ho ho ho
the lack of posting has been due to a couple of things. first off, there has been very little of import going on. mostly, i would have just been saying things like, “we had our busiest week EVER at work,” which has been true consistently for the past 7 weeks now. or something along the lines of, “i’ve been helping my parents unpack and get settled.” or, “i’ve been baking for the holidays.” or, “things with tony are great.” boring stuff. additionally, i have been busybusybusy DOING all these things, so i haven’t had the time to post. i have a few quiet moments here this morning, so i thought i’d put in some kinda update.
last week tony and i went to see Linda Eder in concert at severance hall. in addition to her own band, she was backed by the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the North Coast Men’s Chorus, our local gay singing ensemble. we were the invited guests of our friends M and G, but when we arrived at our seats we discovered that seated directly in front of us were our good friends M and D! it turned out that the woman seated next to me knew them as well, and she also knew several other people next to them. what a small world it is here in cleveland...i love it! anyway, the hall is stunning, having been built with steel baron money in the thirties and refurbished (at a cost of several million dollars) in 2000. both the chorus and the orchestra put on great performances. ms. eder, whom i had never heard of before, was also magnificent. she performed a nice mix of holiday classics and some of her own music. although i had never heard these songs before, a few of them had me close to tears, including ‘vienna’ and ‘if I had my way.’ it was a wonderful way to kick off my holiday season, while introducing me to a new voice i can enjoy for years to come.
the baking is almost complete at this point. the list includes the following…
checkerboards
little pecan pies
nut crescents
chocolate almond biscotti
sugar cooky cutouts
rugelach
chocolate shortbread
english toffee cookies
almond spice slices
mixed nut squares
cherry pistachio biscotti
thumbprints
right now i am working on truffles in two flavors: clementine spice and another more complicated one, where i’ve soaked raisins in cognac and then embedded each in cognac ganache. the idea here is that i will then dip each one in chocolate, but my luck with this in the past has been less than stellar. we’ll see how it all goes. i still have both plain and chocolate puffpaste stashed in the deepfreeze, which i will turn into palmiers, sacristains, arlettes, papillons and cheese straws as we get closer to the actual holiday.
my shopping is done, too. i got some packages off at the fedex dropoff point yesterday. now all that remains is the wrapping of the things for here. there is not that much to do, but it will keep me busy i am sure. that, and a pile of ironing that i keep noticing out of the corner of my eye and have been successful in avoiding for over a week now.
the only other real news is that tony and i met with the minister at his church the other evening as the first step in planning our commitment ceremony. she is a wonderful woman and i look forward to working with her. we will each complete a questionnaire covering a wide range of topics, which will then be analyzed and integrated into a report that will help us to see areas where we are in agreement and areas where we can grow together. it is something i look forward to doing. i am sure that we are right for one another…and i am sure that working on these growth areas together will only serve to strengthen our bond. we have a tentative date in mind, but the minister had to doublecheck something and get back to us. as soon as i know for sure, i’ll post it.
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last week tony and i went to see Linda Eder in concert at severance hall. in addition to her own band, she was backed by the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the North Coast Men’s Chorus, our local gay singing ensemble. we were the invited guests of our friends M and G, but when we arrived at our seats we discovered that seated directly in front of us were our good friends M and D! it turned out that the woman seated next to me knew them as well, and she also knew several other people next to them. what a small world it is here in cleveland...i love it! anyway, the hall is stunning, having been built with steel baron money in the thirties and refurbished (at a cost of several million dollars) in 2000. both the chorus and the orchestra put on great performances. ms. eder, whom i had never heard of before, was also magnificent. she performed a nice mix of holiday classics and some of her own music. although i had never heard these songs before, a few of them had me close to tears, including ‘vienna’ and ‘if I had my way.’ it was a wonderful way to kick off my holiday season, while introducing me to a new voice i can enjoy for years to come.
the baking is almost complete at this point. the list includes the following…
checkerboards
little pecan pies
nut crescents
chocolate almond biscotti
sugar cooky cutouts
rugelach
chocolate shortbread
english toffee cookies
almond spice slices
mixed nut squares
cherry pistachio biscotti
thumbprints
right now i am working on truffles in two flavors: clementine spice and another more complicated one, where i’ve soaked raisins in cognac and then embedded each in cognac ganache. the idea here is that i will then dip each one in chocolate, but my luck with this in the past has been less than stellar. we’ll see how it all goes. i still have both plain and chocolate puffpaste stashed in the deepfreeze, which i will turn into palmiers, sacristains, arlettes, papillons and cheese straws as we get closer to the actual holiday.
my shopping is done, too. i got some packages off at the fedex dropoff point yesterday. now all that remains is the wrapping of the things for here. there is not that much to do, but it will keep me busy i am sure. that, and a pile of ironing that i keep noticing out of the corner of my eye and have been successful in avoiding for over a week now.
the only other real news is that tony and i met with the minister at his church the other evening as the first step in planning our commitment ceremony. she is a wonderful woman and i look forward to working with her. we will each complete a questionnaire covering a wide range of topics, which will then be analyzed and integrated into a report that will help us to see areas where we are in agreement and areas where we can grow together. it is something i look forward to doing. i am sure that we are right for one another…and i am sure that working on these growth areas together will only serve to strengthen our bond. we have a tentative date in mind, but the minister had to doublecheck something and get back to us. as soon as i know for sure, i’ll post it.
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