Resolutions? I don't need no stinking resolutions

Because it is the new year, and because I would hate to start the year off with some kind of blogtastic feat of genius and wit, which would then haunt me for the rest of the year as I tried to live up with the precedent I'd set, I'm going to make things easy on myself. My first post of the year will be a highlights/lowlights list. So there.

New Year's Highlights:

Lasagna dinner with WR and other friends, with lasagna prepared the English way. Turns out this does not involve ricotta cheese but does involve a jar of white Lasagna sauce. Who knew? It was tasty, though.

Drank large quantities of J2O. My favorite flavor is "Orange & Passionfruit."

Ate enough cookies, cake, cheesecake, Jaffa cakes, chocolates, brie, ciabbatta bread, and red grapes to turn myself (and possibly 2 or 3 other people) morbidly obese.

Got to be on the winning Monopoly team (WR's). I've decided that I should always be on a team when I play that game, as it reduces the impulse to 1) lose interest and quit early, 2) lose interest and begin with the namecalling, and 3) lose interest and knock the #$%&^ game off the table. It was much better this way, and I sort of won! Also it was the British version, where the money is in pounds and the properties are things like "Oxford Street" and "Park Lane" and "Marylebone Railroad" and stuff.

There was no playing of Risk. Thank the heavens above. I know the menfolk love that game, but seriously.

Watched the countdown on TV, as well as the fireworks show that they did from the London Eye, which looked pretty darn amazing, even on the TV. The only fly in the ointment was the BBC commentator lady, who was either high, drunk, or had never seen fireworks before in her entire life. She kept going on and on about how "fireworks are so masculine, so this year they've incorporated touches of fushcia to make them more feminine" and how "OOOOOh my Goooooooosh, it's like falling drops of lace from Heaven and the Blessed Angels!!!" Yeah. Completely insane, she was.

Slept in till 10:30 and had English pancakes for breakfast. Turns out they're different too--more like thick crepes in texture--but really good. I had mine w/lemon & sugar and polished off the leftover brie for good measure. Wouldn't want to be wasteful. WR hit on the genius idea of melting brie into the pancake. Am I the luckiest girl ever or what?

Went to church in the afternoon and listened to a very sweet man give a talk wherein he didn't actually talk about the gospel or the scriptures or Jesus so much. He had just been to see The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe with his family and did that thing many people do when they've just recently seen a movie and loved it and found it Really Meaningful (think Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, The Passion of the Christ, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, movies starring Hillary Duff, etc.). Because this dear brother was moved by the elements of Christian allegory in the story, he proceeded to re-tell the entire thing right there in church, including the part where the White Witch kills Aslan and you think he's dead but he's actually not because of this older magic and then he totally comes to life again. I kept waiting for someone in the congregation to stand up and say, "Hey! I'm flippin' taking my kids to see that tomorrow, could you not ruin it???" I bet some people wanted to.

It was WR's birthday on the 1st, so I gave him his presents and he really liked them. Also he wanted new jeans and I found a pair for 5 English Pounds because I am the best bargain shopper ever! (And possibly I was just in the right place at the right time during the after-Christmas sales, but still!)

Lowlights:

Was not, as you may have deduced from the highlights list, actually in Paris for New Year's Eve like I said I would be. This is my own fault, though, since I kind of killed it once we added up all the costs and the driving time and the crappy weather and some other things. I will get there, though, and it will be wonderful and we will eat crepes and dance down the streets and speak the francais to the francaise.

Am certain the morbid obesity will be settling in any time now. I will feel a rumble and look down to find my jeans ripping of my legs and my thighs lopping over the sides of my chair onto the floor.

So there you have it. Welcome, 2006! Let's try not to suck!

Posted in: England