feel that caffeine...

and carbonation ushering all that wine to the surface. no Dr. Pepper, but Coke works well.

oh...Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays, etc. Dy's mention of Chrissukkah made me laugh! it sounds like an expletive that an impatient person might use..."Oh, chrissukkah...just hand it over and let me do it! Sheesh!"

did the mandatory exchanging of gifts with my friend, Chris, and his mom, Sarah. we've been friends for twenty years now. wow! thank god for Amazon.com wish lists. sure, i know what they may want, but never quite sure what they already have. and although i'm more of an advocate of pleasant surprises, especially when it's actually something that a person wants and needs, it's good to let it be known; the recipient gets what he/she asks for and you don't have to stress over the selection...

in turn, i got three items from my wish list - all CDs. music is always a good choice for me because i have just turned plain ol' cheap when it comes to buying music anymore. most often, i refuse to buy anything new at retail places such as Best Buy, Tower, Media Play, Sam Goody's (the worst), or Virgin because i can simply get it for much cheaper via eBay or even BMG; i find it unacceptable to pay even more than $2-$8 for a CD. now, when it comes to buying music for someone else, that's not a problem. it's justifying spending $18 for myself...when used is no different.

after visiting with Chris and his mom for about an hour, i headed to Kmart to buy some stocking stuffers for the pets. they can now gorge on dog food/treats, fish flakes, shrimp pellets, and bird seed...

got some deals too. found some cheapo red stockings for ninety cents - a good alternative for gift bags that they had sold out. the 8" poinsettias were also marked down from $8.99 to $2.99. okay, so three poinsettias in the house weren't enough. i had to buy one that was really dark red; the others we have are yellow and traditional red.

baked a cake too. no ultra baking like what Katie and Nelle conquered though...just a simple birthday cake for my sister, Susie. she's a christmas day baby who is now 37... kinda hard for me to accept. she'll always be my ten year-old, milk drinking, chicken bone marrow eating, no shit-taking big sister. 'course, i guess that makes me her barefoot, cartoon reading, glass stepping, little brother. like any of this even makes sense to you...

oooh, the cake is gooood... so what if it was a mix ;) we made a Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Butter Recipe Fudge (really, that's what it says on the box) cake with a White Chocolate Almond frosting. the baking took a couple minutes longer than the high altitude recipe called (for)...but oh so light and moist!

it was funny watching susie and lois eat some of the cake. both have been avoiding most sugars (with the exception of fruit and wine) for about two months now. i bet the first couple of bites were like heaven for them... the look in Lois' eyes were of longing and hunger; i was expecting to find her in the breakfast nook, secretly shoveling in half the cake ;) she was good though...nothing that a couple extra surreptitious nibbles couldn't cure...just no shoveling!

also spent about 90 minutes at Myriam's. she's a really interesting lady from El Salvador that i met while working at the Harvest (also where i met Lowa and Denny in the early 90's). she's a homeopath who simply wants to retire on her land in southern NM...i think it's halfway between Truth or Consequences and Las Cruces.

anyway, she used to tell me stories of leaving El Salvador in the late 70's when the military overthrew the government and returning to take care of her parents' holdings in the late 80's, when things were still hopping. one of her best stories is about a hunch she followed through while visiting her parents in San Salvador. for some reason, she decided to move her parents out of their house into a relative's home, even though the neighborhood was deemed quite safe. well, two days later, when she returned to get some of their stuff, she discovered a massive hole in the side of the house that had been blown in by a military tank; they avoided a riot by one day...luck or smarts?

anyway, hanging out with Myriam at her house usually involves red wine and plenty of it ;) a little cabernet...Spanish red (similar to a Tempranillo)...and some Riesling that we had before at the house. it all adds up to a lush feeling that is brought about even faster if you have that Coke or Pepsi afterwards heh