#23: Lordy. He is one more hunkalicious dude!

[atinal]

HAPPY NEW YEAR FCA!!!!!

[Cotton]

Sleep well, FCA!

[playbiller]

Belated Happy New Year - was watching the skating show and playing with the dog - a good way to start the new year.

[Gibby]

dreamlarge put together a lovely 2007 in review montage:

[ldyjocelyn]

I'm just going to use this (thanks Gibby!) to wish everyone in the central time zone a happy new year! Now it's time for bed.....sweet dreams ya'll!

[spikesmom]

Happy New Year FCA!!!

[Gibby]

This needs to be on the new page:

[Couch Tomato]

ahhhh I see New Years has struck on the east coast. Happy New Year everyone. My sister and her family just left...we've been marathoning our favorite new show of this year, Cane, such a show of family togtherness and solidarity

Everybody stay safe. I'm already hearing gun shots and new years is over an hour away. Why do people shoot guns.

[zena]

zena... any written word that can get so many to read a whole series of books, some of them very long, is literature in my book. There are better written books, there are better characters, there are more imagative plots, but none of them got millions reading, especially kids. Whether they will ever be a part of any English Lit classes is debatable/arguable *g*, but they have given me HOURS of pleasure!

Well said... I read for the sheer enjoyment of reading and I hope the HP series does that for kids... that they learn to love to read and enjoy it whether it's the classics or not... most of the books I read won't pass any literature tests... quite frankly, many aren't "deep", but I love them one and all... sometimes you start with "fluff" and move into the classic stuff from there... or not... but it's reading all the same....

Hey, liney23 and spikesmom, you sound chapter and verse like my son. heee....I love a good discussion. Are you free to come up to Canada for lunch anytime soon? My treat!!!

I know you all realize she has been pretty sick but I became concerned about her "health" shortly after I received my birthday present from her in the mail.

Is that where my freaking lung went?!!!

Brace yourself, Kareneh, I just sent a 15 pound email your way.

And as for me, I am spending my first minutes of 2008 in one of my very favourite places. Yep, for now, that's right in front of my computer screen pecking away at the keyboard. Two thousand and seven has been possibly the best and hardest year for me in the last 15 years or so. There is so much more light in my personal darkness.

Perhaps it may sound strange to say but to me this shiniest jewels in this fandom are the friends I have made and come to treasure. I will never stop being grateful to Clay for being the amazing catalyst that catapulted me over my own carefully constructed walls into a world of popmusic, computer and airports, etc.etc.. I'm perfectly okay with the fact I may never have the opportunity to personally thank him for that. I'm not really into scaling other people's private walls. But these widespread and far flung personalities and characters who have crossed my concert paths, who have shared themselves so generously without all the usual preliminaries of casual acquaintances, and most amazingly who reach out to me; first as a stranger and now in so many cases as friends, into my small world and managed to make me feel loved, now that's a pretty big miracle in my life.

Thanks for being a special part of that this year FCA! You cannot begin to realize how much it means to me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

[Couch Tomato]

and there goes the fireworks

Happy New Year from the west coast!!

I'm so looking forward to 2008. I actually have a resolution and that's to be debt free like Play by the end of the year. That's probably more doable than this new gym thing LOL.

May everyone's 2008 be full of love, suprises, and fun.

[cha cha trusty]

ISO - another shot of Baileys....... Funny thing happened... I was sitting here reading and someone (I won't say who) mentioned having a bottle of Baileys nearby. So I went rustling in the cabinet for some which I knew we must have. All I found was a single shot bottle that arrived in my stocking. I seized it and brought it back here with a shot glass. Then I poured it in and drank a bit til it needed replenishing. I wasn't paying attention and unscrewed a bottle in front of me and poured a drop in my glass. Looking down, I realized in horror that it wasn't Baileys I poured -- but NAIL POLISH!! yes folks, I ended up drinking a drop of nail polish tonight. So if you never hear from me again, please know I will miss you all!! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Who will take my opening night Spamalot seat?????

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Just a few notes on the posts I just read....

___

I join in the Legolas love.... In fact Legolas has been coming to our parties for a couple of years!! Here's the visual evidence....

From the Halloween party, but someone has already borrowed his wig!!

YSRN - I would love to have your Biscotti recipe!!

ansa - what companion pieces to LOTR do you have?? I hope you are not talking about the Silmarilion! I don't know if I can ever read that!

I am making some black-eyed peas for tomorrow too. But I have to admit I really prefer the canned variety! I tried making from scratch once and they were just not right. The canned ones taste fiiiiine!!

~~~

HERE'S TO 2008......... IN SNARKINESS AND IN CLAY......... I SALUTE YOU!

(2008 just arrived on the west coast!!) :bier:

and drink to your continued health and prosperity!!

(even if it's laced with nail polish!!)

[cha cha trusty]

posthoing to say........

KAndre - did you know about this????

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/2707/dec07yk7.jpg

[Lotus]

Happy New Year, FCA

I have just speed read yesterday and today's pages here and so pleased but not surprised to see that the $100,000 goal has been reached and surpassed.

Karen Eh so glad to hear that you are starting to feel better and please continue to look after yourself, take it easy, coddle yourself, it takes a while to recover from pneumonia.

Scarlett I'm another one who enjoyed Moulin Rouge from the start.

I spent a lot of time lying in the sun in the nude reading TLOTR the summer of 1968 when I was living in the woods with my husband and baby. Later we read the books to our children and my son, in turn, has read them to his boys. We have all, including my mother, read the HP books.

As for the small town hick discussions...I was born in the north of England and sent by my mother for elocution lessons at age 7 to get rid of that "awful Liverpudlian accent". I'd like to read some treatise on who decides which accent is acceptable and which are not. Anyone have any suggestions? Here in Canada in Ontario farm country I went to school from age 10 to 13 in a one room country school with 4 of us in grade 8...we helped the teacher with the grade ones and high school had 350 students when I started and about 500 when I graduated. Does that qualify me as a small town girl even tho I've spent 16 years of my life in large cities?

Tonight I had the pleasure of watching the Ron James Back Home comedy special on CBC. He is one very funny comedian who hails originally from Cape Breton and he gave me some of the best, much needed, I almost peed myself, laughs.

I'm off to bed...must find that Baileys for a little nightcap while I indulge myself in a Guy Gavriel Kay fantasy "Ysabel".

[YSRN]

Hee, chach... that's hilarious. Don't light any matches near your throat and you should be fine! LOL!

I used Giada's biscotti recipe... I cut the butter down to 2/3 stick cuz it was too cakey, and I melted it and I used whatever nuts and fruit I wanted. I'm not much of a recipe follower; I just read it for the gist and do my own thing, so here's what I (sorta) went by:

http://search.foodnetwork.com/food/recipe/...archType=Recipe

2nd recipe down (without the chocolate dip at the end). I made cranberry and slivered almonds, currant and pecan, lemon and pistachio, and dried mango and chopped almonds. I always roast the nuts first. I have added chocolate chips before, but not this time. I always add zest -- either orange or lemon depending on what you like. I leave the anise to my Nonni. Nobody can make anisette biscotti like a first gen Italian. LOL!

:F_05BL17blowkiss: twin! Thanks.

Best canned Black Eyed Peas in the wurrrrld I don't have any tho, so I'm using dried. And I'm also using multi-colored chard instead of collards... I'm so not authentic, but that's what's in the garden, so that's what we're having.

Happy New Year!!

[luckiest1]

Awww, I love this. I spent last evening as I planned, watching movies, reading, and finally watching the ball drop in Times Square. Poor Dick isn't looking (or sounding) so good. But good for him for hosting the special one more time!

Happy 2008, FCA!

ETA: :F_05BL17blowkiss: for Scarlett

[bottlecap]

Here's to a year that promises to start with mucho Spam, Spam, Spam, Clay and Spam!

[cindilu2]

Well!!! For the first time in my adult life, I missed seeing in the New Year! Got all comfy with my kitties and my laptop and my glass of wine... and promptly fell asleep!

So, belated HAPPY NEW YEAR! to friends old and new. Since this is my first post of the new year, I will leave my thoughts on expectations when it comes to Clay to another time. *g* I hope 2008 will bring health, happinesss and hope to all.

[duckyvee]

Best Wishes to all at FCA!

for the UNICEF total!

[aikim]

Good Morning Everyone:

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

6 Days until the BAF Golf Outing!

17 Days until Clay is on Broadway!

Everyone have a great day and a prosperous and healthy New Year!

Kim

[soulsista4clay]

I still have a feeling that 2008 for me will be worst than last year for me. I have been so unlucky.

[keepingfaith]

{{{Kareneh}}} and {{{KF}}} Missing you -- let's get together when Kareneh comes home week after next.

What am I doing New Year's Eve? Rendering. Have a pile of clips I should have done yesterday instead of hanging here with y'all watching SofM. (Canandaigua for goldarngirl, Omaha for toni7babe, Merrillville for Claygasm, Cleveland for laughn, Erie for LauraQ's friend, Kalamazoo for LonelyNoMore44, Waukegan for PA, Williamsport for me -- let me know if I promised you something that's not on here)

***

So I'm the only one who liked Moulin Rouge from the start, including David ("Faramir") Wenham's hissy fit as Audrey?

Me, me, me Moulin Rouge beginning to end -- as much energy as I've ever felt in a movie theatre.

Doctor sings: The hills are animated with the euphonious symphony of descant...

***

Satie: What if he sings "The hills are vital intoning the descant"?

Doctor: No, no, no, the hills are…

Argentinean: The hills are incarnate with symphonic melodics.

Christian: The . . . the hills . . .

Doctor: The hills are chanting . . .

Satie: The hill . . .

Christian sings: The hills are alive with the sound of music!

Argentinean: "The hills are alive with the sound of music!" I love it!

Satie: "The hills are alive with the sound of music". It fits perfectly!

Christian sings: With songs they have sung for a thousand years!

Toulouse: Incandiferous! Audrey, you two should write the show together.

****

Christian: I--I don't even know if I am a true Bohemian Revolutionary.

Toulouse: Do you believe in beauty?

Christian: Yes.

Doctor: Freedom?

Christian: Yes, of course.

Satie: Truth?

Christian: Yes!

Doctor: Love?

Christian: Love? Love. Above all things I believe in love. Love is like oxygen. Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love.

Boo-hoo Scarlett, am I out of your consciousness for Interlochen/Motown? OHNOOOOOOOOO! After your timely technical expertise on file conversions, I burned a skating DVD yesterday from your xVid files, and it turned out beautifully. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I'm concerned that my first opportunity to go to NY for Spamalot will be in March during Spring Break. Anyone going in March? Or should I wait until April for the second wave of eHP? Decisions, decisions.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, FCA

Silly me I thought everyone ate black eyed peas for good luck and cabbage for prosperity on New Year's Day. And now I find out there are people who don't know what black eyed peas are! I like jalapenos in mine. Yeah, baby. Ehhh, I'm not much for cabbage though, which could explain the prosperity issues I'm having.

RECIPE: Does anyone have the recipe for a chocolate cake with fudgy icing that starts with boiling butter (shortening?), cocoa and water in a pot and pouring it over the flour and sugar? I remember that it's easy and that I made the fudgy topping while the cake was in the oven and then poured it over the hot cake. My son has requested this, and I'm trying to find my recipe. I do know it's easy and, oh yes, has pecans too.

[Clayzorback]

Well, I was awake at midnight, but not because I stayed awake. DH awoke me by gagging and choking in the bathroom. He is starting to feel the radiation treatments burning his mouth and tongue. Causing him a lot of trouble swallowing and mucus problems. Poor guy. He thought he would take some Vicks Cherry Flavored Nyquil for his mucus problem and it didn't go down well at all. So, I got him squared away and then the fireworks in the neighborhood started. I said Happy New Year and rolled over and went back to sleep.

So. I guess I will go pick up some black eyed peas, make black eyed pea dip, and watch some football.

Here is a recipe for it if anyone is interested in a new use of the peas:

Black-Eyed Pea Dip

1 can (16 ozs.) black-eyed peas drained and divided

3 green onions chopped, with tops included

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 cup chunky style salsa

4 slices bacon cooked and crumbled

Reserving 1/3 cup, place peas in a blender or food processor, fitted with a steel blade. Process untill smooth.

Blend in onions, sour cream, and garlic salt.

Transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in reserved peas and salsa. Garnish with bacon crumbles.

Serve with favorite chips.

Yield about 2 1/2 cups of dip.

[keepingfaith]

Hey Clayze, have you ever made Black Eyed Pea Cornbread? I got the recipe out of the Fort Worth newspaper years ago -- although it's not technically bread -- made with ground beef, a can of black eyed peas, a can of cream style corn, onions, buttermilk, cheese, eggs, cornmeal, flour, and jalapenos. The things we do with peas!!!

[Clayzorback]

Nope. I've never had that, but it sounds good. Hows your finger today? Are we going to have to add klutz to your persona?

[KAndre]

Happy New Year all!

Much joy and luck and love and prosperity to all!

Thanks, cha cha - I hadn't seen it - one month I swear I will do all the quizzes!