The boy and I ventured out into the world today in order to give my husband some study time at home - UVA played beat! Virginia Tech here in town today and this old rivalry pretty much guaranteed that he'd be unable to find a quiet space on campus. Plus, his parking pass allows him to park at the stadium every day but game days. So we worked out that he'd stay at home while the rest of the family ran errands.


After all the news yesterday about people being so enthusiastic about getting out and starting their shopping I was pretty surpised at how quiet the stores seemed. Then again, we weren't gift shopping, just procuring our standard household items - things like sponges, coffee filters and so on. I also bought two new cookie sheets to replace those that have mysteriously gone missing (I plan to put these to use this evening). My fellow shoppers didn't seem to be buying out the house, so I guess the ol' patriotic shopper syndrome was confined to yesterday.


Although I cannot claim to anywhere near match Sue in the baking department, I do my humble best and tonight will kick off the season with some basic chocolate chip cookies. Tomorrow I'll do some thumbprints (my favorite) and perhaps some Russian tea cakes. Sue's posted a new gingerbread cookie recipe on the site that sounds really great and and which professes to solve the problem of too-hard-to-eat cookies, so I'll give that a whirl too.


Rayne and I had an exchange at her blog about our respective cranberry sauce productions. Although I did not make any for our Thanksgiving dinner, I did set about canning four pints for use as Christmas gifts. To my surpise, it came out somewhat different than last year's batch, although I guess that's what happens when one uses a "bit of this and a bit of that"-type recipe as opposed to an actual, scientifically-developed in a test kitchen recipe. This year's chutney included:

• two bags of cranberries, softies and broken ones picked out
• three tablespoons chopped candied ginger
• quarter cup chopped walnuts
• a can of crushed pineapple
• the juice of one orange
• about a cup of white sugar
• about two tablespoons of crushed red pepper
• three-quarters of a cup or so of mixed raisins

Put all of this in a large saucepan or Dutch oven on medium heat, stirring frequently. As the cranberries cook, they will bubble and pop and the whole mess will gradually become somewhat jam-like in consistency. When things are pretty amalgamated, taste and adjust as you see fit - maybe add more pepper, citrus or sugar. Whatever you think it needs. Pack into prepared mason jars, seal and process in a boiling hot water bath for 15 minutes after the water returns to boil after the cans are added.


Rayne suggested that carmelized Vidalia onions might make a good addition, as well. I agree completely, but didn't quite get around to it. Perhaps next year.


Today's other holiday activities included cranberry and popcorn garlands for our woodland friends, decorating the mantle, pulling the advent wreath and candle holder out of storage (Advent starts tomorrow!)and positioning the now blooming paper whites around the hearth. We rounded this out with a really nice (if I do say so myself) beef stew with dumplings and are now just sort of lazing around resting. Tomorrow will be another busy day filled with decorating and more pedestrian chores such as laundry. But tonight...tonight is all about resting, with nothing more strenuous than cooking making and, possibly, enjoying a cup of hot cocoa.

Because we've been holed up here at home, just the three of us, we've been blissfully able to avoid Thanksgiving hype and hysteria, concentrating instead on family time. It's been very nice - long naps for everyone and an afternoon of cooking some of my favorite things.


I just pulled the stuffed shells from the oven, the bread pudding is cooling and cranberry chutney is bubbling away as I type. I give thanks, indeed.

Well, we're back. It was a good trip in many ways but I am relieved to be back. In addition to the joys and stresses of spending so much time with people I typically see only a couple times per year, I have brought back a medical condition that I call the plague (although my doctor seems to think it's a cold - I wonder where she went to med school). The boy has officially contracted Over-Indulged, Under-Rested Toddler Syndrome, a malady more dreadful than most of what Hollywood offers up in horror films. It's very nice to be home.


As a result of my coughing and hacking and my husband's study load, we've cancelled the Thanksgiving trip to Philadelphia. I have some mixed emotions about this, but mostly I'm feeling insanely glad not to be going. We're going to miss an awful lot that we wanted to do and see, but with so much post-vacation laundry/cleaning to do, not feeling well, being way too pregnant to be pleasant and just plain tired it's probably all for the best. So it's Thankgiving at home for us and I'm actually pretty pleased about it.


I won't be making a turkey, but rather will dust off a favorite recipe from an old Martha Stewart Living: pasta shells stuffed with crab. Basically, you make a bechemel sauce with crab, stuff it into prepared shells, top with more sauce, garlic, cheese and bread crumbs and bake. It's rich, filling, indulgent and wonderful. With a good bread and salad dressed in a nice sharp vinaigrette it just can't be beat. For dessert I'll make the chocolate bread pudding I neglected for the bonfire party. Our little family, all together, (mostly) healthy, happy and as safe as it's probably possible to be in this world. Excellent reasons for thanksgiving.

Much multi-tasking going on here today at Hot Water Bath. First, the Halloween decorations are coming down (and being put away on the same day - shocker!) and Christmas decorations are being moved from the darkest reaches of the basement to the bottom of the stairs so that they're more easily accessible once we return from Thanksgiving. I'm also running errands (CVS for buy-one-get-one Christmas candy and "non-aspirin pain reliever"), the library (return books) and to the pet sitter's (drop off keys). I also want to finish the out-of-town Christmas present wrapping, wash the sheets and towels and complete the packing process for the impending trip to Florida (10 days, with one day home before turning in the opposite direction for Philly).


All of this is hopefully getting done around work requirements. I'm trying to learn a new publishing tool today so that I can get moving on some deadlines that are rapidly approaching. It doesn't help that I was supposed to have received the stuff from the client oh, about a month ago and I just got it on Friday. The deadline hasn't been adjusted so I'm going a little crazy trying to adjust my own timeline to get everything done. Still, I'm kind of a sucker for learning new software - seems like a game - that I'm able to keep from being too frustrated. I have not yet told my parents that the trip to Florida with them has become a working holiday. My dad might understand, but my mom will thoroughly disapprove since she expects her girls to be recreation-ready at all times and finds work for pay (for either gender) a little unseemly and probably more trouble than it's worth (truthfully, I've long suspected that she's on to something here). Plus, since my parents very much enjoy their grandkids, but do not appreciate actually babysitting them, I will have to be creative about how the work actually gets done. No worries.


In preparation for the trip I have decided to forego my ritual pre-trip cleaning of the house. Because my husband is not going with us and will be - I hesitate to use the word "unsupervised" but that's the thrust of it - in the house on his own, there is absolutely no value to my doing a spit and polish before I leave. The dear man has many charms and excellent qualities, but tidiness is not one of them and I know that I will not arrive home to a clean house so why bother? On the other hand, I will clean in the 36 hour break between arriving home from Florida and leaving for Philly because he's coming with for the second trip and I will be more assured no housekeeping surprises when we get back. Besides, I figure it's better to know our limitations than risk a scene of nagging and anger when I return. We've known each other for 13 years and I am proud that I have grown as a person to just let this go. He cannot see dirt or clutter and will not clean and that's that. In return, I am hoping to get him to accept without question one or more of my irrational habits (I don't think I have any, but I am assured otherwise).


Off now to pick items from the canning cupboard for my sisters' stocking stuffer gifts. I'm pretty sure that my oldest sister will be receiving pomegranate jelly while my youngest sister is getting chocolate sauce, but I'll have to see if I'm inspired otherwise while standing at the open cupboard. I've asked for a jar of my brother-in-law's salsa and was informed that there's a waiting list (like for a Prada bag or the hot new MAC lipstick color?) and there may be a pre-Christmas lottery. And so the pressures of the season commence.

According to the numbers available for 2001, the Virginia State Police Motorist Assistance Program provided assistance to stranded or disabled motorists on 56,023 occasions. Whatever the numbers turn out to be for 2003, I will be counted among them.


This past Thursday, I was driving to Philadelphia when I hit an undetermined something known to us only as the "road hazard" which cause my brand new front passenger-side tire to become comprehensively, irrepairably, flat. I should mention here that it was pouring. The county officer who saw me pull over stopped, took one look at the tire and one look at wet, very pregnant me and told me to get back in the car and he'd send motorist assist. The fine gentlemen who came to my aid were good natured, quick and thorough. After putting on my doughnut spare, one of them escorted me to the nearest rental counter when I obtained the last available car and went on my way. Kudos and many thanks to the good folks at Motorist Assist. Not only did I make my appointments in Philly (3 hour closure on I-95 and harrassment courtesy of a truck driver not withstanding) but I was saved an incalculable amount of stress. Not the best beginning to a trip, but much better than it could have been, thanks to those kind men.


Once my business was through I spent some time visiting with my friend Anna who brought me the breast pump she borrowed and some of her canned goods to share by way of thanks. I have a pint of her dilly beans (which look spicier than mine), a half pint of eggplant relish and a quarter pint of her piccalilli. Clearly, I should lend stuff to Anna more often. I am really looking forward to the eggplant relish since, in my opinion, there is very little that's wrong with eggplant anything. I bet it would make an excellent pizza topping, in fact. If I hadn't planned spaghetti carbonara for dinner, I might be tempted to try it.

Behold my little race car driver. Yes, the costume was completed on time. Although I do confess to a couple sewing newbie mistakes, all in all I'm quite proud of the work. Note the Nascar stickers. My boy's father was adament that his son would be a Formula 1 driver, none of this Nascar hooey. Well, we do not live in Monaco but rather in central Virginia where it is somewhat difficult to escape the Nascar hegemony so Nascar it had to be. In fact, the local auto place only had a handful of appropriate stickers in the first place, reducing our choices to #20 (Tony Stewart's number, I have been informed) or nothing. So #20 it was.


The important thing, though, was that the boy was utterly thrilled with his costume and over the moon that the grown ups on the trick-or-treating route knew what he was supposed to be (well, except for one woman who thought he was an astronaut, but I believe this is a forgivable error). As mom-moments go, this Halloween was exceptional. Plus, I got to feel like Martha Stewart without the indictment. Can't ask for much more than that.


I've recovered somewhat from my voting angst. Actually, I've managed to distract myself with various domestic/nesty activities. Specifically, I've turned our uncarved pumpkins into pumpkin mush for the freezer to be made into pancakes, waffles, bread, muffins and other goodies throughout the winter. I also roasted the seeds, which turned out to be the best I've ever done. What did I do, you ask? We had four or five cups of seeds so put them all in a bowl and poured about half a cup of melted salted butter on top, added 4 or 5 tablespoons of soy sauce and a couple sprinkles of garlic powder (in fact, roasted pumpkin seeds are the only reason I keep garlic powder around). Mix well and spread on a buttered or sprayed rimmed cookie sheet and place in a 350 degree oven. Stir every 15-20 minutes or so until the seeds are golden/brownish and dry. Let cool on the sheet and store in a sealed container.


I also managed to start wrapping Christmas presents so that I don't have to rush around at the last minute. Since most of our presents go out of town I am trying to have those for Philadelphia ready before Thanksgiving so they can be delivered in person and those for both Buffalo and Grand Rapids ready to ship in earliest December. Then I'll have only our household presents left, to be wrapped at my leisure. Other early holiday projects found me getting the paperwhite bulbs into forcing position in the hopes that they'll be ready for our mantel come Christmas. And this afternoon I'm off to buy cards. All of this early work should leave me with lots of time to bake cookies with the boy in December. He's also asked for a gingerbread house for us to make together - I can't imagine a better way to spend an afternoon.

In preparation for election day I recently picked up a voting guide published by the League of Women Voters. The guide outlines each of the races on my local ballot and features profiles and Q&A of each of the candidates who chose to participate. Charlottesville strikes me as a kind of strange place politically - it's very crunchy granola in a lot of ways but also maintains this strict very conservative spine that seems at odds with the very granola-ness.

For example, Charlottesville and Albemarle county boast one of the greatest park systems I've ever seen. The parks are beautifully maintained and offer everything from tennis courts to bike trails to swimming holes. The county and cite parks departments offer swimming lessons, crafts, all kinds of hiking tours and are staffed by some of the most dedicated outdoorspeople I've ever met. The playgrounds are, to a one, clean, bright and safe and I've never seen such well built and outfitted picnic pavillions. Really, it's just great. On the other hand, there is no longer recycling for county residents. That's right, if you don't live in Charlottesville proper then you pretty much throw away all of your trash - even things like soda cans and newspapers that are allowable in even the most limited recycling programs. Apparently, recycling doesn't "pay" in the sense that the county can make money off it and might even have to occasionally fork over money to do it, so the county supervisors put a stop to it.

Anyway, a glance through the voters' guide shows an incredible number of Independent candidates running for local offices (state offices feature only one Independent in nine races and there are no federal office races in Virginia this year). One reason there are so many Independents is that party endorsement entails a kind of cost-share deal. A candidate who raises money in $25 increments through weiner roasts is likely to take a dim view of sending any of that money "upstate" (as we say in New York) to assist candidates in the inner ring D.C. suburbs. So in a sense, all the Independents are keeping Albemarle money in Albemarle. However admirable I find this, it does tend to obscure the essential shorthand that voters may rely on to tell them who's who. I've never believed in voting a party line but it seems to me that learning that someone is a Green, Libertarian, Republican, Democrat or whatever gives you a jumping off point for understanding where he or she is coming from, who they hang with and what they've bought into in order to win office. Even if, say, a Republican candidate is pro-choice you would still get a feel for a general worldview and system of priorities.

All these people seem the same to me and trying to suss out any one person (in the races that are even contested - nine of them are not) to vote for without the shorthand of party affiliation is proving difficult.