What's new with me

• I'm cranking along on Christmas knitting projects! Finished: scarf & hat set for my niece, socks for my gram, and felted purse for my MIL. Not so finished: pink scarf for aunt, the yarn for which is on back order (I'm not very happy w/ the online yarn store...won't get into that now), blue chenille scarf for my mom, and crocheted snowflake(s) for family friend. I was especially glad to realize one Tuesday that I was FINALLY knitting an actual project to be felted AT Felt-n-belch.
  

• I switched over to Google's new internet browser called Chrome a couple of months ago and I love it. Just so you know.
• I have jury duty tomorrow. While I am generally supportive of fulfilling this basic civic duty, I'm mad about having to serve this time. Why? Because DC Board of Elections and Ethics blocked every attempt I made to get my absentee ballot. Despite their final claims to me that they FedEx'ed it out on Oct. 30th, I never received it and therefore didn't get to vote. And my jury summons most likely stemmed from the fact that I was registered to vote. From what I've read (and experienced) the DCBOEE needs a serious overhaul on their systems (really, lack thereof) and accountability. It was shameful. I have a full-page chronology of the entire thing (with bullet points and dates of course) if you're interested. ha.
• I'm afraid I'm addicted to roasted chickpeas seasoned with garam masala. I'm going through 1-2 cans a week and I've moved on to dealing. Now my mom and a couple of friends are hooked though I don't think they're using as much as I am. There are lots of different spice combinations that people recommend, but I haven't budged from the garam masala because I don't want to be disappointed.
  
  Ok that's a lie. Once I made them with rosemary and a little lemon juice. They were fine but didn't have the kick I was looking for. Over Thanksgiving, when I didn't have access to my usual stash of store-bought garam masala, I actually made some from scratch: bought the seeds my mom didn't have, roasted them whole and ground 'em up.
• My other addiction, which seems to be little more respectable is a soup recipe my mom adapted from Cooking light: Sweet potato, sausage, and kale. My mom's adaptations were to split the potatoes into half red potatoes and half sweet, and use 1 can each of canellini and red kidney beans. Oh, and Cooking Light seems to have a typo in the list - obviously it should say "sweet italian turkey sausage." I think I've made this 4-5 times in the last 3 months. I'm eating so much of it that I ran it through one of my favorite nutrition-y sites to see it's nutritional breakdown: Protein - 19g, Dietary fiber - 13g/52%, calories - 317 (from fat, 62), iron - 29%, vitamin A - 148%, vitamin C - 51%. And more importantly, it's delicious!!