Happy New Year

I hope 2009 will bring you much beauty and joy.

from Hubble

Nice day

My Christmas consisted of yummy meals, lots of books, cozy socks and more. I hope y'all had as nice a day as I did!

Christmas Eve

Fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, rainy weather, an apartment festooned with lights, presents under the tree... I'm ready for Christmas morning.

May you all enjoy the holiday season!

- from Hubble

38

Today is my birthday, number 38. As Greg has noted, I've now known him for half of my life. He gave me a good birthday - made me breakfast, took me to bookstores to buy birthday presents, walked along the ocean with me, took me out to dinner. Afterwards, I opened my wonderful gifts. (I waited til 8 pm this year; that might be a record!) Now I'm about to indulge in birthday cake (with chocolate-amaretto frosting. Mmm....) Thanks to Greg and to all of you for making this a great birthday!

The Soup Master

Chicken noodle soup

Beef Noodle soup

Frankensoup

Navy Bean and Ham Soup

Irish Lamb Stew...

There's been a lot of cooking going on around here by my very talented Soup Master Greg. It's been wonderful. Although I love cooking, it's been nice to have so many meals ready for me to eat during the rushed end of the semester. I'm glad to be the beneficiary. Tonight's chicken noodle soup was especially good; I'm getting over a cold and if ever there was a healing batch of soup, this was it. Mmm... thanks, dude!

Quick Note

If you feel compelled to email me, asking "Did I pass your class?", you should not be surprised when the answer is "no."

Lights

I really don't like Las Vegas. The insulting amount of lights, the men on the streets clicking little "escort service" cards as you walk by, the smoke-filled casinos, the disconnect of walking from Egypt to Medieval Europe with country western music blaring in the background, the $4 sodas for those of us who don't walk around with yards of margaritas or two beers at 10am... it's all so repugnant. So why did we go there this weekend? Because I wanted to see Nine Inch Nails again and Greg was nice enough to accompany me. I knew the seats would be decent, but I didn't realize we were in the third row, just left of center. The third row. Unbelievable. I only got to see two shows on this tour (which was outstanding - Wired did a good article here), and as there are hints that the next round of shows may be the last, I'll be desperately trying to best third row seats next year.

One thousand and seventy

I drove up to Sacramento on Friday and back today. That's 1000 miles total. The long drives were worth it to spend my mother's 70th birthday with her. My sister, brother, nieces, and I conspired and came up with 70 little gifts for Mom, and she didn't know I was coming for the weekend. We managed to pull off the surprise, and we all had a good time. I was thinking of how long it's been since I'd gone home for Mom's birthday, and I'm embarrassed by the large number I came up with. Now that I live closer to home, I need to get up there more often.

My youthful memories of the cold and damp winter of Sacramento are quite accurate. I'm glad to be home, where enjoyed Greg's homemade ham and navy bean soup, which was spectacular. I hope y'all had a good weekend!