the bread machine is extremely awesome. so far it's made seven grain bread, cheesy onion bread, and normal white bread. this weekend it'll be working on banana bread and cinnamon raisin bread and homemade jam.

i always get depressed on holidays like thanksgiving and christmas. most of the time i put my dysfunctional family life out of my mind. on those days i succumb to wishing i had a big, happy family where everyone was healthy and close and loving. this year esp. drove that point home because some of my roommates had a big gathering at the house. it consisted of all their family members (some of whom flew out from other states to attend), tons of work friends, and a bunch of close friends too. unlike my family events, copious amounts of alcohol were consumed, marijuana was smoked, and everyone laughed and hugged and ate and celebrated.

i drove to my parents' house on the eastside and dragged kirt with me. my mom ordered the meal from pcc. i found both it and the white wine pretty awful. i ate spanakopita and my homemade bread instead. no fighting occurred this year at least, and my dad didn't wear his headphones throughout the meal like in previous years. i love bringing guests because my family snipes at each other a lot less when guests are present. i dropped kirt off and went home feeling pretty glum.

when i got back, lots of people were still hanging out at the house. i took this semisad picture of myself for the 365 days project. i ate some of their pumpkin pie and drank coffee with kahlua and peppermint schnapps and started to cheer up a bit. our awesome former housemate quinn came online so we had a videochat with her via skype. my roommates are starting to get anxious about finding another roommate to fill nathan's shoes and have actually posted an ad on craigslist. i'm unhappy about this 'cause i really want davya24 to move in, but they're getting worried 'cause time's running short.