Oh, hello there. Where have I been for the last two weeks, you ask? Only in my most favorite place in the world, the much-maligned, traffic-ridden, smog-choked, season-less, crazy, wonderful Los Angeles. I watched about a million movies (actual figure: 14 movies), knit a cabled hat (see below), became addicted to Animal Crossing on my new Nintendo DS Lite (Rob!!!), slept in until 10AM every day and spent some time with friends and family (hi Joanna, Jenn, Kelly, Meg, Sarah, Jon and Therese!). I also ate a lot. But that's nothing new.

One of my favorite Christmas gifts came from my mom -- I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, Amy Sedaris's hilarious and surprisingly practical guide to entertaining. I would give you quotes from the book about how to comfort grieving gay men and flatter rich uncles, but the gigantic hardcover didn't make the trip with me to Japan. Just trust me that it's good.

I knit a cabled beanie in cream-colored Tweed Bazaar, a cute Japanese yarn, over the course of the trip. I used this pattern, but made it bigger to fit my possibly-gigantic head and tweaked it a bit. I'm not normally a beanie person, but it's really comfortable and I love the yarn, which has little flecks of blue and orange. And it's also my first cabled thing ever!

Now I'm back in Japan, marveling at the impossibly clean, quiet trains and watching my breath puff out in the middle of my impossibly frigid kitchen. Winter as usual. Thank god for my kotatsu and the 24: Season 5 DVDs I just bought.