Snow Day

The snow kept a fallin last night and I called in a snow day to work. While it was nice to be at home and not be out driving in the snow, I'm a little worried about the additional 2-4 inches that are supposed to fall tonight. I have more paid leave I can take from work if I really can't make it in, but I don't want to look like a wimp who doesn't want to drive in the snow. I'm not denying that I indeed am a wimp who doesn't want to drive in the snow, I just don't want to look that way.

Being at home when there's snow on the ground is definitely nice, and since I did something to my ankle sometime yesterday I'm trying to stay off of it - which means my ars is on the couch watching TV (what a sacrifice). I was watching reruns of one of my favorite shows of all time, America's Next Top Model, when I stumbled upon the upcoming season of Making the Band. I haven't watched it since the very first season (I think they're on season 4 or 5) because it was too much drama, but I have to admit this season looks really good. Kind of like a Diddy version of The Real World - but the back in the day version of the Real World, not the latest version. I think the last couple of years have really, well, sucked. The best seasons were San Francisco, London, Miami, and of course Seattle - now it's just lame. It almost makes me wish they'd bring Puck back...almost.

You really can wear bridesmaid dresses again!

Not only did this weekend start off fun with all the girlie time on Friday, but the fun continued over Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning I went running around Greenlake with one of the knotties. I didn't run the whole way around the lake, but considering I haven't been running probably since I was in grad school, this was a pretty big accomplishment. We then took our sweaty selves to Target and had a little retail therapy, which in my opinion is a great way to spend the rest of a Saturday morning.

Saturday night I had conflicting plans - the knotties were having a Wine, Wigs, and White Trash party, and my husband had some of his cousins coming over to our house for game night. While I was sad to miss out on the knottie white trashiness, I decided to stay home and play hostess for game night, which ended up being a lot of fun. My husband and his cousins are always a good time - we ended up playing Battle of the Sexes and Loaded Questions, which presented lots of opportunities for family jokes here and there.

Saturday night was followed by Sunday morning, which was basically comprised of sleeping in (one of my favorite activities). For the most part it has been kind of a lazy Sunday - my husband and I played the Wii for a bit, I did some laundry, caught up on some of the shows I DVR'd, etc. Then once the evening rolled around we went to my company's Anniversary Dinner (which they decided to do instead of a Holiday Party, as it's less controversial). It was held at Purple Cafe & Wine Bar in downtown Kirkland, with great food and drink (as you would expect the latter by the name alone). My company had arranged for a Murder Mystery to occur, where people who were coming could sign up for a role and play a part in a fake murder. The scene was set at the wedding of Becky Giovanni and Stanley Simpson - I played Denise Simpson, sister of the groom, and my husband played Harry Hitt, business associate of Becky's dad, Tony Giovanni (a known mob boss). People really dressed the part (I actually wore a bridesmaid dress from a wedding I was in a couple years ago) and it ended up being a really good time. Plus you can't beat free food - or free wine. Now we're back home, and I'm trying to think how the heck I'm going to get to work tomorrow with the snow that's falling from the sky. Since I've already written a post about how much I hate snow, I'll refrain from a soliloquy here, but know that I'm not excited to get up and drive in to work tomorrow. So long to another weekend.

Girlie Time

Tonight was a super fun day. I took a half day at work and met up with a friend who was in town for the weekend. We went to Bell Square for lunch and then went shopping. We each got a new pair of shoes - hers for work, mine for running (since I'm really actually trying to start working out more). Then after her husband picked her up I met up with two other friends for Happy Hour, and we got to have some time to catch up. All in all it was a good day for girlie time, which every woman needs on a regular basis. Now I'm just about off to bed to get some good rest so tomorrow I'm energized for my run.

Call me Betty Focker

This week has been filled with meetings at work - lunch meetings, project meetings, etc. One of the meetings was a potluck lunch staff meeting where they had about half of the employees bring food (the other half brought food to the November staff meeting) and the company donated the money they would have spent on buying us all lunch to charity. I volunteered to make a cake - this great poppyseed pound cake that my mom always made growing up that I recently learned how to make as well. I love this cake and when I've made it for others it usually gets raves. So imagine my surprise when I cut up the cake and set it out on the table where all the other desserts were set and maybe five people took a slice of cake. Five! Out of, like, fifty! People, that cake was a great dessert! I am a good baker! Give me some credit here - I'm not saying I'm Betty Crocker, but c'mon, my cake ain't that bad! Hmph.

Damn the NY Giants (and an update on life in general)

This weekend was a pretty busy one for me. Friday night I met up with a friend for dinner at one of my absolute favorite restaurants, The Jones. One of my friends, MoHo, owns the restaurant with her husband and man, do they do things right. I got to enjoy some nice wine, delicious ravioli, and the most divine banana dessert I think I've ever had (sorry Mom). Then Saturday morning I got my yeti brows waxed so I didn't have to subject anyone to their hideousness anymore. Later that morning I met up with a group of friends I met on an internet website The Knot, known as "the knotties" (MoHo and the friend from dinner are included in that group). We all saw the movie 27 Dresses at Lincoln Square, and it was great. Predictable, but still cute. I then had lunch with about half of the knotties, did a little cruising around Bellevue Square, and headed home.

Saturday night I met up with friends from the sorority I was in at U-Dub. One of them lives near Portland, Oregon, and I hadn't seen her in months, so it was great to catch up. We had decided to get together at the Irish Emigrant, a bar in the U District we frequented quite a bit during our college years. It was definitely weird to be in a college bar, especially when you're about 10 years older than the people who are currently in college.

Today the busy-ness continued as my family celebrated both my Dad's and Brother's birthdays with a lunch/brunch at my parents' house in Issaquah. It was nice to see the family, however we ended up spending more time out there then we meant to and I had to reschedule coffee with a friend for later this week. The rest of the day has mainly been spent doing laundry and dishes (so exciting - but hey, it keeps me in line with my New Year's resolutions), and watching the NFC championship game, which The Packers and my lovely NFL crush Brett Favre have just lost to the New York Giants. It may not sound like it, but I'm seriously raging inside at The Packer loss. Now I'm not nearly as invested in the Super Bowl - though I'll probably still watch it for the commercials, and with the slight hope that the Giants could actually beat Tom Brady and the Patriots this time around. Again I repeat from a previous post...freaking Tom Brady.

Fetch!

When I was little I loved to read, and I read all the time. Through high school and college that changed quite a bit as I was forced to read books that I didn't necessarily want to and didn't have time to read the things I liked. Recently I've gotten back into reading for pleasure, and I even joined a book club. The most recent book I read (which was not a book club book) was "Marley & Me", and it was so fabulous. For those who haven't heard about it, it's the story of a dog, a family pet, and all the trouble he gets in to. Of course eventually he passes away and it's so sad, but the story of Marley was just wonderful. Of course it makes me think of our dog, Chesney - our dear little beagle. She cracks me up with her butt wiggling from happiness when we get home and her "talking" to us when she wants something (mainly a toy or a treat). While it's difficult to know that one day she will pass away, I like to focus on the daily little things she does and how much fuller my life is because of her. Like when she's barking at whatever is (or isn't) behind our back yard fence. And when she thinks a kitchen towel is a new toy. And especially when she climbs all over my lap (and laptop) when I'm trying to write a post. Okay Chesney - enough computer time. Let's play some fetch.

Peyton, what were you thinking?

Being married to a football nut, I have come to enjoy football quite a bit. It's still hard for me to watch a full game when someone besides the Seahawks are playing, but I for sure want to see the highlights and check websites for scores. I've even played fantasy football and enjoyed it. With this has come a few tiny pro-football crushes. One is on Brett Favre (despite him beating our beloved Hawks) - he's just so darn All-American. The other is on Peyton Manning. Again, totally All-American, and from what I can tell with all the commercials he's been in lately, fairly good with the comedic timing. Most of the time I think pro athlete's commercials are completely lame, but the Peyton Manning commercials seriously crack me up. Especially the NFL pep talk ones.

However, I just saw a commercial that has made me revert back to my old way of thinking. And seriously question Peyton's comedic sense. It was a commercial with Peyton and his brother Eli for what I think everyone can agree is completely related to football...double stuff oreo cookies. It was something about both of them leaving football and starting a double stuff oreo licking league. And it was seriously weak..and completely un-funny. Oh Peyton, let's step up the standards, shall we?