The Myth & The Majesty

One holiday down, two to go. I don't quite remember when my expectations for this season started to change, but at some point in the last decade, the shift began. Then, when I wasn't paying attention, Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday were added to the mix. Maybe my memories of a simpler time are somewhat skewed. I remember a time when you didn't hear Christmas music in department stores till at least late November. I remember a time when people didn't line up for a Black Friday sale until Black Friday. I remember a time when there was no way you'd be buying your ten-year-old a new cell phone, much less an iPhone. Hm. My "simpler times" memories aren't really that simple, are they? All the same ... Why the stress? Why can't we just enjoy it? I mean, it's all supposed to be fun, right? It saddens me a bit that I'm almost feeling more relief that Stage 1 of Holiday Psychosis is done than joy about the upcoming stage. (Of cou

I had a great Thanksgiving. There was some of this... (I was making breakfast. Fancy french toast whose recipe I must write down.) And later ... some of this. Fun fact: cranberry sauce is much tastier when it comes out in the shape of the can. (I had to take a picture. This is the only canned food we have on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Heck, we didn't even have green bean casserole this time, which while not canned itself involves use of canned food. It was a pretty fantastic meal.) Then there was this ... Olives on fingers are tradition around here. And plenty of this. And a little of this. And way too much of this, if that's possible. And then there was the hand and foot marathon. Mom's turn to lose three in a row.  Then, just to make the weekend more perfect, there was this. Seriously. I don't remember the last time a movie actually made me laugh from beginning to end, but this one did it. A big

So I'm sitting in the kitchen, eating some of our random appetizers, wearing my jersey and ... commenting on the colors available for a Kitchenaid stand mixer. Oh yeah. It's a family holiday. After what has been a somewhat tumultuous year, I haven't been good at thankfulness. 'Tis the season, however, and by all means I should give it a try. I am thankful... ... for getting to see my sister this year. ... for having a place to live and ways to get by despite things not always going as planned. ... for references coming through in a pinch. ... for good travel weather for Shorty. ... for good weather in general. It's a fabulous day. ... for home-grown vegetables. ... for 10-1 / 11-0. Whichever way it goes is ... probably okay. (I definitely have a preference -- right now I'm just hoping for no major injuries. And there are some Lions fans who I don't want getting that satisfaction.) ... for insight. ... for pumpkin pie. ... for compa

You lie awake at night With blue eyes that never cry All you remember now Is what you feel Help! This is why Why we fight Why we lie awake This is why This is why we fight And when we die We will die with our arms unbound I seem to be going through a depressing music phase. When all the world is spinning 'round Like a red balloon way up in the clouds And my feet will not stay on the ground You anchor me back down I am nearly world renowned As a restless soul who always skips town But I look for you to come around And anchor me back down Or at least contemplative music. Not all of it's new, but it's dominating my playlists. I wish I had a coat of silk the color of the sky... Actually, after listening to pop radio all summer, it's almost a relief. I was feeling sad Can't help looking back Highways flew by Run, run, run away No sense of time Want you to stay Want keep you inside In any case, it's starting to affect my produc

Does anyone else feel like Thanksgiving pulled a sneak attack this year? Seriously. I feel like the summer just ended. It doesn't help that I was gone for the first week and a half of November (yeah, you don't get to suspend time to go on a trip -- but I'm having a hard time reconciling my inner timeline to that one). In any case, Thanksgiving feels very ... sudden. There's plenty going on in this house this weekend as well. In addition to the normal Thanksgiving festivities (read: the food), there's a new Muppet movie being released. If you've turned on the TV in the last two weeks, you probably already know this. (It's even occasionally advertised on Investigation Discovery, which is arguably not the target market.) As our family is full of Muppet freaks (all five of us, parents and kids -- our parents raised us on "Sesame Street," "Fraggle Rock," and "The Muppet Show"), this is kind of a Big Deal. We may even -- gasp

Anyone else out there looking forward to this weekend so that Target's freaky "Black Friday lady" commercials can go away?

Thursday morning, we awoke to cooperative weather and our last chance at sightseeing. Our plane was leaving that evening; we had the morning to see what we could see. Mia Sorella delivered us in Gangnam, arguably the most affluent area of Seoul, with the task of finding some street food and taking a few more pictures. She once again headed for work -- and we hit the streets. It was immediately apparent that Seoul was different here. It had been clear all week -- the city looks markedly different depending on where you are, whether it's crawling with college students or foreigners, or it's a more residential spot. In this case, we were suddenly surrounded by expensive suits and more of Seoul's trademark cleanliness ... this time with no sign of those who kept it clean. Down a side street, we found our first market and part of lunch. I had been eyeing these fish-shaped fried somethings all week -- more out of morbid curiosity than anything -- and now was my chance.

On Wednesday, we awoke to beautiful weather for our last full day in Seoul. Mia Sorella had one last event on her checklist and we headed straight there that morning. Yeouido ("Useless Island") Park is right on (in?) the Han River and is a prime spot for a) sightseeing and b) renting a bike. And so it was that we ended up with two bikes -- a tandem for Mia Sorella and me, and a slightly-too-small mountain bike for Mr. Rogers. He grabbed the biggest one he could. Honestly. We worked our way down the sidewalk, taking pictures and enjoying the weather. Within fifteen minutes, we had reached one end and turned around. And then ... Disaster struck. We broke the bike. Apparently it wasn't up for the hill. Ten minutes later, we had a new bike and were headed the opposite direction. Along the river... ... Past the swans ... ... beyond the National Assembly ... ... under a bridge ...  ... or two. After a well

(Yeah, this is a long one.) After our return from Panmunjom, Mr. Rogers and I had a couple unexpected hours to kill. As it turns out, Mia Sorella has a great neighborhood park just a couple blocks from her apartment, and after a bit, that's where we ended up. We'd been there the day before with her to explore and now we were on our own. Now, I should mention something: this is not like an American neighborhood park. First of all, it's quite large. Secondly, there's exercise equipment scattered around. Third, it's mostly populated by older folks, including a large population of old men playing something like checkers. And fourth ... there's a pretty good-sized hill on one side. That had more to do with that Seoul's-surrounded-by-mountains thing than anything, but it doesn't change the fact. Ah yes. And don't forget the Hula Hoops of Torture. Seriously. Why would you stud a hula hoop with ANYTHING?! Anyway! We head for the park.

1. I am not a scrapbooker. However, there are times I want to find a regular photo album (such as right after returning from an overseas trip) and said albums are frequently found near the scrapbook sections of craft stores. As it turns out, one o'clock on a Friday afternoon is a bad time to go looking because it leads to me getting trapped in scrapbook hell, surrounded by intense scrapbookers with carts loading up on sales items. I was afraid I was going to have to spend the night in that aisle, subsisting on the mints in my purse ... or climbing the display to escape to the frames aisle. 2. All right, it wasn't that bad. Still, it seems that early Friday afternoon should be safe for shopping. Not so much. 3. I did get to talk to a few random strangers, first about what went best with a Minnesota Twins print (besides, you know, flames) and at some point about the craziness of the Friday afternoon traffic. 4. Speaking of which, Sioux Falls continues to make me crazy. W

Panmunjom, located in Gyeonggi Province, is a village on the de facto border between North and South Korea, where the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War was signed. The building where the armistice was signed still stands though it is on the northern side of the Military Demarcation Line, which runs through the middle of the Demilitarized Zone. It is considered one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. It should not be confused with the Joint Security Area (JSA) nearby, where discussions between North and South still take place in blue buildings that straddle the Military Demarcation Line. (The opening to Panmunjom's Wikipedia article , in direct opposition to Wednesday's xkcd comic .) One of the strangest, most sobering experiences of my life occurred on Tuesday. Tuesday was the day of our DMZ tour. First of all, it's hard to wrap your head around that part: they take tours to the demilitarized zone. Yes. Buses of tourists go to the only

[As always ... There's an xkcd for that!] Do you have a bucket list? I like that term, somehow. It's so much easier and less ... chore-like than a "Life To-Do List" or something like that. Until fairly recently, I didn't really have a list of my own. I mean, there have always been plenty of things I've wanted to see, do, or experience. Someone challenged me recently to start crossing things off that list ... which required making one in the first place. This, of course, got me to thinking. What exactly is on my bucket list? And would I even want to share them with the vast, unforgiving Interwebs? In the light of admitting to eating live octopus (oh wait -- I suppose that's an upcoming post!), posting a sampling of this list seemed okay. Some are more easily attained than others, but I think that's just how it goes, isn't it? 1. Attain a Ph.D. Hopefully I'll be working on that one inside a year. 2. Visit every continent.

There's another story about this adorable kid, but that's for another day. Following our adventuresome weekend, Mr. Rogers and I accompanied Mia Sorella to school for the afternoon. Now, if we thought we were celebrities before.... The fun started when we first walked in. Mia Sorella had already told her students that her sister was visiting so there wasn't a lot of surprise -- but the stares were present. It didn't help that our "cousin" was over six foot tall and rather imposing. Mia Sorella's partner teacher -- whom I will call Elle -- was thrilled to see us. And her first class (the youngest of them) was in near awe. Of course, the introductions helped. I was her "oni," of course -- her older sister. Nothing complicated about that. And Mr. Rogers, aside from being our cousin, had a much better moniker.  "He's a cowboy!" The kids went nuts. One boy's first reaction was to jump to his feet and motion at