After dithering and debating for months, Seanie and I finally decided to break down and try Blue Apron. For those who have avoided the ubiquitous ads on social media and every podcast to which I am subscribed, Blue Apron is a subscription service that delivers fresh ingredients to your home, with recipe cards, so that you can retain the joy of cooking while eliminating the stress of grocery shopping.

Or, if you are me and Seanie, you learn how to cook adult recipes instead of our half-assed dinners that consist of one nutritionally unbalanced dish like pasta or curry and rice. For example, tonight's meal - our first one - was Seared Salmon served with a creme fraiche sauce and Roasted Potato Salad with Pickled Mustard Seeds. If we attempted to produce this meal on our own, we would prepare either the salad or the fish - it wouldn't occur to us to attempt both. We would stick to very basic things - no fancy sauce, just salmon filet. Potato salad? You're lucky if we boil some potatoes and pop some shredded cheese on top.

Each recipe comes with prepacked ingredients. You have to provide your own olive oil, salt, and pepper - everything else is in the box. I don't just mean the basic meat and vegetables, either. Mustard seeds? Got it. Cider vinegar? There's a tiny bottle included. It's super handy. If I start noticing that I use an ingredient over and over, I'll invest in a full-sized bottle, but while we're experimenting I don't have to commit to an entire spice rack.

While I was walking home from the bookstore, Seanie prepped the vegetables by cleaning and chopping them. Then we cooked them together. Our kitchen is so small that it's a bit of a tight squeeze to have two chefs at the same time, but we found a rhythm that worked for us. We were able to get everything cooked in under half an hour, and we ended up with two reasonable-looking plates of food.




I really liked both components of the dish. The salmon turned out pretty well - maybe a trifle overcooked, but it had a nice flavor. I was iffy on the sauce, but it paired really nicely with the fish, even toning down the "fishiness" a bit. But the real star was the salad. The lightly pickled shallot and mustard seeds really complimented the kale, and you can't go wrong with roasted potatoes. They're always awesome. There was this great combination of textures, with the crunch of kale and ground pistachio nuts and the soft sweet pickled onions and solid, hearty potatoes. It wasn't difficult to make so I could easily replicate the recipe in the future.

Due to the cost, we don't plan to use Blue Apron every week.  Maybe once a month or so.  Our plan lets us choose three recipes each week, from a total of six, but the choices are somewhat limited.  If I pick one dish with chicken, for example, I might not be able to choose that week's fish entree.   There are some weeks we are skipping because even though we wanted to try 3 or 4 of the dishes, we couldn't toggle the recipes into a combination that excluded a "yucky" recipe.

Our other entrees this week will be Spicy Pepper & Ricotta Calzones with Cucumber Salad and Chicken and Creamy Couscous.  I will report back on the results.

When your co-worker doesn't show up for work, do you:
A/ Call them to see why they're running late
B/ Text them (if that's a better way to communicate)
C/ Text your store manager and then ignore her for an hour when she asks if you've done A or B, only to finally reply that "you didn't have time"

If you only have time for one text, why on Earth wouldn't you text the missing co-worker? She's the one who knows why she isn't there. Me? Trust me, no one tells the boss anything so I wouldn't have a clue. But when I asked her what was going on, she replied within five minutes and we established what had gone wrong in the chain of communication within ten. So if they'd bypassed me, they would have had the situation sorted out before the store was crazy with customers, and a third person working at the store too.

Laying aside that we're all grown adults and don't need to run tattling to teacher, I'm really perplexed as to why they didn't just call her first. That seems so obvious and easy a solution - and what we always did at every previous job I've ever worked.

I guess I should ask the store owners if this was SOP with the previous manager before I get too annoyed, but I get too few days off to have them interrupted by stupid questions that could have been easily resolved without my involvement.

"Don't you folks out in California know how to handle a little water?"

Hey, for some folks in other parts of the country, the recent rainfall might be nothing unusual, but for us in San Jose this is a once in a lifetime drenching. (At least one hopes that this isn't a new normal brought about by climate change.) Our infrastructure wasn't designed for such quantities of water.

As I write, several local highways are closed due to flooding. The roads up by Boss #1 are blocked by downed power lines and fallen trees; the other boss has had chunks of road simply washed away in mudslides. Neither of them have been able to get out without taking hours of detours.

The bookstore hasn't fared as well. On Friday night we had crazy leaks in the roof, especially since strong winds had blown the plastic sheeting off the skylights, leaving them exposed. Our matrix printer was soaked, but luckily it dried over the weekend and we've been able to resume using it. Our barcode label printer was not so lucky; it got wet and I think the power was still on, because the electronics are fried. I ordered another barcode printer through eBay and so far we've been unable to get it working with our old MS-DOS computers. A couple of hours each day has been devoted to trying to fix that issue, and it's been such a headache.

At least my corner of the world is so far unaffected, save that a leak on one end of the summer house has made a mess of the cabinetry in there.

Awesome Pack is a monthly subscription box that delivers board games, card games, and other "awesome" entertainment.  I decided earlier this year to end my subscription - my game shelves are fully stocked, and I need to make time to play all the ones I have before acquiring more - so I believe this will be my last box.

One of the drawbacks of Awesome Pack is the box always arrives after the month it's meant to celebrate.  For example, the letter that accompanies this current box has Christmas ornaments decorating the border.  That holiday was several weeks ago, but the box only arrived yesterday morning.  It's a little detail, but I notice it.


In the Ancient Greece, the poleis (city-states) thrived increasing their population and culture, occasionally waging war against each other, erecting buildings and celebrating ceremonies to get the favour of the deities abiding on Mount Olympus. The players will lead one of these city-states (like Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Argos and others) expanding it and worshipping the various gods in order to become the hegemonic power of the Peloponnesus!

This looks great!  I love Greek mythology and I love civilization-building games.  Strategy games are fun, and this looks like it'll be a real challenge.  I know Donna and Kenny will play, and with the connection to Ancient Greece I might even be able to get Jeans interested.


This quick-witted word game is a riot of fun!  It's a helter-skelter race in which you must get rid of your cards by calling out answers to teasing topics.  Once the topic has been announced you'll have to think quickly, calling examples that start with the letters on your cards.

I think this is designed to be simple enough that kids can play, but when I see this I think it might be a great bar game.  It's exactly the sort of thing that you can play for as little or as long as you like, and it would get progressively sillier the more spirits imbibed.


Sigh.
Scalers are little decorative plastic figures that you attach to your earbuds or other cords.  They hang there and look cute, I guess.   At 2" tall, I would think that the figure is too big and heavy to wear comfortably on your headphones.  You'd have this golfball sized toy swinging around every time you turn your head, with little pointy edges - potential ouch, don't you think?


I don't want little toys, but at least I am a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy so at least I can understand how Rocket Raccoon ended up in my box.  But Call of Duty?  Ick.
Don't want.

It is items like this Call of Duty set that soured Awesome Pack for me and contributed to the decision to cancel.  In every feedback survey, I told them "Games Only" and no pop culture-related items.  This information was not retained from one month to the next, and if I missed a feedback survey (or never even received one, which happened in December) suddenly little toys and pop culture items would be back in the box.  It got to be pretty frustrating because other aspects of the subscription were so good.

My dad has a listserv that sends out old stories and letters that my grandfather wrote in the last several years of his life. It's always nice to get them and remember him. Of all my grandparents, he was the storyteller.

This morning, a little poem appeared in my inbox. It was written by my dad's mother. When my grandfather sent it out to the family he didn't give a date, so I don't know at what point in her life she wrote it, but I like it.


SPRING WIND
The wind blew out of the south,
Mussing my hair, caressing my cheek and
Temptingly whispering, Climb over the hills
And see what lies beyond.
I never went to see
But I always wished I had.

Throughout the holiday season, as my co-workers and friends caught colds, I'd be warned to take care of myself lest the same thing happen to me. After all, something nasty was going around and taking people out left and right.

"Eh," I'd say, "If I get sick I'll get a day off so, y'know, that's OK with me."

Fate was just waiting to pounce on me for that. She was merciful until the Christmas season was finished, but now I've been struck with a scratchy throat, stuffed up nose, and a total inability to concentrate.

It's not a bad cold (so far) and if I baby myself for the next few days it should resolve pretty quickly, but how inconvenient to get sick now, when Seanie's on the mend from his Christmas cold and we could finally get some work done around the house.

On the bright side, I got to curl up on the couch and watch Sunset Boulevard again. It is such a good movie. The acting, the writing, the way it's shot...just gorgeous.

The last few days have been damp and raining (although today is projected to be perfectly lovely) and this has sent the local ant population scurrying into our house. We haven't yet figured out their entry point, but they are crawling up into the kitchen cupboards and through them out to our counter tops. They are sneaking into the bathroom through indeterminate means and crawling all over the shower tiles.

Any ant infestation would be bad, but somehow it seems so much worse when they're in the two rooms you most want to keep clean and sterile.

They're driving Seanie nuts. Understandable. He's at home, working hard all day long because it's also the week of the Consumer Electronics Show, these little creepers keep appearing no matter how many times he cleans them up. It's not so bad for me since I'm out of the house, but I don't like coming home to little bugs either.

We've been avoiding poison because again, don't really want trace amounts of toxic material all over the kitchen counters, but at this point I'm not sure we have a choice. But this is a seasonal woe, and I think that no matter what we try it's just an irritation we have to face whenever the weather turns wet and cold.

It's amazing what a difference a few days can make!

Two weeks ago, the bookstore was slamming. A steady stream of people coming in looking for presents to give, preferably wrapped by us into neat little packages.

Last week, the kids out of school and bored with Christmas gifts, so parents brought them in to find a book or toy to distract them until school started up again. We also got a fair number of late Christmas shoppers and gift certificate redeemers.

This week, the combination of children going back to class and crummy weather has combined to an atmosphere of tranquil silence unseen in months. It's peaceful, and while at the back of my mind I know it's bad for the bills I embrace the calm while it lasts.

I've been able to take care of lots of little chores, things that nag at the edge of my mind during the busy days but just don't get finished. Today I spent a couple of hours updating the list of autographed books available on our website, a task I haven't been able to approach since summer. I've answered e-mails, cleaned out my inbox, and started organizing for the upcoming Winter Institute conference. It's been quite lovely.

My trusty Wii U step-counter has been through a lot.  The paint has rubbed off of all the buttons, it's covered in scratches and scrapes, and I burn through its battery regularly.  I hate to throw shade at what has been a loyal, hard-working device.

But after carrying both devices in my pocket today, my new Fitbit is reporting over a thousand steps above the Wii U!  Has my step count been underreported all these years?

Or is the Fitbit, a new addition to my routine not yet sure of its place in the hierarchy, giving me extra steps in an attempt to flatter me?
I wonder which device is more accurate.  Both have their fans and detractors online, so I really don't know which one works better.  I think the important thing for me to keep in mind is whichever device I use, I need to make sure that I'm actively keeping the step count above my daily goal of 10,000 - as long as the activity happens, I suppose it doesn't really matter if I'm off by a few hundred steps one way or the other.

Spent a bit of yesterday afternoon hanging out with old friends. We don't see each other much anymore so it's always a treat to get together. Kero had her new baby June with her. Kitty had brought her younger daughter Aria while Kairi stayed home with Daddy. Cute kids, the lot of 'em.
 

Seanie and I had originally planned to attend a New Year's Eve party tonight, but the hostess got sick and the party has been canceled. I don't mind. A quiet evening in sounds just fine to me. I can sit here at my desk and contemplate all the ways I failed to hit the resolutions made last January.

2016 New Year's Resolutions

Eliminate blogging backlog
k00kaburra : up from 421 in January to 612 entries today
fashion_piranha : up to 205 entries

I've suspended my book blog because, funny enough, when you work in a bookstore you just don't have time to write book reviews anymore.  Who knew?  I haven't yet decided what to do with it.  I might restart in March, after I've had some time to rest up and think about the mission and purpose of the book blog.  I might put it aside because I have another review project in the works that will take up what little free time I hav,e and I'd prefer to focus my energy there.  We'll see.

Get my weight to match my driver's license.
My hypothesis that assigning myself a target weight instead of target exercise time was a huge flop.  It turns out that when I'm busy, I don't think about any of this stuff.  Next year I'll have to make a strong effort to build time for exercise into my daily routine, because if it's not there and forced I just don't think about it.

Roam and ramble the world a bit.
January: Denver
April: Tokyo
May: Chicago
June: Orlando

While travel certainly slowed down in the second half of 2016 - other than a quick road trip down to Los Angeles in early October I don't think I even left the Bay Area - I did suceed in visiting several new cities, including one international one.  That makes this a good travel year!

Get creative!
Nope.  Not even a little.

Back in January I noted that this was a "second tier" goal, and thought that I might stash money away for a ceramic studio membership while I slaved away at work.  The small silver lining in my uncreative year is that I did, in fact, manage to put a little bit of money aside so in 2017 I can go ahead and pay studio fees.  Now I just need to find a studio with hours compatible with my work schedule, and that will be a good start for next year.

My dear friend Sarah - we grew up together, so close that I often refer to her as "cousin" - recently got engaged. She's far far away in Maine right now for school, so I haven't seen her in a while, but I was super happy when I heard the news because her fiance is a lovely guy.

She sent me a Facebook message today with more information about the wedding. It'll be next summer, here in town. Then she asked me if I'd be one of her bridesmaids, which was really a shock. Not because we aren't still close, because we are, and we've known each other forever. (Literally since I was in second grade, I think...) But just because...well, I guess because I'm an old married lady, and old married ladies don't get to be bridesmaids, right?

But of course I said yes, because I would love to be in her wedding party, celebrating the big day. How awesome is it that my li'l cuz is getting married next year?

The first thing Mama Buckley did when we got to her house this morning was load Seanie up with as many drugs as possible to treat his cold. The woman's an amateur pharmacist, and she has the dosage for every over-the-counter cold and pain treatment memorized. She kept telling him, "Take ___, and you can it with this much of ___, and if you use a little of ___ that's fine as long as you don't take the whole pill." It was a little weird, but after following instructions Seanie quickly felt a lot better so she knows her stuff.

Although we had overslept, we were not the last ones to arrive. Terry and his twin boys were already there, but Jared and Erin were still en route. Val bustled around making food, so we ate bacon and waffles and sausage until we were nearly bursting. Meanwhile, hyped up on sugar and excitement, Arlo and Liam raced around the house playing laser tag with the brand-new guns Santa gave them. They kept pestering us to play with them, but they didn't yet understand the concept of hiding before shooting. So if you agreed to play, you'd just have two kids standing six inches from you with their guns jammed up against the laser sensor strapped to your chest. Not exactly fun. I declined.

As far as the kids were concerned, the entire purpose of Christmas was to give them presents, and to give them frequently. I suppose it's inevitable. If you spend Christmas Eve getting presents from one side of your family, and then Santa delivers gifts to not one but TWO homes, and after that you go to spend Christmas day with the other half of your family, the only connecting holiday thread is the incredible present cornucopia that never stops giving. No one else seemed bothered by their attitude, shrugging it off as normal behavior or excusing it as mere holiday excitement, but I was really surprised by their ingratitude and rudeness. I can't imagine my parents would have tolerated us demanding gifts and telling adults that they shouldn't have presents because they're not kids.

Anyway, their behavior aside it was a pleasant afternoon. Although the adult children had decided to do a Secret Santa exchange instead of full presents for everyone, it still felt like we got a mountain of gifts.

Mama and Papa Buckley got several items off of my wishlist, including a FitBit One, a gift certificate to a local yoga studio, and a taiyaki maker. All of the adult kids each got an ancestry.com DNA kits and a Christmas ornament. (Although she unfortunately picked a Peanuts ornament for me...I am not a fan of Charlie Brown & co. but the intent was well-meant.) One unusual gift was The Comic Book Story of Beer - it's a really cool book and I was delighted to get it, but I have no idea where she got the inspiration.

My Secret Santa was Terry, and he picked out an electric blanket made with faux fur for extra warmth. I guess Seanie mentioned that I'm always cold. It's super cozy. He also said he'd put money towards the yoga studio but he hadn't had a chance to get it before Christmas. Pretty cool!

Seanie got a lot of cool presents. The biggest surprise was a drone from his mother, who proudly proclaimed that it "wasn't on the list". Kero's husband has been playing with his drone a lot lately, posting pictures and videos online, and I know Seanie's been itching to have one of his own, so it was a great choice. He also got a DVD box set of the entire Red Dwarf series from his Secret Santa and the new Final Fantasy XV video game.

Did we give as good as we got? I'm not sure. Honestly, I'm not even sure what we got Mama Buckley. We all teamed up to buy her some sort of cow-catcher training thing for her horses. I think it's equipment? Or decoration? All I know is Seanie organized it and a specialist has to fabricate and install it in the dirt arena where she rides, so there wasn't a physical gift under the tree.

We gave Seanie's dad the complete Star Trek: The Next Generation series on DVD so he can watch it while he's up at the duck blind. In fact, we gave him explicit instructions that he couldn't watch the DVDs at home, because it would drive Mama Buckley insane.

My Secret Santa gift was to Erin, so I got her a book that I thought she'd like and Cards Against Humanity because she likes to have parties and it would suit her friends well. Since she loves music I also got her an iTunes gift certificate. It was hard to shop for her because everything she wanted was really expensive ($200 cooking pots and that sort of thing) and I didn't want to go that far out of our budget. Seanie got his brother Jared a Star Trek fan comic that was a surprise hit. (Well, surprise to me. Seanie was confident all along.) He also teamed up with Terry to give him a bedside lamp with a bear-shaped base. It's a family in-joke and went over really well.

To the twins, Seanie and I gave a collection of Where's Waldo books. They went over quite well, especially after Seanie explained in a beautiful little speech that he had loved the books when he was a kid because he could read them all by himself, and he could always find something new hidden in the pictures. After Liam found a visual pun on one of the pages, he was sold on the books; Arlo became absorbed in trying to find Waldo and his friends on each page. It was the only time they sat still the entire day.

They did not sit still for long, though. In addition to the many toys they received, Mama and Papa Buckley gave each twin his own bicycle, so we had to out into the cold to watch them practice riding up and down the road. While the kids were pretty good at balancing on the bikes - I guess they've had practice at their mother's house - the concept of braking is one at which they need to work before we set them loose on the streets of Willow Glen.

Dinner was raviolis from La Villa, and they were good. There was fresh bread from Mama Buckley's breadmaker, salad, and blackberry pie for dessert. I wish I could remember it better, but we were up so late the night before that I was getting pretty sleepy, and Seanie was really starting to wind down as the medicine wore off. We left a bit early so that we could get home before either of us was too tired to drive.

It was a good Christmas. Cutting back on presents with the adults really helped rein in the excesses of previous years and allowed us to focus more on enjoying time as a family.

It was busy at the bookstore today. We had a steady stream of customers and we ended the day two thousand dollars over Christmas Eve 2015's sales. And yet, though I was never idle, the store didn't seem to hustle and bustle as it should. Christmas Eve seemed just a touch slower than my expectations.

Since I was working all day, Seanie was tasked with finishing our Christmas shopping (just some odd bits 'n' ends had to be picked up) and wrapping the gifts. When I got home after we closed the bookstore at 4:30, he had the stack of presents destined for my parents' house nearly ready to go. I wrapped a few stragglers and tied the parcels up with ribbon.

Poor Seanie. He's been struggling with a cold for the last few days, and it was getting worse tonight. He was tired, sniffling, and groggy. But it's Christmas! He couldn't stay home and rest and miss the celebration.

Mom had been busy cooking all day. There was lamb cooked with rosemary, with mint sauce. Donna made scalloped potatoes and a rich spiced rum. (That was such a good drink. It warmed me to the tips of my toes.) For vegetables there were green beans and carrots. My uncle brought our traditional jello salad and my brother picked up a chocolate cake from Paris Baguette for dessert. (I'm so glad Kenny thought to do so - it was my responsibility to bring dessert, but since I've been at work so much this week it completely slipped my mind. Christmas won't be Christmas without something sweet!) There was so much to eat, and all of it was delicious.

After dinner, Daddy had to run over to church to pick up the evening service's offerings. He's the church's treasurer, and he takes his responsibilities seriously. While he was gone, we played a card game called Santa's Bag. You collect cards representing different supplies needed to build toys for Santa, and earn points by pleasing children by making them the gift they want for Christmas. It's a fun game that's easy to learn. We convinced my uncle and mother (against their protests) to play, and by the second round they were dominating the game. It was the perfect way to burn off a some post-feast calories.

Well, it was great for most of us. Poor Seanie's cold was catching up with him so he took a nap on the couch.

When Daddy came home we ate cake and opened presents.

Donna, rock star that she is, gave Seanie and me the one thing I desperately wanted for Christmas: Hamilton tickets. When the show comes to San Francisco next year, we'll be seeing it! She also got me some cool bookish covers for my throw pillows and a blonde She-Ra wig, because I'm always saying I want to dress up as She-Ra for Halloween, just like I did back when I was a kid. Seanie and I had gotten her a Doctor Who coat, with the Tardis embroidered on the hem in gold thread, a Disney dress with villain silhouettes hidden in a tangle of thorns, and two books (both of which she already but luckily they'll be easy to exchange).

My uncle gave me a silver dollar from 1872. It's so cool! He said my grandmother had been saving a pair of silver dollars, one for my brother and one for me. He also gave Seanie a newer silver dollar that he'd picked out, writing in the accompanying card that "Yours came from Grandma's heart, Sean's is from mine". It was the perfect lovely and sentimental gift, and a really cool historical piece. He also gave us Chinese beef jerky, which is softer and more moist than the Western version. I haven't tried it yet but I'm really curious about it. I got him Atlas Obscura, an incredibly cool book about all sorts of unusual places around the world. He'd heard an interview with the author of the book on the radio, so he was already familiar with it, which was good.

Mom, traveler extraordinaire, had gathered bits and pieces from her world wandering for our Christmas bags. It was an eclectic selection: a warm knit hats, a heavy necklace of many strands of seed beads, a pirate t-shirt, and a collection of winter teas. She'd also thrown in some cash and some gift cards to local restaurants and a giraffe sweatshirt for Seanie. It was like a never-ending treasure chest of surprises. She had requested a set of matching place settings to use during the holidays, so our gift wasn't very exciting but we knew she wanted it. I also gave her a novel set in Paris and some Matisse-themed socks.

Dad likes to keep Christmas simple, so he gave us a box of chocolates from a fancy candy shop in Los Gatos. Aunt Fanny had sent a box of Belgian chocolates down for us, so Seanie and I are going to be well-stocked on sweets for a long time...or at least a week. Daddy's always fun to shop for, because we buy him an assortment of beers and he happily drinks his way through the collection for the next month. This time, we also got him an audio version of Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton biography since I know he's been interested in that book. We sent a tea assortment home with my uncle to pass on to Fanny.

My brother had found an Elfquest board game, an utterly fantastic gift. Elfquest is one of my favorite comic books and as kids we devoured the graphic novels whenever Mom took us to the library. It'll be so much fun to play the game with him and Donna and Seanie. He also gave me a Mulan Christmas ornament; I hope that our house will be clean enough next year so we can decorate for Christmas and hang the ornament on a tree. We got Kenny the Ghostbusters expansion for Lego Dimensions, a t-shirt with Skeletor on it, and a fossil-themed board game that I got through Kickstarter.

The night ran much later than usual, but it was a lot of fun. Well, I had a blast. Poor Seanie was feeling pretty crummy because of his cold, but he did his best to keep up with the festivities. He was relieved to go home and pass out - especially since my family's quiet, serene Christmas is only a prelude to the holiday bonanza at the Buckleys on Christmas Day.

When Seanie and I came home from Rogue One a couple of nights ago, our street was blocked off and filled with fire trucks and police cars. It was too dark to see anything clearly, but we spotted white foam on the ground in front of the house next to us. The smell of smoke was in the air, but it was a strange, chemical odor, not the comparatively pleasant scent of wood smoke. We arrived at the tail end of the excitement, as the emergency vehicles were starting to pull away by the time we parked a block away (as close as we could get to our house) and walked home.

I've walked to the end of the block a couple of times, coming to and from work, and I think it was the house two down from us on the left. There are boards across the roof, and when you walk past that house the windows are blocked up and the smoke smell still lingers. I can't tell how bad the damage was, though. Was it some electrical short that sparked on the roof, or is there extensive internal damage hidden behind the walls? We don't know our neighbors so there isn't really anyone to ask without being intrusive, but I hope everyone is OK, and that whatever burned is replaceable.

Today I had a lady walk in the door and ask if we sold wrapping paper. I said no, but we offer complimentary gift wrap on items purchased from us. She said she didn't want anything, than asked if we would sell her some of our paper because "she didn't want to wait in line at a real store."

Needless to say, she didn't get any wrapping paper.

In honor of Ugly Sweater Day (who knew it was a holiday worth mentioning?) Starbucks created a special drink: the Fruitcake Frappuccino.  It's only available this weekend.

Fruitcake itself may date back to Roman times, but our Fruitcake Frappuccino® is a recipe that's fresh and new. We start with a rich, Hazelnut Frappuccino® base, blend it with dried fruit, cinnamon, milk and ice, then finish it with whipped cream, caramel dots and a matcha sprinkle for an updated take on a holiday tradition.

Of course, I had to try it.  I had no idea what to expect, but slap the words "special edition" on a food item and I won't be able to walk away.  When I went in to order the drink, the Starbucks baristas had no idea how to make it.  I could hear them asking each other what ingredients were needed.  In fact, at one point I even heard an employee hiss to her co-worker "DF?  What the heck is DF?  I've never seen that before!"

Eventually someone located the recipe and successfully made the drink.  The Fruitcake Frappuccino is delicious! Sweet and nutty with a lot of bits of fruit mixed in.  Raisins and cranberries, I think, but once they're blended into beverage it's pretty hard to tell.  It was a little hard to drink because the bits of fruit would clog the bottom of the straw, but if they'd had fat straws like the ones used in boba drinks it wouldn't have been a problem.  It was refreshing and pleasantly lighter than anything named "fruitcake" should be.  I'd order it again if it shows up on the menu next year for another Ugly Sweater Day.

It's a Christmas Awesome Pack!

Well, it's not explicitly Christmas, but since it's December it's hard not to associate the box with the holiday.  Will this box be naughty or nice?  Time to open it up and see...



This looks interesting.  I love strategy games, and this doesn't sound quite like any other that I've played before.  I'll have to play-test it with Seanie soon, since it's a two-player game.


The Struggle for Catan is a fast-paced game between the 2-4 factions developing newly settled Catan. Manage your resources to build settlements, cities, city improvements, knights, and roads that generate victory points or special abilities. While your settlements, cities, and city expansions remain yours, valuable roads and knights change hands. Varied expensive city improvements give you additional victory points and lasting advantages, so they're generally key to victory. As in The Settlers of Catan board game, you win by being the first to acquire and play 10 victory points.

I love Settlers of Catan!  I can't remember if I played this card game before, but it's a great idea.  Taking a great board game and translating it into a smaller, more portable version is definitely a winning idea.  Next time Seanie and I go somewhere on a plane, I'm taking this with us so we can play it while we're in the air.



I'm not so excited about this one, although it is another game.  It-Dah-Gan seems...childish, for lack of a better descriptor.  You have cards printed with words like "DAH-Top" "DAH-Bottom" "in-DAH-pitz" etc, and you discard them as fast s possible to become the first person with less than fifty points.  Other players trip you up with the cards they throw down, forcing you to take more cards.  It's got fast game play and it seems pretty basic, but it doesn't seem challenging. We'll see, though.  I haven't actually played it yet.

No weird accessories in this box like Hulk cards or Adventure Time dog tags - hooray!  I might have to take a break from this subscription box, though.  I enjoy it every month, but I've got plenty of games now.  I should give myself and my family a chance to play them all before getting more.

Since 2008, Powell's Books of Portland, OR has run a book club/subscription service that sends a new, autographed hardcover book in a custom slipcase to its subscribers. Each mailing is accompanied with notes on the selected book and a surprise selection of extra items.




MOONGLOW by Michael Chabon

I have read Michael Chabon before, and I was not a fan.  HOWEVER - the book I read was The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which I have been told is a lesser Chabon, and more importantly the fact that I don't care for the mystery/noir genre soured my experience.  My husband really liked Kavalier and Clay, but since Moonglow has been sent to me that will be my next foray into Chabonland.

This copy of Moonglow has a custom slipcase, as all Indiespensable titles do, and a chapbook containing an interview with the author.




NIGHT OF FIRE by Colin Thubron

An ARC (Advance Reader's Copy) came in the box, a novel called Night of Fire that will be released in January 2017.  Reading through the plot description, the book doesn't sound like one that I'd pick out from a shelf.  I may read it, but it is far more likely that I will take it to work and put it on the ARC shelf in hopes that one of the other employees will find it intriguing.

TREEHOUSE CHOCOLATE CO. DRINKING CHOCOLATE
There are three packs of hot chocolate, one each in ORIGINAL (Dark Chocolate), SPICED (Cinnamon & Aji Chili), and SEA SALT (Smoked Sea Salt).  The instructions say "Just add water!"  I love hot chocolate in wintertime,but I'm too lazy to fuss with melting down chocolate to get the really good stuff, so if this proves to be a rich, high-quality instant packet then Treehouse will find a lifelong customer.