This Week: The List

Biggest Holly Homemaker fail: Dec 25: make giant stock pot of rich, fragrant turkey broth after Christmas dinner; store pot in garage with below-freezing temps, due to lack of space in refrigerator. Jan 25: drain pot of stock, and throw away carcass, having neither made nor consumed one single teaspoon of turkey soup in the past month

Latest awesome product to be irritatingly discontinued: Bath and Body Works Sport Lip Balm with SPF 15 and extra-magic skin-healing potion

Most fantastic skin-hydrating lotion that's annoyingly hard to find locally: Udder Cream (natural ingredients, light scent, inexpensive, made for cows but great on human skin for everything from kids' excema to grown-up dry-hand-itis) -- seriously, it is the perfect all-purpose hand and body cream. Perfection in a cow-colored pot. What could be better?

Stupidest injury ever: one inch slice on the pad of my tallest finger, incurred while trying to scrape dried-up crumbs of cake off a serving plate. Apparently, dried cake glued to a plate with icing can be used as a knife. Who knew?

Best reminder of childhood: fried green plantains and black bean soup around the dinner table, with my own children lapping up the delicious food

Most horrifying reminder of upcoming birthday (5th annual 35th, but who's counting?): AARP membership mailing

Best way to combat blues caused by AARP membership mailing: run 3 1/2 miles fast, including some very fast sprints, after not having run at all in the last four months

Best way to combat total-body stiffness and muscle ache caused by running 3 1/2 miles fast, including some very fast sprints, after not having run at all in the last four months: a nice gentle Pilates class and soak in a hot tub

Most sobering reminder of that upcoming Unmentionable Birthday: the fact that running 3 1/2 miles requires an hour of stretching and a hot tub soak to recover from

Best way to beat the mid-winter blahs: get your son chef attire for his birthday, and start perusing epicurious.com together