Anyone who reads this probably knows I’m a morning news anchor. As a morning news anchor the question I get more than any other is “what time do you get up?” The answer: 2:45 a.m. Early call, true, but not too different than my neighbor who works first shift at Jeep.

I have many positive things to say about shift work especially when it comes to family life. When I started in news I worked night-side. That’s from 2:30 p.m. until after the 11 o’clock news. My kids were little then and it was great to be home until two in the afternoon. I only needed 4 hours of babysitting since the hubby worked a regular daytime schedule and got home in the evening. Essentially we both had full time jobs and only had to pay half time of childcare. Later I worked the weekend shift. That gave me two week days off.  Again, it was nice because my husband was home the weekends so my kids had 4 days straight of at least one parent  home.

This morning shift came at the right time in my life as my kids afterschool actitivies keep us going each afternoon and I’m available to do whatever they need from homework help (except math) to cheering in the stands. I get just under 5 hours of sleep a night but no worries, I catch up on Friday nights. Except…

Before I continue I will tell you that I enjoy flipping through decorating magazines. Not that my house is decorated in any sort of style at all but I like looking at the home decor magazines. So when I have a few minutes to wait, say in the parking lot as the kids are finishing up whatever they’re doing or on a Saturday night after go-go-going all day, I enjoy looking at the magazines.

I am talking about shift work and home decor magazines because of this. 

I’ve purchased this magazine twice. Same issue. Something looked vaguely familiar. Oh well, I thought no big deal, I’ll just recycle one. (That’s why you’re only seeing the one in the picture.)

Then I did this:

 I’ve purchased this same magazine 3 TIMES. (I threw one out because I scared myself when I discovered I’d bought it repeatedly.) Either I love Renovation Style Magazine so much that I can’t wait for the next issue or maybe I just love this fireplace mantel. But the more likely scenario is my short term memory is Swiss Cheesy. Big holes in it.

So shift work appears to be good for my family life but it appears it be REALLY good for these two magazine publishers. What was I saying again? I forget.

I resolved in 2007 to clean my coffee pot everyday. My coffee pot and I are very close. I love my morning coffee pot. See it makes my COFFEE. With my schedule there’s no way I could survive without java. My coffee pot has a timer and when I wake up and everyone in the free world is still asleep it greets me warmly with a fresh pot. It would seem the least I could do is wash it everyday. Nope, I just abuse it and expect it to come back for more. Last year’s resolution to keep the beloved java maker clean survived until maybe January 5th or 6th. This is a picture of the overworked appliance.

Notice the Mr. Coffee logo is chipped off and this is a replacement glass pot. In my initial fervor of 2007 to clean the maker everyday I accidentally smashed it against the sink. (Zealously cleaning something can destroy it is the lesson there.) Or it’s possible that grunge was the only thing holding it together, like the 1990s? For whatever reason the thing broke and I had to replace it. And alas, it shall only be periodically cleaned. That’s what 2007 taught me.

So this year when considering resolutions for 2008 I poured a cup of tasty coffee from my noxious maker and remembered the disasterous results from 2007’s resolutions.  Thusly I’ve resolved in 2008… nothing. I suppose there’s still time, it’s only the third. And despite not resolutioning a darn thing I did get up this morning before work and walk/run on the treadmill. I actually put a  cup of coffee in the treadmill water holder. Judge me if you will but when ”before work” is 2:30 a.m. you need to caffienate more than hydrate. (Clearly I’m not a health professional so ignore any workout or hydration advice if you want to live.) 

As it is the Third of the Month of the New Year I opened up my little daybook and realized I’d reached the end of the road. There were no more pages to scrawl my daily commitments. Check it out, after one short year my daybook looks like something discovered while excavating an abandoned ghost town. (”Scuse me Miss Calamity this’n done fell out of ’yer saddlebag.”) 

But here’s where I make a case for being disorganized. Since I waited until the THIRD day of oh-eight I was able to snag a mighty fine dayplanner for half off partner. Here it is.

 Pretty snazzy eh?

I don’t know if you can see it but it says “Family Facts - On-The-Go.” Since I am quite on-the-go and in fact do have a family I’m hoping I’ve chosen wisely. But again it was only $7.99 so hello, without planning it I got a great deal. It also has a plastic protective coating. I figure it is very likely that while jogging on my treadmill and swilling down sludge bucket coffee (merely because I choose to exercise at 2:30am and not because I’ve resolved to) I will spill something on my daybook. See so the protective coating will be very handy indeed.

So see I’m already a better person in 2008 with no resolutions. Dangnabbit.

RR

P.S. So is there anyone out there brave enough to resolve anything?

P.S.S. Happy Birthday to Jennifer, one of my best YaYas!!!

Fondue - Fondue is a Swiss communal dish shared at the table in an earthenware pot (caquelon) over a small burner (rechaud). The term comes from the French fondre (to melt) in the past tense fondu (melted) with gender added in the phrase la raclette fondue (the grated Swiss cheese, melted), hence shortened to fondue. A cheese mix in the pot is kept warm as a semi-liquid sauce into which diners use forks to dip bits of food, most often bread. Whilst cheese fondues are the most widely known there are other pot and dipping ingredients. Fondue is most often warmed either by an alcohol burner or tealights. (Wikipedia)

I’m having a few people over for New Year’s Eve and it’s been suggested that we fondue, is that right? Do you fondue or do you have fondue? Serve fondue? I do have a fondue set which looks amazingly like this…

I got it from my mother who I think had two! Back in the early seventies I remember my mom and dad having a fondue party. They fired up BOTH the fondue pots and my mom wore something like these outfits.

  This is from a site called Vintage Vixen. Honestly is that woman in the green skirt Katie Holmes? Nope, just a pattern from the 1970s. Fondue was all the rage in the late sixties and early seventies. Apparently some swinging baby boomers visited Switzerland in the late sixties and they were so enamored with the fondue and they brought it back here. The craze swept the nation and finally landed in Toledo where upon my mother wound up with two fondue sets and at least one party that I remember. I wonder if that’s how the mood ring started as well?

Anyhoo, back to the Happy Fondue Year. The one time I tried to use my hand-me-down fondue set I remember the smoke alarm going off. But since that happens a lot when I cook I can’t totally blame the fondue. I am however, somewhat concerned about the alcohol burner thingy mentioned in the Wikipedia entry. So if you are a Fondue Afficianado or remember entertaining in the 1970s please share. And the fondue is as far as we’re going into the seventies theme. No disco balls or orange counter tops. That’s too crazy. Flaming alcohol burners and multiple skewers are as edgy as I get. But no worries if no one chimes in with advice here I’ll rely on the site Fondue Bits. It is the font of fondue facts and I just love the name fonduebits.com.

But before I open up the floor for fondue advice I thought I’d share this last tidbit. Apparently there’s an etiquette to the fondue shindig.  For instance allowing one’s mouth to touch the dipping fork is thought of as rude. And although you thought Seinfeld was the originator of the term double dipping it actually has it’s roots in fondue-culture. (That’s not a thing- I just made it up.) Once a dipped morsel has been tasted - for the love of all that is Swiss - don’t return it to the pot!

And my internet research on fondue unraveled a mystery as to why those swinging seventies hipsters liked the fondue. In a longstanding Swiss tradition if a nugget of bread is lost in the cheese by a man, he buys a bottle of wine. If a woman drops her nugget in cheese she must kiss the man on her left. (It doesn’t explain what to do if say the man on the left bobbles his nugget and is off buying wine when the woman commits her nugget foul. Maybe then she kisses a St. Bernard.) And see here’s where my Polish tradition fouls up the fondue, if anyone drops ANY morsel at any time, in a long standing Polish tradition, the vacuum cleaner is immediatly deployed to the scene. No one gets kissed for dropping stuff in cheese. More likely you’ll be sent to get a damp towel and then ejected from the festivities.

So Happy Fondue Year! And enjoy your Silvesterklause!

RR

P.S. For more on all that is Swiss and how to enjoy your Silvesterklause visit Swiss World!

P.S.S. What are tags? And I’ve spent a lifetime removing them, should I be adding them to this blog? Why?

A few posts back I showed off my Martha Stewartesque holiday door. I also asked readers to share some of their holiday handiwork. Here are three lovely selections.

This is Leasa’s gorgeous mantel place. Her red paint accent goes all the way up to the high ceiling. I think this is so elegent and love how the paint makes the statement and the accents are so simple.

 Phyllis sent me her tree which is so perfectly beautiful. I wonder if  her lanky teenagers had to help her place the high ornaments. I particularly like the blue in this tree. Blue is a wintery color but I always forget to use it when I’m decking my halls. Furthermore, this tree is huge which I love. If it’s real it’s about the best one I’ve ever seen, if it’s fake, well you go Phyllis!

And finally, this is from Shirley. Shirley is my Aunt and she’s been crafting, decorating and going crazy (in a good way) for Christmas since I can remember. She won a contest once for her tree which was decorated entirely with ornaments that she made. This year she added a scene to her winter vingettes and well it’s GRACELAND! Yes, there’s a pink Cadillac in the front and Elvis on the gates.  Victorian Christmas scenes are traditional, and pretty but man, I couldn’t dig this Elvis Graceland Christmas more. I hunka hunka burnin’ love it.

To Shirley, Leasa, and Phyllis, thank you, thank you verra much.

RR

P.S. And really thank you to everyone who played along with my request for photos. I hope everyone who reads Blonde Highlights enjoys your pretty decorations as much as I do! What could be better? We get to look at the pretty decorations AND we don’t have to pack them away in the new year.

P.S.S. I attempted to take some very “decorator magazine” looking photos at a local tree farm. We were searching for the perfect tree and to find the perfect tree you need to bring the dog. That’s where the decorator magazine similarities end. ‘Nuff said? Tune in for my next Martheseque blog entry coming soon! (LPC you were right so I tried to clarify.)

This is my holiday door. It makes me happy. I love it. It’s the only thing that actually turns out like I mean it to every year decorating-wise. I swear I wanted a red door on my house JUST for the holidays. Here’s the thing. I’d love to see your Christmas Decoration successes. Email me at RebeccaLeeRegnier@gmail.com. It needs to be a jpeg and then I’ll post them here. Hopefully it will get us all in the mood for shopping, wrapping, baking, cleaning, standing in line, shoveling snow, tension.

But really when you see a pretty decoration it does help with all that eh? If I get any pics it might take 24 hours to post because of me being only slightly better at operating this blog than operating a hot glue gun.

Cheers,

RR