A few weeks ago, I demolished a poorly designed closet under my basement steps. I used some of the wood from that to put together a rather shoddily constructed compost bin in my backyard. Thus far I think its fun to dump out all of the non-meat leavings after dinner. And this will provide me with much dirt. I need dirt. Composting it one bin full of time requires less effort than filling my van with a cubic yard or so of dirt in a single afternoon. So this cheers me.

We had a couple of guests over for thanksgiving so I dug out my French press. I haven't used it in years, since Dec of 2003 when I was diagnosed with high cholesterol. I'd forgotten what a good cup of coffee it makes. There's two tricks to it. The first is to get a medium or coarse grind, the coarser the better. The second is to not use boiling water. You want the water to be just below boiling. Let it cook for 5 minutes and presto, coffee to die for.

I'm about three quarters of the way through reading a book on the Byzantine economy purchased by two very thoughtful friends of mine as a birthday present. It presents some interesting ideas concerning conceptions of justice, retardation of economic inequality, the role of the nuclear family, and the state as an economic actor. I'm hoping that once I digest what I'm reading further, I can do a better write up. And, best of all, the book uses Chicago style footnotes like every rightly thinking academic chooses to do. I don't know that I can express in words the joy I feel when an author properly uses correct footnotes.

At work, I've finished solving a difficult problem that two other people had tried to solve and failed, our software vendor refused to get involved with, and the only other people at our company who know the technology refused to touch. To be done with this train wreck makes me happy. I just hope that I don't have to support the end results. There is some truth to the rather vulgar aphorism that software design is like premarital sex, make one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.

On Thanksgiving, evening we played Spoons. And I was the spoon master. My performance was only so-so but I managed to hang in there until it was just me and Miss E. Once the number of players drops down to 2, it becomes a game of strategy rather than blink luck and reflexes and I dominated. Rex cochlearis sum. Esse rex bonum est.

This hot cocoa recipe is labor intensive but IDKMFA IFYKWIM. Those who don't like really strong spices may not like it.

And a slow cooker makes a perfect turkey, provided the turkey you're cooking is small enough to fit into your slow cooker. I cooked mine for 6 hours on high, then extracted the turkey and put it in the oven for half an hour to brown the skin. It was absolutely beautiful, moist, soft. Unfortunately, it dried out a bit staying in the oven to keep warm so by the time we ate it was no longer perfection. But I will keep in mind the proper order for the future.

And now I must go out to greet the day.