I suppose it was inevitable.

Yesterday, an absurdly funny thing happened between my wife and child. I was dying from laughter.

Ms.'v turned and stabbed a finger in my direction, and with a menancing expression warned me: "You'd better not put this in that journal thing of yours!"

Sorry, gang. My hands are tied.

2005: so far, so good

On the home improvement front, I finished a wiring job in the basement that's been lingering for a year. I could have done it somewhat sooner but it took me a few months to convince Ms.'v that I could break into the power panel without stopping my heart or setting fire to the house. After a long period of darkness, the workshop now has lights again!

Culinarily, it's been an interesting couple of days. Last night, handmade whole wheat pasta (with an Atlas hand-crank machine, NOT one of those Ron Popeil all-in-wonder combo non stick hairspray pasta quick cook pocket fisherman nightmare devices). Sauce was roasted garlic with warm olive oil and parsely, and a drizzle of black truffle-infused oil at table. (I had a bottle of the truffle oil and this was the first recipe I could find that explicitly called for it...) Aside from the pasta hassle, the recipe was DEAD EASY. I started out thinking that I could connect the pasta machine to the Kitchenaid mixer, but it wasn't to be, unless there's some obscure adapter out there I can buy. The pasta attachment for the mixer looks like Mickey Mouse time, and the motor drive one can buy for an Atlas machine seems like a real extravangance for the 1 or 2 times a year that I try to make pasta. All the same, it sure would speed things up...

Then this morning, I started to make seitan, a.k.a. "wheat-meat", protein made from wheat gluten. It's more of a flavour vehicle, the way tofu is, but has more meat-like substance to it and cooks up well. I've never made it from scratch before. As is usually the case with a first time experiment, the kitchen is a bit of a disaster. I guess we'll know if it was worthwhile after the simmering is finished in an hour or so.

Sprout is being a bit of a terror these last few days (still winding down from all the attention she receieved at Giftmas, I guess) but we are sufficiently mellowed out that we're just taking it in stride. However, if we can't force our sleep schedules back onto the rails in the next 36 hours, we are in deep, deep shit come Tuesday morning.

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Resolutions:

I don't usually bother but there's a couple of obvious ones I'll throw out:

I will not hit the snack machine for a bag of chips or a candy bar in the afternoon anymore.

I will floss at a more reasonable frequency (i.e. not just madly flossing for the two weeks leading up to my dental appointment, in the hopes that blood doesn't actually splash up into the hygienist's face).

So, later on in the year when I say "mmmm, potato chips" or "wow, my gums are mad swollen", you guys can jump in and call me jackass of low moral fibre.

Any WW II history buffs out there?

Can anyone recommend a well-made documentary series on WW II? Pref. on DVD.

Looking for a late xmas gift for an impossible-to-buy-for dad.