Shop until you drop

I went on a shopping 'spree' today. I went to Target, Toys 'R' Us, Walgreens, Bartell Drugs, QFC and Whole Foods. I bought presents for Claire's baby shower, a paper shredder for myself, groceries and "personal care products" (you know, soap n' stuff). Most of it was fine but Whole Foods was mobbed. Every checkstand was open and yet the line at every checkstand was at least 10 people long.

Breakfast at home with friends

This morning we had Piper and her fiance Eric over for breakfast. Benjamin cooked eggs & bacon and we reheated some of my dad's homemade cinnamon rolls. It was yummy and nice to spend some time with Pipey and her future hubby.

This morning in the shower I reached over my shoulder to soap and I discovered that I had been inspected and approved by inspector 34. I think this must have come off of my new shirt...

It's not so much the rain that grates on Washingtonians in the Winter, it's the bleakness. This photo was taken today at 11:30 AM and it was still this foggy.

I had fun taking photos on my way home tonight.

My office, on the other hand, looks like Christmas Elves From Hell attacked, as it does this time every year. ;)

Yesterday I washed most of the dishes from Christmas breakfast and cleaned the kitchen so it looks pretty nice in there.

Today I came into the office for the first time in a couple of weeks and discovered that my underwater frog (like these frogs) had died. It is sad, but I guess it was his time. Could have been any number of causes; they don't talk much...

Benjamin played around with my camera tonight, too. He got some interesting results.

After my final intensive Christmas project-and-wrapping session we finally made it to my mom's house for Christmas dinner. My mom, step-dad, brother, grandma, and brother's girlfriend were there (along with Benjamin and I). Oh yea, and Carol the pug, too. Benjamin and I had such a nice time we stayed until 2 AM.

In between each of our three Christmas gathering I had a multi-hour "cram session" that generally involved completion of multiple Christmas projects and wrapping of all the gifts to be given at that gathering. This is a photo taken while framing a photo series for my step-dad. I did float framing and the contents got so thick I couldn't get the frame to close without using clips to crunch the glass and foam core together. I was so afraid the glass was going to break!

This morning Benjamin cooked breakfast at our house with my Dad, Mimi, TJ and Gabe. Yes, he's doing all the cooking, but I do all the wrapping!

Last night we had dinner and Christmas with Benjamin's family at his parents' new house in West Seattle. Benjamin cooked the traditional Sherry family curry for dinner.

Yesterday one of Benjamin's Christmas presents - a special cheesecake flown in from New York's Carnegie Deli - arrived via FedEx on Xmas Eve.

Here's the extent of my Christmas decorations, put up last night.

My mom sent me this adorable photo of Carol today. :)

We're back from Puerto Vallarta. Casa Las Amapas, the villa where we stayed, was amazing! It was super luxurious with our own staff and everything. The town of Puerto Vallarta was less to my liking so I didn't spend a ton of time there. In addition to lots of eating, sleeping, reading & gaming we also got massages and went on a "canopy tour" (zip lines in the woods). See more photos.

My friend Harvey (Harvey Bergman Photography) sent this to me as a "Christmakkah" card. I really like it!

Friday night we went to a birthday party at the Catwalk Club for my friend Jen, her sister Emily, someone named Armon, and Ali (owner of the Catwalk and a very nice guy). I think everyone was having a great time and the birthday folks seemed happy. I was distraught that there were so few people dancing and that only hip hop got any response from the crowd, but I danced alone to several electronica songs. We left the party around midnight and went to Hot Mama's Pizza on Capitol Hill with Benjamin's coworker Christian and my friend Meghan and her boyfriend Christian (yes, that's two Christians, but not of the religious type).

Today instead of leaving the house I did a bunch of Christmas shopping online. I placed orders Williams Sonoma, Barnes & Noble and the American Clematis Society. You can steal the packages off my porch while I'm on vacation!

Saturday night we went to Claire & Erik's house for dinner. Erik made super yummy homemade chicken ravioli with chicken breasts and chicken sausage. He said it was turf & turf instead of surf & turf since Benjamin and I aren't big on seafood. ;-) It was really, really good. We drank a tasty Gewürztraminer with dinner. We chatted about Erik's expanded teaching position, the baby coming, and disturbing sexual content on the web. Yea for friends!

Saturday I went to the library to replenish my stock of audio books. I also had to find books Benjamin and I will both enjoy so we can listen to them together on the trip (we use an audio splitter; it's kinda fun). Admittedly this is a taller stack of books that I get in an average week, but you can see that I make good use of my local library. :-)

Okay, this is probably really mean to post. But I hope that if I show up to work wearing a pink velvet jogging suit one of you will have the decency to pull me aside and set me straight.

Yesterday I mailed the invitations for Claire's baby shower. Aren't they cute? :-) So many little girlies coming into the world.

It's that time again. :)

audio issues

I decided I wanted noise canceling headphones to help me focus at work (yea, like that's gonna help) and to replace my rubberbanded cheapie headphones. After talking to Simon and reading a little I determined that sealed headphones were probably more appropriate for my usage. Simon loaned me a pair of large Sennheiser headphones to try out (HD 280 Pro), but they were as big as my head with a very long cord. They weren't bad at my desk but definitely didn't work well in mobile scenarios. I was looking around at Magnolia Hi-Fi and the saw some fairly small and inexpensive Sennheiser headphones (PX 200) so I bought them on a whim. Unbeknownst to me (until I got home and announced my purchase) my sweet and loving husband had ordered me a nice pair of Sennheiser headphones that Simon recommended and were on sale (HDC451). Benjamin said "First Christmas present foiled." I forgot you're not supposed to buy things you put on your Christmas list. ;-) I've been using the small PX 200's for several days now and have decided they are not going to work. They put too much pressure on my ears, and I am really sensitive to that (my glasses give me a headache from pushing behind my ears). After 4 hours with them on (yes, I do this) my ears are all red and I have a headache. Also, I think they are a little too sealed for being around people, but I could deal with that since it also really good in some situations. Anyway, these ones are going back to the store. So now we await the arrival of the HDC451's and hope that they work for either Benjamin or me.

I finally got around to sorting through the wedding photos to select my 25 favorites taken by Harvey. As a wedding gift he agreed to retouch 25 of the photos he took at the wedding; he does excellent digital editing in Photoshop. I'm gonna have to get lessons from him someday. It's funny since I taught him how to use his computer, but he has a few decades on me in terms of photography skills. ;-)

Tonight I had dinner with an old friend of mine, Leanne, at the Jitterbug in Wallingford. She told me that she is engaged to her now-fiance Charles. I'm very happy for her! I've only met Charles once but Benjamin and I are looking forward to getting to know him. Leanne has a beautiful antique Art Nuevo engagement ring; it suits her perfectly. Yea for love!

I've rediscovered cous cous this weekend. I've always eaten it as a side dish with salt & pepper on it, maybe chicken broth or garlic. This weekend I've enjoyed cous cous with butter, salt, pepper, some ramen flavoring, sunflower seeds and avocado. The ramen flavoring could be replaced by chicken broth or bouillon and a few other spices. According to the label cous cous can also be made into breakfast cereal. I think I'll give it a try later this week since, unlike oatmeal, is really high in protein.

Puppy at the Spa

Today I went to High Maintenece on Capitol Hill for a bonding experience with the Mexico girls (those we're going to Mexico with in 10 days). Nancy brought her new puppy with her and it slept the whole time. Very cute!

This is where we'll be staying in Mexico only 12 days from now!!!

STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES I think this is a great photo! It's from an article in today's Seattle Times.

legalese?

Frankly, I am experiencing legal unease. I am currently reviewing a patent application for work and the legal language is putting me to sleep. I have to reread the paragraphs repeatedly for the convoluted language to convey some meaning to my tired and disengaged brain. Apparently the legal profession is not for me.