Pic & whirwind day.

First up, as promised, my "mugshot" from the MDA fundraiser. Thanks to my cousin, Page, for sending me that. As you can see, I really did have a lot of fun.


In other news, as I write this, snow is falling quite rapidly outside. Steve called me earlier to let me know that it's wet and heavy, but Susan is actually on her way to play tennis (indoors, but still). I'm staying here because we're expecting a moderate storm and I don't want to drive in it since I don't have to. Unfortunately, the forecast caused Steve and I to have a bit of a whirlwind day yesterday. We had planned to drive out to the western part of the state in the early afternoon to celebrate his sister's birthday. Afterwards, we were going to spend the night and then help his mom and sister with some errands today. However, once we heard the weather report we decided not to spend the night. We also ended up with more errands to do than we thought so didn't arrive at Steve's mom's house until 6pm. We got to dinner around 7pm and stuffed ourselves almost silly on awesome Sushi. After Nancy opened her presents (she loved the earrings I made for her, btw) we ate yummy cake that Steve's mom had baked and I frosted and decorated. Around 10pm we headed over to Steve's sister's apartment to help her stock up on supplies since she's having surgery this week. Steve dropped me off at home around 12:45am. It was a long, but enjoyable, day.

I went ice skating!

Every winter, for the last several years, I have yearned to go ice skating and, every spring, I've lamented that I didn't. This year I made a commitment to myself that I was going to go even if I had to go alone. Several weeks ago I checked out ice skating options nearby online. I discovered that for $9 I could skate at a local college's rink, including the skate rental. I sent an email to some of my friends in the area to see if anyone wanted to join me. Unfortunately, their schedules didn't allow them to but Susan and I gamely slid onto the ice this morning. I had a blast! It was really nice to be on skates again and it came back to me like riding a bicycle. I held the wall a bit at first but quickly moved into the traffic flow around the rink. It was a lot of fun and I think I had a smile on my face almost the entire time. Susan said that I can tell you guys that it started out about 20% fun for her but it went up from there as the time went on. She even mentioned wanting to take some lessons.

In other news, for those of you who like good television, Joss Whedon's new series, "Dollhouse", premiered on Friday night. I liked it. It's definitely different from his other shows: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Angel", and "Firefly". It isn't funny all the time but there are some humorous moments. It does, however, have quintessential Joss mythology and the teaser-like end of the episode left me wanting more. In addition, Eliza Dushku is a great actress and it's really nice to see her dominate the screen mentally as well as physically. Unfortunately, Fox's promotions for the show are terrible. They are trying to make it seem like their Friday night line-up is only about beautiful, sexy, young women kicking butt and blowing stuff up. There is so much more to the show than that (and also, not any of that in the first episode at all) but I think it's going to alienate some of the audience who might otherwise watch this show. Please give "Dollhouse" a chance!

Thanks to those of you who sent support and donations to me for my participation in the Muscular Dystrophy Association's "Lock-up" Fundraiser. I raised a lot of money and had a great time. I sent most of you the link to the youtube video I created about my experience, but if you need me to send it to you again just let me know.

My sister reminded me again that I haven't really posted much about my trip to visit my family. I had a great time and it was nice to see Dad & Jan, Aunt Katherine, Uncle JB, Jocelyn, Sam (not Sammy anymore), Mom, Becky, Ken, Jacob, & Tyler. There was an awful lot of driving involved but I'm glad I did it. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see my friends from high school and college but I will try to schedule another trip at some point, just to do that. Highlights from my trip (besides getting to see everyone) were watching football with my dad (even though my team lost), walking Sadie (the adorable dog) with my Uncle, and holding my baby nephew Tyler. I also got to play on my nephew Jacob's Wii (evidently I ski jump really well). Okay, this was a pretty long post. I think I'll stop this one now. :)

I'm going to jail!

For those of you who missed my email, I'm getting locked up tomorrow. Yup, you read that correctly. "They" are putting me away "for good". A good cause, that is. From 2pm to 3pm I will be "locked up" to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I've raised almost $400 so far. If you'd like to help, please either contribute on the secure website the MDA set up for me (I emailed most of you the link a couple of days ago, I know it took me two tries, sorry---insert sheepish grin here) or bring it to my office and my co-workers will get it to me. You can also call me on my cell if you need more info. Thanks for helping out. I'll let you know how it goes.

How to Stay Warm

So, I was walking by the bank clock again on my way home tonight and noticed that it was 15 degrees out. I, however, didn't feel particularly cold. I realized that this was due to all the layers I was wearing and thought you all might appreciate me sharing. To that end, from the ground up, here's what I was wearing today:

Hiking boots
Wool Socks
Longjohns
Pair of Jeans
Long sleeve t-shirt
Short sleeve t-shirt
Lightweight wool sweater
Fleece vest
Down jacket
Heavy, Thinsulate-lined, Gloves
Fleece, neck wrapping, hoodie
Knitted cap

I hope you all enjoy our six more weeks of winter! :)

Wild Turkeys!

Yesterday morning before I went to work I found myself looking out our kitchen window. To my pleasant surprise I saw a flock of wild turkeys crossing our driveway. They were big birds and there were quite a few of them. It was a nice image for me to start my day with. I don't think Casey was quite as happy about it, however, because she'd been barking on and off for awhile prior to my seeing them.

Puns & Pals

I'm quite proud of this one (mainly because I haven't done this in a long time): Steve brought over Sushi on Saturday night. After we had eaten we were discussing which car we should take to his mom's house the next day and who should do the driving. He looked at me and said, "I figured that since I bribed you with raw fish you would offer to drive." To that I replied, "So, this is a squid pro quo?" We both burst out laughing and had to tell Susan, which started her laughing as well.

In other news, I attended another "Free Soup & Games Night" in the town where I work. I only had one bowl of soup this time (potato & cheddar) because I also had a slice of flatbread pizza (new potatoes, caramelized onions, and-yuck!-bleu or gorgonzola cheese) and an amazing (hot out of the oven) pecan roll. Yummy! My co-workers couldn't come, and I didn't see the producer I was supposed to meet there, so I ended up at Tom's table again. This time I met two nice older women and we played Scrabble. I didn't do too badly. I came in third, but I put down some good words. After Tom and Johanna left, Faith taught me a game I hadn't played before. It's called "Quiddler" and it's a word game with cards. Each card has a letter, or two letter combination, on it and a point value. You are dealt and increasing number of cards each hand (from 3 up to 10 as the game progresses) and have to make words with them. It was fun and I picked it up quickly. I'm going to see if I can find a copy of the game for myself. I almost forgot, Tom also introduced me to a word game that only requires two people, paper, and writing implements. Each person picks a secret, five letter, word. The other player guesses a five letter word and the player whose word it is tells them if any of the letters in their guess are in their secret word. Play continues back and forth until someone correctly guesses the other person's word. It sounds like a game I'd like to try.