A long overdue update

So, things are a little closer to being back to normal again. I was so relieved that my teeth have finally stopped bleeding. It was just getting more and more demoralizing, and more and more painful to keep replacing those bandages. My mouth was just so dry, and my lipped were terribly chapped. My teeth still hurt a bit -- I think they're all moving around a little to readjust. I'm still subsisting on oatmeal, soup, and chocolate pudding, but I have been able to eat a few Ritz crackers, if I am willing to endure a little pain. I'm hoping to have some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight. I'm sticking to ibuprofen for the pain for now. I've got the stronger stuff, but the fainting spell really bothered me, and I don't want to have to take it again unless I really, really have to.

We got a movie from Netflix on Friday and watched it that afternoon -- Wordplay. It's a documentary about Will Shortz, the NY Times Crossword Puzzle, and the annual Crossword Puzzle championship, and it was really, really good. I was totally surprised to see what Will Shortz looked like (I listen to him every Sunday morning at 8:40 ... if I'm up), and to see appearances by Bill Clinton, the Indigo Girls, and Jon Stewart. I highly recommend it.

We didn't do much to celebrate the New Year. We're still working on cleaning out the place a bit. We thought Greg burned up the shredder the other day, as it just stopped working. But it appears to be back from the dead for now. We took a couple of old scanners to Staples to be recycled, and I sent Greg to Goodwill with a bunch of clothes that were too small.

We were still awake to welcome in 2008, partly because of all the fireworks outside (which, strangely reached a peak around 11:30). Greg opened a bottle of champagne that we had bought last year. But Greg got really, really sick right after Christmas last year and we never opened it. We had some nice mimosas on New Year's Day to polish it off. Mimosas and cornmeal pancakes. :)

I tried a couple of new recipes on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day that turned out pretty well. On the 31st, I made Chunky Two Bean and Beef Chili, which I think was the first time I've had chili that wasn't made with ground beef. (Henceforth this chili will be known as Fancy Chili.) I was intrigued by the addition of cinnamon, though I couldn't taste it in the end. I don't like spicy food, so I only used maybe 1/2 t of ground red pepper, and I went light on the ancho chili powder. (Actually, I never found ancho chili powder -- I found McCormick's Hot Chili Powder or Mexican Style Chili powder or something like that right next to the regular chili powder.) I had also never used chili beans, so I went with a "mild" version of those, too. The chili was a little thin, but that's my only complaint.

I made this Beef Stew recipe on New Year's day, in the crock pot. This was a little bit soup-y, too, but really really good. We had more beef in three days (we had spaghetti and meatballs on Sunday) that we normally do in a month. :)

In cute cat news, Lefty has taken to burrowing under blankets, sometimes while we're under them. Other times she burrows and hides behind pillows. And sometimes we just cover her with a blanket once she curls up. Greg took this picture of her recently.

We have a couple of residual styrofoam peanuts from when we were packing up Christmas packages. Dusty loves to play with them, and most of them have been broken down into smaller pieces now. With the static, they'll stick to Dusty, and we've watched her chase herself around in circles after a piece on her side. (This cat still chases her own tail sometimes.) If she can't see them, though, they don't usually bother her, so it's really funny when she gets a piece stuck on her nose (this cat also seems to always have something stuck to her nose...). We call it "doing her Lefty impression," because one of Lefty's identifying features is that half of her nose is white. (It was also funny when Lefty had a tiny piece stuck on top of one of her front paws sometime - we joked that she had gotten engaged without telling us.)

So that's what's been up. I'm planning on getting to some 2007 highlights, and some 2008 resolutions in the next week or so. Oh, and an update on all of my scrapbooking!