My brain is a little scattered from the weird work/holiday/travel schedule (last week, I worked Friday, then had the weekend off, and I’m working today, but have tomorrow off, and then work the remaining three days; January holds another holiday and the start of school, so I have two normal work weeks and then a four-day week in which classes begin, so the craziness continues), so instead of the normal posts I’d like to give you (complete with pictures, which are either yet to be taken or just trapped on the camera still), I’m giving you bullet points on assorted randomness I’ve found on the internet lately. Sorry. We’ll return to our normal blogging eventually.

• According to this article, which provides some information on Glogg, the smörgåsbord of food at Christmas is a traditional Swedish thing. So my Grandma can’t help it (though she’s not actually Swedish, but we won’t fault her for that). However, the article did say the food was supposed to be good…. I jest. Really, it is good food. Just the same meal, 25 years in a row, gets a bit old. She did a good job this year, and actually liked the lutefisk. Said it tasted like clam chowder. Who knew? I might have to try it next time we go. I originally followed the link because and gave and I a picnic basket of stuff, including Glogg mix. Now we have to figure out what to do with it, since I’ve never had Glogg before. Apparently you can mix the stuff with just about any [preferrably alcoholic] drink.
• We got the last (hopefully) of our wedding gifts this weekend. gave us The Newlywed Cookbook, which looks pretty good. We’ll know by the end of this week, since we picked out a handful of recipes to try out. gave us the silverware we picked out. It may not look like much in the picture, but it’s wonderful in person. It feels really good in the hand – all the edges are rounded. Which brings us to the crazy portion of today’s post. Everyone that I’ve told this to looks at me like I’m insane, but here’s the deal. Yes, and I both had silverware before we got married. But, well, my set was incomplete, though fabulous, due to numerous roommates. And I didn’t like ‘s set. Why? Because all the edges were sharp 90* angles. And that doesn’t feel good in one’s mouth. Really. I can tell. Mine had nice rounded edges (though not as nicely rounded as our new ones, which have no trace of “edge” at all, actually). So we went to the store, with one of my pieces and one of his, and I felt the edges of all the silverware and compared. made me coffee this morning (isn’t he sweet? he got to stay home today and sleep in, but he got up to make me coffee, freshly ground and everything!) and I stirred in some creamer with the new spoon and it was a beautiful thing. Felt awesome in my mouth. I know, I know. It’s crazy. But I can tell the difference!
• Here’s an interesting article on global warming and baking soda. Not as interesting as might like it to be (no, you can’t solve global warming by cleaning your house using baking soda, unfortunately), but still cool.
• From there, I got to 12 Ways To Stop Global Warming, and here are my comments on that:
  • Get an energy audit – is doing this sometime soon. I think if we did we’d learn things we already know, and some things we just can’t change about our townhouse. I think the only thing we could probably do is replace the windows, and we know that needs to happen. But on a single-family home, this could be an important thing to do.
  • Get more MPGs – I am all on board with this. I’d love to own an SUV some day, but not until I can drive one that gets some seriously better gas mileage. Honda Civic gas mileage.
  • Change your lights – and I just said that to each other yesterday at Target. I hear this will be easier to do in the future with the passage of the energy bill. (For those of you who were wondering, the goal is 35 mpg fleet average by 2020. “The California plan, however, would cut emissions by nearly 30 percent by 2016, raising fuel efficiency standards in the state to 43.7 miles per gallon for passenger cars and some SUVs and trucks, while larger vehicles would need to reach 26.9 mpg by that year.” from CNN.com)
  • Reuse your bags – you know, I have a reusable shopping bag that I carry with me in my big purse. I used it all the time when I did everything by bus and lived in my old house. But now when we go grocery shopping, I usually just take my little purse and forget all about my bag, which is too bad. I mean, we’d still have to use some plastic bags, but it’d reduce our garbage (since they just get thrown out immediately) by a bag or two a week. That could make a difference.
  • Pay bills online – We do this. Specifically, does this, since he’s unofficially in charge of finances. Wells Fargo makes it easy.
  • Efficient appliances - Um, I’m not sure about our house on this one, and quite frankly I don’t care. I think that I would care if we were in the market to buy new appliances, but we aren’t. And buying new appliances when the old ones still work just isn’t in the budget, or an item of importance to me.
  • Control the temperature – Let me tell you, if I could figure out a way to better control the temperature in our house, I would. We’re just going to have to live with things the way they are. Of course, I think just about everyone I know has trouble heating or cooling their homes.
  • Smart landscaping – I think the association would have a complaint or two if we just decided to do our own landscaping. Yet another solution for single-family homeowners.
  • Reduce, reuse, recycle – complains that I recycle too much. After all, we only have one (albeit large) recycling bin that is picked up every two weeks, and there just isn’t room for it all. Force of habit, I guess. I can’t help it. I see a cardboard box, I want to break it down and recycle it.
  • Conserve water – yeah, I could definitely do better on this. I take showers that are probably too long. My skin would probably be happier (read: less dry) if I did too. But I can’t figure out how to do that. I do turn off the water while I brush my teeth usually, and I think our dishwasher is energy-efficient. And I only do large loads of laundry. I probably use too much water while doing the dishes or rinsing off what’s going into the dishwasher though.
  • Buy green energy – I’m not exactly sure how I’d do this. The article wasn’t very specific, and it doesn’t seem like something that’s easily accessible.
  • Reduce your footprint – Another good idea that I’m left wondering “how, exactly?” The article doesn’t go into enough detail and I’m not sure where I’d start.
• Lastly, some things at Ikea that I’d get if I were made of money (which I’m not):

Aren't they cute? I like the red one. My one holiday guest towel is sad and pilly and... not that cute really. I like these. They don't match our bathroom at all.

When I first saw the picture of these (a much smaller picture), I thought they were little drinking glasses. Turns out, they're big candle holders or vases or something. Bummer.

I thought A would especially like these (though I've heard she has a desire to own fewer dishes, and I don't know the details of this decision). If I were in the market for things solely to clutter up my kitchen, I'd get these.

Prince Charming got some champagne from a client as a gift. We will be drinking it from... well, not from champagne flutes, because we don't have any. And really, who needs them? But this set of two is perfect, and doesn't take up that much space on the wine rack. Did I mention we got new wine glasses for Christmas?

They're for hanging jewelry on, for those who didn't know. I recently read something about someone making one for herself and it was a lot of work, but the end result was so cute. To do it myself would require the purchase of a lot of power tools we don't own, though, and this would seem to meet the need. It would, of course, go against my existing system of stacking trays that keep everything out of sight and reign in the clutter that jewelry can provide.

That’s it for me this morning! It should be a pretty slow day at work today, so I may entertain you some more (or less) later….