Proposal for Xmas-Giving

Hello family (hopefully this includes Our Newest Member from whom we have heard nothing!)

How does the idea of a themed Christmas gift exchange strike you all? I thought the six of us could present each other with ephemeral gifts this year. That would mean things of the edible, drinkable, smokeable, experiential persuasion rather than the materially lasting. Now I realize that I may tend toward this kind of gift-giving natively, so please say so if we don't want to make this a group theme. Also, I can think of one person, our Newest Member as it happens, who is in need of a few material gifts at the moment, so there can be exceptions.

Introducing Our Newest Member

Have you all met Andrew? He has just RSVPed in the affirmative to my invitation to join us and I have high hopes for him as a poster.

I'm trying to find a smart way of sharing a little slideshow of Thanksgiving in Norman pictures, but I have not been able to do this so far. In the meantime, here are a few choice moments.















We had fun, that's for sure.

Thanksgiving wrap-up

Hello all! Telephone reports suggest everyone has returned to home base safely, if not always in tip-top health. In the post-Thanksgiving quiet, gloomy and rainy weather has returned, the house is subdued, the hot water heater went out (just a temporary glitch, we hope), and Astrid has sunk into depression at the thought of the dull company she must once again endure. Great to see everyone here!

Tasks for the immediate future: we need to get Andrew into the blog, and Elizabeth ought to share her good suggestion about Christmas presents.

Afflictions

Just to prepare you all, I've observed the first indications of some kind of ugly sinus/cold event chez moi. I may have it licked by the time I show up, but I recommend eating plenty of grapefruit (or your cold prophylactic of choice) in the meantime.

Travelers revised

I fear my travelers posting on 11/15 was seriously in error, as Chris is arriving on Wednesday, not Tuesday. I'm glad we checked with him, since we're not going to need any extra trips to the airport in the next few days. The correct info is Andrew on Tuesday, Chris on Wednesday afternoon, E and JC Wednesday evening. Good weather and good connections to everyone!

We went to hear a concert in far north OKC yesterday: Mischa and Cipa Dichter playing two-piano pieces. Not my favorite genre, but they played some interesting pieces, including a suite by Rachmaninoff written when he was 14. For info, see www.thedichters.com.

Something Pretty Growing on the Windowsill

Yesterday we met up with Margie and Ned. Despite ugly weather, we ventured over to the river to view the Hudson River Park boathouse, then paid a visit to the rather horrifying Comic Grotesque show at the Neue Galerie. M & N were good sports about being grossed out.

Margie and I were both wearing Maryanne Maletz creations around our necks all day, although we don't have any documentation to prove it.

hey dudes

well, I finally joined the blog. naturally, i must apologize for the delay, but i am very slow with these things lately. too much school.

the birthday celebration was pretty entertaining. hillary made me do something, so we just put together a little gathering with my pals at a bar. as always, it is tough to know how the 2 worlds of friends (meaning sais friends and pre-sais friends) will get along, but obviously it all went smoothly. i had a really nice time, and I think all the people there did as well.

as for the presents... it was a very functional birthday. Ms. Webber warned me that I would not be receiving romantic presents, but it was exactly what i had needed. most importantly, i got a small suitcase with wheels. She tried to give it to me before the trip up to New Hampshire, but I insisted on waiting until Thursday, and when I came back, i had decided that I would no longer be traveling with just a duffle bag. I was impressed that she remembered my previous complaints about my duffle bag that frequently became impossibly heavy, since we hadn't taken a trip since a weekend in July.

You will all be pleased to know that my second present from Hillary was a coffee grinder. as most of you know, it took me one week of grad school to decide to start drinking coffee, but now I have decided it fits nicely into the category of "comfort foods," and I really enjoy it every morning. now there is hardly a chance that i will return to the caffine-free world.

hope all is well. i am looking forward to seeing you all soon.

cwm

Gateaux

If you feel like exerting yourself, there's this cranberry-lime tart that I saw on Epicurious... I saw it and thought I would LOVE to have some skilled bakestress/ster make this for me. You can say no, because it looks like a real pain.

Happy Birthday to Chris

Warmest wishes for a happy birthday. We will celebrate on November 26 with candles and cake and all the standard items. I need to have suggestions about the cake: chocolate? gingerbread? carrot cake? German chocolate?

27 seems like an adult number. Congratulations and many more!! xo Mom

Don't peek, Birthday Boy!

All other members may preview Christoph's birthday geschenk...

Report on Andrew

Andrew has changed his main email to admaletz@yahoo.com, and has a new boss, one Elizabeth Dole. Perhaps he'll fill us in on his doings once he has time to blog.

It is close to dinner time, but the reports on the Korean cuisine are not stimulating my gastric juices.

Ciao

Tasty Treats

We did have kimchi, and 8 other pickley things. These came with the Bulgogi, arrayed in a very precise 3 x 3 grid of small white bowls. And Jean's soju was of the milky persuasion, as I recall. It tasted much milder than sake, but left him a little muddled the next day. When I left for work he was still lying in bed, muttering in his sleep about the Thanksgiving reading!

Korean delicacies

Hello, I asked Ned, who spent Army time in Korea some years ago, if he was familiar with Lizzie's birthday treats. The following is his response.

Bulgogi (also transliterated as Pul-ko-gi) is marinated beef strips grilled over a brazier.
http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/issues/bulgogi.htm

So-ju, I seem to recall, is a medium-grade Korean rice wine. The best stuff is a clear, sake-like rice wine called chong-jung. Generally speaking, the milkier in color, the cheaper. (The dregs are pressed into rice cakes --- I forget what they're called --- and consumed by hard-core drinkers, usually poor folks.)

I'm surprised there is no mention of kim-ch'i, the national "salad," which is marinated cabbage, traditionally buried, in the fall, in an earthenware jar, and dug up in the spring. It is consumed with most Korean meals: very spicy with a durable after-breath.
http://www.kimchi.or.kr/eng/recipe/make.html

More travel plans

Good morning,

I just completed the ticket purchase for Dad and me for the Christmas holidays. We are coming to Newark on Dec. 21 on the direct Continental flight that arrives at 1:42 pm. We will hope to see Lizzie and Jean-Cédric and spend the night with Bill and Barbara. Our return to OKC is Dec. 30.

I am unfamiliar with the Korean spirits Lizzie mentioned in her posting. Like Saki? Mom

Birthday Recap

Yea, you're posting! This is so fun.

The birthday was celebrated sort of quietly, but with joy and surprises. We went to a Korean restaurant, 36 Bar & Barbecue, where we feasted on Bulgogi, seafood scallion pancake, and a grapefruit jelly. One of us, but not me, drank a rather large quantity of Soju, which seems to have slowed him down a bit this morning. Then we went home and opened the bag of twenty little crocus bulbs which have taken up residence in our fridge for a "winter." I'll try to share pictures tonight.

Travelers

Hello All!

Just so we all know, here's when we're expecting everyone:

ECM and J-C: Wednesday, 11/24, arriving 10:17 pm on AA 1239

CWM: Tuesday, 11/24, arriving 2:51 pm on US Air 5935

ADM: Tuesday, 11/23, arriving 3:16 pm on AA 4061

Check and make sure this is right. And meanwhile, happy birthday to Elizabeth!

Neighborhood news

My first blog! It seems like a step off a cliff.

This morning I met Linda Fairbanks in the cul-de-sac, who told me that Joe is engaged to Ellen Gilliland, little sister to Lytton, Andrew's childhood playmate. No wedding date yet, but sweet news.

Yes, happy birthday to Elizabeth. We are looking forward to a celebration of the November birthdays on November 26, at 705 Westridge.

Invitation

I've just issued an invitation to post to all of you. I'm ready to be entertained!

Our New Blog

Hello Family!

Dad and I would like all us family members to post here, the better to know what we're all doing every day. We were thinking of posting pictures, linking to articles that we want everyone to see, sharing results of internet quizzes (my personal favorite form of family fun!), etc.

To wet your whistles for posting, I will share a little Halloween entry with you. Jean & I spent the afternoon in the park. As you can see, it was a beautiful yellow-autumn day. And I have a new ponytail. In the late afternoon, we purchased a couple bags of Halloween candy, but in vain as it turned out, since very few trick or treaters were game to venture up to the 4th floor, past the drunk guy sleeping in the foyer downstairs. We lavished M&Ms and baby bars on the ones who did.

So that's all there is to it! The posting works like this: you log into blogger.com and you enter the text of your post email style from the "dashboard." Pictures can be posted too although they have to be hosted elsewhere. I opened a free account with Photobucket, which I've found to be good so far. You upload your pictures to your account with them, organize them into albums as you like, and then you can link to them or insert them into blog posts very conveniently.

The sidebar on our blog is a little scanty so far, but we'll flesh it out as we go, n'est-ce pas? Think of some links we can list.