Christmas 2011

Jill and I went to Houston to celebrate Christmas with my family. There was a lot of food and a lot of gifting. We really need to simplify gifting next year:







We ate two Peking duck meals. One at Feng Ling on Christmas eve. And the other at Yao's for lunch on Christmas day. They use a tea candle to keep the tea warm at Yao's - a nice touch:










We also had a chance to hang out with Jill's brother and her nieces and nephew. And we caught up with Ron at La Madeline on our way back to Austin.

Speaking of Austin, Jill set up a little tree at my place with some of her childhood ornaments:

Gingerbread, part 1

Sunday evening, Jill and I thought it would be very holidaze-y to build a gingerbread edifice. We, being who we are, tend to do things a bit over the top.


Naturally, we made the gingerbread from scratch. However, mixing up the dough proved taxing with a hand mixer:


Then I remembered that I have a Kitchen-Aide stand mixer:


I got a kiss for that discovery:


Our resulting dough baby was huge and weighed in at a whopping 7 and a half pounds:



And is clearly bigger than Jill's head:


Rolling out the dough was not easy:


But we managed to make a test piece:


And then we were on a roll:



There aren't any photos to show it, but I did make the various icings used to mortar and ice the walls.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to finish the edifice that night, so this post must continue another day...

Holiday parties, part 1

The holidays flew by this year. The festivities started on the 17th with a saturnalia dinner with Linda and her Latin students at the Frisco. As in years past, it was a nerd-fest, but in the best possible way. Seriously, there must have been 40 Latin students or more - enough to fill up the party room at the restaurant. It was also good to see so many involved parents who came to celebrate with their kids. Anyway, Jill and I signed up to chaperone the Latin club when they go to the state competition in San Antonio this year, so this was good practice. What's off camera in this picture is the table of 10 squealing girls to the left:


Afterward, we stopped by Sean and Amy's for the 2nd half of our evening - and for some of Sean's incredible desserts.



I think Diego is teaching Dustin to play Bananas here:


While Eric looks presidential:



The next day, I went to the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar with Mollie. She found a new hat:


But the rope hammock was a miss:


And finally, this is the ornament my realtor sent me. I'm not sure if she realizes that Frosty has a lecherous smile and a pipe at full attention:

Palm Springs

I'm trying to catch up on my posts, so I'm back-dating a few of them to order them chronologically.


I spent a week with Jill in Palm Springs from Dec 3rd through the 10th. She teaches in the Univ of Calif Riverside low-residency MFA program. The program meets for 10 days each semester at a Palm Springs resort and business center.

It was a really relaxing trip - I slept late, watched movies, visited with Jill's colleagues and students and did a little reading and running. The faculty that teaches in the MFA program really are a bunch of rock stars - from Tony nominated playwrights to Guggenheim and NEA fellows - and they were all really nice and interesting.

Our room was a mini suite with mild retro feel:


But the balcony patio was my favorite feature - and a nice place to hang out and read:


The resort had 2 or 3 pools. Unfortunately, the weather didn't warm up until the last day to be pool-worthy:



I went for a run most mornings - and even caught a sunrise one day:


Another day, my run coincided with Jill's daily walk:


There's a cool vintage car dealer in Palm Springs that had a number of lust-worthy samples on display. I figure they must get a lot of their business from retiring movie stars and the like:




The MFA program provides breakfast and lunch each day, but we were on our own for dinner. Jill and I tried out a number of interesting places in downtown Palm Springs. But one night, Jill had a lecture to attend, so I went to Denny's with one of her graduating poetry students. Denny's is one of my secret indulgences. Larry (the self-described black leprechaun) and I ate a bunch of greasy food that night:


The UC Riverside MFA program is relocating to an even nicer resort in 2012 (on the other side of Palm Springs). Looking forward to checking that one out also. Sadly, there won't be a Denny's nearby.

Court Jesters

Prior to going on vacation last week, I got a chance to hear Pete speak at the Black Star Co-op about his law suit on behalf of Jester King Craft brewery versus the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC):


Later in the week, we all went to see Wilco play at the ACL Moody Theater:


It was a good show. Nick Lowe opened for them. He looks a little fuzzy here, but I assure you he was fine: