Night with Good Friends

Cutting it close tonight! I was hoping to post a picture from a little get together from tonight, but I failed to take my camera with me and then I left my phone in the car so I couldn't even get a crappy phone photo. And yes, it was too much to go back out in the rain to get it.

But even without a picture, I can tell you we had a lovely evening full of food and good friends. We were doing a little house warming for Ben and Liz, as they recently bought their first home. And what a beautiful place it is. It is perfect for their growing family.

The group that got together was J, Ted and Maya, Autumn's Mom and her man, and Eric and I. We all brought appitizery bites to eat and we gorged ourselves. All us ladies used to work together WAY back in the late nineties. We have very luckily remained close and have been through a lot together. I truly feel blessed to have such great friends.

Thanks for the fun evening guys! We MUST not wait so long to do this again.

Habitat Restoration

Today, I am grateful I work for a company who supports giving back to the community. At my office, I have organized a few community outreach projects and today completed my second to last project of the year. I'm excited that there is interest to do more, but I personally have a limit to just how many extra curricular things I can do while still getting my work done in an efficient way and to the standards I demand. I already have projects lined up for December, January and I'm getting pinged to do one in February too (might have to get someone else to run that one, I'm pooped).

For a busy company our size, we got a good number of people together to take the morning off to do a little habitat restoration at one of our local parks. This morning we were at Mori Point where we were planting native plants to rebuild the natural habitat for some threatened and endangered species. The little guys we were focusing on today were the San Francisco Garter Snack and the California Red-Legged Frog. While some people don't really think that saving a snake is a good way to spend the morning, I think its pretty cool (although I declined to hold a regular ol'garter snake which our project leader found). Interesting enough the frog is the threatened species and also happens to be the favorite food of the SF Garter Snake. Must save one to save the other.

I failed to bring my camera out, but I had my handy iPhone with me and I snapped a few of the group and of our view. Seriously, this was our view as we were planting. Dig, Dig, Dig, Plant, Plant, Plant, look up and take in a few waves. It was great!


All of those little blue flags are plant markers so people wouldn't step on the tiny baby plants being put in. This picture was taken early on, but by the end of our short work period there were over 200 flags in that little strip.

Internaltional Interest

I wish I could get more words to come out of my fingers but right now I'm SO TIRED! I think my fingers even hurt from the computer work of the day. My teeth even hurt, but that's more because I'm pretty sure I've been grinding them ALL THE TIME, not just in my sleep anymore. AWESOME! I'll probably need braces again if this keeps up.

I do just want to note that I've been really interested in how I've read on more then one blog from a friend from up north who have been interested in our presidential election. I've gotten questions from people I work with who live over in Europe and Asia on my thoughts and how things were looking up to Tuesday. They all knew Tuesday was the big day. Am I really that naive in how much the US and it's president really affects the world?

I guess so.

All thanks to my bubble. Sometimes I really love my bubble. Sometimes I think I should really let it go.

Over Already?

Last night was kinda cool although I admit a little um... anti-climatic? It's like we turned on the TV and poles were already starting to close on the East Coast. Predictions were being made and graphs and numbers were shown that there was hardly a way for McCain to win, and that it would be a shoe-in for Obama.

Sure I think this is great thing, but I guess I was looking for more bang for the past 2 years. Not like I wanted a fun replay of the hanging chad, but I wanted a little more suspense I guess. I even went to bed before the West Coast poles closed. At some point I woke up in the middle of the night, nudged Eric and asked him if we have a new president elect yet, and he said 'yea'. I just rolled back over without hearing the answer because duh, I knew. He of course needed to tell me because he did stay up to watch it all play out. He was pretty excited.

Ahh hell, it's exiting no matter what. Change is good. Change is good.

Sadly, my Obama high wasn't high enough to keep me from being brought down by stupid Prop 8. Sure, it's not over yet, but it's way too close for my comfort.

I Voted - Hopefully

As it turns out, my re-registration took and I was on the list with my new married name. I still made sure I had both ID's with me as I went to check the list. So handy they have it hanging on the wall.

I usually vote by absentee ballot so I haven't had to talk to people at the polling place for well.... ever, so I watched the girl in front of me to see where to start. They looked up my name and DRAT! Apparently when you vote by absentee, even when the ballot they send you is in your old name and you re-register, they still consider you absentee and brilliant me shredded the ballot thinking it was invalid. So since I didn't have it to surrender, I had to vote by provisional ballot. Hopefully my vote will still count.

Go ahead and blame it on me if things don't go the way you wanted them to... well no, the way I wanted them. I'll be over here in the corner with the dunce cap on.

Frickin' Frack

So I changed my name when I got married and early last month I realized that because I did so I needed to re-register to vote. I filled out the form and mailed it in. And now I'm realizing that I never got a new voter card in the mail with my new name on it. In fact, I vaguely recall getting a second one with my old name on it. We were getting so much election crap that I wasn't really paying attention to it all and it was all just going in one big pile until we sifted through it all. And sure enough.... 2 voter cards came, both with my old name.

FRACK!

And when do I realize this? After it's too late to register. I do recall getting a new proposition booklet that said "The lastname's" on it recently, so maybe it did take. GAR! I wish I thought to check before October 20th, which was the cut off for registering in California.

I tried checking canivote.org, which was talked about on Oprah, but alas, my county doesn't have their info online so I couldn't so easily check. I could call, but at this point I couldn't do anything to fix it.

I guess I'll be going to my polling place tomorrow and just hoping my name is on there. Maybe they'll have the list outside again so I can check to see which name is on there and I'll take both of my ID's with me ;-)

Bookcase Purging

Eric and I have been looking at all of the stuff which we have been living with. We realized long ago that we don't really enjoy our living space the way it is and we don't use most of the stuff we are surrounded by.

While we enjoy the benefits of a great library system, sometimes we get in these moods where we do a lot of book buying. Sometimes we buy a lot of reference books about some new interest, and sometimes I fall in love with a fiction author and don't want to wait for their books to get to the library. And of course I end up with a collection of books I've bought in airports because I failed to bring along some reading material.

Over the years we have gone through our books to keep them to a minimum. Some of us do this with a heavy hand and some of us get too emotional about them. Surprisingly, I'm not the emotional one about books usually. Usually.

Today finds us doing another book purge and this time I'm having a hard time with my smallish collection of books. By small I mean it's small compared to my husband's multiple book cases.

• I have a number of cook books which I've held onto for years but have never cooked a single thing out of them. Sorry, you're going to the used book store.
• I have a few years worth of cooking magazines which I totally enjoyed when they come to the house and are now embarrassingly about to fill my parent's recycling tote. (our complex doesn't start their recycling program for another few weeks)
  
• Am I really ever going to read the Harry Potter series again? Probably not. Sorry Harry, but I'm over you.
• I found my well loved copy of Watership Down from many years ago and I imagine my kids (who don't exist yet) falling in love with this classic like I did. But really, they can get it from the library and it'll likely be in better condition.
• I have a stack of books about whales and seals from my days at the Marine Mammal Center and studying to be a Marine Biologist. A dream left behind.
• I have a small stack of fiction which I LOVED but since I rarely re-read, hopefully someone else will love them too, and at a used book price.
  

So now we are packing up the car to head down to the used book store and those that they don't take will go to our local library for their collection and book sale.

Perhaps we'll stay this motivated when we get home and will attack one of the many other dumping grounds in this house. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath.

And So Another NaBloPoMo Begins

This will be my 3rd year participating in NaBloPoMo, where the participants are challenged to post on their blog everyday for the month of November, no theme enforced. I didn't quite make it the first year but sailed through last year. Sure there will be some sorry excuses for posts on those not so creative or free time filled days. But the goal is to just post something and be active in the blogging community.

Starting last year, Eden (the founder of NaBloPoMo), continued the challenge throughout the year and provided themes to write on for that month. However November remains as it was originally, a free for all, write about anything you want challenge.

So hopefully you'll be hearing from me a little more then usual. Happy November everyone and good luck to everyone taking the challenge!

Creative De-stressing

It has been well established that I'm a worrier. With that we can safely say I tend to get overwhelmed. All of this is not helped by the fact that I am a perfectionist.

This past week, there were a few days which found me a little crazed. Not generally the whole day, but little spurts through the day and often right before bed time. Work is what appears to be the trigger and is what has been on my mind lately. Insomnia has kicked in and I have wished I had some sleeping pills to help me stay asleep. I have the kind of insomnia where I fall asleep hard for about an hour or two and then I am woken up by worry. I've written about it a number of times in the past and it's clear this is my stress sleep pattern.

This week I have almost dreaded each night as I fear it will be filled with frustrations of not being able to get back to sleep. I try getting water. Doing some stretches. Petting a cat. Changing sleeping locations (aka the Couch). The only thing that works is Eric rubbing my back, which means I have to wake him up to help me sleep. Seems a little selfish to me, so this is usually my last resort!

About mid-week I realized something interesting during my commute. I have quite a number of knitting projects to finish for the holidays so any spare moment I have is being used on them, so instead of driving or working on the train, I've been knitting. I found that the days which I knit, I can sleep no problem. And the nights where I haven't been able to sleep, which leaves me agitated in the morning, I am able to knit away the sleep deprived grouchiness and have a genuinely good day. This is making a very good case for making sure I take the train into work. Possibly an even better case then the whole environmental impact bit.

Maybe with all of this stress, and then de-stress knitting, I'll actually get all of my gifties completed before the weather warms up (unlike last year).

Missing the Big Picture

For a few years I was really into capturing my days via this blog and my camera. So I haven't been all that great with the blog, but I've been really crappy with the camera. Over there on the sidebar I have a link to my most recent photos on Flickr. Those same cute pictures of my friend's baby girl have been looking all cute and cuddly for over a year. The other day my Mother-in-Law asked me for the URL for my photo site, and I had to go look it up, because it's been THAT LONG! And I was sad to see the last photo uploaded was from Sept 2007. That cute cuddly little baby, ain't no baby anymore although she's still cute and cuddly.

But how does one update Flickr with over a years worth of photos? Well one answer is, you don't. You just start from now and move forward. But I do have well over 1.5 GB of photos which have been taken, but some I'd really like to get up on Flickr, and many with are not worthy. You know, taking 30 pictures of the same 2 brownies doesn't really count as a month of meaningful photos. Maybe 1 of those would be uploaded. And the rest? well I don't know. Disk space is cheaper these days, but do I really want to buy more disk space to store 30 photos of the same 2 brownies? probably not. But I do need to get them off of my camera's discs. Can't use it if I can't store them.

Then there comes a new development which is preventing me from doing much with the photos. My home desktop's hard drive died. Sure I can buy a new one, and reload everything on it and restore from backup, but really... this computer is old and was already showing signs of eminent death beyond the hard drive long before it finally passed. Sad to think that something purchased 8 years ago is considered old. But this is the life of a computer and 8 years is pretty darn old. It was my first and it served me well. and luckily I had seen the signs and backed up everything I cared about off of the ailing machine.

So before I can start using my camera again, I need to get a bunch of photos off of the camera or buy more memory for it (which I have plenty so that's dumb), and before I can get the photos off I need to figure out where to put them and to then sort through them and well... that all just takes time.

If you have any extra time, just let me know and I'll be right over to pick some up. Thanks!

Bueller? Bueller?

Ok, so a little sad am I.

Back here, I mentioned how excited I was about this Back-Tack thing. A global crafty gift exchange set up by some nifty bloggers in Australia. Theme Given, Buddies Matched-up, Get your Crafty on, Exchange, and come out getting to know another blogger and being gifted some lovely crafty wares.

Well, I'm feeling a little bummed over here. We were assigned our partners over a week ago, which of course I emailed her that very day and I still haven't heard a word. Checked my SPAM folder and nothing. Checked her blog, and no entry since early September. Doubled checked that my info sent in the buddy email was correct, as was my Blog URL. Being the rule follower that I am, I made contact between assignment date and Oct 18th, but I'm not getting the same response.

I guess I could comment on her last blog post which is totally out of context, as maybe the email address provided was incorrect (which did not bounce back). I could send another email, but I'd rather not seem too eager or impatient (which clearly I am!). Maybe she has something going on which is keeping her from wanting to participate anymore. Sigh! I only have a few weeks to get my crafty on for the exchange which is to be shipped and received by the beginning of December, and well.. I have family gifts to prepare as well. And so I wait.

**UPDATE** Desperation does work! I got an email today. Now I have to figure out how to make up for my eagerness and sound cool and aloof again. Really, Mimi! I'm cool! I swear. (Damn, must cut out the desperate crap.)

Cutting Corners on a Lazy Saturday

Today started, what seemed to be, very early for me. I had gone to sleep sometime early this morning after what I would call a very grown-up evening at our friend's house filled with yummy food, friends and the reading and discussing of the propositions we are about to vote upon. After getting home, we headed up to bed where I read... and read... and even though Eric was long asleep, I even continued to read out loud. My throat was getting horse and scratchy but I continued to read aloud. At one point I coughed and Eric woke up and stumbled out of the room and returned with a glass of water... FOR ME! Sweet, sweet man. My eyes finally got heavy and I gave in to the sleep.

Only a few hours later I woke up ready to start the day. I quickly got up, put on comfy sweats and headed downstairs so as not to wake up Eric. I fed the cats so they'd hush up, and with the plan to go out for a brisk walk alone, I sat on the couch to put on my tennies. Instead, I found that I sat myself down with a book. What is wrong with me and all this reading business? I think I read for a good 4 hours before Eric called down to find out what I was doing. By this time I had a fuzzy blanket over me and at least one grey warm kitty pinning me down. I couldn't exactly disturb the sleeping kitty!

Around lunchish time, Eric looked through a coupon book and suggested we go to lunch. But alas, I was feeling icky and lazy with all the sitting and reading, so he took his coupon and returned with tasty vittles. Again, unlike me, I only ate half of my most favorite Vietnamese BBQ Pork and Vermicelli. Perhaps since I had fried an egg to throw on top of the noodles and one for Eric and his sandwich (ok and I also ate one before he got home because I didn't time my cooking to account for him standing outside on the phone with his mother for 20 minutes) I had actually consumed more then I thought. I suppose I was surprised I didn't clean my bowl since I love this dish from this restaurant and I still hold grand ties to the clean plate club, especially at lunchtime. (seriously, I get at least 3/4 of my daily calories out of lunch, unless Eric and I go out for dinner and then I get ...well... far too many calories, period).

Eric then turned his attention to saving monies (the $5 off lunch coupon wasn't enough), and he called and canceled the gym membership we haven't used for over 3 months, he logged on and put our Netflix account on hold, and then came the discussion of the Cable TV, Tivo, Internet, Landline phone and Cell phone accounts. This guy was on a mission and didn't care if I was paying much attention as I absent mindly answered my account security questions so he could reset my password on the accounts so he could log in. After I realized what was going on, I put down the book and decided to interact with my money saving husband.

CABLE TV & TIVO
One goes with the other. If the Cable goes, there's no point in Tivo... BUT I LOVE Tivo! But really, we could watch a lot of the shows via the good ol'Internets so there is a way around this $60+$14/month expense. Plus really? Do I HAVE to watch that much MTV and TLC and all the other crap? YES I DO, thank you very much! Ok, we'll consider this but Netflix is coming back if we drop the cable.

INTERNET
No option to let this go. But maybe I can see if my company will pay for part of it. I've heard they do, but I have been too um... ethical to find out since I don't HAVE to work from home, I just do, a lot.

LANDLINE
We decided the landline wasn't THAT much money, but really we mostly use it when cell service is iffy, and to send/receive faxes (you know the up to 20 MAYBE a year). Plus I've had that phone number since I moved out and well... ok that's not a good reason. $300 annual savings... err.... let's think about it. It could cut down on all of the election and give me money calls!

CELL PHONE PLAN
We can change our family plan, which covers both Eric and I and both of our mother's phones, but going down to the next level of plan drops our minutes to almost half at only a $10 savings. I guess I COULD not use my iPhone ($35 extra per month for data and text... um... yea), but I LURV IT! And that would make the investment of the hardware a waste. Would a $10 savings really be worth having to actually tightly track our minutes? Especially if we also drop the landline. Eric never knows how much phone talking time he'll do each month with his business, so Ok, maybe the TV isn't that important.

So now, Eric has gone to the cafe to do some work, and I continue to sit on the couch, reading a little, internet researching a little, blog catching up a little and doing some holiday gift giving knitting (more corner cutting sorta, but not so much time cutting). Perhaps tomorrow I'll get in that brisk morning alone time walk. Or perhaps an evening walk would be just as lovely.

And Then The Stress Subsides

Today just FEELS like a very glorious Friday doesn't it? I mean, I already feel some of the stress of the week melting away, even though it's still in the AM around these parts and I still have at least 2-3 days worth of work to get done today. But for some reason I don't really care! I mean I care about my work and I'll be a busy bee today, but I'm not stressing over it. SWEET! (ask me if I still feel that way at 3pm and deadlines are looming)

With urging from loved ones, I finally sat down with my mortgage papers and I THINK we'll be ok as the whole ARM kicks in. The terms, which I didn't really pay THAT much attention to when I signed the papers, are actually ok. Not AWESOME, but depending on the economy, it will be ok for a little while. Yes I know I should have fully understood everything, but I was young(er), and fully thought I'd be out of here by the time this whole adjustable bit came into play. Funny how THAT didn't happen. We definitely need to adjust how we think about it and how we are handling it, but we knew we'd have to do that soon anyway. At least for now, I'm not freaking out about it as much as I was. Just needed to know a little more about what I as freaking out about, which helped me control the freak (out).

So I guess we'll finally have our merging of the finances talk soon. This newly married, independent, financially stable girl will need to learn to either let go of the control, or take on more or SHARE the responsibility. (which really is about the control thing too). Eric isn't bad with money, he's just not as obsessively organized about it like I am. Some adjusting will soon commence. (Internal monologue: Change is good. Change is good.)

I'm also already totally looking forward to Christmas this year which very much helps with the stress of today. Not the most mindful thing to do, but you know... vacations are fun to look forward to. We're planning on renting a cabin in New Hamshire with the in-laws. They live on the other coast, so we don't get to see them often. So a week or so of hang time, is very much being looked forward to. There will be snow, and fires in the fireplace, and this place has a great stocked kitchen so I'm already thinking of the meals we'll have there.

Its funny how my stress tends to ebb and flow, and at such quick rates of change. (Funny - crazy, weird and somewhat annoying). I'm just happy that today, it appears to be on the way of the ebb.

Happy Friday everyone!

Oh - and I got my BackTack4 buddy assignment today. Hi Mimi!

Why Now?

Um yea. It's after 1am and I have found myself steadily working away on something I struggled with all day. Why NOW am I suddenly able to focus on it? Ok, I'm obviously not totally focusing on it, because I'm now over here typing these thoughts but really this is my attempt at breaking my focus so I'll go to bed already!

Also, I just HAPPEN to glance at my company's stock price (which I generally try to avoid doing these days) and ouch! I guess I should pay more attention to the good ol'economy, but all the main street, wall street, Lehman Bros., Bail-Out talk pretty much has me averting my eyes and ears. I felt a panic attack coming on earlier today when a friend asked about my mortgage sitch, which tells me I should probably deal with it if it's getting to me that badly. I generally enjoy living in my bubble, but I guess I should pop it for a while to get things straightened out. But then I'm going right back in.

Speaking of panic attacks... I totally had one the other night, IN MY SLEEP! and then in my awake but sorta asleep state it continued. Whatever dream I was having I continued to think/dream about it even though I was awake and the panic continued along with it (and it wasn't at all about money, today was the first little panic around the monies). I got up and got a drink of water, used the bathroom, petted the cat, and the panic continued. After a few hours of doing all I knew to try. I eventually woke up Eric to rub my back because then I could at least take in a deep breathe with the hopes of getting at least another hour of sleep in before the damn alarm would go off for my early morning Monday meeting marathon. Lovely husband that he is, was very patient with me at 4am and helped me relax so I could sleep another hour. Amazing what touch can do.

and I do know why I'm awake right now. It's that darn Barq's Root Beer I had at dinner. I rarely drink soda and tend to stick to water, tea and milk, but after our run tonight I realized there was little more then a few cans of beans and tomatoes in our pantry and that was all the excuse I needed to jump in the car and head to a fast food joint (run and eat a burger... sweet!). I woke up rather cranky today and it got worse through the day and yea, after running with a sore half ass and the cranky mood, I totally went to Jack in the Box. There I got a too greasy meal which came with a drink, and no I didn't push that little button to get water, I got a soda. A, what I thought to be caffeine-free Root Beer soda, even though in the back of my mind I was remembering that Barq's is the only Root Beer with caffeine but I got it anyway. Damn! I could have had the favored Dr. Pepper and been just as wide awake. Why? Why?

I've clearly lost it or the caffeine is just working its magic, so regardless (I really want to type irregardless just to be funny and annoy people but I digress) I'm going to go up to bed now, and attempt to turn off my head and just accept that I didn't finish what I wanted/needed to do today and that once again time slipped away from me. Perhaps a moment of mindfull meditation will lull me into the calm I couldn't find earlier. Om.

Taming the Lazy

A few weeks ago I was inspired by Angie and J to get off my butt and to start doing something about my growing assets (clearly not the stock market kind of assets by the look of the DOW lately). Sure, as we age things change and it gets harder to get in shape, stay in shape and we have to pay a little more attention to what we eat and do. Working full-time with a killer commute doesn't freely give me a lot of time to be in the shape I'd like to be in. So I have to make the time and work it into my routine, which kind of goes against the lazy which encroaches on me when I'm at home.

Angie suggested I try the "Couch Potato to 5K" plan she used, and she recently completed her first 5K (and this woman has kids and an organic farm, so what's my excuse?). I had actually read this plan a few years ago but never got out there to do it.

J, I have always seen her to be a lovely, well balanced mother, wife and woman, who knows the importance of staying active. She works full-time, cooks for her family, reads, spend quality time with family and friends, and still takes the time to go on long walks and goes to yoga.

If these women, who have far more complicated lives then I, can take the initiative and the effort to get in shape, well then by golly I can do it too! Of course this means getting up early in the morning because it's dark by the time I get home, or would be dark half way through the run, and I'm a chicken like that. I'm not so good at the get up in the morning, but I'm trying.

Things are going well with this training to run thing, you know after a week. Eric is out running/walking with me and we're both already noticing it getting easier. Each time we go out I notice parts of my body being tight then loosening, and I'm just overall really mindful of my body (and the little pains which come and go).

Last weekend we threw in the hike we used to do everyday back when we were younger and were training for a Yosemite backpacking trip. We used to be able to do this hilly 3 mile hike in 45 minutes. This time it took us 75 minutes but we didn't try to push it, and we stood and watched a hawk and a bunch of baby cows for quite a while. I was just thrilled that I could get up the hills without huffing and puffing. Slow and steady was the motto.

The funny thing is, I felt only slightly sore after all of this. But one morning of bowling at a work party/offsite outing, and my left cheek is so SORE! Who knew bowling worked the body that much! I'm feeling pretty off balance, so maybe I should run tonight but only make left turns or do a lot of stair climbing with only my right leg. I guess if I were to take up bowling regularly (I can't afford it but you know if...) then I'd have a really hot half an ass!

Hopefully the only politics related post (this week)

**uncensored because we've got to tell it the way it is**



I know this has already gone around, but seriously people..... register to vote, and then educate yourself on what you're going to vote on and then get to the freakin' polling place and do it!

I had forgotten that I needed to re-register since I changed my last name when I got married. Thankfully I still had a few weeks before the cut-off date in California. So any of you newly married folks who changed your name, make sure you register!

Wordless Wednesday - the Thursday edition

Back-Tacking

Yo!
This is a call to those cool and crafty! Or maybe just cool and good in the kitchen!

I found this pen-pal like gift exchange called Back-Tack a few years ago, but I always seem to miss the sign-up cutoff. It's a global gift exchange organized by 2 bloggers who met via.... well, blogging. I believe they are both located in Australia, and they are of the crafty sort and thought it would be fun to connect other people who are of the crafty sort, give them a theme, some rules and pair them up with a crafting exchange buddy and let the fun begin! This year's theme is "Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh" and this year the gifts do not have to be crafty but at least one item should be made by your hands, whether in the kitchen or in another crafty way. All of the rules are here, where you can also check out past year's exchanges.

The organizers took a year off but this year's back-tack sign up starts TODAY (well September 30th @ 9am AEST)! Only space for 250 people, so if it sounds cool to you, click and go!

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping...

I feel like I have learned (am learning) to plan and set expectations of myself which are more easily attainable and yet I still find myself loosing time and not completing what I thought I would. Funny how a perfectionist like me would see that happening.

Last week I had every intention of posting the story of the wedding desserts, along with photos of the beautiful day. Well, I didn't take any photos at the wedding even though I carried my camera with me everywhere. It was just a little too dark and I drank a little too much wine (one glass, I know I'm a light weight). My poor hubby had a migraine and spent the reception in the car, asleep (when he wasn't dry heaving). What a trooper is was! Sticking it out so I could stay at the wedding. Honestly I don't think he was looking forward to a drive home in that condition, so a little nap did him well enough to make it home a few hours later without "incident".

I did manage to take some photos of some of the desserts as I was making them (and some after), so I'll TRY to post them for a wordless Wednesday. TRY being the poignant word in that sentence.

The rest of my week was filled with ... well, fillings and work. I went to a new dentist. The first time I had ever been to a new dentist since I was 2 years old. Nothing really happened for me to switch, except it felt like time to make a change. A 32 year stint with the same provider is a pretty good run if you ask me, and I know you did! I guess I figured it would let myself know that I could change since I often find myself doing the same old thing just because it was easier.

New dentist pointed out two lovely cavities (How kind!), so I got to see the nice new teeth people again for some fillings. I had some sort of weird reaction to the amount/placement of the lidocaine and half my face went numb. My eye wouldn't stop watering and once I got home to return to work, I found I couldn't focus that eye which made me nauseous when I focused on the computer. So we'll just say I didn't get any work done that day and I spent the rest of the day on pain killers and asleep.

The next day I was still a little droopy, the shot sites and teeth still hurt, and I was slurring my words a touch, but it wore off over the next day. We, the new dentist and I, were planning on replacing all my amalgam fillings over the next year or so... well maybe we'll just hold off on that now. Fillings as an adult are not fun! I am clearly more a baby now then I was as a kid who got fillings at least once a year. Perhaps in my 20 year cavity hiatus I lost my nerve, or grew a few new ones.

The rest of the week didn't find me doing anything else but working, so the weekend was a welcomed event! (Ok, I fit in some new season shows but it kept me up past my bedtime still!)
I was feeling like I needed some good connecting time with Eric so I dreamed up this great time of hiking and picnicking and wine and cheese and lots of talking and holding hands. I think we napped more then talked, and I finished reading a book while he napped more then I did. I also tried out a possible new Holiday gift treat recipe which proved more time consuming than I had hoped, but I'm glad I'm finding that out now as opposed to the day before gift packages need to hit the post. I diagnosed my mom's DSL network issues, always a fun time doing her tech support. Let's see, what else? Oh yea! Eric and I FINALLY selected our wedding photos! Only 15 months after the blessed day. I'm sure our photographer will be thrilled since he doesn't get the final payment from us until he delivers the selected digital files. Opps!

Not nearly as romantic of a weekend as I had hoped, but we'll try again next weekend when it's not so warm outside so I don't get the "it's already too hot", excuse. Besides, we're supposed to be going into the city (that's San Francisco 'round these parts) for a free concert/festival so that should be fun and will get us out of the house at least one time. And over there, he can't say its too hot. It rarely is.

Wordless Wednesday