San Francisco New Year's

Well, ladies & germs, my love and I are back from the wilds of the Nation's Capital over Christmas. It was largely uneventful and lovely.

My family and I played "Celebrity" which is a really fun game if you're not familiar with it. You all write down 6-10 names of celebrities on slips of paper and put them in a bowl and get in teams of 2 or more. Then one team member describes the celebrity to his/her teammates in as many words as you want without using obvious clues like "sounds like". You have a minute to get through as many names as you can until the opposite teams goes and you flip-flop back and forth until all the names are used up.

The next round you do the same (with the same names) except you can only use ONE word to get your teammates to guess the celebrity and the last round you can only use gestures and no sounds - i.e., charades.

I'm not a huge game fan, but this one is pretty goddamn funny. I even mimed performing cunnilingus to get my niece to guess a certain celebrity who shall remain nameless. That was a low/high point.

Next we are off to the West Coast to ring in the New Year with friends in the City by the Bay. Should be a lot of fun.

I put up a recipe for Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream Icing on my recipe blog, Flavors to Marry. I will be making them for NYE and I recommend that you do too!

I'm also selling my special homemade mustard which is available on Etsy.com and if you are a spicy mustard fan, I suggest ordering a jar or two. Pretty much everyone who eats this stuff is obsessed with it and wants more, more, more.

I'll write more useless information as we approach New Year's Eve. Until then...

PS Will someone figure out how to fix my &%#$ing header?

Blogspot has decided to change the way pictures are uploaded to the header of all the blogs resulting in mass chaos. I've done some research on it and changed the "padding pixels" to the correct amount, but it's way off to the left now.

If someone's reallllllllly bored and wants to tell me how to fix it, I would really appreciate it.

A Very Drunk Holiday & Happy New Year to All

I hope you all survive whatever Holiday plans you may have in store and definitely spike that eggnog! It helps.

If you're looking for a last minute gift for someone I suggest doing the noble thing and going to charity sites and buying a gift in their name. At the very least, they'll feel small for not giving YOU something priceless.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Kiva

Doctors Without Borders

Humane Society of the United States aka HSUS

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

World Wildlife Fund

Either that or blood diamonds - those are also priceless in a very different way.

Have a great holiday!

-Catastrophe Smith

Farenheit 451

The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They're Caesar's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, 'Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.' Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore.

-Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Xmas not for the faint of heart

If any of you live in the tri-state area you may have seen Dyker Heights' version of celebrating Christmas. It puts most other hoods to shame.

Last night some friends, my fiance and I went out there to check out the spectacle. It was pretty fun, albeit damn cold.











The Manger Scene



The Missing Baby Jesus (Stolen? Or just not born yet?... you be the judge.)
































It was a fun evening and now I'm taking it easy because I feel a cold coming on. Blech.

Happy Holidays everybody. Don't kill your family.