poppydawn

What Lammy said. The first show's on my kid's birthday, so I doubt if any of the shows are possible for me. Still, how cool!

Word. I experienced the same thing. If I'm having an anxiety/panic flare-up, caffeine's effects are definitely intensified. When all's well in my life, I drink crazy amounts of coffee and tea, and maybe the occasional Coke. But as soon as I start getting stressed, I cut back. A friend of mine recently described the same thing about caffeine affecting her differently now than it used to, and it definitely seems to be related to the levels of stress in her life. I'm barely 5'3" tall, but was predicted to be 5'8" on those silly growth charts they whip out when kids are little. My granny

And "Coffee and Cigarettes". I thought everyone was great in that, though. I'll grab "Mule Variations" from my Gigatribe network when I get home.

I guess your palette's more well-defined than mine. Oh well.

How about this? Frozen custard, toasted ravioli, and gooey butter cake are just about the most awesome things in the world. Seriously! Considering that the food item my hometown is best known for is a hamburger smeared with peanut butter, I understand feeling slighted when outsiders rag on the weird local chow. Even when it's merited.

Spoken like a true St. Louisan. I think that's my problem. I came to St. Louis as an adult, so my palette and gullet haven't had the opportunity to grow accustomed to Imo's. Yeah. That's the problem. When you're in Belleville, I'm taking you to Fletcher's for a veggie pie. You'll die of joy.

While I whole-heartedly embrace and appreciate your plea for pizza peace, I still have to disagree with you about Imo's. Hot or cold, it still taste like hinder. It certainly doesn't represent all St. Louis-style pizza. It's about as representative of that style as Pizza Hut is of traditional Italian pie. Give me a St. Louis-style cracker crust from someone who's making pizzas by hand, and I'm a happy girl. As for good frozen pizzas, oh my word. Trader Joe's and Target both have excellent frozen versions. As does Oberweis Dairy's delivery program, if you can believe that. I'd make sweet lov

Lots and lots and lots of vibes your way, Froggie. I hope all's well soon.

Chloe the Hound Dog and I send our birthday wishes! Here's to the beginning of a wonderful new year!

Clara Jane (my daughter) will be four in February. You're so right - this has been the most fun Christmas with her yet. Although last year she did the tree-trimming. Every day I'd find something new and unexpected stuck into the branches. Like shoes. This year, she's all about Santa for the first time. We've done multiple practice runs for her visit to Santa. She makes me wear a Santa hat, then brings all of her stuffed animals to sit on my lap and tell me what they want for Christmas. I'm hoping this helps her have a good time when we go see Santa on Tuesday. It would be lovely to not have

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ... gorgonzola. Yum! Your trio sounds awesome, too. I love love love pecorino. Have you tried the pecorino with whole peppercorns in it? That would divine. My current favorite is from Marco's on Main in Belleville. It's St. Louis style thin crust, but with good sauce and without the nasty fake cheese. I love their spinach salad pizza; fresh baby spinach leaves, fresh mushrooms, bacon, parmesan and feta. Oh my cod. I want one right now.

Probably. He's been known to send 2-pound tubs of Laffy Taffy to some friends of ours in London who are addicted to the stuff.

That's hilarious! Joke pizza ... that sums up Imo's better than any other description. That "cheese" is just vile. It's a locally-made concoction called Provel. It's mozzerella, parm, and provolone that have been processed, giving it the texture of something between Velveeta and kindergarten paste with some lard mixed in. I've had St. Louis-style pizza at other places where they'll replace the Provel with real cheese, and it's excellent. The crust can be great when it's not sopping up processed cheese residue.

The kiddo insisted on making three cat ornaments: one to represent our cat, one for my parents' cat, and one for the extremely creepy cross-eyed cat who lives next door.

Last time I had Imo's, I got the worst case of food poisoning of my life. We were driving 13 hours to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan the next day. Nothing like vomiting Provel cheese through three states. My first college roommate used to get bacon pizza from Imo's. Now, I love bacon in a big way, but bacon + Provel? Might as well soak a piece of cardboard in lard and dab it with ketchup.

Mmmmmm ... orange SweeTarts! My husband works for a company that's owned by Nestle, which makes all of the Wonka candies and SweeTarts. Just about every public area in his office building has SweeTarts. A few years back, he kept swiping well more than his fair share. He saved all the orange ones in a pint jar and gave them to me for Valentine's Day. Must ask him about the SweeTart rope.

That's only standard in St. Louis. I hear rumors that we're going here for dinner tonight. We'll see how Chicago-style pizza is done in a small German town in the Ozarks. I have a feeling it'll be a biscuit stuff with catfish.

Here's one of my dilemmas (and I use that word tongue-in-cheek because good lord, how lucky am I to have access to any music I want?) - I love the bits of Tom Waits I've heard. But there's so much that I don't know where to begin collecting. I'm on a Gigatribe network with some of my friends, one who has the entire Tom Waits catalog. I could download all of it, but then I'd still be overwhelmed with quantity. I could download them chronologically, but my attention span is so shot that I probably wouldn't make it past the third album. So I'll just keep listening to the 15 songs of his I already

That's the main reason why I finally bought an ipod. I got so sick of my CDs being in transit, getting beat-up, not being able to remember what was where, etc. That part, I love.

You could do a strata. The night before, soak torn-up bread in eggs and milk that have been whisked with salt and pepper. Before baking, mix in grated cheese. For veggies, frozen spinach or broccoli are usually a good combo. Bake at 350 degrees until it's golden and bubbly on top and firm when you press in the center. If you can do a simple salad on the side (any lettuce but iceberg. Make a dressing by whisking 1 part olive oil to 2 parts citrus juice or vinegar with salt and pepper). If you've got eggs, milk and cheese, you can do a quiche, too. Quiche or strata with Graham's veggie soup wo

Ahhhhhhhh!!! So many possibilities! I could make the trip to Cleveland to see them with my buddy Kristina, if she's not swamped with school. Des Moines, Nashville, and Tulsa are all possibilities. I'd really like to see them at the Ryman. Guess I need to get out the ol' calendar.

Alanis? Snow? Neil Young definitely needs to be included. So do the McGarrigles.

I just can't get into the torrent thing. That would overwhelm me. When there's a concert I want, I have my husband download it for me. I don't even want to know how to do it. I go through spells with music. I've acquired very little this year, because I haven't had much time to get into anything new. The new Springsteen, Wilco, and White Stripes releases were givens. I got Andrew Bird and Ray Lamontagne after seeing their live shows with friends who were fans. That said, yesterday I uploaded five new CDs to my computer, all by bands that are new to me. And I'm totally overwhelmed! As much

The opening riff does sound a little like "Pretend We're Dead". I had to listen to them back-to-back to get it. The only Teagan and Sarah song I like is "Walking With a Ghost", and I only like it when it's being covered by the White Stripes. As for songs that make me want to throw things, I don't really have any. Probably because I'm so out of touch with pop music. Because most of it makes me want to throw things. I can't name bands or songs anymore. I do know that I've got radar for that emo crap and it makes me want to punch people. Panic! At the Disco comes to mind, if only for their ex

It only took three days, but the tree's finally finished. Here's the ornaments the kiddo and I made out of salt dough. The garlic naan was not made of salt dough. Hanging the first ornament. And yes, she insisted on wearing Halloween jammies for the event. And this was just cute.