I taught my girlfriend how to make old fashioned lye soap over the weekend, and the single bar we made came out lovely. It should come as no surprise to those who know me that I know how to make soap. My family made soap on several occasions when I was small, and I think that explains in large part why I hardly ever cuss to this day. Once your mouth’s been washed out a few times with homemade lye soap, it stays clean for a long, long time.

Christmas was nice. I spent it with my girlfriend’s family. They’d met me before on several occasions, but this was the first time I spent the night in their house, as well as it being the first family holiday I’ve spent with them. And it was nice. Somehow, Santa found me, leaving me several things for my kitchen under the tree.

If you’re really into Victorian things, AbsolutelyVictorian can show you the way. Recipes, clothes, etiquette, what-have-you. They’ve got it.

I’ll be making a Victorian Christmas dinner on Wednesday featuring roast goose.

If you really, really don’t like SUVs, perhaps you might want to give them a bumpersticker. Or, if you’d rather not risk damaging one of those humongous bumpers, you can just write them a ticket.

Kathy Miller seems to have created the most complete homemade soap resource collection on the internet. It is a vast, vast collection indeed.

While researching beekeeping, I found this collection of pages on Top-Bar Hives, a more natural alternative to the familiar white box method of beekeeping. This set of pages is kept by a retired biologist in North Georgia, so hopefully I can visit him and his bees. He’s got other pages as well, such as the one on chicken tractors (and other duck and chicken experiences) and his mother’s hand crocheted lace.

I’ve mentioned Free Will Astrology here before. Whether you’re a believer or not, these horoscopes are just fun to read. This week’s horoscopes suggest gifts appropriate for each sign. Mine is eerily accurate: Rodin’s “The Thinker” seated on a tractor.

The goverment has posted the full text of the new organic food rules it announced yesterday.

Fans of The Critic , that wonderful cartoon that was briefly on ABC and FOX, now in late night reruns on Comedy Central, will rejoice to learn that Jay Sherman is back in all new episodes on-line at shockwave.com.