Dragon's Orchid Garden

Late last night, I finished Kim's cow dishcloth.  Wasn't sure I could after burning my left index finger but good on the oven rack while taking out some pistachio pecan cookies .  Lots of errors, but it was a learning process and I really hope she likes it.  Just popping in to say happy xmas before the family gets here to open presents.  All the "usual suspects"...Knucklehead, Caliope, Lenny Bruce and Sasha say happy holidays, too.

I love this season. I love Christmas, or the idea of it and the tree and the decorations and the gifting and the baking, even though I'm an athiest. But every year, I procrastinate and end up spending money I don't really have (plastic, pay for it later, the American way). This year was going to be different. And it is. I started knitting gifts in the summer. I'm still knitting away, and sent 6 packages today. I still managed to procrastinate the sending until the very last possible minute. We did get a real tree this year. And yes, I know it's not environmentally correct, but it's grown on a farm, and we'll recycle it. It's the first in three years, since we adopted Sasha. We hoped that she would be a mature enough cat at three years old and that she wouldn't want to climb in, or eat, or play with all the ornaments on the tree. She's been very good so far, except that I can't put bows or ribbons on presents. I hate it that most of my family is a

As a library information specialist, it is my duty to read as many books as possible (with the exception of books by Danielle Steel and her ilk) so that I may be a more well-informed reader advisor to our library patrons. With this in mind, I reserved several books recently mentioned in the book review pages of our local newspaper, The St. Pete Times . One of them was Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong by Jen Yates. After coming home with the book and sitting down at my kitchen table with a beer, I began reading and came to page 68. That is when I snorted beer out of my nose. I was trying desperately to NOT spew beer out of my mouth onto the new library book, and the beer just went up the old sinus cavity instead. Carbonated beverages tend to burn a bit when exhaled in this fashion. It seems that Ms. Yates also has a very popular blog . I suggest a look. The descriptions of cake catastophies are even funnier than the pictures, ie. "it looks like some kind o