Harry Houdini

Now that Mr. Frou Frou has escaped once more and been found again , I have chosen to rename him Harry Houdini and perhaps also rename Kate the Mistress of sloppily locked cages. Do you get my drift.....

I am drinking too much coffee, tea and other stimulants tonight as I pace and consider changing my resume to fit a job that I would really like. Brings out all my anxieties...like the fact that I haven't' really finished my Christmas shopping although the biggest job is the Plum Pudding which requires a gathering of ingredients for this traditional dessert that I make for Christmas dinner at the Cedars. I went with Kate to her Saturday morning piano lesson and then ran -- NOR LITERALLY -- downtown to the Florence Meat Market which is a small but wonderful butcher shop on Morton Street to shop for beef suet but only if it's from the kidney. To be ordered they tell me. Next week. Which is what they tell me every year when I arrive breathless and fretting because I've left everything to the last minute. But oh I do love butcher shops. One of met first conversations in Nashville was with someone who thought that opening a butcher shop would be a great idea. Of course I have no experience, no real experience other than taking some butchering classes but there is just something about the smell of blood and all the sawdust that I find intoxicating. Call me strange I'll understand but won't care. Now back to the plum pudding: Then I reached out to Ronnie who lives somewhere in Brooklyn that is very close to one of the few remaining stores that sell glaced fruit and citron. Waiting for the ingredients to start rolling in. Such a part of the traditions but the newer tradition is that I ship two of them by Fed Ex so that some clueless TSA creep won't take it away from me thinking that the amount of brandy in a plum pudding will fuel a rocket. I'm sure it could. I read a book several years ago about two peripatetic British travelers who went to Siberia and they took plum puddings along as their food. Would work but oh my gosh you would probably kill for a lettuce leaf in under a day.

My other dilemma is about the Christmas tree. I have been nothing but scathing about fake trees all my life but I see that occasionally one might be helpful, specially if you are not around but want the flash and dash of a tree....Do you see my problem. I have scads of ornaments and lights and the prospect of having to put it up myself. Actually I want badly to give a party with new people....And so a tree would be nice.

In the meantime I spent equal parts of my day thinking about plum puddings and fake christmas trees and the rest of it sitting in on Kate's piano lessons and then she participated in a recital and did brilliantly. She taught herself how to play on a keyboard and in three months performed very ably. Mozart, she said. Mozart I want to play that. And jazz of course. And she won a prize for being the champion piano practicer!