31 October 2006

Boo!

Happy Halloween! Can you guess which pumpkin is mine and which is Mike's?

These were carved on Thursday. They are now filled with fuzzy green mold for extra scariness.

30 October 2006

The car won't start.

*Thunks head on desk.*

Not a good way to start my 6 weeks of alone time. I'm ready to go to bed and start over tomorrow.

A pre-Halloween scare -- Evil Ellie! She lies on her back waiting for you to reach down and rub her tummy. Then she attacks! It's a great trick. Grendel lies on his back and loves to get his tummy rubbed and she recently figured out how to take advantage of that.

In other news... Mike landed in D.C. at midnight last night. It was 36 degrees. Brrr.

We really had a great time in Los Angeles this weekend. We caught up with some friends from SD and LA, and Mike saw some old friends from UVA and the marines. The party started Friday afternoon and went non-stop through Saturday night. We were exhausted when we got home yesterday. I'm finally starting to wake up and feel normal. I need vitamins and water.

29 October 2006

We just got back from a friend's wedding weekend in L.A. Incriminating photos are here. Most of these pics are from the Halloween party the night before the wedding. More pics to follow as other guests get home, sober up, and start emailing and uploading.

24 October 2006

I don't think I'll have to do an arms workout today. I did a huge grocery shopping this morning and carrying everything in from the car, including 2 good-sized pumpkins for carving jack-o'-lanterns, was a lot of work for my long skinny arms. I bought food for making some of Mike's favorite meals over the next few nights. I also stocked up on some stuff so I won't have to go shopping right away when we get back from Los Angeles on Sunday. I always get a little lazy for the first couple days that Mike's gone.

I am an addict. Of politics news. I have MSNBC's special all-day-long politics coverage on today. Tim Russert just came on! It's exciting to see Rhode Island in the national politics spot-light. Whitehouse has pulled ahead in the polls, and I'm surprised. Rhode Island is loyal and Chaffee has been good to it. But Rhode Island is also fiercely independent.

22 October 2006

Greg the Bunny!

Greg the Bunny!
Greg the Bunny!
Greg the Bunny!

On IFC! New episodes on tv in November. Short webisodes on the site now.

Sunday Sunday

Mike's out mountain biking. I'm sitting around watching these awful Bridezilla shows on the terrible WE channel. (Que Family Guy aside: "Lifetime... TV for idiots.") But at least I am actively sitting. (I'll explain that in a second.)

We decided that our workout routines need to be refreshed and rejuvenated. Yesterday we bought a jump rope, some small dumbells, and one of those big exercise balls. So, my active sitting is sitting on the ball. The balance takes work, so you strengthen your trunk and promote good posture while sitting on it. Mike can do a variety of exercises with it, but I don't have the coordination to do anything but sit on it yet. In the afternoons on slow work days, I can do a bit of strength training and stretching in the house, and I can take quick trips outside to jump rope in a nearby park. I don't have to schedule large blocks of time for running every day (which I don't do as often as I should).

We also decided that for the costume party wedding we're attending next weekend in Los Angeles we are no longer doing Katherine Hepburn and Howard Hughes. It got too hard to work on those costumes and we don't want to spend our last week together fretting about them. The first night is a Come as Your Favorite Movie Star or Character party. We're recycling costume ideas from a couple years ago to be Richie and Margot Tennenbaum. The second night, the actual wedding, is 1930s Hollywood Glamour themed, and we have clothes to wear for that.

20 October 2006

Nightmare Before Christmas is re-released in theaters! We may make a pilgrimmage to San Francisco to see it this weekend.

Yesterday I broke my no-ordering-from-Amazon.com rule to stock up on some DVDs for my alone time. Mike will be gone from October 29 through December 14. That covers Halloween, Thanksgiving, and a good portion of pre-Christmas. He'll appreciate missing my Kristmas Kraziness. He thinks I get started a little too early. We discussed getting a real tree last night. I think that would be great! We've never had a real tree together (but we haven't spent too many Christmases together and away from our families) and we have a fireplace and a corner, so we can make a nice little Christmas area.

So for my alone time viewing I ordered:

**Peanuts Holiday Collection (A Charlie Brown Christmas/A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving/It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown)

**White Christmas. Family tradition to watch on Thanksgiving while digesting the big meal. We're not a big football family. I can pretty much watch it any time between Thanksgiving and Christmas day. Most likely more than once.

**Holiday Inn. Fred Astaire really got drunk for his drunk dancing scene. He supposedly took 2 shots before the first take, and then a shot before each additional take. They used the 6th or 7th take in the film.

I also bought the new Amy Sedaris book (I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence) and two Emily Post books (On Etiquette and On Weddings). I love etiquette and hostess/entertaining books.

19 October 2006

Ellie vs. Roomba

There is definite potential for something like those shorts they show between cartoons on the Nick Toons channel. Whenever we run the Roomba, Grendel takes to the high ground and just ignores it. But Ellie gets right down on the floor and watches it, and it often ends up coming right after her. Logically we know it's a coincidence, but it's hilarious that it keeps turning in her direction.

Recently I noticed a spiderweb growing in the corner behind the Roomba base--the one place the Roomba can't get to. Ellie has also noticed the spider living there. Twice this week she's stalked up to the Roomba, making sure it's asleep, carefully climbed on top of it to get closer to the spider, and then stepped on the buttons to activate the Roomba, which of course makes a beeline for her once she jumps off. What's funny is she keeps going back. She wants that spider and the Roomba is protecting it. Ellie sees it as a challenge. She's quite a warrior.

17 October 2006

Mike got taken off the Asia trip, so no need to watch CNN or MSNBC for a glimpse of him in the background in Tokyo or Beijing. He was bummed when he found out where they'd be going without him. But in 2 weeks he's leaving for 6 weeks, so it's not the end of the world that he had to stay home.

I'm seriously considering not voting this year. I don't want either candidate to be governor. I'm too confused by the propositions to make an informed decision. (Ugh--California and its propositions. What a headache!) I'm troubled by the thought of not voting. I've always voted. But what's the point if I'm not happy with my choices?

Day Trip to Wine Country

I am so far behind on updates. I wanted to give more details on our trip to Sonoma last week...

Our itinerary for the day:
Sonoma Valley Visitor's Bureau for guides, brochures, coupons, and maps. (You can also order their free guide online.)

Buena Vista Winery. A historical site, the first winery in California. We did the self-guided tour, and had a 2-for-1 tastings coupon. Five dollars bought us tastes of some great wines (4 tastes each, and we got different ones, so really 8 tastes), and we ended up buying 3 bottles.

Lunch in downtown Sonoma. We went to a Mexican restaurant that was ehhhh. There are many restaurants to choose from, and gourmet shops to buy picnic supplies which would be nice to take to our next stop...

Jack London State Historic Park. We dozed on a park bench for a few minutes. Then we took a short walk to see the ruins of the house London had started building but never lived in.

Benziger Winery. We took the tram tour, which is a ride through the vineyard where they explain the different grapes, then a walk through the caves where they age the wine. It was very informative. A tasting is included.

Wine Country Chocolates Tasting Room. We ended the day with a chocolate tasting. The chocolate was delicious. We loaded up on truffles.

12 October 2006

Quick Update

Just checking in.

Yesterday was Mike's birthday. I took him to see Tom Stoppard's Travesties. We both really enjoyed it.

We visited wine country for the first time on Monday. I had no idea we are so close--only about an hour away. Easy to make a day trip out of it. We went to Sonoma. We visited 2 wineries (with tastings!), we took a walk around Jack London State Historic Park, and we went to a chocolate tasting and bought some super-yummy truffles there.

Mike leaves for Asia this weekend.

05 October 2006

My head's all stuffed up.

I think my hotel room is stuck in some sort of time warp. Some of the cable channels are running on their East Coast schedule. You expect that from the live news channels like CNN and MSNBC of course. But Comedy Central? TBS? I know that up until a few years ago TBS didn't delay, so the East Coast shows were on 3 hours early here on the West Coast. But, these channels play shows on the "regular" schedule at home in Walnut Creek. And when I lived in San Diego, they were fine. What's up with the cable provider this hotel uses? How come the networks don't control it so it's the same all over the West Coast? I feel like I'm in the Mountain Time Zone, where it seems like nothing is ever on at it's regular time.

I was all ready to watch the season premiere of South Park last night at 10. But the Daily Show came on instead. I thought, "That's weird, it's an hour off." But some of the commercials they had were definitely Comedy Central's very late night commercials. Was it the 1 am rerun I was watching? This morning I woke up early and was going to watch the news while I lounged for a bit, and turned the TV back on, still on Comedy Central. It was about 5:45, and Colbert Report was on. It's usually rerun at 8:30 am.

Between my stuffed up head and the TV schedule being off, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I feel a little out of sorts.

03 October 2006

Yay San Dog!

Where in the world am I? I'm in San Diego this week! I'm working in the office for a few days. It's great to be back, even though the trip down this morning was hellish. I missed the BART I wanted, had to wait 15 minutes for the next one. Caught my transfer BART just in time, but then had to wait forever for the shuttle to the airport. Checked my bag in no time, but then the security line was so long... I Missed My Flight. Luckily I got on another one to San Diego that was leaving just a little bit later. When I got to San Diego, it took forever to wait for the rental car shuttle, then forever at the rental car place to actually get my car. Then, out of habit, instead of getting on the highway near the rental car place in downtown, I went back to Rosecrans in Point Loma. Luckily I remembered where to pick up the highway from there, and so I was finally feeling like I knew what I was doing.

It was a good day in the office. Good to be back.

Tonight I am exhausted. I'm in my Super 8 room ("super" because it has free wifi!) after a long walk to get some food. I was so sick of planes, trains, and automobiles that I did not want to drive to a restaurant or a grocery store. I'll take care of my real food shopping tomorrow (snacks and lunches for work, plus I have a fridge in my room so I can keep real milk and half & half).

One weird thing, my ipod wouldn't shut down this morning. Eventually the battery wore down and it shut off, and now that it's charging I can turn it on and off in the regular way. Despite all the warnings about turning off your electronics during take off and landing, the plane did everything it was supposed to just fine with my ipod on.

I made a list of all the outfits I wanted to wear this week, for minimum packing yet maximum wearability. But I forgot my list at home! I think I remember which skirt and/or pants to wear each day, so I should be able to figure out the tops and jackets/sweaters. I didn't quite finish sewing all the garments I wanted to before I left, but I was able to bring quite a few pieces that I made from my fall list, plus things I made last year. I'm proud of myself for that.

I'm going to watch my new favorite show, Heroes, and a show that I really want to love but it hasn't quite earned it yet, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and probably fall asleep before they are over.