Violins, Toasters, Diet Ads and Soulmates...

Yesterday we had our friends and family pot-luck brunch... it would seem the fates were smiling on us because in the past, we held our brunch on The SUNDAY before Christmas - had we stuck to THAT policy THIS year, Mother Nature would have stolen our show. As it turns out - we changed to Saturday this year and the show went on in spite of CrabbyWhineySIL calling out.

A good time was had by all! My mother played piano, TalentedMusicianFriend (who is the wife of PirateTeacherFriend) played violin and we all tried to sing - only TalentedMusicianFriend actually succeeded, LOL... But it was incredibly fun and I felt that we honored my grandfather by reviving our singing tradition. We were blessed with an abundant supply of delicious food (If ANYONE has any suggestions on what to do with leftover bagels, I am all ears!) and finally opened and shared the $200 bottle of tequila which was given to Ron by his ex-boss in like 1998 or so...

After everyone else left, close friends Anthony (Ron't lifelong friend) and Alison (Anthony's wife) remained - until 10 pm - and we got to talking about many many things. One thing that was decided was that no one makes a decent toaster. We don't even care how much it is - but we want to be assured of consistently being rewarded with perfect toast every time. Even if there is only a minute in between toastings. We have a Krups toaster which I proudly and confidently purchased a few years ago for approximately $60. A name like Krups - SURELY it has to be decent - right!??! WRONG!!!!! It toasts only the top half of the bread. AND as a special bonus, if you make more than one round of toast consecutively the second person will receive only burnt offerings. Is it really too much to ask for a small appliance that will toast evenly? We can watch movies on devices we hold in our hands, we can record and pause live TV, we have little devices that give us directions - but NO ONE can make a decent toaster?? Maybe I should write a letter to Steve Jobs. I am sure the iToast would look great AND work perfectly. Wonder if he would consider it?!

Moving forward... soulmates. I wonder how many of you believe in the concept of a soulmate, or I am told more accurately phrased as a twin flame... the other half of your own soul - you only have one - you spend your life looking for this person... blah blah blah... you know what I am talking about. Please take my poll on the right. I can't tell how you voted. It isn't that sophisticated of a system... just vote. Don't be so paranoid! I will blog about this later.

Yesterday I watched TaiChiInstructorFriend and his daughter pull out of my driveway. I won't see them again until they return from Brazil the first week of January - I felt a pang of anxiety - and feel it still when I think of them being gone. Godspeed, friends. I will sincerely miss you while you are away...

Finally - I have to mention that I used to really like evite - and I still like the IDEA of evite - but I doubt I will use them again. Too many ads... for DIETS! What is UP with that?? The juxtaposition of ads for Weight Watchers and my pot-luck brunch is reinforcing of my idea that the holiday season is mostly to keep the diet-industry afloat. Fatten 'em up, then make them wildly paranoid about bathing suit season! Brilliant! Mwahhhahaha! Evil maniacal SOB's. But that is a rant for another day. I digress - bottom line, I am investigating other on-line invites - right now purpletrail is looking pretty sweet... have YOU got a favorite??

Happy Holidays my friends... happy holidays!