Costume FAIL

I'm not a big fan of Halloween - or any holiday when all the people in the world suddenly decide to descend on my favorite places and act like college freshmen again, thus, I aim to enjoy my birthday enough to be hungover to New Year's Eve each year.

Anyway, if one must go out for Halloween, I think costumes should involve creativity - buying ready-made costumes just seems like cheating. Coming up with something out of my at-home supplies is a challenge. This year I had plans to avoid the holiday altogether, but my aunt sent me an invite to her party, and so I stood in front of my closet and pondered the possibilities. My wardrobe has shrunk over the past two years to focus on work clothes and weekend warrior gear (adventure pants and t-shirts), so there wasn't a whole lot to choose from. The result?

Weekday Walk of Shame.

I created a hairdo my friend Jane would describe as "naughty hair" to top off my raccoon eyes, missing earring, and mis-buttoned shirt. If I'd had a pair of heels I could break one of, my look would have been complete. Off I went, arriving to find my aunt's triangular deck transformed into a pirate ship, complete with cellophane waves and a skeleton bearing a burning tikki torch. I walked in to find my two aunts doling out candy to neighborhood children with skull shaped goblets of wine in their hands. I walked in and gave them each a hug, only to hear, "where is your costume?" and "you're missing an earring!" I explained it was part of the look, but when I said 'walk of shame' there was no recognition in their eyes, and I realized that I had picked the wrong audience for my costume. I also gave them a hard time for the implication that that was how I left the house, but really, I think I'm the loser in this equation...

So the lesson learned? Subtlety has no place on Halloween, and every cliche has an audience. Trick or ... well, there was no treat there.

moving slow.

It's hard to feel that rush to get in to the office when you were there until 7pm last night and there's no meeting or urgent task waiting for you today. I got up at the normal time, made my tea and sat with that cat reading the paper no longer than usual. Then I made the mistake of turning on the computer while still in my pjs. I decided it was time to upload some pictures and say hello. I should be in the shower. Actually, I should be out of the shower, putting on my work clothes and debating the use of the hair dryer - it's cold and rainy out, but the damn thing is so loud.

I haven't told you any of the fun that made up my holidays. Christopher's first viewing of White Christmas, the mystification at Vera Ellen's missing ribs, the production of West Side Story with "I Feel Pretty" sung in Spanish - a nice touch, but I can't sing along with that, my first ever experience sending food back - oh so worth it, in the end, but rather guilt-inducing in the moment. Then there was the birthday, a juvenille celebration of adulthood that I enjoyed immensely, and even (mostly) remember. I took a picture. Actually, I took many, and there were others present, as well, but for now, let this tide you over:


The next day we laid about watching tv, mostly because we couldn't move. I couldn't keep down water. It was the usual New Year's Eve. I've chosen not to make resolutions this year, rather promised a refocusing on larger goals that will require more than a year to achieve. It's life, a work in progress. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and I'm back on the blog, so until next time...

Christmas Eve and Geek Happiness.

Ok, so I'm sitting in my Christmas pjs, drinking egg nog, watching Christmas movies, and enjoying the sight of my Christmas tree. And I do love the sight of a Christmas tree! According to family tradition, I opened one present tonight. I called Momola to tell her which present I had chosen, since it was one of her contributions to my Christmas, and she said, "oh, that's a gag gift, you might be disappointed." Hah, I'm so excited about it not only am I glad I decided I had time to make the pecan pie tomorrow morning, I'm tempted to make it right now, at 11pm, in order to use my gift. You see, she found me a PI plate! I love it so much I took a picture.

How wonderful is this? It's a great start to the holiday, that's for sure. I hope you all have a good morning - I already can't wait for the boys to come over for stockings and breakfast. Then we're out to Virginia for Daddo's turkey dinner with Lady's fixings. I hope Santa is good to you!

Happy Holidays and random trivia.

It was a slightly crazy week, but I was glad it went by fast - it's almost Christmas! I spent Saturday out in the burbs on a shopping frenzy with Momola I'm not going to lie, a lot of that shopping was for me. I needed stuff! Besides, the whole world is on sale! I got bargains, and work clothes, organizational tools for the house, and a fancy party dress for the office party in January that I may miss if my flights don't get in on time. The dress is so wonderful that if I miss the party then I'm making up a reason to go out in that lovely. Also, I "organized" a gathering for the big birthday - nothing big, despite the big birthday, I'm headed to my local, letting people buy me drinks to celebrate my doing nothing but being born, and maybe we'll move on to second bar later in the evening - anyone's welcome to come along, we'll be at Commonwealth around 8pm, AND Lee has promised to come up. No night with Lee ever goes by without a story to tell!

Ok, on my first night out post-disease, I met a new friend who introduced me to this piece of trivia:

What temperature does it have to be outside for spit to freeze before it hits the ground?

I'll tell next time.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Rockin' around the Christmas tree.

This is my beautiful Christmas tree, and this evening, while throwing virtual snowballs on Facebook, I looked up to find this:

a little kittay under the Christmas tree! She even stayed there while I plugged in the lights for optimal effect. And yes, those are dancing penguins on the floor, I have a feeling we went through this last year. Anyway, this year the artificial tree is new(er) and bigger, so the string of penguin lights gets a little lost, which is unfortunate; I may have to think of a new approach next year. But the ornaments are either penguins, glass balls, or glass eggs. I'm still in love with those penguin lights, though:
I mean, really, how great is that? My aunt found them for me a couple of years ago.

So yeah, that cat has claimed a spot under the tree, and I'm not going to put any presents there, because I'm a big sucker like that, and it's cute.

Those headlights are giggle-worthy, as well.

Holiday Weekend

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! I certainly did. I woke up early to start the cooking - making stuffing, getting the bird ready and started, and then doing the cleaning I hadn't accomplished the day before. (All but one room were swept, dusted and cleaned; of course, the room that I didn't get to was the living room.) The cheesecakes (that's right, I gave my guests cheesey-cake options) were made, and I had everything planned. Then the folks showed up right as my co-worker called for directions, Daddo pronounced the bird done early (350 instead of 325, oops!) and the potatoes weren't boiling. So it was a little crazy in the final moments, but Momola and I work well together in the kitchen, Daddo calmed down as soon as we gave him some knives to sharpen (grumble, grumble, distract with shiny objects), and all ended just fine. We sat down with good food, good wine, and chatted our way through turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, homemade gravy (yay me!), asparagus, cranberry sauce, bread, and finally, cake. Whew.

We toasted to a good meal and a happy holiday, but I've actually been thinking about what I was thankful for this year. I'm thankful for an entirely happy year, one in which family figured largely, and new friends were made. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family.

DC beats Boston on the 4th of July.

Argh. I started this post and then there was an error and Mozilla had to shut down, which means I lost what I typed. What junk. I was starting to tell the story of my do-nothing weekend. It sounds boring, but I was being pretty funny, so you'll have to tell me if I successfully re-create it. I'm doubtful.

There were a couple of ridiculously stressful weeks at work. It was so crazy I couldn't even take joy in saying, "I told you so." when my client admitted that he shouldn't ever say, "things will be less crazy after..." because things are never less crazy. This past week wasn't the race of constant deadlines, but I was tired from the weeks before and spent my time taking care of all the small things I pushed off while fighting more urgent fires. I had some thoughts of summertime in academia, lunches at the BU pub (two hot dogs for a dollar when you buy a beer!) out in the sunshine. That's nostalgia, not wishful thinking, by the way. Besides, down here it's too damn hot to stop and eat your lunch outside.

All this humidity has me in a bad place. It's sticky even when it's not sweltering outside, and when it is, I'm miserable. I used the phrase "hotter than blue sparkling hell" the other day, and it caused a good laugh among the co-workers. Momola's best friend says that a lot, and the goal of the past couple years has been to find the drink that can truly be christened "Blue Sparkling Hell." I just had a thought on that front, actually, so I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, with crazy work weeks and crazier weekends (I was out in the 'burbs both of the last two weekends and my calendar was jampacked for both of them) I ended this week - no I started this week, but it just carried through - exhausted. I left work on Thursday and had to force myself to go to the grocery store if only to prevent the necessity of having to go Friday during the day. My entire goal this weekend was recovery, and to accomplish that I planned to do as close to absolutely nothing as I could manage. I pretty much succeeded, and I'm here on Sunday night telling you that it was wonderful! I sat and read a book (Sleeping Dogs, by Thomas Perry - thrilling!) and watched some bad movies on tv (Blade is worse than I remember it being) and played some Samurai Sudoku online (man, that is an addictive logic game!). I did leave the house Friday night for the fireworks. I walked over to my friend Billy's house to stand on his roof deck in the drizzle waiting for the fireworks to start, and catching up with the boys I don't see often enough. We had a view of the Washington Monument, and in the mist the city lines were softened. It was like looking at a watercolor of the world. The fireworks had me impressed by the view, though someone had just said, "it's weird when you can't hear them" when from behind me I hear, "boom!" and there were a number of pops that followed - it was fireworks in the park in our neighborhood, and there more in the distance. So it was fireworks on all sides, including some folks on the street shooting off rockets that had to have been illegal, but were fun to see, nonetheless. The verdict? DC beats Boston on the 4th of July. I've always loved the Boston fireworks, but T-ing it down to the top of my office building, and facing a long walk or a crowded T ride back home, with fireworks that sold out last year to include commercial breaks for ABC (sell outs, it's worth repeating) just isn't the same as seeing not only the large scale show of a major city, but being surrounded by explosions of color and celebration - all in the comfort of your own little neighborhood. That's brilliant. And roof decks? I've not fully appreciated them in the past. It's easily ten degrees cooler when you're four floors up, and there's a breeze up there that doesn't ever touch the ground. It was lovely up there, and as I walked home later and marvelled at the moisture in the air that made foggy and fuzzy at the end of the block, I promised myself that I would have a roof deck some day soon.

The rest of my weekend? Fulfilled all my weekend dreams. I volunteered at the zoo on Saturday - the gorillas were in fine form and not only visible, but fairly active. There was lots of posturing and interactions, and that's always fun to discuss with visitors. This morning was breakfast with the boys - Christopher and Dirty Matt only, because Christopher left Jason at home to deal with the cable guy. I summoned the energy to do some laundry and a little work, but the highlight of my day involved a strawberry-banana milkshake when I broke out the milkshake maker. It's been a good day, a good weekend, and I'm a rested and happy girl. Hope you all had a good 4th of July - go Sox!

a happy holiday weekend.

This week was crazy - we were preparing a presentation at work and I was a busy girl after hours, as well. There was trivia night, dinner with Momola and Daddo, opera night, and then Friday night Matt and Jo came into town. They're about to move to London and managed to squeeze in a holiday weekend visit down here. We had a weekend of great weekend and fantastic food - I took them to my favorite places and they loved them, too! We went to Mandu for Korean food on Friday night, followed by beers at Brickskeller (just ignore the mice as you peruse the incredible beer menu). Saturday I made omelettes before we went out separate ways - they wandered U Street while I headed off for zoo volunteering and we met up by the apes at the end of my shift. We met Kendra at Oyamel for dinner, and all of us enjoyed grasshopper tacos - oh, the tastiness of them. I tell you, some sauteed 'hoppers, in a tortilla with some guacamole and a little salsa on top. Add a couple of margaritas and you have one fabulous night! Yesterday we went to brunch at Busboys and Poets with Christopher's Jason - I love breakfast and brunch. Matt and Jo went to the Air and Space museum while I walked back through the park in the sunshine. I met them later on downtown with a cheesecake in hand and dragged them out to the suburbs for a BBQ at my client's house. It was perfect weather for a day in a backyard - the whole weekend was glorious weather, sunny and warm but we're still pre-humidity here in DC so it was only pleasant. We let the sun wear us out and spent Sunday night back at mine watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Do you know what the best part was? That it was Sunday night and I didn't have to go to work the next day! Today was another omelette morning, they left for the airport midday, and I've been lazing about watching tv and doing sudoku today. Oh, it was a glorious weekend! I love having visitors; it feels like you're on holiday in your own hometown. I should have gone out today, too, but it was so great to lay about like a lump. I am a happy girl, and ready to go back to the office tomorrow refreshed and reinvigorated. Hope you all had a happy Memorial Day!