k-brow: red flowers and the post-turkey letdown

What are these flowers? There's a whole hedge of them growing at my school. I love their little waxy blossoms.

I have a sneakin' feeling I should be somewhere doing something fun, but instead I'm here in the living room, watching what seems to be a marathon of "Entourage" and going through bills, junk mail and catalogues. Which wouldn't be a chore if I did it more often, but since most of this stuff is from October, I'm pretty much saving my own life, now. This show, which I do not really watch, is amusing in the "this has nothing to do with my life" sort of way.

I planned to go to work today, and spend the entire day there, but instead, got sidetracked by the Farmer's Market, where I found good deals on local mizuna greens, string beans, romaine, papaya, jabon (like a pink pomelo - giant citrus fruit) and sweet potatoes. Essentially the greens and vegies for my week of dinner and lunches. I've been really slammed by the raised prices at the grocery store, these days, and am making a more concentrated effort to eat from the markets at Diamond Head and Chinatown.

Thanksgiving was a non-event, the high point of which was Acornbud's surprise delivery of the most amazing apple-cranberry crisp. We ate it still warm, with ice cream, and it actually kept me restrained at the dessert cart later at dinner at 3660. P finished the rest of it off for breakfast on Friday morning. Yum! Ms. Bud is a wicked good cook. We went out to 3660 on the Rise, a schmancy restaurant in Kaimuki, which has become something of an annual Thanksgiving custom for us, here. They have a great buffet, and we celebrated by dressing up, having a cocktail and having a leisurely dinner. I swear, the same crowd was there this year as were the past 2 years, which does not surprise me. It is one of my favorite Hawaiian customs, this going out for Thanksgiving, which works well, since we don't have family here. Thing is, I LIKE the Thanksgiving meal, but don't like having to cook so much, so many dishes all at once. I'm a little sad now, about having no dressing and pumpkin pie for breakfast these days, but I will cook a turkey at Christmas for my sister's arrival, so we'll have that stuff, then.

We are having a rainy weekend here, throwing a wrench in my plan to clip both dogs into their winter-mud-season-skinned-alive looks. I got as far as bathing them, last night, and today was greeted by the downpour at the Farmer's Market, so I just cancelled my grooming. I love having dogs who don't shed, but clipping them every 6 weeks is a chore, and an expensive thing to farm out to a groomer. $60 - $90 per dog, and the uncertainty of having strangers handle them. I have occasionally sprung to have Ella groomed, but spent the day worrying about her while she was at the groomer's, and I just imagine that Cricket would wreak havoc at a grooming parlor, in a sensational way.

My great-aunt Eva died last week, in West Virginia. She was 97, and my grandmother's baby sister, a sweet, spirited old lady. My mom told me that she'd (Eva, that is, not my mom) had an amazing dream, about a week before she passed, in which she and her husband, long dead, had been running around up and down hills and in the woods. She said they'd been about 17 in the dream, and were laughing and having a great time. A couple of weeks before that, she'd called my aunt and had her come over to help her write her own obituary up for the paper. She was ready to go, to whatever lies ahead, which for her, I think, was a reunion with her true love, and her family.

I'm calling the Samhain season officially over, with this wee new moon, and Eva's graceful departure for the summerlands. I'm thinking though, about leaving up an ancestor's altar, though, this coming year. I read an interesting article, on Witchvox, a week or so ago, that discussed the way we do our daily spiritual practice,and how we activate our energy. It talked about invoking local nature spirits, our ancestral spirits, as well as whatever deities we might have an affinity for.

Maybe you came here for knitting? It's a little cheating on my "All UFO All the Time" game, by knitting a sock out of the adorably neapolitan Trekking 126, and some grinding away on sleeve #1 of Must Have. Which I intended to finish this weekend, but the sock was a distraction. But cute. I did finish sewing up Minimalist, and it's getting a fair amount of wear at work. I will post pics soon, I promise. I also finished a scarf, the chunky blue and blue and blue one of yarn that DisKnit made me buy last year at Crafty Bastards. Yeah, yeah, I know I need to take pics. Bad knitblogger.

Tomorrow, we are going to see the play "The Frost-Nixon Debates" at Manoa. It will be with some friends whom are both fun and trying at the same time. I am stoked and up for the challenge, which will provide fodder and fuel for the days to come.