This is one of the small
casualties of winter.