Boise Christmas!

First on the docket: Christmas in Boise! Snow on the ground, our cozy living room, and the whole family was present!

Christmas dinner was venison, roasted baby taters with rosemary, and candied carrots...like the ones we used to get at Henry Ford's Restaurant, back in the day. It was delish!

Among other lovely gifts, I got this Pearls Before Swine calendar...my fave comic strip. I love the gators best.

My husband also gave me this -- one of two gorgeous sweaters I received. You could do a lot worse than having this man buy you clothes.

He received these awesome camo fleece jammies with matching "Dexter" henley... and this awesome new fishing vest with flip down fly panels... and the pirate glass at bottom right-- it says, "Name Your Poison." Hee hee!

And of course, a stunning new piece of jewelry! So sparkly!!

Christmas is Nigh!

We have been suuuuper busy, and are traveling for the weekend, so went with the smaller of our two "permanent" trees -- the one that's pre-lit and we just plug in. I LOVE this little tree. Especially in the front window.

We have our first real mantle upon which to hang our stockings!
This year I'd like to showcase an ornament that I got at a family ornament exchange years ago, and is among the strangest we have.

1. It's a wee deer.
2. Taking a festive bubble bath.
3. In a sassy little tea cup.
4. He has his own rubber duckie.
   
   I'll just leave it at that.

Snow 2009!

The weather has been awesome this month! It snowed and snowed and snowed. And then it was really really cold, so the snow stayed around around, something I'm not really used to, but I love love love!

Snow on the house!

Snow up the street!

Snow down the street!

Snow across the street!

Will this Project Never Go Away?

I've been MIA again. Stupid life-sucking project reared its stupid head again. Terrible management. Year-end goals. Attempting to deliver 1055 pages with too few people and not enough time. Sooooo stupid. Apologies.

Here's the "war room" I've been sitting in for 10-12 hours a day for the past 18 days. And will do so again this weekend.
Our ongoing list of to-do items. One of the ways I have chosen to amuse myself is to attempt to copy the handwriting of one of my comrades. I wrote two of the items to the left.

This is my part of the table.

Yesterday I was forced to invoke the Geneva Conventions. The third convention, Section three, Article 59:

Prisoners of war must be allowed, in the middle of the day's work, a rest of not less than one hour. This rest will be the same as that to which workers of the Detaining Power are entitled, if the latter is of longer duration. They shall be allowed in addition a rest of twenty-four consecutive hours every week, preferably on Sunday or the day of rest in their country of origin.

And the remainder of my roses stayed beautiful for quite a while, making the room a little more bearable.

The Ducks are Off to Rose Bowl!

OK, so this isn't the timeliest posting, but I did want to take a moment to observe the Ducks upcoming trip to the Rose Bowl! Whoo-hoo!!

I was pleased to have acquired a new "winged logo" t-shirt on a recent trip to Portland.

I generally don't engage in too much ribbing...after all, some of my closest friends are Beavers! ;) But there are a couple of Beavers at work who just can't take the high road, and have to start in with the snotty emails and the "Man, that's an ugly t-shirt!"

So Friday morning after the game I popped by Albertson's looking for yellow or green cupcakes or cookies... or...hey! Look! Yellow roses... PERFECT.

Each of the snotty Beavers found a yellow rose on their keyboards that morning. Hee hee! Go Ducks!

Eighteen Years!

Some folks don't celebrate their dating anniversary. We do! It may not be a big celebration, but we usually observe the event.

'Cause 18 years is a long time...to be so lucky.

The Beach House Survives!

There was a bit of a windstorm at the beach house last weekend...

It blew a few branches around.

There were some sticks in the yard.

I kid! Sister and the parents worked their heinies off cleanin' up the place. They are gonna need some heavy machinery to get that one off the house, but apparently no windows broke, amazingly.

My husband and I painted the beach house circa summer of 1992. Our payment was the week-long rental of the Tercel that we drove to the Grand Canyon. As Mom suggested, the little Beach House might need a new paint job soon.

The Holiday Season....GO!

The holiday season officially begins with the tree lighting, doesn't it? We walked downtown just in time for the big event. I like the street snowflakes the best.
The unlit tree...

BLAM! Let the holidays begin!! Hopefully that guy behind me gets a new hat this year.

The refurbished capitol will open to the public in early January, but the lights are on!

From there we were off to my husband's second birthday dinner of the weekend... a generous gift from Chris and Sal! We were treated to, among other treats, delicious gorgonzola-stuffed figs, grilled pear salads, and a wonderful Italian wine.

I'm very thankful for SUCH a great long weekend! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope your Thanksgiving was lovely, warm, and.... thankful! :)

We spent the morning raking leaves in the chilly sunshine.

We also observed this raptor keeping an eye on Miss G... for a little too long. We decided she'd be better off in the house.

We then completed furniture move number 473: Operation Man Cave. We moved the green furniture and TV down to the basement. This of course puts the TV room and Xbox in the same room as the beer fridge. ;) Eventually the new TV room and master bedroom will switch places.

We now have a more proper dining room... no TV!

And then, Thanksgiving dinner! Tasty roasted pheasant with whiskey-red currant sauce, baby portobello stuffing (that was more trouble than it was worth), garlic green beans, cranberry relish, and an Idaho pinot noir. Mmm. Hope your day was lovely too!