Saturday, December 1 and Bryan makes good on his promise to spend most of the day in bed.  I can understand it; we deal with things differently.  He wakes up long enough for lunch at the Olive Garden.  Unfortunately, the fat and grease levels are enough to break the scales for a week!  No wonder Americans are so obese.

You’ve been wondering how Rosebud is faring, haven’t you?  I was totally worried about her!  But for some reason, Rosebud just doesn’t care.  She has certainly investigated every part of my parents’ house, coming up and down off the bed, and exploring the hiding places.  I guess I worried for nothing.

Bryan and I skip dinner with the parents and go off to check out New Jersey.  And what’s the best way to do that?  Of course — Woodbridge Center, a huge shopping mall!

We wander and look at the boys before heading off to dinner at Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse.  Both Bryan and I have the 14-ounce bone-in, horse-radish and sour cream encrusted Prime Rib, better than it sounds!  Plus, the $14 includes baked potato, onion rings and a full salad bar.

This is what the East Village is missing; a simple, fresh salad bar, a range of different cuts of beef, and decent prices.  We should open a small chain of them in Manhattan neighborhoods (anybody want to finance Bryan’s Steakhouse?).  By 11 pm, we’re watching Fox’s MadTV and Saturday Night Live (Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter, the guest host, is actually quite personable).

Sunday, December 2 and I had considered attending worship at Trinity Church in Cranford; yes, my old parish where my papers are still held.  But I just wasn’t in the mood to explain what has been happening in my life.  At least until the fat lady sings!

So by 3 pm both Bryan and I are back in New York, getting ready for Monday.  We have decided to stay at Michelle’s once again.

And, ever being the mother, she has made a large lasagna and an incredible, homemade apple pie for us.  Afterwards, we relax, talk, and watch The Practice before going to sleep.

Monday, December 3 and the morning is taken up with Housing Court.  But by noon, it’s all over, and in our favor.  Our apartment is $1860 per month; the management company can only raise the rent by two to four percent a year depending on what the City says.  If they could get us out, they could immediately raise it to fair market value, approximately $3300-$4000 per month and the possibility of up to fifteen percent extra a year!  In addition, it turns out that the rental agent who manages our building would have gotten more than $20,000 in bonus money!  No wonder they wanted us out.

So after a nice lunch at Pangea (would you be surprised if I told you that we both had spaghetti Bolognese?), we went back to the apartment.  Yes, we were returned to normalcy.

And let’s put some nice news in the middle of this.  On the left is a picture of Bryan’s nephew, Bryan Richard Johnson, son of his brother Brett and his wife Karen.  Little Bryan is now four and living in Riverton, Wyoming, where big Bryan hails from; the picture came in the mail.

Bryan went out and got a Christmas wreath for the door; I went to New Jersey to collect our clothes and Rosebud, and by 8 pm our cat was reunited with her apartment.  And was she happy!  Bryan and I went back to Pangea for a late night dinner and by 11 pm we were finally under the covers of our own bed, with Rosebud spending the whole night under the covers with us.  Wow.

Tuesday, December 4 and finally, over fifteen months after I start working on it, we receive an actual, printed copy of the 2001 Episcopal Clerical Directory.  I am in shock as somehow I thought it would never be done.

In the afternoon, I’m privileged to proofread the latest JourneyBookfrom Caroline Fairless+, Confessions of a Fake Priest.  Look for this fine look into her inner soul in January.

Wednesday, December 5 and Bryan and I go Irish at Mulligan’s, an Irish pub around the corner from work on Madison Avenue.  I can’t say it’s very good, the meat having virtually no flavor.  But it was a quiet alternative.

I also take the opportunity to start reading a new JourneyBook by Victor Lee Austin+, A Priest’s Journal.  As his editor writes, “In these deceptively simple meditations, Victor Austin contemplates the meaning of death, the nature of community, and the powerful effects of liturgy.”

In the evening, Bryan suddenly has a desire for Spanish food and tapas so it’s off to La Paella at 214 East Ninth Street where we’ve had fun meals before.  Unfortunately, since I’m not currently drinking, I don’t get to enjoy the one thing I really enjoy there—their sangria!  However, we get to enjoy a selection of tapas (small plates) including shrimp in bacon, shrimp in garlic sauce, superb mussels in a spicy tomato sauce quite reminiscent of one my grandmother used to make, squash stuffed with vegetables and almonds in a cream sauce, meatballs and green peppers, a bowl of olives, and very, very good bread.

Thursday, December 6 and for most of this year, I have told you about the Rev. Canon Gray Temple.  His first book for us was The Molten Soul (read about it in the January 2001 page); now, just in time for Christmas, is When God Happens.

The back cover says that “his eagerness to learn, his unflinching honesty, and his humor draw the reader toward a deeper awareness of the possibilities alive in personal encounters with the divine, the moments When God Happens.”  Please, for my sake and yours, buy many copies of this book for Christmas stocking-stuffers, but particularly one for yourself.

In the evening, Bryan and I watch Must See TV, which features Trudie Styler, Sting’s wife, on Friends, a somewhat lackluster Will & Grace and Just Shoot Me; ER is a repeat.

Friday, December 7 and the feast of Ambrose of Milan, who said, “No one heals himself by wounding another.”  The only bishop to be consecrated directly to the episcopate, after his public acclamation to the see of Milan, in just seven days Ambrose received the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion and Holy Orders.  In other words, Saint Ambrose went directly from layperson to bishop.  Known as “the reluctant bishop,” he is one of the four Doctors of the Western Church (with Jerome, Augustine, and Pope Gregory the Great).

In the evening, we begin the process of getting ready for Christmas but we must have dinner and so we decide on Korean food at Dok Suni (119 First Avenue, near Seventh Street).

I think we always have the same thing, me with moo chim with beef and Bryan with bi bim bop (rice topped with six different, slightly wilted or raw vegetables, tofu, seaweed, a lightly fried egg and chili sauce).  “Bi bim” means mixture and “bop,” rice, and the way to eat this dish is to toss everything together and have at it.  One interesting change for me is an iced tea made with ginger.  Quite refreshing!

Saturday, December 8 and Bryan’s colleague Vanessa drives the three of us to Woodbury Common.  And it’s a very productive shopping day for all of us, with great bargains (including Cole-Haan shoes for me, two pair of Levi’s 501s for Bryan, two shirts for B, one pair of slacks for me at Brooks Brothers) and decent weather.

We’re finally home at 8 pm to find that Rosebud has started preparing for Christmas.  After a short time unpacking bags, Bryan and I head over to Zito’s; I have chicken parmigiana while he has pasta.

Sunday, December 9 and I awaken at 4 am to Topper!  Yes, the classic 50s show is now being syndicated.  Based on the 1937 movie starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, this series tells the story of George and Marion Kerby (Robert Sterling and Ann Jeffreys) who were killed in an avalanche, along with Neil, their Saint Bernard.  All three return to their home, now occupied by stolid banker Cosmo Topper (Leo G. Carroll) and his wife, Henrietta (Lee Patrick).  Nobody but he can see the ghosts, and so his behavior is taken to be, at best, eccentric.  Interestingly, Steven Sondheim wrote nineteen of the series’ first season of 29 episodes.

What fun!  But the real wake-up later and it’s off to Church of the Ascension.  I enjoy the parishioners there, the boys are pretty (in a choirboy sort of way), there’s a few nice older men, and it’s not too far a walk.  Tanya Wallace+ is celebrant; the guest preacher is Brian Lathrop+, a professional psychotherapist during the week and a parishioner at Ascension.  He is very engaging, preaching without notes on a sermon using the song titles of George Harrison.

The music, as usual, is absolutely superb with with the Kyrie, Santus and Agnus Dei from the missa marialis developed by Charles Winfred Douglas while choirmaster at the Community of Saint Mary (this was the one plainsong setting in the 1940 Hymnal).  When I enter, I hear one of the choir singing the Recitative and Air from Handel’s Messiah as the prelude.  Later, the choir sings Felix Mendelssohn’s Psalm 43 in German and Orlando Gibbons “O Lord, Increase My Faith.”  The organ postlude is Louis Couperin’s Chaconne in G Minor.

Then, it’s the move into real Christmas to buy a tree, a very handsome, six-foot tall balsam.  We eat at Pangea as our friend Ronni Leopold is having a candle lighting ceremony for the first night of Hanukkah (“maybe a dreidle to spin; hopefully some chocolate gelt”).

Monday, December 10 and work on the clerical directory and The Rite Stuff simultaneously.  In the evening, it’s a night to stay in, making a lovely spinach pasta and steamed fresh green beans with a sauce of alfredo/sun-dried tomatoes and a touch of fra diavolo.  And what’s on television but the second movie spun off from The Pretender series.

The Pretender: Island of the Haunted stars the original cast: Michael T. Weiss as Jarod, the Pretender, a virtuous genius whose exceptional intelligence allows him to master any profession.  As an adult, Jarod flees The Centre, a think tank that sells the services of Jarod’s computer-like mind to the highest bidder.

Continuing with Jarod’s quest for discovery, this tv movie reveals the mysteries of Jarod and Miss Parker’s pasts on a Scottish island.  Jarod searches for his mother and Miss Parker discovers surprises about her own family, and the interesting relationship between Mr. Parker and Mr. Raines! Patrick Bauchau (his wife is Mijanou, the sister of Bridget Bardot; he has also worked for Wim Wenders) is Sydney, a psychiatrist at The Centre; Andrea Parker is Miss Parker, the Centre operative who desperately wants Jarod back.  Also starring Jon Gries as Broots.

Tuesday, December 11 and while the rest of the world observes the three-month anniversary of the WTC bombing, I have the day off as we’re getting a cable modem for our computer.  Why did we wait so long?  Even I can’t believe how much time I’ve wasted waiting for downloads at 56K; this makes all the difference in the world.

At 3, I have a meeting with Heidi Johnson at New York University and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies regarding the Master of Science in Publishing program.  We wind up spending more than an hour together going over many, many details.  I guess I’m going to school in January!

In the evening, Bryan and I put up the lights and trim the tree.  It looks just gorgeous.  Then, after watching a somewhat unsatisfactory Smallville at 9 pm, we go for sushi at Mie at 10 pm.  At 11, we watch a Paul Lynde documentary on Biography.

Wednesday, December 12 and may I mention how much I like the poems, in a collaboration between the Poetry Society of America and the NYC Transit Authority, on the subway trains?  The project is called Poetry in Motion; I wish their website had all of the poems, but it does include some samples you can e-mail as postcards.

But before getting to Grand Central, we spot Kingdom 48, a Chinese restaurant at 19 East 48th Street, right next door to the China Building.  We figure this is a good sign even though there’s almost no one in it.  And it’s a good decision.  A very nice, clean restaurant with white tablecloths, it’s definitely aimed at Occidentals as there is Western silverware but no chopsticks.  There is a full bar however and Bryan gets a pinot grigio before we order.  He has the scallion pancake (one of the better I’ve seen) and sweet and sour pork; yes, Bryan like authentic Chinese recipes.  Did you get that?  I have deliciously light wonton in hot oil sauce followed by tender orange-flavor beef.  The whole bill was only $36 total, quite reasonable.

Thursday, December 13 and in the evening, I meet up with Rick Miranda, his mother and sister to catch the American Boychoir (founded in 1937), performing “holiday music from across historical periods and diverse cultures” at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin.  The American Boychoir’s new Music Director is Vincent Metallo, who took over this year from James Litton (who was their director from 1985-2001).

And what a concert this turns out to be!  I had expected a very short evening, as the cost ($25, general admission) was quite low; but they wound up singing for over two hours.  Performing the first half in the choir rafters behind the congregation, the boys sang mass settings from Tomás Luis de Victoria, Guillaume Dufay and Claudio Monteverdi to George Malcolm, Francis Poulenc, Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky and Anton Bruckner.

The second half, sung in front of the altar, included traditional carols from Pie Cantiones, Michael Praetorius, Francisco Guerrero and Heinrich Schütz to Charles Ives, Herbert Howells, Gian Carlo Menotti and Donald Fraser.  The performance ended with everyone standing and joining in the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.

May I also add that, even with everyone I know in NYC, it was a high-school friend, Bruce Downsbrough, who faxed me the information about the performance.  He even gave me a copy of their latest cd, Johann Michael Haydn’s Mass & Vespers for the Feast of Holy Innocents, at our reunion in October.  A wonderful cd, and a wonderful concert; thank you Bruce!

Friday, December 14 and, if you’re interested in finding out where you are on the political spectrum, try out Political Compass.  Both Bryan and I found ourselves in the same group as Mahatma Gandhi and Ken Livingstone (the new mayor of London, “Red Ken”).

Now, we used to find Buona Sera (94 University Place at the corner of 12th Street) eminently satisfactory (if a touch homophobic); but I have found their food to be regressing in both quality and recipe.  Eating alone recently, I start off with an appetizer of saltiere di cozze e vongole, basically mussels and clams in garlic “soup.”  But it has three problems; the first is the price, twelve bucks, which is rather steep as neither the shellfish or the ingredients justify it; the second problem is that they’re out of clams, would I accept just mussels?  But then here is the third and worst problem: the mussels are absolutely huge and without flavor, it’s like eating a pregnant woman (sorry, but that was my only thought while eating them).  I wound up using my bread to soak up the juice but the waiter didn’t even comment that I left most of the flesh behind.  And certainly there was no break on the bill for any of the problems.  The entrée, a chicken breast in a basil and artichoke sauce, fared a bit better.  At least it was prepared properly; still, the recipe could have used some adjusting.  Oh, well, one does have to go back to restaurants occasionally to see how they are faring.

Saturday, December 15 and off into the sunny, but chilly day.  Then a relaxing day at home, doing nothing except watching Absolutely Fabulous (with guest stars Britt Eklund and Lulu as themselves) and making stuffed shells.  Now, those came out incredibly well!

During much of the later evening, Bryan plays with the music on the cable modem.  Then, at 11 pm, it’s a few minutes of MadTV and Saturday Night Live (with Ellen deGeneres).

Sunday, December 16 and we’re up around 8 am.  Bryan picks up the house while I go off to the Church of the Ascension.  Tanya Wallace+ is the celebrant and preacher, although the rector is also there.  There is also a repeat of the music from the missa marialis.  Believe it or not, it’s brunch and dinner (spaghetti Bolognese for Bryan and chicken pot pie for me) at Pangea.

Monday, December 17, my parents’ anniversary, and a rough day at work.  So let us move directly to our haute cuisine dinner at KFC.  Yes, another night of chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie!  Which leads me to compare chicken pot pies from Pangea and KFC; yes, Pangea has the better crust but both use vegetables and are remarkable more for their similarities than their differences.

On television, the Search for the True Cross is on Discovery; although the documentary centers more on the titulus, which may actually be authentic.  Preserved in the venerable Basilica di Santa Croce, Rome is the relic of the titulus Christi (the title of the cross of Jesus Christ), which bears the inscription Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.  According to tradition, it was dictated by Pontius Pilate and later brought to Rome by the Emperess Helena in 326 AD.

Tuesday, December 18, and we wake up to find Saint John the Divine on fire.  Eventually, it is gotten under control but not before the loss of the gift shop and some priceless artwork.

Two of the Barberini tapestries, which show scenes from the life of Christ in the Roman Baroque style, were severely damaged.  Measuring 12 feet by 20 feet, they were torn apart by the force of the water hoses; the cathedral’s in-house textile labs were working to repair them.  Named for a princely family from Rome that sold them to an American collector at the end of the 19th century, the woven silk tapestries were commissioned by an Italian aristocratic family for Pope Urban VIII after he was elected pope in 1623.  The cathedral owns 12 in all; the largest, The Last Supper, suffered the worst harm.

Looking to keep up with the teen set?  Check out Smallville; they play about a half dozen of the latest pop hits every week.  There is even a website devoted to it.  Also, Entertainment Weekly has picked their “Men of the Year,” and Tom Welling (Clark Kent) and Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) made the list.

About the attraction that Lex seems to have for Clark, Rosenbaum recently told Soap Opera Digest: “Well, everyone’s imagination is different.  I’m open to playing gay characters, but Lex isn’t gay.  That’s not the story.  But you know what?” he grins.  “Clark is a very good looking guy.  If Lex were gay, he would definitely hit on him.”

Then another repeat, this time of Noel, the Christmas episode of The West Wing from last year, with a special appearance by Yo-Yo Ma.  This reminds me of Bonnie Jae Dane, a writer from outside Boston.  She had a very fine novel a few years ago; I wonder what has happened to her.

It also reminds me of my therapist, as it’s the episode where White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) has to do deal with the post-traumatic anxieties of his shooting.  At one point, he says to Dr. Stanley Keyworth (Adam Arkin), a psychiatrist working with trauma victims, “You can ask the questions and you can answer them, but you can’t do both at the same time.”  To which the doctor replies, “I can do whatever I want.”  (Click here for a clip.)

After almost eight hours, Josh asks him the diagnosis and Stanley says, “You’re in nine kinds of pain.  You don’t know what’s going on inside of you.”  “So that took you all day to figure out?”  “No, I knew it in the first five minutes.”

Later, Josh’s boss, an alcoholic in recovery played by John Spencer, tells him a story.  “Paddy O’Reilly is stumbling down the street when he falls into a deep hole with steep sides.  A doctor walks by and Paddy calls up, ‘Doctor, help me!’  So the doctor writes a prescription and drops it down the hole and moves on.  Next, a priest goes by; “Father, help me!’  So the priest writes a prayer on a piece of paper, drops it down the hole and moves on.  Then, Paddy’s friend walks by; “Oh, my old friend, please give me your hand and help me up!’  At which point his friend jumps down into the hole with him.  ‘Now that was a stupid thing to do.  Now we’re both down here!’  ‘Ah, but I’ve been down here before … and I know how to get out.’”  Spencer then tells him, “As long as I have a job, you have a job.”

Thursday, December 20 and all this week Slate.com has featured NY Times food critic William Grimes as diarist.  And he wonders in his column if anyone really listens to his evening restaurant reports on WQXR.  Well, I do, regularly, and now you can also, just by going to their website.

Our Advent weekday service is ‘O Clavis David.’  Traditionally, it is observed as a Rite One worship; Psalm 30 is appointed.

Friday, December 21 and Bryan and I head off to the West Village and get a great ornament from Matt McGee (celebrating their 25th anniversary), “parachute Santa.”  Yes, you read that right!

Speaking of ornaments, our other new ornament this year is the Big Apple by Christopher Radko; it was given to us this year by Michelle Petersen and features the great skyline of NYC, including the World Trade Center.

In the picture, you can also see the beautiful bird from Germany that she gave us a few years ago (part of a continuing collection that she has continued to “breed”).

We also stopped at Balducci’s for baby artichokes; it’s a standing order from my mother.

We’d hoped to have dinner at Tanti Baci or Grano Trattoria but both were crowded, so we tried the French Roast on Sixth Avenue at Eleventh Street.  Not so great, really, which surprised me because I thought all brasseries had great hanger steaks in bernaise sauce.

At home, we curl up in bed and watch the return of So Graham Norton (with the card magic of David Blaine) and the French/Saunders parody of Star Wars, both on BBC America.

Saturday, December 22 and our trip to New Jersey.  We’re at my parents’ to decorate their tree; considering that my mother is really in no mood to celebrate Christmas this year, Bryan suggested that it might be nice to give her some moral support.

At 7 pm, the four of us go to Umberto’s Clam Bar and Continental Restaurant.  The food is very good again, although the service can tend to be a bit inattentive.  I have the baked, stuffed artichoke and linguine fra diavolo with New Zealand mussels; Bryan has shrimp cocktail (seven shrimp as opposed to restaurants here in the city) and fettucine alfredo; my mother goes for escargot and rigatoni zingara (a tangy red sauce with capers and mushrooms); and my father stays simple with an arugula salad and penne with pine nuts, aglio olio.

Sunday, December 23 and Bryan and I are at the Woodbridge mall by 9 am and within two hours we’ve done almost all of our shopping.  So let’s talk about gifts.  For Christmas, Bryan is getting the new Casio digital watch with built-in color camera.  With a 1Mb memory, the WQV-3 stores 80 images which can then be beamed, via infrared, from the watch to a PC in full color.  It can also type details on the image page so you can call up a person’s photo and then see their details.

Manhattan unfurled (just published by Random House) is a truly interesting piece of artwork, a 37-foot, dual-sided foldout of the New York skyline done by Matteo Pericoli, in pencil and before 9/11 changed the way things look.  Reproduced as one 22-foot piece of paper folded into 24 panels, the book presents the East Side and the West Side of Manhattan, one on each side of the paper.  (A separate guide names many of the buildings.)

Pericoli came from Milan in 1995 to work for architect Richard Meier’s firm in midtown; the project took 2 1/2 years.  “I always tried to understand this city, as someone who lives here and as an architect,” he said.  “So I set out to draw it.  To an architect, drawing is understanding.”

Also, software games The Sims and The Sims Hot Date expansion pack.

I had already bought a Keith Haring fountain pen at Art Brown & Bros. International Pen Shop, with a pattern which I thought quite elegant.  I was looking for a specific Keith Haring pen for Bryan.  It’s got the painting of “Excellence Saves” on it, but the store believes the pen has been discontinued.

My parents give us gift certificates to Lincoln Center; they know that I’ve been missing the Metropolitan Opera.  I get mom the latest novel by Danielle Steel (my brother would always buy it for her), a stuffed bear in red, white and blue regalia, French chocolates and a Chanel No. 5 powder puff.

Dad gets a funny clock (press the button, the hunter fires at the goose which yells “Missed me!”), and a folding knife and set of pasta bowls, both collectibles from Ducks Unlimited.  And, no, I don’t hunt so we’ll just avoid the whole topic.

While we wrap our gifts separately, I lie on the bed and watch Babette’s Feast; it is a quiet story by Isak Dinesen about Christian pietism and the sensuality of food.  The movie, directed by Gabriel Axel, received the Academy Award in 1986 for Best Foreign Film.  This time I catch more of it than last time and Bryan gets to see the ending with me.

Dinner is at Pangea (I have their special of rigatoni with crispy eggplant and mozzarella while Bryan has the shrimp risotto).  Back home, I watch the Discovery Channel documentary, “The Complete Jesus.”

Monday, December 24, Christmas Eve and a lazy day before we leave for Times Square and Midnight mass at Saint Mary the Virgin.  I have always enjoyed Smokey Mary’s (so named because of its heavy use of incense) when I’ve had the opportunity to attend.

As for this beautiful service, it was literally a “festal solemn mass.”  The celebrant was the Rev. Stephen Gerth, who became the parish’s rector a couple of years ago.  He has faced some difficult times as the congregation finds new paths, but I get a very good feeling from this man’s heart; plus, he’s always smiling, the joy literally jumping out of him.  The other priests of the parish assist him.

The guest preacher was the Right Reverend Richard F. Grein, XIV Bishop of New York, retired.  I must say, he gives a good sermon, without notes and with great feeling, about the Word becoming incarnate in each of us.

At 10:30, music started, alternating between congregational hymn singing and anthems by the choir.  Along with the traditional Christmas carols sung by the congregation (trust me, you know which ones already), the choir added their own pieces, including the Puer Natus from Michael Praetorius, and a few pieces from Vaughan Williams, Holst, John Rutter and de Victoria.  There is also additional service music from the Missa ‘Dixit Maria.’  The evening ends with the flourish of Marcel Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in B major, Opus 7.  Also, Saint Mary has a new music director, Robert McCormick, who knows the meaning of a good organ flourish!

Verum cato factum est, et habitavit in nobis, cuius gloriam vidimus quasi unigeniti a Patre.  (John 1:14)

Tuesday, December 25, Christmas Day.  We get up at 8 and we open up our presents.  From him, I get two new pair of Converse All-Stars (black and white, I’ve been needing them for the last couple of years), a tie and electronic coffee scoop from Brookstone and the nicest gift, a black leather attache case from Pelle Studio with all sorts of inside pockets, even a removable laptop bag!  Just gorgeous.

We head off at 10:30 for Grand Central Terminal and the train to cousin Carol’s.  We arrive in Fairfield at 12:30 and are picked up by her son, Matt, who has just graduated from Boston University with a BA in History.  And, like me so many years ago, he has decided to stay in Boston and look for a job.

By 1 pm, we’re at Carol’s; her daughter, Nicole, is already there, as well as my parents, Uncle Emil and my mother’s Aunt Virginia (Lorraine Dizzia’s mother as John and Lorraine are away with their daughters for the holiday).  We have the traditional Christmas dinner with ravioli before a pork roast and then coffee and dessert.

Wednesday, December 26, otherwise known as Boxing Day.  It’s also a good excuse to mention an e-mailed Christmas card from Dave Wohlman and his family (wife Pamela, boys Derek and Curtis).  He also sends his top ten favorite records of 2001, including re-releases, so here they are:

Tool Lateralus, Bob Dylan Love and Theft, Spiritualized Let It Come Down, Bjork Vespertine, Bill Laswell Point Of Order, Santana Divine Light, Miles Davis Live at The Fillmore, Herbie Hancock Future 2 Future, Ryuichi Sakamoto In The Lobby At G.E.H. In London, The Orb Auntie Aubrey’s Excursions Beyond The Call Of Duty Part 2.

Thursday, December 27 and absolutely everything is in its place and ready for guests.  At one point, we had expected almost a dozen guests; the final number was five.

By 6:15, Vanessa was our first guest, with airline safety cards for Bryan and some absolutely gorgeous crystal flowers.  Then, Dima and Elena arrived (bearing Russian meats and cheese and a bottle of semi-sweet red wine from Georgia … the country, not the state) and then Art and Michelle (with an interesting cd-rom containing a slide show of 9/11, but also with a nice bottle of blanc de blanc).

After a convivial hour of drinks, along with a variety of hors d’oeuvres, we headed off to Pangea for a few hours of eating, drinking and conversation.

Then it’s the final appearance of Rudy Giuliani on David Letterman … at least as mayor of New York.  Letterman pays Giuliani the ultimate compliment, that he has done more good for NYC than any other mayor before him.  Rudy, of course, graciously concedes to Fiorello LaGuardia and passes back a compliment to Dave regarding his keeping the show in the city when everyone else was abandoning it.

Friday, December 28 and a quiet day.  My parents were supposed to come into town to see our tree and take us out to dinner; however, they don’t make the bus.  In all fairness, however, it seems that at least one if not both of the buses simply didn’t make it.

So instead, we eat spaghetti with a salad, and watch a video of  “I Shot Andy Warhol” with Lili Taylor, a portrait of Valerie Solanas (the woman who gunned down Andy Warhol and almost killed him).  Staying home, we fall asleep to Graham Norton and a French/Saunders parody of Braveheart.

Saturday, December 29 and we’re up around 9 and laying in bed watching Julia Roberts and John Cusack in Billy Crystal’s “America’s Sweethearts.”

After a nice, chilly walk in the afternoon, our weekend of videos continues with “Evolution”; produced by Ivan Reitman, and starring David Duchovney and Julianne Moore with a cameo by Dan Ackroyd as Governor of Arizona. Evolution is another in a series of “Ghostbuster” style movies from Reitman.  Unfortunately, the movie can never decide if it’s a comedy or a science fiction movie, never coming together as either.

Sunday, December 30 and we decide to lie in bed and watch “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”  Great movie; see it.  Now for some trivia and a real tangent: Hedwig star John Cameron Mitchell was in the 1986 movie “Band of the Hand.”  Do you remember the Reds?  They were a favorite of Dave Wohlman and myself.  In the last decade or so, they have moved into TV and film soundtracks and continue to record as a studio-only unit; they were responsible for some great songs in that film.  I have been looking for some poor excuse to tell you all about them for years!

From a redacted review on Stereo Society:

This Philadelphia duo deal in a menacingly modern sound worthy of far greater exposure.  Since 1979, singer/guitarist Rick Shaffer and keyboardist Bruce Cohen have recorded four albums; Cry Tomorrow appears on indie alternative label Tarock Music. The Reds have an immediately identifiable sound via the combination of droning keyboards and guitar and Shaffer's haunting monotone vocals, and they come up with hooks that creep insidiously into the brain.  Producer Mike Thorne (Wire, Soft Cell, Peter Murphy) keeps it all as clean and sharp as a new scalpel.  Standout cuts include Terror In My Heart, Cry Tomorrow and the sinister Waiting For You.

My parents arrive at 5; they stopped to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and then we all went to dinner at Tappo, the same restaurant we went for my birthday.

Unfortunately, they have changed from Italian to “Mediterranean” with an emphasis on weird.  My father has an octopus salad which contains grilled baby octopi; but these babies have heads as big as quail eggs.  I’m almost nauseous looking at them.  He has fettucine in garlic and oil for an entrée, but even he says it’s boring.  Bryan has speck with cabbage; yes, it’s essentially a dried out prosciutto with cole slaw on top.  He follows that with skate which leaves him feeling ill for the rest of the night.

I have smoked buffalo mozzarella which isn’t too good and leads to a similar stomach as Bryan’s.  Then I thought I was playing it safe with chicken cacciatore (especially considering the other choices of rabbit and organ meats) but it really wasn’t very tasty.  Finally, my mother had risotto with porcini mushrooms and then, yech, oxtails.

We’re all done around 9 pm and they take the taxi back to Port Authority while Bryan and I settle in to watch Reese Witherspoon in the video of “Legally Blond” which was about a Valley Girl who goes to Harvard Law; actually quite cute.

Monday, December 31 and New Year’s Eve … at 7 pm EST, we call England to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  Then it’s another video, “The Princess Diaries” with Julie Andrews and Hector Elizondo.  A 15-year-old San Francisco goth discovers that her father was the Prince of Genovia and she is the sole heir to the throne.  Why does this never happen to me?  Directed by Garry Marshall and produced by Whitney Houston, this is another in a series of cute, light comedies for us.

We go to Pangea at 10:30 pm for dinner and find Tony Jewiss there with Eric Sathre and his father, who has come up from Orlando Florida.  Of course, Pat Thompson is there with her retinue, as well as David and Paul, Ronni Leopold, and the rest of the regular cast of characters.  We’re done just after midnight and it’s back to the apartment.  So we end 2001 almost exactly as every other year.  Although, even considering the difficulties, at least this year Bryan and I are together, and have been since last Christmas.

And so ends the month of December.  The answer is here.  If you don’t find the answer, write to me directly.  I know you.  I know your mind.  I know your heart.  I know your answer.  Hombres.  Sailors.  Comrades.

“Don't be so humble—you are not that great.”  Golda Meir (1898-1978) to a visiting diplomat

Also, links to classical music biographies this month come almost exclusively from Karadar Classical Music.  What a resource!  Portraits and biographies, full descriptions, links and mp3 and midi files.  Just incredible.

At work:  I am the Software & Online Services Editor at Church Publishing Inc., the publishing arm of the Episcopal Church (directly in charge of the Book of Common Prayer and Hymnal among other liturgical, theological and spiritual materials) and part of the Church Pension Group.  Specifically, I am Editor of the Episcopal Clerical Directory and also in charge of the latest addition to The Rite Series project, The Rite Stuff.  A liturgical tool for planning worship services, it is one of the most advanced software products on the market.

A reminder that individually researched hyperlinks now open in new windows, and are rarely connected to advertiser-supported sites.  Try them and encourage their existence.