Pamslife Gives Walking With Dinosaurs Five Stars.

We went to Walking With Dinosaurs at HP Pavilion in December. It was excellent.

Persimmon Fools.

We love persimmons. Here is a terrific recipe.

PERSIMMON FOOLS

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (from one 1/4-oz envelope) COOK'S NOTE: We had none, and are watching the sugar so I used 3/4 pkg. Sugar-Free Lemon Jell-O. The extra citrus zing was nice.
1 tablespoon water
2 cups Hachiya persimmon purée
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup chilled heavy cream (I used 1/2 'n 1/2)
2 ripe fuyu persimmons, peeled and diced small

The hard way:
Sprinkle gelatin over water in a small heatproof cup and let stand 1 minute to soften. Stir together persimmon purée, sugar, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt in a bowl until sugar is dissolved.

Melt softened gelatin in cup set in a saucepan of simmering water, then stir into persimmon purée. Beat cream in another bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks, then gently fold into purée. Divide fool among 4 stemmed glasses and chill, covered, at least 8 hours (it will set softly). Garnish with diced fuyus.

-OR-

The EASY way:
JAM EVERYTHING INTO YOUR BLENDER AND BLAST IT ON PUREE FOR TWO MINUTES. ADD A CHUNK OF FRESH GINGER AND BLAST AGAIN. FREEZE TWO HOURS, GARNISH WITH DICED FUYUS, AND ENJOY WITH SOME LATE HARVEST ZIN.

Fools can be chilled up to 24 hours. Personally, I am chilling all the time. Seasons greetings, y'all.

A Gentle Shift in the Forces of Nature.

I can't begin to describe what a wonderful week and weekend I have had. Whatever it is, a turnaround is taking place. Whereas last weekend, for myriad circumstances, I was completely down in the dumps. Blue. Whatever you want to call it. Not happy. Well, now, all I can say is "Wow." In reverse order, recent events are:

Sunday

• A wonderful walk through Golden Gate Park with my wonderful and loving husband.
• A lovely breakfast conversation at an eccentric little b&b in the heart of San Francisco.
• A terrific night's sleep in a thoughtfully decorated, peaceful, quiet Victorian room.

Saturday

• A wildass cab ride through the streets of legends back from the company party.
• An elegant company holiday party at the Ritz-Carlton, with colossal shrimp, oysters, breathtaking desserts and canapes, and the creamiest, most delicious hot chocolate I can ever remember.
• Driving west across the Bay Bridge at the most perfect time of day (4 p.m.), where you can see absolutely everything around you for miles and miles.
• Henry's Christmas gift: a beautiful china cabinet.

Friday

• Chatting over some gobsmackingly piquant white wine from Australia, imported cheeses and an incredible dessert wine with Henry after work.
• A nice, cheerful, friendly, productive day at work.
  

Anything further back is mundane, but this is the groundwork for my main point: Finally, there has been a shift in karma! Or biorhythms! Or chi, or star charts or good luck or bad, I just feel as though this weekend a great weight has somehow been removed from me. I have conquered something, something private, that has been haunting me a long time. And I just feel better about myself. I think it was the cafe where the breakfast was this morning. Its walls are lined with printed posters of handwritten affirmations by the artist who owns the Red Victorian. Sami (pronounced "Sommy") Sunchild. She is 82, very sweet, whose posters of affirmations are just adorable. Quotes from Nelson Mandela, quotes of her own, are all over and you just stand there, sip your coffee or tea just reading them all. What a fun thing to do with Henry right there by my side, reading them together. Very healing. And then we went to Golden Gate Park after we checked out, and what a beautiful day it was. We strolled hand in hand through the Fuscia Dell, over by the Conservatory of Flowers. We didn't go inside this time; we decided to save that for another time. The Conservatory is a titanic greenhouse, very curious-looking. Now, we are home, Henry went to get a haircut, the dogs are happy we are home and I am admiring the china cabinet. I am so happy. God Bless Henry. I am delighted to be able to count so many wonderful blessings this Christmas.

Progress.

Good news. Was able to connect with son John (26) for first time in a long time, we've both been working hard. Lucky kid is a gigging drummer so that must be fun. I just pray he's okay out there. Be careful, Son. I love Lucinda Williams's song "Are You All Right" so much, and think of him every time I hear or sing it. I already have his Christmas present ready to wrap. For the first time in what seems decades, I'm ahead of the curve on Christmas. I hope he likes his drumstick coffin. It's a very sturdy case lined with red and black flame velour, to carry his drum sticks. I need to go back to that website and get him some more stuff. Drums is fun.

Crazy Lights.

How nice - put up a few very nice sets of Christmas lights. They look beautiful! (Stay tuned for photos.) Henry and his doggoned rickety ladder. He's too cheap to go buy one so he made one if you can believe it -- out of wood and nails and it is so weathered and rickety and shaky you would not possibly believe it if you saw it. And he climbs it! Scared me to pieces barking orders at me to quit complaining shut up and and hand him the hammer so that's what I did. Then I went and baked him two pumpkin pies because he'd been begging me to for weeks. Didn't add a drop of sugar but he complained I should have known better. No wicked games here. Just a rickety ladder and some pretty Christmas lights.