Bits and Pieces

• I have been running again.  I managed to get out there four times in the last week including running Sunday night at 9:00 because I promised myself I would run last weekend.  Kind of proud of dragging myself out there for that.  My pace is slow and the runs are challenging right now but I am so happy to be out there running again and being consistent. My legs feel a little noodley at the moment but I know that will go away soon. 
• I also went back to yoga class on Monday for the first time in almost a year.  Man am I out of shape.  Simple poses I had no problem with a year ago were really difficult.  My muscles were shaking in some poses and I couldn't hold a lot of them for the entire time.  My muscles are a delightful combination of tight and weak right now.  All the more reason to keep going to yoga class I guess.
• We finished the floor and more or less put the house back together to host the pumpkin carving party, then we lost all momentum and have done very little of the other things that need to get accomplished.  We are hoping to have the remainder of the baseboards painted, nailed, puttied and touched-up by the end of this weekend.  Then we can hopefully work on getting Kevin's office unpacked so we can get the crap from his office out of my office so I can get my office back.  Someday......
• "Walking Dead" anyone?  We started watching it this week and I'm not sure how I feel about it.  Everybody seems to think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread (sliced brains?) but I don't know.  It is poorly written and formulaic but I still can't stop watching.  Kevin, being a zombie freak for probably 20 years, feels the same way but is much more enthusiastic about it.  He is the Barbara Mandrell of zombies: he was zombie when zombie wasn't cool. 
• There is a lot of baking in my future and I am sooooooo excited.  I haven't done any baking in awhile and I am getting the urge again.  Luckily, this coincides with the opportunity to bake three cakes in the next week and a half.  Woo-hoooo! 

Does Not Ride Well With Others

With my car in the shop overnight I was looking at a bleak future. A future that included (shudder) ......public transportation. I just wanted to take a moment to thank my sweetie for driving me the 30 miles to work to save me from having to sit next to the mentally unstable, the unwashed and from possibly sitting in pee.

The Week Before Christmas

Here are some random bits and pieces from the last week.

Here are Mike and Amber decorating gingerbread houses over at our place last Tuesday.

The top picture below is the house that Kevin and I made. Yes, there is a cactus. Yes, there is also a snowman homicide and yes, the snowman is, in fact, quite happy to see you.
The Sunday before Christmas Kevin and I went downtown to see the professional gingerbread house displays. The theme this year was Christmas movies. Snoopy's doghouse was fabulous. I wish I had gotten a better picture of the inside of it. He even had a dog bowl full of kibble (cocoa puffs).

The best display was the one for "A Christmas Story". The leg lamp was made out of clear gummy bears, licorice and black jelly beans with red licorice sitting in for the red fringe on the lamp. There were little scenes from the movie in gum paste all around the bottom of the display and the whole thing was set on a gingerbread box that looked just like the one the leg lamp was delivered in. I am always amazed at people's creativity. How they come up with the concepts and the materials to use is a true talent.

After gingerbread houses we went out for my belated graduation dinner. Really the dinner was an excuse to open a great bottle of wine we had been saving. We went to my favorite restaurant, Eva, and had a tremendous meal. The wine was well worth the wait.

Just because I wanted to post these pictures: Our Christmas pig!

The Bon Star (It can never be the Macy's star) and the downtown tree. It isn't Christmas without the Bon Star. Every time I see it I think of how my sister once said she wanted to die. She wanted to be standing underneath that sucker and have it fall and pierce her skull. She has subsequently changed her mind.

And a picture that has nothing to do with Christmas but it is proof positive that I have now attended a football game. I somehow managed to get to my ripe old age without ever seeing any kind of football game; not high school, not college, not pro, not Canadian...nothing. It was actually kind of fun. I still don't give a rip about the actual game but I am glad we went.

By the way...only seven weeks until pitchers and catchers report for spring training and the real sports season can begin again.

Happy Things

Nothing cohesive enough to put into a regular posting so bring on the bullet points!

• We got to see some wonderful dancing last weekend. Friday night was Seattle Dance Project teamed with Simple Measures for a laid back cultural night of dance and chamber music. No, really, it was fun. Saturday night was the Director's Choice rep at PNB which had three fabulous pieces and one "meh" piece. I like how the artistic director keeps pushing the boundaries with the works he chooses. I am always glad to have gone to a performance even if not everything they do moves me. Before hand was tasty Indian food...mmm... mango chicken.
• I finally broke down and bought new knee-high, high-heeled black boots since my old ones were actually falling apart. O' joyous day! Every woman should own a pair. They are fabulous and make you feel sassy and ass-kicky.
• I have developed a wee crush on Ira Glass.
• There are certain musicians or songs that only sound good to me in fall and I have dug out those CDs (Yes, I'm old school like that) and am enjoying listening to them during my commute as the wind whips cold rain at the windows and the leaves fall from the trees. People like Neko Case, Jesus and Mary Chain's "Darklands" and The Bongo's "Numbers with Wings" EP for starters. Glorious, stormy fall music.
• Christmas is coming.
• We are heading out of town this weekend for Kevin's birthday. McMenamin's Grand Lodge here we come. I am taking two days off of work so I can get the studying done that I need to.
• Ken Griffey, Jr. is coming back for one more year.

Happy early weekend to all.

Bits, Pieces and Observations

• Sheep, both the word and the animal, are inherently humorous.
• The "Mahna Mahna" song might be the biggest ear-worm song ever. We saw the Jim Henson exhibit at EMP last Thursday and for days after I couldn't stop Mahna Mahna-ing.
• I am out of hiking shape. Kevin and I went to Cougar Mountain and did about seven miles with a few hilly spots and I sucked on the hills. Just like running my hiking mantra will be "more hills".
• When hiking, the sports bra is almost as important as in running if you want to avoid unpleasant underboob chafing. You know, as opposed to the pleasant kind of underboob chafing. Ouch.
• I miss hiking and vow to go more often.
• I am far too interested in the digestive system.
• The Eastside has a greater proportion of douchebag drivers than anywhere else in this region. I can't count how many times already I have had the alpha-male wannabes almost drive up my ass on the roads around here. Look guys, stop compensating for being hung like a brine shrimp and being as flaccid as month-old celery. You are not impressing anyone with your BMW and your overly aggressive driving. Oooh...you went really fast and passed one whole car. You will now arrive at your destination mere seconds before anyone else. I can't imagine how it feels to be so important. Asshats.
• There are few things better than summer fruits.
• Nectarines, already a fabulous fruit, are even better when basted with honey, roasted on the grill and filled with whipped cream. Mmmmm...happy.
• Why is running six miles one day so easy and then you can barely eke out three the next?
• Saturday was my 20 year high-school reunion. I didn't go, but for some reason I almost felt like I should. Like somehow there was this shared cultural moment that I would miss out on and my life would forever have this tiny void in it. Sunday came and just as I suspected...no void. High school wasn't a horrible experience; in fact it really wasn't bad. It just seemed silly to make idle chit-chat with people I haven't seen in 20 years and wouldn't see for at least another 10. The idea of it all seemed phony and forced. Besides, we had such a huge graduation class that when I looked at the list of classmates I, honest to God, didn't recognize over half the names and some of the ones I did were merely names I know I had heard but couldn't put a face or any memory too. We went to a friend's chili cook-off and casino night instead and had a good time.
• I am desperately trying to stay out of the cellar in my fantasy baseball league. To think I won this thing two years ago.
• Kermit the Frog makes everyone happy.

Swans and Snow

Friday night I took Mom to see PNB's "Swan Lake". Kevin joined us as well. It was another stellar production by the company but the ballerina we saw dance the Odette/Odille role two years ago was much better. This woman was good but the other dancer was amazing.

It was Mom's first really big outing since the knee replacement surgery and she did very well. She is eagerly looking forward to her next ballet experience. Next time though we are going on a weekend. To get us both there I had to leave work, rush home to change, rush all the way to Federal Way to get her, drive back to Seattle and then drive her back home afterwards. We almost missed the curtain. It is too much to squeeze into a Friday night.Saturday was filled with long overdue errands, chores, homework and a few hours of actual work. Nothing exciting but I got lots of necessary things done and a little bit of sleep.

Sunday morning Kevin and I went up to the pass to go snow tubing. The weather was glorious! Warm and sunny and fabulous. The problem is prolonged periods of warm and sunny and fabulous makes for some lousy tubing conditions. The tubes would stop about half-way down the lane and then you had to trudge down the rest of the way.

We had a good time even with the cruddy conditions. I also discovered that I lack basic snow tubing skills. What's that you say? You didn't know there were such things as basic snow tubing skills? Well, there aren't but I still managed to be completely incapable this time of going down the hill head first without tumbling off the tube. Kevin was able to snap this pic of a particularly spectacular FAIL I had on my last run of the day.

Yup. Still sliding down the hill. Been sliding for awhile at this point. I am made of awesome.

Weekend Update

Most of the weekend was spent with my head in the textbooks (am I done yet?) but I did manage to squeeze in a little fun too.

Saturday night Kevin and I went to see our darling ancestor, Lucy, at the Science Center. What a thrill to get to see her. It is crazy to me that we actually got to see this monumentally important piece of evolutionary history in person. 3.18 million years old and a 40 percent intact skeleton. Truly awe inspiring to think of her walking around on the earth and all that has come after her. Afterwards, it was yummy dinner at Roti Cuisine of India ... mmmmm, mango chicken and naan.

Sunday I actually got to sleep in and then we went to Chateau St. Michelle for wine tasting and then another tasty dinner at Saltoro. While I finished up homework, Kevin set up Jackie's kitty condo (with Jackie's help). It comes down at Christmas to make room for the tree and she always gets excited when it is reconstructed. I now have one happy little chicken.