these days of leiderhosen

I realize that maybe it is unwise to be tattoo-artist-shopping online at 5:09 AM on Christmas, after being up for hours, but (ah, " but ": the word that effectively cancels out everything said previously to it. Usually to heart-wrentching, migrane-inducing, gonna-find-my-45-and-do-a- bit-of-house-cleaning effect.) But this work looks amazing! http://www.xedtattoo.com/

So yesterday I stood in the kitchen for four hours with the cordless headphones playing This American Life episodes. (To me, this is pure unfiltered heaven. There is nothing I like better to have a pound of unsalted butter in hand and have Ira Glass' staccato phrasing in my ears.) What did I make? Sesame flatbread with a few variations Fleur de Sel caramels (these took longer to wrap than to make) Toffee with toasted pecans and dark chocolate Mark Bittman's cheese straws (ooo, I love mark bittman's nyt.com column) Was it work? Did I make a unholy mess? Oh yes! But we have a dishwasher now and I was very methodical and unusually focused. Everything turned out very well and Steven & I hauled most of it down to Los Gatos for dinner with my parents, prior to the greatly feared Brothers' Annual Sing-A-Long Carol Party. The Brothers' family are life-long friends of utterly platinum quality. They are gracious enough to have us over every year to sing carols, although