The View From Here

Here's the view from my cubicle and the view on the other side of the building, the one that catches my eye on the way to the elevator. Both were taken today, Nov. 29. I enjoy watching the cars and the people and activity. As you might imagine, skateboarders and dogwalkers take advantage of that expanse of concrete and lawn. They are trying to lure a developer to build a hotel on that concrete site. I plan to do anything I can to sabotage that. But breaking ground on the organic grocery across the street? Get me a shovel!

Santa Left Baby Deer!

Santa came to the lobby of CH! He left baby deer for all the good little boys and girls!

Thirty-Eight!

We have now entered the very short window where, on paper, my husband is TWO years older than me. So far he seems to wear 38 well. To celebrate another year of having not been selected out, we stayed in for an extravagant breakfast of omelettes and hash browns, and later went to the movies to see "No Country For Old Men," which was excellent, though a little bleak. Wrapped up the day with some leftover pizza (there's a Flying Pie Pizza here too, though I think not connected to the one in PDX) and cake. OK, we might have busted into the cake on Saturday night.

Oh the Pagentry.

We watched the Boise Holiday Parade on TV this morning. I myself hate parades, but my husband is a biiiig parade freak. He'll do anything to get to a parade...up at all hours, sitting in the gutter at the crack of dawn, taking way too many pictures, he can't get enough of them. OK, maybe that's backwards. Anyway, we were impressed by the large number of pageant queens in the parade. Miss Idaho, Mrs. Idaho, Miss Idaho Teen, Miss Rodeo Idaho, Little Miss Idaho, and Ms. Senior Idaho, to name just a few.

Possibly next year we will go to the Holiday Parade in person. In our future explorations of our new state, we are also looking forward to attending the Spud Days Celebration featuring the Miss Russet competition. Our minor league baseball team is the Chukars, hopefully we'll see them play. I look forward to touring the Old Idaho State Penitentiary Museum, as I, like others in my family, have an unnatural obsession with imprisonment. Did you know the state dance of Idaho is the square dance? I have to wonder what others were in the running.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had such a nice day in Idaho! Our second Boise holiday! Idaho spuds were on the docket, of course. It was the wee-est amount of stuffing I've ever cooked! I made homemade cranberry sauce which I was able to cool outside...as it was like 26 degrees out. We went for a family walk, napped, and watched "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry." God bless us every one.

Our First Snowfall!

It snowed! It snowed! This was apparently big news to only me. I was the only one in our condo complex running around in the yard in my bathrobe taking pictures in the wee hours of the morning. It barely made the morning news reports. One person mentioned it at work. Even Miss G was nonplussed by it. I promptly went and bought suede, fleece lined gloves. Idahoans can never have too many gloves.

Snow, people, SNOW!

Tiffany in Bellevue Nov. 10 and 11

My sweet sister was not only gracious enough to come visit me, she also agreed to turn around backwards on the escalator for a photo, against her better judgment. We went to see "The Darjeeling Limited," which we both loved a lot. After the movie we stopped at "The Parlor," which had a 42-foot "ice rail" to keep your drink cold. Very clever.

We met our Jenny in the Magnolia neighborhood for lunch, the Packers/Vikings game, and a too-short visit. It was lovely to be together, even for such a short time.

Working in Seattle

My third office in four weeks. I'm sitting in for Dennis, who is on safari in South Africa. The view is nice...if you like cranes. If you can believe the irony, the coffee in the Seattle office is the worst yet. Blech.

Tootie in the Sawtooths

While Miss Ginger yells a lot in Boise, the beauty of the Sawtooth Mountains did leave her speechless.

Nampa Car Phone

Who knew people still had car phones? This one is in Nampa, where my husband works.

We moved to Idaho.

We decided the lovely town of Portland was getting a little too big for us. That, and we had enough of Pacific Standard Time. We suspect Mountain Standard Time is more our speed. So we up and moved to Idaho. So far we are enjoying it, though Miss Ginger isn't so sure. This is the view from Bogus Basin Ski Resort, about 20 miles from our condo.