is there any more pie?

Yep, he’s in there somewhere.

Some folks have New Year’s Eve bonfires.  In fact, I’m trying to talk Banjo Man into going to a local event down by the beach Monday night.  I don’t think I’ll be able to get him away from football bowl games, though.  He’s also planning on making pizza and taking down the Christmas tree.

Busy guy, that Banjo Man.

As I’m writing this, we’re due for a snowstorm–the prediction is 10″ along the coast–and it has begun to sleet.

I looked out the kitchen window–I am supposed to be working on book revisions,  but it is much more fun and productive to drink coffee and roam around the house and look out the windows to see if the snow has started.  Guess what I saw?  Banjo Man’s version of a holiday bonfire.

Smoke is so festive.

Where the heck is that snow????

It takes a brave man to buy these for a post-menopausal woman.

Brave ol’ Banjo Man did some of his best Christmas shopping at Home Depot this year.

These are really cool tools.  Some of them even have safety locks.  The four tools on the right can be used for quilting and sewing.  You never know what you’ll need when the mood to create strikes.  Quilting can get a little violent.

Really, it can.  A quilter can never have enough equipment.

The two on the left are industrial-sized scissors and have super gripping strength.  I am in love.  Seriously.  I can open anything now.

The one in the middle, the giant thing, is for when I feel the need to trim branches and clean up the yard.  Since I never feel the need to trim branches or prune fruit trees or clean up the yard I’ll have to come up with some other uses.  When it stops raining I might just go out and attack briars, just to see if this big sucker really works.

We have a lot of briars and bittersweet vines here in New England.  We don’t like them.  I may have to do something about this problem with my very own branch-cutting monster.

Stand back.

Banjo Man also outdid himself at JobLot, our local discount (very, very discount) store.

This was an interesting choice on Banjo Man’s part, considering I never, ever hike.
Never.  Ever.  Hike.

But they are warm and comfy, even when I am not hiking and am just sitting around thinking about cleaning up the yard and planning next year’s garden, stuff like that.

Santa B-Man knows his woman.

Banjo Man loves this candlelabra.  I love it, too, but Banjo Man really loves it.  It requires candles with special fluted bottoms, because regular candles fall over, even with candle sticky-stuff or freshly-dripped wax in the holder.

Sometimes it’s hard to find those candles-with-the-special-bottoms, unless it’s the one-time-a-year I’m in Bed, Bath & Beyond and remember to stock up.

Christmas came around and I’d forgotten to stock up, so Banjo Man went on a Mission To Find Candles.  As did I, successfully finding red (red! in December!!!) candles in the gift shop a few miles south of here in the woods.  Banjo Man travelled farther south and found candles at Pier One.

He gave me a big box of them for Christmas (we celebrated our Christmas with Sarge, NancyK and Grandma on December 23rd), explaining that he didn’t want to run out of candles ever again, so he could light his candlelabra whenever he wanted.

Which was fine with me, until I saw how much each candle cost.

Two and a half times what I paid.  Two and a half times!!!!

Me:  Where’s the receipt?

Banjo Man:  I couldn’t believe how much it added up to.  I thought the saleswoman was talking to someone else.

Sarge:  That’s true, Mom.  I started laughing.  Dad’s face!  You should have seen Dad’s face!

Nancy:  Geez, Dad.  That’s a lot of money for candles.

Me:  Damn right it is!  There’s twenty candles in here!  Where’s the receipt????

Banjo Man:  They’re special.  Smokeless.  I bet they last longer than yours.

Me:  Two and a half times longer?

Grandma:  I think you should try them.

A measuring tape was produced, as was a pad and pen.  My cheaper candles had burned at the rate of an inch an hour.  Banjo Man’s candles would have to burn for 17.5 hours to make his candles less expensive in the long run than mine.  We lit four candles at exactly four o’clock Sunday.  Now we are keeping track each time.

It’s all very scientific.

p.s. i returned the remaining 16 candles to pier one december 24th.