b.rox

Here’s the note I’m sending off with our solstice cards this year, mainly to people who (I think!) don’t read this blog.

A question to all the Christians out there:
How would you like to see non-Christians act with regard to Christmas? How can we be both respectful to you and true to ourselves?
Clearly we can’t celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday, so would you rather we not participate at all? That doesn’t seem quite fair, since [...]

We’re having a holiday open house at the office today, and we all brought cookies and other sweets. I thought it would be fun and unique to bring brandy balls. So I made them last night and brought them in this morning, and placed them on the table with a sign.

But Boss Lady’s husband (Elliott, [...]

Xy wanted to give some trinkets to the neighbor kids this holiday season, so she had one of the girls compile a list.

Tomanique
Shawn’ae
Shawniah
Shawnique
Jurr’ieon
Jurr’eall
Melqueisha
Amy
Tyesha
Joshua
Zykeith
La Aarea
Keira
Lamar
Justin
Cheveniqua

Ages range from one to fifteen, and three-quarters of the kids are girls. I was surprised by the sheer number of kids on our little block, though a significant chunk of the [...]

After the culinary fiasco of 2004, I approached this year’s Thanksgiving with some trepidation. My confidence was not bolstered when Xy finally read the creme bruleé recipe and asked the following immortal question:
What’s an egg yolk?
I couldn’t believe she was serious, but it turns out she’s never separated an egg before and couldn’t remember [...]

I’ve gotten the staining done. It took four days of solid work, plus a half-day of touch up this morning, not to mention a day of dicking around prep work, but it’s done.
Next step: varnish. I hope the varnishing doesn’t take as long. I’ll get started on that tomorrow. I’ve got three days before [...]

I’m taking some vacation days. Combined with the Thanksgiving holiday, it’s a whole week off work. That gives me time to do this:

I’m staining a bunch of trim, six windows and a staircase. Even though I’m cutting every corner I can imagine, this is still a big job. Rising early, working late, I just might [...]

To the relief of everyone Uptown, Endymion is coming back to Mid-City in 2008. Therefore I imagine we’ll be having our annual Samedi Gras party, where you can experience a totally different side of Endymion, far from the madding crowds of Upper Mid-City. Hopefully our renovation will be complete by then. The question is, what [...]

We had about 16 trick-or-treaters pass by our home in Mid-City tonight, up from ten last year and zero the year before that.

Olivia brought this thing into the office last week. Press the button and it comes to life and recites a variety of different spooky-humorous messages.
Update: I assumed this item would be put in storage once Hallowe’en had passed. But Olivia tells me that “since our boss is a psychologist” she plans to leave it in [...]

Xy doesn’t always get into holiday traditions, so I was surprised when she brought home four pumpkins last week. She attached notes to three of them saying they were from “the Great Pumpkin” and had me deliver them to three young neighbor kids. Those pumpkins have since been successfully carved into jack-o’-lanterns.
Last night I [...]

Have I mentioned Lamar? He’s Justin’s younger brother. He’s about 13 but you might guess he’s ten. A sweet kid, but I worry about him.
He reminds me of myself at his age, kind of quiet and a little bit shy. I was very quiet and painfully shy.
I found refuge in books, and I’ve tried to [...]

I guess today’s a good day to make the official announcement.
Xy’s pregnant. She’s almost into the second trimester.
Word sure has gotten around since I made the unofficial non-announcement. People are constantly asking me, “How’s Xy?”
So I will attempt to answer.
Xy’s doing fine. The intense nausea of the first few weeks was pretty bad. It seems [...]

I remember when I was a child I loved fireworks. This seems to be a universal trait among children. But as an adult I’ve come to realize I just don’t give a damn about fireworks. Pretty colors, boom boom, yawn. I wonder why kids like fireworks so much, and why I feel so disconnected from [...]

Today is the longest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. It’s also the shortest day on the other side of the equator. For this reason some people favor calling it the Northern Solstice or the June Solstice. After all, it’s not summer in the southern half of the world.
Every year I learn a [...]

Is it possible for one day of festivity to change everything?
I woke up Mardi Gras morning wondering if I had a friend left in the world.
Turns out I’ve got hundreds.

If not thousands.

We saw many old friends. We met many new friends. Some were almost a little too friendly, like the guy who grabbed [...]

For the last 364 days, life here may have sucked for most of us, but on this one day (at least) there’s no place I’d rather be than New Orleans. We got up early, we had a good breakfast, we’re rocking out, we’re getting into costume, we’re hitting the streets. Happy Mardi Gras.

Just a few days before my father’s operation, two of my closest friends received news that their own fathers were coming, abruptly, to the end of life. Michael went to Nebraska to be with his father. He passed away yesterday. My other friend’s father has stomach cancer and I gather the prognosis is not good. [...]

Xy and I went to see the Knights of Chaos last night. Schroeder’s posted a couple of pictures. It was a good satirical parade that made fun of all our so-called leaders.
Last year, I wasn’t really feeling the Carnival spirit until I saw Chaos and Muses.
This year, not so much.
For one thing, it was really [...]

My dad recently discovered he had prostate cancer. It was “low grade” and slow-growing. More men die with this sort of thing than of it. Among his choices: watch and wait, or get radiation treatment, or just cut the whole thing out. He chose the latter, and on Monday afternoon, he had his prostate removed. [...]