A delicious holiday

I ate too much--cheese and bread and some kind of smoked cod and a clammy dip on toast and incredible homemade charcutier by Sid (one of the regular guests at my friend's annual Christmas dinner). Then goose and scalloped potatoes, and brussel sprouts and I drank too much (champagne and then red wine and finally bas Armagnac).

Beforehand, my friend Donni and I exchanged gifts (birthday as well as xmas) at my place. She's decided I need things that eventually disappear--like food and drink--so she brought me an intriguing looking bottle of white wine from Oregon and a bottle of red, some chocolate mint Baileys, an olive oil dip for bread, and a wine set with corkscrew, stopper, foil cutter, and wine ring (I don't know what the latter is for)...

Previously, I'd opened gifts that came by mail: a nice bottle of shampoo/bath oil from my friend Suzi and a wondrous Bosch sculpture from Mikey and Richard (of the amazing Cougar Gold Cheddar cheese) called "The Temptation of St Anthony.

I still have a bunch of gifts to exchange over the next week and beyond: New Year's eve I'll be having dinner at my friend Ellie's where we will exchange gifts and hopefully Rob K and his fiance Gwen will be attending so we can exchange our gifts. Then a New Year's Day brunch where a whole bunch of other gifts will be exchanged.

And then I still have my friend John, who I promised to visit to his new house upstate in January and my sister...and there might be a few things still winging their way to me from out of town friends...so it's a monthly ritual this year, not a one day thingie.

recent reading/reccing mentions

From Gwenda Bond's blog "Shaken and Stirred" where she recommends her favorite books of the year (including Liz Hand's wonderful Generation Loss.


"And bonus: My favorite short story is, hands down, Kij Johnson's "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" from the Coyote Road anthology (YA). You people who can do such things need to start recommending this for awards, stat." [fyi it's actually a short novelette]


From Vylar Kaftan's blog:
# Short Story: Black, Holly: A Reversal of Fortune (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07) After I read this, I walked into the living room where my husband was sitting. My expression was slightly dazed. “Honey,” I said, “I just read an awesome story where a girl challenges the devil to… a gummi-frog eating contest.” Without missing a beat, he said, “That’s strange and wonderful. But if Kelly Link didn’t write it, and neither did you, I don’t know who could have!” (Husband scores points. He gets fresh chocolate chip cookies today.) But seriously, Holly Black–who wrote the terrific twisted faerie tale Tithe–has turned out a delightfully clever tale about a girl who tricks the devil himself. Witty, charming, and fun. Plus, it was great to read a story which didn’t have a rocks-fall-everyone-dies ending. Even though I like that sort of thing.

# Short Story: Rickert, M: Holiday (Subterranean, Sep07 < #7, Datlow issue>) People have been telling me to read M. Rickert for a while now. I’d always meant to read her stuff, and she sounded like my sort of writer. Indeed. This story blew my socks off. A man is visited by a never-quite-named Jon-Benet Ramsey who converts him into a birthday-party-holding, clownsuit-wearing–Oh, just go read the story. Haunting, chilling, and very strange. Consider me a new M. Rickert fan. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one pick up a bunch of recommendations.