Dancing Around the Four Sides

And it was a nice last day of the year, sunny and almost warm. I didn't get around to making a cheesecake -- maybe next weekend. I did read 74 books this year, which is something. :D

2019, be better.

And I have to say, the moon has been absolutely beautiful the last couple of nights. Just huge and BRIGHT and amazing.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

:D

Last night was the last night of Hanukkah, so here's a pic of our menorah from the night before!
( Under the cut ...  )

Anyway, that's our menorah. I think it's brushed aluminum, and it has a really nice weight to it. I like it a lot -- a whole lot more than the one we had before, which was this little dinky thing with the candle-holders way too close together, so it was an absolute bitch to get the shammas candle in and out.

Need to order Christmas stuff for the friends and family who get Christmas stuff. Need to send out holiday cards. Still have not decided about a tree. Sigh.

Was deeply, seriously underwhelmed by the Doctor Who season finale. :-(

1) I just finished writing in a comment-reply to yesterday's post that I went back and looked at my Tumbler archive to see if anything had gotten flagged. Yep. A post of multiple photos of peoples' hands holding a small mirror, reflecting things like ... the sky. Nothing explicit. A post of still shots from American Gods, one of which included the famous scene of Marilyn Monroe's skirt blowing up from the pavement vent. Did I mention it was a famous scene? And a post of a Japanese netsuke carving of ... a puppy. All reblogs. Nothing graphic and/or explicit in any of them. I'm sure there were more flagged, but those were just the first three I saw. YEAH, THIS IS GONNA WORK OUT GREAT. Omg.

2) Read a (very) short novel by the Australian writer Shirley Barrett, called The Bus on Thursday, and I am still not sure what happened. It's about a woman whose life is turned upside down by a diagnosis of breast cancer, and she ends up moving to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere to be the replacement schoolteacher because the tiny town's previous schoolteacher has MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED. And this tiny town has some ... very strange residents, and nothing is as it seems, and honestly, I had to think about the ending for quite a while before I decided that after a certain point in the book, there is a very strong whiff of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge shenanigans going on. But I don't think that's ALL that's going on, and while the book is very funny and very creepy in parts, I thought it was a whole lot of confusing, and I was very much in the "What in tarnation did I just read???" camp.

3) I splurged a little bit and bought a couple of boxes of beeswax Hanukkah candles for the menorah this year, and omg I love them. It's funny, though -- the candles from one of the boxes melt WAY FASTER than the candles from the other box (two different manufacturers). I have not yet decided about a Christmas tree, but I did order a wreath for the door.

Three things: post.

The sun was out most of the day but now it's getting cloudy. I was awake at about six this morning and the air was fragrant with woodsmoke. Nothing seemed to be on fire, so I went back to sleep. Mister Nightdog told me later that it was our neighbor J.D. (I don't know his full name; he's just J.D.) two doors down, smoking turkeys.

Currently reading Michelle Obama's memoir, Becoming, which is shockingly good. I mean, yes, I know she's a smart woman who can write and ... I guess I just wasn't expecting it to be THIS good. It's completely absorbing, and touching and funny and simply a terrific read. And no, apparently no ghostwriter.

Otherwise I am kind of ugh today. Bah, humbug.

And it's already better than 2017 because the SUN IS OUT OMG. It's still below freezing (25 degrees right now, -3.9 Celsius), but that bright, bright sun makes all the difference.

We had a nice, quiet New Year's Eve. We watched Live from Lincoln Center -- the New York Philharmonic was doing a salute to the Broadway music of Leonard Bernstein, with Aaron Tveit, Annaleigh Ashford, Christopher Jackson, and Laura Osnes singing. They did selections from On the Town and West Side Story (although no "America," alas), and symphonic numbers from Candide and others. It was excellent programming.

And the first book I'm reading for 2018 is Mohsin Hamid's Exit West. Read the first 60 or so pages last night and really liked it.

It was chilly, grey, and damp all day here, and it is supposed to do nothing but get colder. (I will pause while my Canadian friends exhaust themselves laughing. :D)

We had a nice, quiet Christmas. We didn't do much; it's just the two of us (three, counting Layla) so we exchanged gifts (books and warm slippers and fleecy pullovers) and roasted a (store-bought) duck and drank champagne. Sadly, the duck was pretty sub-par this year (old?) but the wine made up for it. I think I'll get a smoked chicken for New Year's Eve.

I am reading my 58th book of the year -- Mary Berry's Recipe for Life: The Autobiography. Yes, we are Great British Baking Show fans, and this book is just an absolutely delightful read. I don't know if I'll get to squeeze a 59th book in before the end of the year, but I also don't want to feel pressured to finish something.

Watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special last night and really liked it, although I fell out of love with the series this year and didn't watch very much of it. I'm very interested to see what Jodie Whittaker will do with the role. Oh, and I also watched Logan the other night, and holy shit. I had gathered that it was not a run-of-the-mill X-Men movie, but I was very surprised by the film's themes of aging and loss, and by what a dark story it was.