I could never drink a bottle of anything. I am the cheapest of dates. It takes me all night to sip a glass of wine, guzzle a beer.

Moving along.

Isn’t that the most fun wine bottle ever?

20 Bees 2010 Cabernet Merlot. This is how we roll in Canadaland.

A nice little blog-writing sipper.

I’m sitting here sipping my 20 Bees and staring at this image. I’ve been staring at it on and off all day. I might be a little fixated, which it not at all the same as pixilated, though I might be that, too.

I really can’t decide.

Are we fretting, chewing our nails waiting for something to appear?

Or are we fretting, chewing our nails because aliens just beamed up Uncle Fred?

You decide.

In other news today: Writing…check. Cardio…check.

This be a blog quickie.

In the meantime, I’m pretending to be all Christmas bakey and singing in the darksome rain that has been our weather for the last two months. Okay. You can throw in an occasional day of sunshine and a snow flurry or two, but mostly darksome and rainy.

I told a friend today that it was like living in the PNW without benefit of the yummy seafood and ocean view. It is my cross to bear here in my neck of Canadaland.

I’ll be spending the rest of the day sprinting between the washing machine and the oven because Mr. G, honey has run out of socks, and I do not have one Christmas cookie/bar/tart/confection in this house.

You?

Are you ready? Because it’s 3 more sleeps until…

In the meantime –

Have a little snow on me.

You’re welcome.

the dog barking,

the car alarm blaring,

the telephone ringing,

and the iPhone texting.

FYI ~ I’m not good with barking, blaring, ringing and texting BC — before caffeine.

Barking — a chipmunk ran across our fence, and the G-Pup copped an attitude.

Blaring — new car, new alarm, new aggravation.

Ringing — that phone call so wasn’t for me. Right, Mr. G, honey?

Texting — early morning commuter syndrome.

But, since I adore the person doing the mad texting, she gets a pass. The barking, blaring, ringing, not so much.

The big sister said all I needed was the Fire Department.

Right.

Get behind me, Hump Day.

I’m just gonna be working this out with Etta and Christina.

Yeah. I feel better already.

Are your days, weeks, weekends beginning to feel like they’re operating over capacity? Mine are. It’s the joy and bane of December.

We did the whole family tree-trimming party this weekend. I made more man food for the menfolk. Spaghetti and meatballs. Heavy on the carbs. Heavy on the beef. Garlic bread. Heavy on the garlic. And then for those who weren’t too manly to eat a green, a humongous salad with greens, spinach, pecans, orange sections, some dried cranberry and shaved Parmesan. They ate like truckers lined up on diner stools. Smart truckers. Amen!

And since we hadn’t sinned enough for a decent confession, I served up Sandy Coughlin’s Dark Chocolate Flourless Cake. Get it here. Get it quick. I love everything about Sandy and her website — The Reluctant Entertainer, for I surely am one. While you are there, you should just add her to your RSS feed. You know you want to.

Gracie the G-Pup wasn’t left out of the festivities. She got a new bone to gnaw, which she did. Endlessly. Even into the wee hours, which deprived me of some much needed pre-Hello, Monday! sleep.

But her teeth sparkle. They twinkle like all those teeth on all those dental commercials on the boob toob. This has left me wondering why I’m spending $$$ going to the dentist each year, when a gnarly, frozen buffalo bone does such a stellar job on the G-Pup. Food for thought.

Today, as we head into the season — the season of joy and good eats and winter — I think it’s important to know the difference between Baklava and Balaclava.

Baklava — a classic Greek pastry made with nuts and sugar and spices and phyllo pastry. Gimme. Gimme.

Balaclava — warm, winter headgear that we find essential here in Northern Girl country.

I switch these words out all the time. Just sayin’.

It’s hard to be me.

Hello, Monday!

Rock your work week.

You can’t tell, but I’m singing this text.

I put this video up last December, but I think we can use a little of its merriment on this the Hump Day of the week.

Let’s just Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Can-Can right over it.

Love, love, love Straight No Chaser. FYI, they’re in concert at McCaw Hall in Seattle, WA tonight at 7. What are you waiting for? Click on over.

Oh, and here is the live SNC version of The Christmas Can-Can at YouTube. You know, just in case you want to see some college fellas doing the can-can.

Thought so.

I don’t know Straight No Chaser. SNC doesn’t know me. I just like their music. The end.