Checking It Twice

Ha!  Here’s an amusing, comment-provoking artifact.  I was searching on my computer at the office to see if I had a handy mailing list for holiday Christmas cards for clients and vendors.  I came across my Christmas list for the year 2000.

My family demands one of these most years, else they have no clue what to get me.  However, nobody mentioned it this year because I am no longer single and childless.  The emphasis is always on the kids in the families that have them.  I do now, so Sadie will get the presents.

Some years even I had no idea what to list, but apparently in 2000 I went all out to come up with a variety of items.  That people could afford.  Sometimes as a joke I would put something expensive nobody could possibly buy for me.  But hey, they asked what I wanted…

So let your mind go back four years, long before Deb, less than two years after I left my full time job to be self-employed, a year after I became the only one of several partners working full time for the business, a year after I got my previous apartment, in Quincy, after sharing a house with my stepsister for several years, two years after my peak “watching movies in theaters as they were released” year, and less than a year after I got my first ever VCR.  Here, verbatim, is the list, in approximately the same format as in Word, with everything I have since gotten or that Deb has, as best I can remember, in italics:

Jay’s Famous Annual Christmas List
For the year 2000

For the Apartment

· Grater, one of those big metal ones that does something different on each of the 4 sides is what I am picturing
· Can never have too many paring knives
· Or anyway, something specifically designed for slicing cheese might be cool
· A couple more spatulas wouldn’t hurt, for non-stick pans specifically
· Tightly sealable containers made for storing cereal
· And other such storage containers for things like pancake mix, flour, etc.
· Only kind of pans I could possibly use would be a couple small to medium sized saucepans
· A container appropriate for maple syrup
· Wouldn’t mind some kind of blender/food processor thingie, the easier designed for cleanup the better
· I wouldn’t mind a couple wooden spoons
· Decent wooden cutting board (scientifically proven more sanitary than plastic)
· Spoon holder thingie for top of stove
· I am most in need of large plates and cereal bowls when it comes to dishes, but not direly so
· Set of measuring cups
· Some new mid-sized towels, by which I mean ones that many would call “bath size” but to me are just comfortably oversized hand sized.  About the size some of you have seen me put under dishes on the counter.
· I wouldn’t object to a dish strainer thingie in a color that goes with the kitchen (unfortunately that means shades of beige, white, yellow, peach, orange rather than colors I personally prefer like blue, purple or maybe green… though green would kind of fit and blue wouldn’t clash)

More General

· Any Beatles CD, though especially interested in White Album
· Videos of
Star Wars 4: A New Hope
Star Wars 5: The Empire Strikes Back
ET
The two Toy Story films
Beauty and the Beast!
The Wizard of Oz
Dogma
Princess Mononoke
The Die Hard films
The Truman Show
Fantasia
Fantasia 2000
High Fidelity
The Sure Thing
Life of Brian
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Lion King
Aladdin
Sleeping Beauty
Lady and the Tramp
Jungle Book
Bambi
The Little Mermaid
Cinderella
Pocahontas
Clueless
The Breakfast Club
Top Gun
When Harry Met Sally
The Love Letter (big screen version with Tom Selleck, Ellen Degeneres, etc., not the Hallmark one with Jennifer Jason Leigh)
The Green Mile
Titan A.E.
The Batman films
The Superman films
Simply Irresistible
Every James Bond film
Armageddon
Deep Impact

· Gift certificates for any major book store or cinema chain in the general area, Filenes, South Shore Plaza in general, any place videos are sold at a reasonable price, Best Buy, Comp USA, Bed and Bath or similar stores, etc.
· Snow broom (Dad knows what I mean)
· Shirts of the long sleeved button down Oxford variety, size 18, 34/35 sleeves, basically any color but white and any pattern that doesn’t accentuate my need to lose 50 pounds.  I tend to prefer ones that have a certain… weight and texture to them, which I know doesn’t convey what I mean, but most shirts labeled Oxford seem to have it to some degree.  I have had good luck with Stafford brand Oxfords, and just bought the same thing in Van Heusen which seem to be thinner material and are a higher percentage cotton, but have traditionally been a brand I’ve had luck with.  I’ve had mixed results with L.L. Bean shirts.
· Pants of the “Dockers” genre, which can be Dockers, The Original Khaki Company, Hagar and others.  Not the waistbands that have stretchy sections in them.  Waist 40, Leg 30.
· Socks, as long as they aren’t short ones, and have a reasonable degree of thickness to the material.  I prefer colors other than white, but do like multiple socks of the same color/pattern making them fairly generic to match up.

There you have it, a blast from the past.  Some things not in italics need comment.

I did get more knives, but not the good paring knives I wanted, and I have lost my favorite one since then.

My grandmother has a hand me down blender waiting for us at her house, which we didn’t take last time because the car was too full or something.  But that’s not what I really wanted for a “food processor.”

Now we’d like some pans that aren’t non-stick, of various sizes.  And need a medium saucepan or two, non-stick or otherwise, since I boiled my good non-stick one dry and ruined the coating with excess heat.  I’m very fussy about treating them just so, and overheating with nothing in them is one of the best ways to harm them.  Now things stick instead of not.  I like non-stick cookware but would like some of the other kind too.  Deb prefers the other kind.

I forgot how much I like the word thingie.  I haven’t used it nearly enough lately.

Deb has a number of Beatles CDs, including the White Album and the red and blue compilations.  I subsequently bought One after it came out.

I may have some of the movies wrong, since Deb has an extensive collection of mostly non-overlapping movies, and I can’t even remember everything I bought.  The most amusing thing is between us we have three copies of The Cutting Edge.

I think it’s funny I had to start making my family a list as an adult.  I never did that when I was a kid.  Not as far as I can remember anyway.

Update, as I review the post:

I have the first and best Die Hard film, but didn’t mark that because I stated it there as plural.  It’s about the time of year to watch it again, being one of the best Christmas movies.

I think Deb may have at least the first Toy Story, but again, plural and wasn’t certain.

I eventually got the first two Batman films.  I think it’s two, not three.

This reminds me I need to watch While You Were Sleeping, another great Christmas movie, with Deb, who has never seen it.

1. Hmmm....I don’t think Word had font like that back in 2000.
   And kerning back then?  Forget about it.
   Don’t try to hit us with any “fake but accurate” rationale on us, either.  I’m thinking that list was faxed to you from a Kinko’s outside of Abiline, TX.
   Advantage: Brain Fertilizer!  The Pajamahadeen strikes again!!!

   Posted by Nathan  on  12/15  at  11:24 PM

2. C’mon! It was a little funny, wasn’t it?

   Posted by Nathan  on  12/17  at  01:40 AM

3. Certainly!

   Posted by Jay  on  12/17  at  01:45 AM

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