Nutella is not chocolate - I got burned WAY too many time in Paris by crepe stands offering "chocolate" crepes which turned out to be filled with that hazelnut tainted abomination. Nutella inside a crescent roll may be a very nice treat for people who don't think Nutella tastes like dirt, but it is NOT A CHOCOLATE CROISSANT.

I've never understood the fascination with Nutella.

Of course, "chocolate croissants" aren't chocolate croissants either but I've given up on that fight entirely.

Rev. Phelps & Co. are planning to picket Elizabeth Edwards' funeral. Why can't we kill them?

If Clark Howard wasn't on the radio collecting Christmas presents for foster children, I would have no hope for humanity at all. (It's his 20th year of getting people to buy the presents each child asks for, and he's worked his way up to presents for about half the foster children in Georgia.)

Gingerbread men are Christmas? Not being snarky here, I just never associated gingerbread men with Christmas. Holiday, sure, just non-religious.

Oh, I should have given gingerbread details. They were gingerbread men dancing around xmas trees.

I'm a big fan of general gingerbread men. They are deeeelish.

They were gingerbread men dancing around xmas trees.

It's a shame the founding fathers didn't come up with an amendment against tacky.

I was going to ask how they turned out, but it looks like they have been vouched for! I see them all the time and wonder if they are really awesome, and now I want to give them a try for reals.

They are quite awesome.

I don't know anything about New York geography, but I like this place: Harlem Renaissance House it's on West 139th St between 7th and 8th. I don't know if they have multiple bed rooms, but the people are nice, the rooms are beautiful, and the subway is only a few blocks away.

I'm a big fan of general gingerbread men. They are deeeelish.

yep, I'm going to make some for the kids to decorate at Christmas.

I should also say I'm a big fan of xmas, as well. I love the whole lights and garland and trees and PRESENTS thing.

But then there's the chanukah thing which comes with OMG latkes with sour cream and chocolate coins.

Which is why chrismakah is the perfect holiday.

My mom was trying to find some winter decorations for the house that were not Christmasy. She wasn't having much luck. (Inside decorations, not outside decorations. She wanted stuff like little figures of snowmen or ice skaters or stuff like that to put around, but nearly everything she found was red and green or had Christmas stuff with it. I found a few things, but all of them she either didn't like or thought were too expensive.)

It's weird. You'd think there'd be stuff that's just wintery, even, but it doesn't seem like there's much out there. Of course, I am Christian and have not decorated AT ALL and now I suddenly look all Grinchy because my neighbor (well, the new wife, I assume) has gone all out decorating. And I was just thinking to myself that it didn't matter that I didn't decorate since they were the only ones who would see it. But apparently, they have decorated for me.

In onerous task extension day, I tried to make my problematic phone call again and got a busy signal. This is a major state public office. I called the first time and got no answer, and this time a busy signal? Do they still have busy signals? Seriously, you don't have a voicemail system?