This year I made the usual grapefruit juice and cranberry sauce with ginger but I also added clove and cinnamon. It was a really yummy combo.

Take 2 bags of cranberries, 1 cup of fresh squeezed grapefruit and orange juice, 0.5 cups water. Boil cranberries. Add grated ginger, clove and cinnamon bark roll to taste. Mash with spoon and keep stiring till jelly like. Add turbinado sugar to taste. You could substitute regular sugar or brown sugar.

We went to my parents for dinner. It was delicious. Afterwards (e:mike) and I went to the mall at 1am and got lots of great deals.

I did not get the coffee maker of my dreams.

Im all about preserving the historic nature of our house. Its one of the few that are the exact original design inside and out in our neighborhood.

At the same time we think responsible energy and renewable enegry are important so when the opportunity arrose to get solar pabels, we jumped on it.

After like a year of working on it and trying to get approval by the preservation board, we finally got the solar panels installed two weeks ago. They are on the side of the house facing the driveway.

The pattern looks asymmetrical because Tim Tielman of the preservation board would not approve the ones under that other dormer. Unfortunately, those ones got the most sun due to their postion and lack of shadowing. Therefore his decision, which really only makes it uglier, lowers our overall energy production significantly.

Now that it's asymmetrical it also draws way more attention to it than it would if it matched. Someone actually asked me if the ones under the front dormer blew off during the wind storm! Seeing as it's not a permanent fixture and seeing as the roof is covered in non historically accurate asphalt shingles, I don't understand why he had to be a dick about it.

The solar company we used almost quit on us after three rounds trying to get it approved.

Meanwhile, just down the street in the same historic district we have Sinatra paving the front yard of a house in asphalt and giant asphalt parking lot with cheap ass home depot special wood fence across from fugazi where the art voice building used to be.

I wish I had the deep pockets to just buy off the preservation board like the big players do.

We have been working a lot on the new den. It's where we will do our computing. After we build the new bathroom and took the closets out there was a lot of space with no trim. I learned how to cut with a manual coping saw and join the moulding. It looks pretty good for a first time try.

Believe it or not I did not pick this color. I would have definately gone lime green or darker orange.

On Friday (e:Joe) and I decided to play "big city" and took the subway to dinner at Sato in Main St near In South Campus. The food was so delicious. The ramens were the same as the ones on Elmwood but they also had rice bowls that were new and they don't server sushi unlike the other location. I think the fries were also unique to main Street but I'm not sure.

I love their ramen so much. It is the best I have ever had. The sliced pork and the broth are amazing. I would eat it everyday if they opened one in Allentown instead of UB South. I still hope they keep expanding.

It's time for Japanese food to come Allentown. It's seems with all the people from the medical campus, a population which keeps rapidly expanding - that a Japanese restaurant could be successful. In fact their really isn't any Asian food other than Kaydara.

The food at Deep South Taco was pretty funny but unfortunately for (e:joe) their veggie choices were limited. Even their beans were cooked in hamhocks which was tasty but not veggie. You would think considering beans are the protein of choice for most vegetarians that they would have one non-meat bean option.

I really liked the nachos but they also had meat beans, so (e:Joe) got the fundido which was like molten cheese in a cute cast iron pan.

I had a crispy fish taco and an Al Pastor taco which both were really tasty. I would go back but I hope they expand their veggie options.